Devils earn costly 4-1 win in the Igloo

October 25, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

I was looking forward to doing a recap of the Devils’ impressive 4-1 win in Pittsburgh last night, the team’s best performance of the season by a mile.  Unfortunately the news that defenseman Paul Martin and winger Jay Pandolfo were both hurt and likely with long-term injuries last night trumps even a fifth straight road win that upped the Devils’ record to 6-3 on the young season.

While the injury updates aren’t official yet, the whispers are that Martin suffered a forearm fracture while Pandolfo has either a seperated or dislocated right shoulder.  Martin’s injury apparently stemmed from a Bill Guerin shot early in the third then a later slash on that same arm.  Pandolfo’s injury irritated the Devils even more because it was the result of a Mike Rupp boarding penalty in the second period.  While the Devils were hopping mad that an ex-teammate would hit Pando on the boards when he was in a defenseless position I couldn’t really get that mad about the hit itself.  He did shove him and deserved a penalty but I’ve seen worse along the boards where the player walked away.  Unfortunately Pando’s shoulder popped out and he had to pop it back in himself, a la Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon movies.

Without their top defenseman and penalty-killing forward for the forseeable future it’s unclear what the Devils would do in terms of not only player moves but lineup adjustements.  You don’t replace a Martin but for the time being his spot in the lineup could be filled by Mark Fraser, who had a decent season debut last night, even scoring a surprise first career goal 9:50 into the first period when he took a shot that bounced off Marc-Andre Fleury’s glove and into the net to give the Devils a 1-0 lead.  However, don’t count on Fraser for much offense beyond that – and a defense of Fraser, Colin White, Mike Mottau and Bryce Salvador may be one of the three to five slowest in the league. 

If the Devils want to replace Martin with speed and puck-moving, well Cory Murphy’s always available to return and wouldn’t have to clear re-entry waivers.  Not sure if I see that happening though the Devils’ offense from the blueline is even more scary right now without Martin.  Fraser’s goal was the first of the season by a Devils’ defenseman in their ninth game.  It’s probably more likely they play Fraser and call up a fill-in type like Jay Leach or Rob Davison – but only the latter doesn’t have to clear waivers on the way back up.

As far as replacing Pandolfo’s spot on the roster, maybe the Devils will call up Vladimir Zharkov who almost made the team in camp and has looked good for Lowell so far, getting their only two goals last night in a 5-2 loss at Hartford and scoring a shootout winner the night before.  Replacing him on the penalty kill won’t be as easy though, especially after coach Jacques Lemaire joked a while back that he would have to look for penalty killers on Google beyond his current four of Pando-Rob Niedermayer and Jamie Langenbrunner-Travis Zajac.  I suppose Rod Pelley could get another shot, since he played on the PK a couple years ago under Brent Sutter.  Another possible option is Brian Rolston, who killed penalties in the first part of his career and actually was a terror as a short-handed threat for the Devils during a season or two but he hasn’t done it as much lately.  Zach Parise could probably kill penalties but do you really want to run up the icetime of all three of your top-line members?  Of course, Patrik Elias will return soon and he can penalty-kill as well.

Ironically last night the penalty killing had their best showing of the season so far after a slow start, killing off all four Penguin power plays in last night’s victory.  Even the Devils’ power play managed to get a goal on their one chance last night after the Rupp penalty, when a Pelley shot squirted through Fleury’s pads and Nicklas Bergfors tapped it in for the Devils’ second goal at 14:31 of the middle period.  Rather amusingly Bergfors beat his own teammate Andy Greene to the puck, as he could have just as easily tapped it in at the side of the net too.  For Bergfors however, it is his second goal in two games and just as one might suspect once the first one finally went in he’s feeling more confident with the puck.

While it was perhaps unexpected goal-scorers and assist-men that contributed to the first couple of goals, the Devils’ main guns combined to finish off the Pens in the third with two goals, first Zajac scoring his fifth just 26 seconds into the period off a rebound from a Parise shot.  Then, after the Pens’ Alex Goligoski spoiled Martin Brodeur’s bid for a record-tying 103rd shutout at 9:36 cutting the Devils’ lead to 3-1, the Devils surivived a few anxious minutes before Parise put it away at 16:32 off a pass from Zajac with the neccesary time and space to spin and beat Fleury to the far post.

Though the Devils now have to worry about the prognosis of Martin and Pandolfo, not to mention waiting for Patrik Elias to return in a week or two and hoping Mottau comes back for Wednesday’s game against the Sabres at the Rock, the Devils at least can be happy about their best performance of the season and a good win over a team that had taken seven straight games during a 9-1 start in defense of their Stanley Cup.

BoNY Three Stars:

1. Martin Brodeur (32/33 saves)
2. Travis Zajac (goal, assist, +2)
3. Zach Parise (goal, assist, +2)