In the third,it was a different story and Washington drove away with a 5-1 win.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored the Devils only goal (7) in the second period.
The Devils get little downtime as they host Winnipeg this afternoon...
Hell Raisers
1) The Devils continue their surprisingly poor recent play on the penalty kill as Washington scored two power play goals.
New Jersey has now allowed 12 goals when down a man in the last eight games....
2) Easy to blame Johan Hedberg for his puck gaffe' for the shorthanded goal when the Capitals put the game in the sack,but Andy Greene never got into position to help Hedberg out.
Hedberg was supposed to set the puck up for Greene,who never got there as he was muscled off the play.
Hedberg needed to move the puck of course,but Greene had his share of the blame too.
3) Steve Bernier missed on a penalty shot,but I was hoping that the Devils would have gotten another call on the play.
Bernier had never taken a penalty shot and I don't ever remember seeing him take part in the shootout either.
The Devils were on the power play,so given a choice (They didn't have one),I would have rather had a five on three than a Bernier penalty shot...
4) On the first of the three Alex Ovechkin goals,Anton Volchenkov didn't even try to put the body on Ovechkin as he was afraid Ovechkin would put the moves on him.
Instead by not touching him,he was abused in a different way as Ovechkin had plenty of space to shoot through.
Volchenkov's strength is his physical play,he needs to play to it...
5) All and all,a weak third period overshadowed a decent enough first two,albeit one with defensive breakdowns and a split of two games in three days on the road cannot be looked at as a failure.
However,the issues on the penalty kill are becoming alarming and for the third time in four games,the Devils scored just one goal.
Things are beginning to get interesting....
Photo Credit:AP Photo
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