Breakdown-You're Busted!

The New Jersey Devils allowed a shorthanded goal for the second game in a row and it cost them the lead and led to an eventual 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals at the Rock.

The Jason Chimera goal in the third period snapped the tie and took all momentum that a Devils power play could have provided.
Adam Larsson scored his first NHL goal in the first period for the only dent in the New Jersey side of the scoreboard.
The same two teams face off tonight this time in Washington....

Hell Raisers

1) I hold Martin Brodeur blameless on all three goals.
He had little chance with guys on the doorstep on goals one and three and the shorthanded goal was due to two defensemen being unable to anything with Jason Chimera.

2) On the Chimera play,neither defenseman  (Adam Larsson and I think Andy Greene) appears to attempt to do anything to deal with Chimera,who deserves credit for keeping the play alive and hustling.
Pretty light play on both parts.

3) Adam Larsson did score his first goal,but he seemed tentative on the defensive end and was pounded around by the Capitals,most notably Alex Ovechkin on one occasion.
I do not expect Larsson to ever be a rugged blueliner,but part of the maturation process will have to bring some added physicality to his game...

4) Power play 0 for 5.
I am not going to use the Ilya Kovalchuk injury as an excuse for a crappy PP,although this will read as such at first.
The Devils have traditionally (in my opinion) overpassed on the man advantage and I have screamed about this for years,but it is so much more pronounced with the absence of Kovalchuk.
Without the feared one timer from Kovalchuk available,the power play seems to be out of sync and looking for the perfect shot,which rarely is available.
Someone needs to get to work on this and not base so much of the power play around one man and that means work in the practice time....

5) Penalty killing was excellent though as Washington had four power plays and all were killed.
The shorthanded team is doing quite well and never was seriously threatened by a team with one of the better power plays in the game...

6) Vladimir Zharkov was called up from Albany after Eric Boulton was placed on the IR with the same hand injury that has kept him out of action.
It has been so long since Boulton had played,I almost forgot that he was even around...

Photo Credit-Nick Laham-Getty Images