Devils divide first two games

The New Jersey Devils bounced back from a opening night 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers with a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes yesterday afternoon on a Columbus Day matinee' special at the Rock.
Ilya Kovalchuk's third period goal (1) snapped a two-two tie to lift the Devils to their first two points of the season.
Zach Parise scored twice for New Jersey (1 and 2 Power Play/Empty Net) and Mark Fayne rounded out the scoring (1) in the second period.
Johan Hedberg was the starter in winner in goal for the Devils with 24 saves.
The Devils host Los Angeles Thursday night before their first road game of the season in Nashville on Saturday night.
Expect limited coverage of that one due to an eight o'clock start and work will call before the end of the game...

Hell Raisers

1) Starting with the painful loss in the season opener.
The team was just flat-no other way to say it.
Martin Brodeur played reasonably well in keeping the game as close as it was,but even he was not razor sharp as the second goal scored by the Flyers was sorta of a softie....

2) I have never seen Wayne Simmonds of the Flyers fight before,but he took care of David Clarkson quite easily,dropping him with the first punch and landing a few more after Clarkson quickly arose.
Perhaps Clarkson took him lightly,so I'd be interested in seeing another go....

3) The Zach Parise/Patrik Elias/Petr Sykora looked very strong against Carolina,producing two goals and being the dominant force in the first period.
Elias and Sykora have a comfortable level from playing together for years and Parise seems to be a good fit with them.
Lines come and go through out a season,but I think this one could have a bit of staying power....

4) Key point in the game might have been in the third period with Nick Palmieri already in the box,Patrik Elias joined him after crashing into Cam Ward and being called for interference.
The deserved call gave Carolina 44 seconds of five on three power play time and continued a five on four for over another minute.
The Devils fought it off without allowing the go-ahead goal for Carolina and the Kovalchuk goal came about five minutes later.
Great job by the penalty killers...

5) I really like what I see from Adam Larsson.
I would be stunned if he is returned to Sweden after the nine game period expires.
The Swede had the most ice time of any Devil in the game and played with quite a bit of poise after being hit with a cheap shot to the groin by Carolina's Eric Staal.
Larsson is getting power play and penalty killing time,showing the confidence that the team has in him and looks to me to be likely to stay for a long time to come.

6) The goal by Zach Parise in the first period was a work of art as Petr Sykora made a nice pass to Patrik Elias,who fired on net with Parise deflecting it by Cam Ward.
One underrated part of Parise's game that he could use getting back to using more often is mucking around the net.
One could say that Parise's lack of size is a hindrance there,but I wouldn't.
Parise manages to slide into spaces that a bigger man cannot and his game is so much more effective when he does some of the dirty work....

7) Ilya Kovalchuk did score the game winner,but he almost handed the lead to Carolina,when he lost control of the puck after a Carolina clear on a Devils power play.
Kovalchuk had no pressure,he just was too complacent and too close to Johan Hedberg.
Sloppy play...

8) Kovy also might want to look into a new stick manufacturer or at least a new batch after breaking two on the power play on this afternoon.
I know the old wooden sticks broke too,but it seems to me that the composite sticks break even easier.

Photo Credit-AP Photo