Late stop foils Devils in loss to Montreal

The New Jersey Devils had a chance to tie the game with less than a minute remaining after being down by two goals against the Montreal Canadiens and their best player in shootout play taking on Carey Price with a penalty shot.
However,Price blocked Zach Parise's shot and Montreal skated away with a 2-1 win at the Rock.
Nick Palmeiri scored his first goal since his return from Albany (4) with five minutes to go in the game for the only New Jersey goal.
The Devils are off today before back to back games in Florida on Monday and Tuesday against the Lightning and Panthers....

Hell Raisers

1) Martin Brodeur looked solid in goal in this one.The first goal was a no chance in hell shot by Max Pacioretty,who had no one even near him and the second was off a rebound off Brodeur's chest.
Brodeur dove for the puck,but it moved too far away and Erik Cole (Yuck) scored the goal as a passive Mark Fayne (who caused the play to begin with) stood idly by.
I was pretty pleased with Brodeur's play.

2) Mark Fayne not only allowed Erik Cole to get into position for the game winner,he created the sequence with a VERY light clear that Montreal intercepted (I think it was new Hab Tomas Kaberle,but not 100% sure).
Fayne's play has dipped quite a bit lately,in my opinion....

3) Five penalties by the Devils today with one goal allowed.
The PK team is still playing very well,too many penalties and many of them careless.
Today's careless blunder was Adam Henrique's dumping a puck over the glass for a delay of game just as a Dainius Zubrus penalty was preparing to expire.
Henrique is still learning,so I can somewhat excuse that,but this is becoming a nightly pattern with the Devils.

4) This is a bit of Monday Morning Quarterbacking on my part,but I wish Zach Parise had gone to the backhand against Carey Price,.
The backhand going high has been so effective this season and I would have to have seen Price against that shot...

5) Alexander Urbom and Matt Taormina both saw action in the loss and looked decent enough.
I suppose the main adjustments are between increased speed of the NHL game and the importance of sticking with your man far tighter than in the AHL.


I will be back later with a look at a surprisingly strong Saturday with Xavier's brawl with Cincinnati in the Crosstown shootout and Lamont Peterson's upset win over Amir Khan in Washington D.C.