Saturday, April 13, 2013

Dealing with the Suns and another Devils shutout

I had a discussion with two members of the Hagerstown Suns management tonight and I did have a few issues that came up that frankly made me think of these days.

I had prepared to write about this issue tonight,discuss what and why and talk about who screwed up.
However,after talking to a particular person in the Suns front office,I decided to hold off on things for a day and see what the response is.

I know that sounds like a cop out,but what I didn't want to do is blast everyone involved and either make a situation worse or hammer someone when they were working to resolve the problem.

So,let's see what happens tonight,the other post has already been written/ready to go and I am hoping that I won't have to run it.....

The offensive woes of the New Jersey Devils continued as the Devils lost yet another game-this time to the Ottawa Senators 2-0.
The loss is the Devils 9th in a row and continued their slide from playoff contention.
The Devils will travel to Toronto in their next attempt to stop the losing streak.

Hell Raisers

1) The losing streak is the second longest in Devils history.

2) The Devils have not won one game since the shoulder injury to Ilya Kovalchuk.
Not that I am blaming all of these losses on not having Kovalchuk,but there is little doubt that the Devils offense flows through Kovalchuk,whether he is scoring or not.

3) The Devils continue to win the battle of shots on the net,but cannot win the one of goals into the net.
Some of this is bad luck,but still as I have written-much of this is simply a matter of quantity of shots and not always quality scoring chances.

4) Adam Larsson played a very strong game and I loved the more physical brand of hockey that the Swede has begun to play.
Larsson has been compared to the Bruins Dougie Hamilton as they were both top ten picks in the same draft and Hamilton has been the more precocious of the two starting their careers.
However,Larsson is beginning to shape into what he could become in a year or two-an elite blueliner....

5) Awful job by the referees in this one,missed penalty after missed penalty,most notably a deliberate cheap shot by Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson with the knob of his stick to the face of Adam Henrique.
They weren't the difference in the loss,but they did not help and cost the Devils several opportunities to get back into the contest. 

6) The Devils look to be out of the playoff hunt and the chances of a better pick in the draft loom.
I am planning a look back at the season in two parts-part one will deal with the on ice product and part two will look at the roster moves of the season,what succeeded,what failed and what needs to be done for the team to return to playoff form for the 2013-14 season.....


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