Three words: TWO SHORTHANDED GOALS! What has made the Devils such a strong team in the past has been puck control. This game proved just how important it is. Marian Hossa walks the puck out of his zone on the PK, dances by Rafalski, and threads the needle through a stickless Langenbrunner and baffled Brodeur; all of this happened on a 2-on-3. The first reaction has to be shock that Hossa got the opportunity as nice as that, but the obvious second one was why didn't Langs have his stick? A replay shows it being slashed out of his hands by the other Thrasher on the play, Slater. Langs is obviously angry and the no call and complains only to receive this in response: "He said if he would have known they were going to score, he would have called it."
The last time I watched hockey, I would expect a response like this to be a joke. In the past 10 years, scoring a goal isn't a criterion for calling a penalty, but if an infraction creates a genuine scoring opportunity, a call must be made regardless of how borderline it may be. This is a garbage call and it should have at least led to a review or an overturning of the goal. The NHL does have instant replay nowadays.
Luckily, the Devs put 2 in the net on beautiful shots by Brylin and Oduya. It's nice to see Sarge becoming more confident with the puck; hopefully this will lead to a return to form for the former 20 goal scorer. I got a chance to see Oduya play the Bruins in the preseason and was impressed by his 3 assists, overall speed, vision, and passing; he reminds me of Scott Niedermayer and I'm looking forward to see him develop for the next few years.
Unfortunately, the lead wasn't safe as Jimmy Dowd was about to be sent off for a needless hook and the Thrashers capitalized on the laziness of the Devils. There was no back check; Dowd stopped skating; and a simple touch of the puck would have put them on the PK against a team that wasn't doing much with the opportunities they were given. That would have been easy, but instead the lead is wiped out on a great display of hand-eye coordination from John Sim.
The Devs fired back with a goal of their own on a 5-on-3 PP. As anyone who has watched the Devils over the last 10 years would know that this was the killer. A 2-man advantage would result in a collapsed umbrella formation with slow puck movement that wouldn't fool the PK squad at all and would rarely result in a goal. This year has been special and may be my favorite coaching decision from Claude Julien. The PP unit moves the puck quickly and forces the PK out of position, leaving at least one passing lane and one shooting lane open. Tic-tac-toe, it's in. Langenbrunner's shot has been dead-on in these situations and how wonderful it's been.
19 seconds later, it happens again. Another shallow zone turnover and weak backchecking leads to another shorthanded goal. Props to Oduya for catching up to the speedy Hossa, but the stick check came a split second too late. Not much else to say about it other than it was a good shot that caught Brodeur off-balance. It's way too frustrating to see these turnovers lead to scoring chances (as can be seen by another chance for Hossa that was stopped by Brodeur).
The rest of the game went as well as anyone could have expected and the Devs lost in a shootout. I've never seen Marty get lit up like he did on those two shots and Parise's and Gionta's chances didn't even fool Lehtonen. Another disappointing loss after a morale boosting win against the Rangers. Hopefully this weekend goes better.
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