Back in first after a hiccup

The New Jersey Devils split their last two games with a 1-0 loss on Saturday to the visiting St.Louis Blues and rebounding with a 6-3 win over Columbus at the Rock last night.
The Devils moved back into first with the victory in the Atlantic Division and still have 1 additional game to play than Pittsburgh.
Devils goals to Ilya Kovalchuk ( 37 power play),Zach Parise (34 power play and 35),Travis Zajac (22 and 23) and Paul Martin (2 power play).
The Devils host the Rangers on Thursday before a weekend road trip takes them to Montreal and Philadelphia.

Hell Raisers

1) Been busy with work on getting things in order for the baseball season over the last few days,but didn't want to ignore the loss to the Blues totally.
The game was kinda dull with neither team wanting to take the win and honestly the Blues wrapped up and played defensive hockey after the only goal by Alex Steen.
Not a great effort by the Devils in a very winnable game.

2) However,one main selling point to the contest that didn't bring a standings point was the fight of the year between Pierre-Luc LeBlond and former Devil Cam Janssen.
This,my friends, was THE fight of the year thus far.


3) The Devils woke up the power play after not scoring on 18 chances previously with three goals on the evening.
Some of that was the bounce of the puck,but sometimes the game is just one of confidence and this one can do nothing but help in that aspect of the game....

4) Ilya Kovalchuk broke a five game scoreless streak with a goal and three assists and the goal was the type of shot that the Devils acquired him for with a laser into a small sliver of light above Steve Mason's arm.

5) But the goal of the game went to Zach Parise,who stopped a knuckling puck with the back hand and then lifted it conventionally over poor Steve Mason.


6) Martin Brodeur picked up the win for his 40th of the season.
The 40th win is the eighth time that the Devil backstop has reached the plateau.
No other goalie has done that more than three times.

7) Mild mannered Dean McAmmond pounded Mike Blunden after being hit with a head shot that the league has banned all week.
McAmmond was hit with a four minute minor and a ten minute misconduct for pounding Blunden,who went smiling to the bench with nothing....

8) Smart play by Pierre-Luc LeBlond in the McAmmond aftermath when challenged by Jared Boll.
When Boll attempted to engage LeBlond,he was seen telling him the rules as if they fought then,they both would be ejected.
Smart thinking and they did battle later in the period.

Photo Credits
All-Andy Marlin-Getty Images