The Leafs fall in Jersey 3-2

The New Jersey Devils need to win just about every remaining game on their schedule to even have a chance of the postseason,so if you want to look at things a certain way,the playoffs are every night on a one game elimination basis.

Those playoffs started last night against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs with the first three goals of the game and held off a late Toronto rush for a 3-2 victory.
Devils goals to Patrik Elias (17),Damian Brunner (11) and Jon Merrill (2) with the eventual game winner..
The Devils are off until Thursday when the team hosts the Phoenix Coyotes at the Rock.

Hell Raisers

1) The Devils scored their second period goals in 32 seconds as Patrik Elias and Jon Merrill drove James Reimer from the game.
Reimer looked pretty bad against all 10 Devil shots against him and the Devils were able to take advantage of it...

2) The late game rush was worrisome as after the Leafs pulled Reimer for Drew McIntyre,but even scarier than the Leafs pulling to within one goal with the extra skater with McIntrye on the bench was Phil Kessel barrelled through the goalpost as he scored.
It brought back memories of the past when the posts were anchored in the ice and caused lots of scary injuries.
Not every advancement in sports is for the best,but this is one of them that is for the better..

3) Two point game for Jon Merrill and his pairing with the returning Peter Harrold was very good on the evening.
Merrill and Harrold are favorites of Peter DeBoer,but played well tonight as a pair.

4) The Devils used seven defensemen and as a result were down a forward.
Eric Gelinas spent some time at wing,but I don't recall hearing his name much.
It will be interesting to see if this experiment continues over the late season run...

5) Cory Schneider was strong in goal and looked as good as he has in a while.
Schneider's play against the 6 on 5 was the difference in holding onto the two points earned in this one..

6) Yes, this was the return of David Clarkson to the Rock after leaving for Toronto.
I always liked Clarkson and was sorry to see him go,but Toronto paid him off of his career year and I wasn't going to complain about the Devils not matching what appeared to be a huge overpayment.
Thus far,Clarkson is really struggling in Toronto and looks like the Leafs are stuck with a contract that runs way too long for way too much.
However,if Toronto wanted to pay some of his contract and the return was slight-I'd bring him back.....