Dont be late!

If you missed the first ten minutes of this one,you missed what you needed to see as the New Jersey Devils scored two goals in the first ten minutes and squashed the Pittsburgh Penguins thereafter in a 2-0 win.
Devils goals to Brian Rolston (4) and Nick Palmieri (3).
The Devils play on both weekend dates with a Saturday afternoon visit to Philly and a Sunday home game against Florida...

Hell Raisers

1) Nick Palmieri has scored all three of his goals in the five games since his recall from Albany.
Palmieri has been plugged in on a line with Ilya Kovalchuk and Travis Zajac and I was surprised and figured it was an ill fit at the time.
Thus far,it is working out....

2) 23 saves for Martin Brodeur in the shutout and no matter where the Devils finish,if Brodeur can keep this level of play,the team will be improved in the second half.
Over the last period of games,Brodeur seems to be seeing the puck better and making saves that were goals earlier in the season.

3) Brian Rolston's goal was his second lately and should Rolston keep this up,it is possible that some team might take a chance on him despite his large salary for next season.
Clearing waivers twice might have woken the veteran up a bit and the better he plays,the more market value he has....

4) Pittsburgh didn't have Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin,although if you play that game,the Devils dont have Zach Parise.
No excuses on this one for Pittsburgh.

5) The Penguins did try to rough the Devils up a bit as Pittsburgh was called for goalie interference twice and ironically the worst infraction drew no call.When your top players are out,teams need to be chippier in their play to win and I had few problems with the play....

6) Credit to the much maligned Devils defense for locking down with the lead and holding it for just about the entire game.
Special note to Andy Greene,who has stepped his game up as of late....

Might be back later with a post and stay tuned next week as we have an interview in with someone new that we haven't interviewed before and just needs to be transcribed...


Photo Credits: Paul Bereswill/Getty Images