Whipped in Winnipeg

The New Jersey Devils really did not play that poorly in their 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets Saturday night.
In fact,they outplayed the Jets for more often than not of the course of the game.
However,the shorthanded bugaboo (Bugaloos?) bit again shortly after a Patrik Elias 5 on 3 goal (9) gave the Devils a 2-1 lead.
Adam Henrique scored the first goal for New Jersey (6).
The Devils are off until Tuesday in Toronto against the Leafs.
Likely,no coverage as I plan on a brief respite for a day or two to go shopping for Christmas presents for the two wonderful ladies in my life.
I will return on Thursday for the Devils return to the Rock against Ottawa,but time permitting I hope to have a automatic posting for the day or two that I am away....

Hell Raisers

1) I dislike losing as much as anyone,but I did see some positives here.
The Devils were getting quality shots and with the exception another puckhandling mishap by Ilya Kovalchuk that led to another shorthanded goal,I was encouraged by the team.
Still room for improvement,but the team played fairly well for the most part.

2) Johan Hedberg was a bit off though.
Not terrible,but not great either.
The shorthanded goal was just as much his fault as Ilya Kovalchuk's as his pass was not a good one and because he went out of the net,Hedberg had no chance to get back in to stop the shot.

3) Loved the wrister by Adam Henrique to start the scoring-Everything that you could want-Sharp and accurate!

4) Perhaps a shakeup of the defensemen might be in order.
Matt Taormina is playing very well in Albany and his skating and offensive ability might be very useful about now.
How best to put him on the roster and make the salary cap work is a problem that I'll leave to others,but I think it would be a good idea.

5) The Winnipeg crowd is great.How long it stays that way is a different story,but they booed Ilya Kovalchuk every time he touched the puck.
I suppose because he could have been a Jet,but Kovy is right,when he says that his not re-signing with Atlanta might have been the factor that got the puck rolling to bring the team to Winnipeg....

6) Cam Jansssen left the game with a chest injury that does not seem to be serious.

I'll be back later with a look at the Browns dull loss to the Baltimore Ravens....

Photo Credit-AP Photo