One extreme to the other...

Two days after a five goal explosion against the Washington Capitals,the New Jersey Devils were unable to get anything resembling a cohesive offense against AHL callup Anders Nilsson and as a result lost to the New York Islanders 1-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.
No offense to speak of,so no need for offensive notes.
The Devils host the Rangers tomorrow night in their next game...

Hell Raisers

1) This was a ugly outing for New Jersey,who seemed to be not only out of sync offensively,but either overinflated themselves for the Washington win or looking forward to the Rangers.

2) For most of the game,the Devils tended to overpass and not take the open shot.
That could have been because the Islanders did not give many in an excellent defensive effort,but it still was overkill to me...

3) The defense was decent enough as was the penalty kill ,which killed off a five on three that could have put the game out of reach,but they did not create a ton of takeaways that could have turned into scoring chances either...

4) The Parise/Henrique/Kovalchuk line certainly had an off night.
None of their six shots on the net forced any difficulty on Anders Nilsson at all..
Parise had somewhat of an excuse after being hit in the left hand with a shot in the second period.
X-Rays were negative on a break,so Parise should be ready for the Rangers.

5) Alexei Ponikarovsky missed his second game in a row and Andy Greene sat out with back spasms.
Both are possibilities for the Rangers game tomorrow.

Photo Credit:AP Photo