Devils four pack

The Devils have played four games thus far and I'll use this post to catch up a bit on news and notes before returning to game by game coverage after Friday's game against Colorado.
The Devils have been pretty inconsistent thus far in winning one,losing three,but gaining one point in an overtime loss to the Dallas Stars.
I thought the Devs looked great in the first period against Dallas and just average thereafter,I missed the demolition in Washington,rushed down the PA Turnpike in order to catch the Columbus Day game against Pittsburgh that saw the Devils look lethargic for the first two periods before a strong,but not strong enough third.

That brings us to last night's trip to Buffalo where Martin Brodeur and Ryan Miller staged their usual classic battle against each other,where both were perfect for sixty minutes.
The desperately needed win came to the Devils as Ilya Kovalchuk fired the only goal of the game past Miller in the extra session for the 1-0 win...
The Devils play back to back games on Friday and Saturday against Colorado and Boston before taking five games off.

Hell Raisers

1) The Kovalchuk one timer was set by rookie defenseman Matt Taormina's play into the Sabres zone.Exactly the type of play that Taormina was kept on the roster for as an offensively aggressive blueliner as the rookie followed the puck into the Buffalo end and found Kovalchuk for the winner.
The easy play would have been to dump the puck in and change players,Taormina showed initiative and the Devils benefited by it.


2) Catching up with injuries as the Devils lost Anton Volchenkov to a broken nose against Washington after a slap shot smashed him in the honker.Blood was everywhere and it looked pretty gruesome.Volchenkov will likely miss the next two games and be able to return next week.

3) The Devils have been playing shorthanded thus far with the salary cap situation,but played last night two men down from the average roster.Brian Rolston was out (more on note 4) with Volchenkov,while Pierre-Luc LeBlond was passing through waivers in an attempt to get him to Albany (LeBlond did pass through).
Considering the extra minutes that most skaters played and have been playing,the effort against Buffalo looks even better.

4) Brian Rolston will miss at least 4 to 6 weeks with surgery to repair a sports hernia.
Rolston's 5.5 million dollar salary will go off the cap while he is on the IR and the Devils will be able to finally dress the maximum amount of skaters for a game.
Rolston's loss will hurt the team for a bit on the ice,but the good thing is that the Devils might finally have the time to make the required moves that could make the cap juggling a thing of the past...

5) The Devils were able to sign Adam Mair to a one year deal before the Buffalo game and Mair played against his former team in the win.Mair had been in camp and was waiting until the cap issues could be resolved to sign a contract.

6) With the space created by the Rolston injury,New Jersey added three players from the Albany Devils as Jacob Josefson,Tim Sestito and Matt Corrente from the A-Devils.
Josefson was the teams top pick in the 2009 draft and I am really looking forward to seeing him play for the first time,while Corrente is a personal favorite and I hope to see him get a chance at regular minutes on defense.

7) Now that I think most is caught up,look for the return of next day recaps with the Friday game against the Avalanche.

Photo Credit-AP Photo