Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Devils backhand Sabres in 2-1 shootout win

Scott Gomez and Jacob Josefson each scored in the shootout to give the New Jersey Devils a 2-1 win at the Rock over the worst team in hockey in the Buffalo Sabres.
Patrik Elias scored in the first period (9 power play) for the only Devils goal in regulation.
The homestand continues Friday against the Vancouver Canucks....

Hell Raisers

1) It is nice to see the Devils at least being competitive in the shootout again.
It's not like the days of Parise and Kovalchuk by any means,but for the time being,at least the Devils have found a few players (and surprising ones at that) that can keep them afloat without the automatic losses of last season...

2) Did you notice that both Scott Gomez and Jacob Josefson each beat Michal Neuvirth with the backhand and each lifted the puck over his shoulder?
Interesting and I wonder if that was a deliberate strategy/coaching tip or just something that was improvised?

3) The Devils should have won this in regulation as the Devils blew one of the rarest opportunities in the game- a two on NONE against Neuvirth.
Scott Gomez and Jaromir Jagr raced in and simply got too cute as Gomez passed to Jagr,who should have shot,but instead passed back to Gomez sending the puck outside the net....

4) I'm not always the biggest Marek Zidlicky fan,but it was his pass to Patrik Elias that resulted in the only New Jersey goal.
Zidlicky might be an interesting name to watch around the trade deadline as a possible trading chip...

5) Stephen Gionta returned to the lineup.
Gionta was pretty quiet,but welcome back anyway.
The Devils were already under the roster limit,so the team did not have make a move to activate Gionta....

No comments: