Penguins dampen Devils 3-2

After the Devils worst period of the year,the Pittsburgh Penguins led 3-0 at the end of the one.
The New Jersey Devils rebounded a bit by outplaying the Penguins in the final two periods,pulling to within one goal and missing some opportunities to tie in a 3-2 Pittsburgh win.
Patrik Elias (7) and Dainius Zubrus (5) each redirected shots in the second period for the Devils goals.
New Jersey hosts Tampa Bay tonight,weather permitting.

Hell Raisers

1) What an awful first period.
The Devils looked terrible.The first goal of the game may have been on a slow whistle,but otherwise the Devils had no excuses for an awful period.

2) Cory Schneider was terrible in the first,better in the final two,but frankly did not look like a player battling for the larger chunk of the playing time.
Schneider might have been mildly screwed on the goal mentioned above,the defense hurt in the second goal,but he still had a chance to fight them off and the final goal was not one to blame on others.

3) The second goal was the worst as Jon Merrill whiffed on the puck,Eric Gelinas played the man not the puck and Schneider was less than strong against the shot.
Merrill and Gelinas were so bad in the first period that they were split up later in the game.

4) I think the young guns need to play,but it does seem that Peter DeBoer plays favorites with the young players.
Merrill and Gelinas make mistakes and they get to play through them,which they should,but Adam Larsson makes mistakes and they tend to get him scratched.
The young players need to play,but it applies to all of them...

5) The Devils did play very well in the final two periods as they blasted 30 shots in those periods after just seven in the first.
The Devils had several nice chances against Marc-Andre Fleury,who played very well for Pittsburgh.

6) Patrik Elias made a nice redirection on his goal.Elias is on a five game points run..

7) Rough night for Adam Henrique.
Henrique hit a post with seconds remaining with a shot that would have tied the game and got a two minute penalty late in the game for playing (kicking) the puck with a broken stick in his hands which hampered the Devils attempts to tie....

Photo Credit;AP Photo