Devils tear up Leafs 5-3

A battered and shorthanded New Jersey Devils team on a losing streak managed to glide into Toronto and snap that string with a 5-3 win over the Maple Leafs with a little bit of that thing known as goal scoring.
Five different Devils lit the lamp for New Jersey in the victory-Mike Cammalleri (11 Power Play),Adam Henrique (7),Eric Gelinas (3 Power Play),Steve Bernier (2) and Stephen Gionta (1).
The Devils get a day off before hosting Washington on Saturday.
Coverage unlikely for that with the Big 10 title game against that one on time.

Hell Raisers

1) For all of the criticism that Peter DeBoer receives (much of it deserved),he hasn't lost his team yet.
The effort against Pittsburgh and then this win against Toronto was as gutsy as they come when you consider all things.
This team is depleted and has every right to be a bit down and yet the effort ( if not always the results) is still there.
I'm not a DeBoer fan,but you have to give him that.

2) Stephen Gionta wasn't going to be sure to play until the morning skate with a bad foot after taking a shot off it in Pittsburgh.
The diminutive winger did however and scored his first goal on the season state sheet.
The fourth line was their energy line for the Devils and set a tone that I thought gave the team a good evening...

3) Jon Merrill returned to the lineup and quickly added two assists.
The DeBoer favorite had missed a long stretch and of all the young defensemen,I believe he has the most well rounded game.

4) The Devils were already beaten up,but missed three players that were active in Pittsburgh.
Jaromir Jagr and Adam Larsson had the flu and Patrik Elias had a grr grroin injury.
The team managed to overcome those losses and hopefully will get the flu bug out of the locker room.


5) Steve Bernier was part of that fourth line that I mentioned with a goal and assist.
Bernier is a favorite of mine and I always like to see him do well...

6) Five assists on the night from the blue line and that's a good thing because that means puck movement and shots from the outside,both of which this team does not do enough of at times.
The Devils ,as noted in the past,are developing this corps of young defensemen on the fly and when they can get even half of the offensive production that they had in this game,the team is surprisingly effective..

Back later with a conference title weekend PPM...