Game 11: Giving a Devil His Due

Last season, Dainius Zubrus’ contract looked like a major mistake and a $3.4 million eyesore on towards the Devils’ salary cap space.15 goals and 25 assists hardly made the salary seem worth it, let alone the length of the deal.

Tonight, Zubrus continued on his quest to silence his critics, this time doing it on his offensive side. With under 2 minutes to go, Zubrus crashed the net on an aggressive forecheck while Zach Parise took a slap shot from the high point. Bruins’ goaltender Tim Thomas got most of the initial shot, but not all of it as the puck squeaked through his pads and settled on the ice behind him, 3 feet from the goal.

Zubrus saw the loose puck and pounced on it without hesitation, as he pushed the puck into the net for the go ahead goal, falling as he began to celebrate.

The Devils never looked back from that point, and held on for the 2-1 victory.

Moments prior to Zubrus’ goal, Devils’ goaltender Yann Danis withstood an onslaught of Bruin shots as Boston pushed for the leading tally. Danis made some fine saves during the rush, but also received a bit of luck as a Bruin shot went over his left shoulder, but bounced harmlessly off the crossbar.

David Clarkson put the Devils ahead early on with his third goal of the season. Clarkson joined a 2 on 1 rush with Niclas Bergfors as the Devils again caught Boston in the attacking zone. Bergfors’ shot was aimed at Thomas’ 5-hole, and as was the case with the game winning goal, Thomas only got a piece of the shot as Clarkson cleaned up the rebound on his way to a jumping celebration against the glass behind the net.

The major black eye to come from this game was the injury sustained by defenseman Johnny Oduya who left the game in the 2nd period with a lower body injury and did not return. While Oduya’s play early on this season has been marred by inconsistency, his loss would be detrimental to an already injury plagued defensive corps.

With Paul Martin our for 4 to 6 weeks, the Devils cannot stand to lose Oduya. If they do for an extended period of time, there is almost no question they will need to go out and find a defenseman who can help lead the team in Martin and Oduya’s absence.

While some will argue they will be able use the current players to fill the void, the shortcomings of the remaining defenseman are abundant.

Colin White, regardless of his current alternate title, has been ineffective for almost the entire season, save for about 5 minutes of solid playing, including two diving poke checks to preserve wins and eliminate scoring chances for the opposition.

Bryce Salvador cannot keep himself out of the penalty box, and besides Oduya, I do not think that anyone else on the team has taken as many lazy penalties as number 24.
Mike Mottau, a former Hoby Baker Award winner, just doesn’t strike me as the type of player who can pick up the defense on his back.

Andy Greene has played phenomenally thus far, but I think the added pressure of being the go to guy on defense will hurt his psyche and possibly kill his current hot streak.

Lastly, Mark Fraser is a rookie, and has only 3 games this season under his belt. To think he alone could pick up the slack is just ridiculous.

Sure, you can say that if the Devils loose Oduya, everyone else can step up and pick up a little piece of the slack, but I think there is far too much slack left to be shouldered by the remaining 6 defenders.

If the Devils loose Oduya, and another proven veteran is not brought in for assistance, the Devils could be in for a long couple of weeks.



7-4-0, 14 points

Next up: Saturday vs. Tampa Bay, 3pm

All Star Weekend Recap

Following the NHL All State Skills Competition Saturday, I felt the need to either drink heavily or call Montreal and ask Gary Bettman for the previous 3 hours of my life back. Here are some notes and comments I had following the debacle that the night was:

• You knew we were destined for a long night when the clocks for the fastest skater didn’t even work. Over a year to plan the event, 2 days to make sure everything was working properly, and they couldn’t even get that part right. Skills Challenge Organizers FAIL #1. Kudos to Andrew Cogliano for winning.
• I don’t know when they changed this but why did they move away from keeping the event an East vs. West competition? The scoring system they had made for a much more interesting night all together. Because there were points at steak for the winning side in each challenge.
• Next came the FanFav Breakaway Challenge – the lowlight of the night. If you don’t believe me, nor agree with me that this event was pointless and horrendously boring, look no further than the expression on Ryan Getzlaf’s face as he had his minute to deke some kid plucked from the streets [almost literally].
• To further discredit the event, the voting was done by text message only which speaks even further to the validity of the event. At least last season they had guys on the ice grading them to make it somewhat entertaining, and it was the best of 1 or 2 shots, not as many as you could do in a minute. Ovechkin wins the event with 42% of the fan texting vote, and a very entertaining goal. Skills Challenge Organizers FAIL #2.
• Luckily for the viewers, the Youngstars Game came next, unlucky for them both CBC and Versus somehow managed to screw it up by cutting to replays or interviews for too long and missing multiple goals. [get used to this, because this became a frequent occurrence for the remainder of the night.] At this point, I began to severely wonder who the hell was running this. Skills Challenge Organizers FAIL #3.
• After an actually exciting 9-5 victory by the rookies over the sophomores, the accuracy contest was held. I understand the premise behind the number and placement of the targets represents the hardest spots to score on a goalie, but I almost feel like they should add a target or two to make it a little more interesting. Malkin gets the win in a shoot-off against Shane Doan. While watching, this was the first event I had no complaints about, at all. Shocking, I know.
• The best event of the night was the Hardest Shot. Shea Webber set the tone early with a very impressive 103.4. and the mark held up until 6’9” Zedeno Chara stepped up, fired a 103 and change before blowing away both Webber and Al Iafrate’s record by hitting 105.4. my jaw hit the floor quicker than the puck hit the back of the net, straight up impressed. Because the event actually flowed flawlessly, I’ll knock off one of the Fails I gave the organizers, now they’re back to 2.
• The Elimination Shootout was a good idea on paper but then you realized two things: 1.) There are 32 players who would need to shoot at least once 2) each goalie who would be involved in the event had been doing absolutely nothing for the past 3 hours [okay, a little exaggeration] since the event started. FAIL #3. Add in a 4th fail because during just the first round of skaters, we missed multiple attempts, including Jarome Iginla’s.
• Hats off to Shane Doan, however, for winning the event. This guy had not been used by Coach Wayne Gretzky at all during the season in shootouts and here he is beating out some of the most prolific scorers in the NHL at their own craft. Another plus to him for keeping his daughter on the bench so she could experience the thrill of the night too. You see it a lot in baseball during the home run derby, but no so much in hockey. Well done Shane, I’ll pull for you and the ‘Yotes out of the West now.

The All-Star game it self on Sunday redeemed the heck out of the weekend and managed to salvage it from the path of disaster which the Skills Challenge seemed to put it destined towards. Even with god awful renditions of the national anthems, the players began to light up the scoreboard early and often. 6-2 after 1, 8-8 after two thanks to horrendous goaltending by Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvst, and then 12-12 after regulation and overtime set up a shootout and thankfully not a repeat of the previous night. Kovalev scored, Ovechkin sealed it, and Doan got a shootout attempt in a game. Kovalev deservedly got MVP, with a little help from the hometown faithful, but, as stated before, the game managed to deliver the luster.

One thing of note: the NHL needs to stop trying to shove Sidney Crosby down the fans throats. That’s great that he didn’t pull a Datsyuk nor a Lidstrom and showed, but enough is enough. He isn’t even the best player in the game right now, and, frankly, I think he’s a soft wuss. That’s right, I’ll go right out there and say it, he is a wimp. If he’s not getting calls handed to him left and right by some referees, he’s diving trying to draw them. The past 2 seasons the fans have voted him to be a starter and how does he show his appreciation and thanks? By sitting out, claiming to have an injury. Carey Price has a tissue paper groin and he played. Tim Thomas played like a madman during the breakaway challenge, then again Sunday night during the 3rd period, overtime and shootout without crying, and he was in a hostile, rival city.

When I began to write this article, his return for the Penguins first game after the break against the Rangers was listed as questionable. There was zero doubt in my mind he’d be in the line up, and sure enough, he says he expects to play as of 1 am. At some point in time, he should man up and start earning some of this praise he is getting, in my opinion, very undeservedly. This isn’t jealousy nor discrediting how good of a player he is, but when you’re being toted as the best, how about you step up and act like it rather than a primadona. If you want to lose the Cindy nick name, it really is time for you to just grow up, Sidney.