Islanders drop Devils 3-2 in OT

John Tavares scored the final two goals of the game and the New York Islanders took a 3-2 decision in overtime over the New Jersey Devils in Newark.
The Devils received goals from Travis Zajac (7) and Scott Gomez (4) in the loss,which will be the Devils final game at home until the last few days of the month.
New Jersey is off until Wednesday when they travel to Los Angeles against the Kings..

Hell Raisers

1) We will be away from coverage for most of the next month due to the West Coast swing and then the All-Star break.
The only game that we will have coverage of until the 28th is the game in San Jose,which is on a Monday.
The next two games are at work,which if the NHL were as cool as the NBA,I could watch online.
They aren't.

2) John Taveras took the game and his bullrush of Adam Larsson in overtime shows the types of plays that players that you can build around make.
Taveras was all over Larsson in the corner,took the puck away and then swung around the defenseman for a shot against Keith Kinkaid for the win.

3) It's easy to blame Adam Larsson for the play at the end of the game.
He didn't do well,but two things-the first is that the guy on him is one of the best in the game and the other is-he's learning.
I know he has a few years in the league now,but actually in practical experience,he's barely above a rookie -thanks to Peter DeBoer's mishandling of him.
It's OK to be frustrated with the loss,but consider the total picture...

4) I thought Keith Kinkaid played very well and none of the goals could be looked at as bad ones.
Both Taveras goals weren't on him and the Josh Bailey goal was off a defection,so the Devils getting a point at all can be attributed to the efforts of his play...

5) I've always thought the Dainius Zubrus was overpaid for his production and Michael Ryder has equaled him this season,but I'm not sure that I know what to do about it.
Bringing up the Tim Sestito's of the world doesn't change things and getting rid of them doesn't do a ton of good on the salary cap immediately.
I suppose you just live with it for the season,but some of this stuff is tough to watch...

6) Finally,you may notice the disappearance of the Cap Geek link in the links page.
CapGeek's founder Matthew Wuest is having serious health issues and those forced him to shut the page down.
It was an invaluable resource and it'll be missed.
I'll have another link to the Devils cap,but it'll likely be less than what CapGeek brought to the fan.
Best wishes to Matthew for a speedy recovery...