Friday, March 28, 2014

Foiled again in shootout

The New Jersey Devils were foiled again by their inability to find the net in a shootout as the Phoenix Coyotes downed the Devils via the skills competition 3-2 at the Rock.
Mikkel Boedker beat Martin Brodeur for the only goal of the shootout,which was typically enough to beat the Devils in such play.
The Devils did salvage a point after being behind by two goals with goals from Ryane Clowe (6) at the end of the second period and received the tying goal from Adam Henrique (24) in the third.
The Devils return to the world's ugliest arena in Nassau County on Saturday against the Islanders.

Hell Raisers

1) The Boedker goal in the shootout might have shown a way to gain an advantage in the shootout that has seldom been used.
Boedker skated very quickly,almost in a charge towards Marty Brodeur.
That forced Brodeur to make a decision almost immediately-go down or stay up.
The guess was wring and Boedker lifted the puck over the prone Brodeur.

2) The Devils score with one second to go in the second period was looked at by video review,but clearly went in before the end of period (0.03 remaining) and the Jon Merrill shot was deflected off the glove of Ryane Clowe,not tossed into the net.
That goal perked the Devils up and allowed them to enter intermission down just one goal.

3) Martin Brodeur was decent in goal.The Boedker goal was described above and the first period goal by Phoenix went right through his legs,albeit from a series of scrums to start the game that saw the Devils backtracking in their own end.
Brodeur was strong enough other than those two goals,but that wasn't quite good enough.

4) Now onto the shootout woes,where the Devils lost their ninth in nine tries.
I'm not going to get into how much I hate the shootout again,but I will point out this-if the Devils were even a nick below .500 and won four of the nine shootouts,there would be the four points that they trail for the playoff spot of eighth.
Read em and weep.

5) The Devils still are clinging to that lone Reid Boucher goal as their only tally in shootout play.
It's not that the team has tons of options,but I would like to see some consideration to use Tuomo Ruutu if there is any further shootouts.
Ruutu is at 40% efficiency in shootouts and it isn't like he could do any worse than what is going on now.

6) A bonus.The Devils trail three teams and are four points out of the playoffs with nine games to play.
My guess is this-It's going to take no less than 7-2 and that might not even be good enough.
Looks like outside looking in for the Devils.

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