Battering in Buffalo!

The New Jersey jumped off to a first period filled with dominant play,including a short handed and power play goal and had an answer every time that the Buffalo Sabres attempted to tighten the game a bit in a 5-3 Devils win in Buffalo.
New Jersey tallies to Patrik Elias (7),David Clarkson (6),Zach Parise (6 short handed),Mark Fayne (3) and Ilya Kovalchuk (3 power play).
The Devils are off until Saturday when they are in Tampa for the first of two games in the Sunshine State..


Hell Raisers

1) Martin Brodeur continues to round into shape with an excellent outing last night.
The Brodeur robbery of Jason Pominville was positively jaw dropping.

2) Zach Parise's man disadvantage goal to start the Devils scoring was terrific,but the real play was made by Adam Henrique,who fought off two Sabres with a third hovering around him to make the sharp pass to the open Parise to bury the puck home.
That play set the tone for the evening and was the pivotal play of the game..

3) Ilya Kovalchuk fired a rocket past Jhonas Enroth on his power play goal.
Boy,was that shot slammed at Enroth!
Kovalchuk looked a little slower than usual,but that is to be expected after being off work.

4) Loved the Mark Fayne goal,which came off a faceoff win by Adam Henrique.
It looked like a set play,although I doubt that the Devils have set plays for Fayne,who has a surprising three goals on the season...

5) David Clarkson finished a breakaway for the final goal and sent Enroth from the game.
Clarkson must have been working on his finishing in the off season as I cannot remember the amount of breakaways that he was denied on last season.
Here is hoping that this is a positive change for Clarkson,not just an evening out over time...

6) I did not think the Tyler Myers on Dainius Zubrus was too bad.
A lot of it was the height disparity (Myers is 6'7) made it look a bit worse than it really was...

7) Vladimir Zharkov was returned to Albany after the game.
Zharkov played in four games without a point.

Photo Credit-AP