Sometimes the bear gets you....

The New Jersey Devils had been walking the tightrope of late in one goal games and sooner or later,these things start to even out.

As they did last night as the Ottawa Senators. led by someone named Erik Condra, scored with under two minutes to play and gave Ottawa a 2-1 win.
Patrik Elias (15) scored the only New Jersey goal.The Devils are off for the next two days to stew about this one that got away until a trip to Atlanta kicks off the weekend.

Hell Raisers

1) The breaks and bounces to tend to even out and on this night,the bounces that had going the Devils way during this excellent run went towards Ottawa.
Neither Ottawa goal had anything to with Martin Brodeur and both goals were set by turnovers.
The first goal by Erik Condra was batted out of the air and over the prone Brodeur.
That was dangerously close to played on a high stick (I think the call was close enough either way) and that leads us to number two..

2) The Devils looked to be robbed of a goal by Travis Zajac that was ruled no goal as Jacob Josefson "hit" the biscuit with a high stick.
Replays showed that Josefson never touched the puck,but the NHL replay rules do not allow for a replay in this situation since the call was no goal.
Had the call been goal,the replay could be used to wave it off,but a no goal call cannot be changed to a goal.
Dumb rule and that is one that needs to be changed.
Why replay anything at all then?

3) Patrik Elias had the good news/bad news game.
Elias scored the only New Jersey goal,but his turnover led to the game winning goal.
Funny how these things happen in one goal games....

4) For all the hullabaloo on the high stick,blame the Devils power play for the loss.
The Devils threw away three power plays in a row with one of those being a 5 on 3.
Wasting all of that man advantage time with nothing to show for it went a long way towards this loss...

5) The Devils didn't lose ground to Buffalo as the Sabres lost,but could have gained two more points or at least one point.
The deficit is eight points and the loss to Ottawa looks to be a tough one as just getting to overtime and earning one point would have tied them with Atlanta with a win leaping them over the Thrashers.
Time is running out...

Back later with either a feature or part one of our look at the Pirate system....
Replays showed that