Marty's back and Devils win!

The New Jersey Devils thought that the return of Martin Brodeur would give them a jolt that had been missing to their lineup.
What they did not know was that Brodeur would be an addition to their goal scoring as Brodeur scored the first goal of the game (1) and would then be stellar in goal as the Devils defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in Mt.Pilot.
Brodeur's unusual goal was the only goal of the first period and would have been the game winner had Carolina's Jeff Skinner not scored in the third period.
The remaining Devils goals were scored by Adam Henrique (10),Andrei Loktionov ( 5 power play) and Peter Harrold (2).
New Jersey gets one day off before a home game Saturday night against Florida....

Hell Raisers

1) The Martin Brodeur goal came off a crazy play,where the Devils had committed a delayed penalty,which allowed Carolina to remove goalie Dan Ellis in order to provide an extra attacker.
Jordan Staal fired the puck at Brodeur,which the puck bounced off his pads.Staal gained possession of the puck and tried to pass to Tim Gleason into the corner.
The pass missed Gleason,bounced into the boards and skidded all the way to the other end straight into the unguarded Carolina net.
Since Brodeur had been the last Devils to touch the puck,he was credited with the goal....

2) The Devils played very well in the second period with two goals,but I was especially pleased with the defense,which allowed Carolina to put just three shots on net against Brodeur in that term.
That is the return of lockdown hockey!

3) Two assists for Travis Zajac,who after some pretty blase' performances seems to be bouncing back
into form.
Zajac needs to be the passing center that the team needs,if the scoring woes are going to dilute a bit.
I don't expect huge points from Zajac,but his stats for the season are not acceptable for the cap hit that he gives the team...

4) Martin Brodeur didn't have to make too many great saves in the final two periods,but I thought he played very well in the first,when Carolina was most active on the offensive end.
That is the difference between a Johan Hedberg and the best goalie to ever play the game-a save or two a night is the gap between a win and an loss....

5) This was a huge win for the Devils as the team shared 7th-9th place in the standings with the Hurricanes and Rangers.
Between the defeat of Carolina and the loss by the Rangers to Florida,the Devils are in seventh alone with a chance to pull away a little with a win over Florida.
Amazing how a return and a win turns an outlook around...

Photo Credit:AP Photo