Better,but not enough

The New Jersey Devils played with more vigor and with an improved quality of play against the New York Rangers than they did the previous game against Buffalo,but it still was not enough to put the game in the victory column as Devils fans added another loss to the tally in the 3-1 Ranger win.
Ilya Kovalchuk's return gave the Devils their only goal (3) with five minutes to go in the game to cut the margin to 2-1 before the Rangers scored the empty netter for the final score.
New Jersey now starts the difficult portion of the road trip tomorrow night in San Jose.

Hell Raisers

1) Before I get into game coverage of the Ranger game,just wanted to write about the road swing.
I will see the San Jose game,but will be at work for the Anaheim and Los Angeles games,so there might be a report on either or both,but I will be following them via XM.
The final two games in Vancouver and Chicago will be seen as I will be off work unless called in.

2) The team seems to be pushing against the tide a bit and it shows in the small things.
Three times,the Devils had two on one opportunities against the Rangers and instead off shooting,they made the pass despite the Ranger defender playing the pass.
When teams get into funks like this,guys try to make the perfect play instead of the easy play and it shows with the Devils right now.

3) Ilya Kovalchuk spent most of the game at his normal left wing position after spending most of the season on the right side.Kovalchuk scored the only goal,but his interference penalty in the second period allowed the Rangers to score on the power play and that proved to be the game winner.

4) The one player that I hold pretty much blameless for the sludgey start out of the gate is Martin Brodeur.
Take away the fiasco in Washington and Brodeur has generally been his excellent self.
Marty played well again vs the Rangers and I see no reason to blame him in any way for any of this.

5) Biggest disappointment has to be the Captain.
Jamie Langenbrunner hasn't played well,committed three penalties against the Rangers and generally has shown the same disinterested play that he shuffled through late last season under Jacques Lemaire.Could a Langenbrunner move be the cap space move that Lou Lamiorello makes when Bryce Salvador and/or Brian Rolston return?

6) Toss in the inept power play and you have a pretty good idea of why this team is having such a rough go of it.
Zipless in four tries against the Blueshirts-the Devils are now a squirt gun like two for twenty-eight on the season.There are more issues than I can say,but one thing that I would like to see a little more of is some of the shots from the point come from a little closer in.
Too many of these are coming from a tad too far outside the circle and those haven't been anything close to accurate.

I hope to be back later with a review of the tape of the Ohio State steamrollering (a word?) of Purdue.