There's something in the way he moves. That extra spring in his step says, "I am Martin Brodeur. Hear me roar!" He is the lion in the Devils' den, the king of his domain. This is the man who is nine wins away from being one of the greatest goaltenders of all-time when he surpasses Patrick Roy's win record. But he can't win nine times on his own. He needs his team behind him to help push him towards that goal.

What started off as a great season with five wins and only one loss, the Devils' great start has started to falter as they have dropped their last three games, two of which have gone into overtime. With only two points out of a possible six, the Devils are still trailing the New York Rangers by seven points for first in the Atlantic Division. But rest assured, Brodeur will not only get his nine wins this season, he will be setting the new win record for the NHL.

But right now, they have to focus on jumping over the hurtles filled with injuries from Bobby Holik, Brian Rolston, Barry Tallackson, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Jamie Langenbrunner (who returned to the line-up on Wednesday night). Patrik Elias may be added to that list as well after he was struck in the jugular by a puck in last night's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. So far, he says he is fine, but at first he said he couldn't open his mouth. X-rays may be forthcoming.

But fortunately for some, the youth are being called up to fill those roster spots. These kids are expected to step in and play Devils hockey right off the bat. But most of all, this gives them the opportunity to prove that they are definitely NHL ready.

Both Matt Halischuk and Nicklas Bergfors were called up to fill in, but with Langenbrunner surprisingly lacing up his skates, Bergfors was scratched from Wednesday’s roster. Halischuk made AHL news recently when he scored four goals during the October 11th contest against Worcester. His emergency call-up was his first appearance in the NHL, as well as his first NHL point when he assisted on Colin White’s goal in the second period.

During Wednesday night’s contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Devils were the first to get on board at 2:32 during the first stanza. Petr Vrana was originally credited with the first goal, but it was later found that the goal belonged to David Clarkson, his second of the season.

With a battle in front of Toronto’s netminder Vesa Toskala (who was 0-3 against the Devils), Brian Gionta tried to stuff the puck in, but was unsuccessful. Not too far behind him, Dainius Zubrus and Andy Greene were close by to help put the puck up over Toskala and score the second goal of the game at 7:04 from Zubrus.

Zubrus seemed to be the target of many solid hits in this contest, one of which sent him sailing into Toronto’s bench. A few Maple Leafs had to help push him back onto the ice.

In the middle stanza, Toronto started to comeback from their two-goal deficit and take over the second period with a goal from Matt Stajan at 4:13. Brodeur was caught high-sticking at 5:27, offering Toronto their second power play for the evening. The rather confusing incident must have offset Brodeur, because four seconds into the power play Stajan scored his second goal of the game off of a deflection from Tomas Kaberle. Two minutes later, with Langenbrunner in the penalty box for hooking, Alex Steen tallied the third goal for Toronto, their second power play goal for the night.

Ten seconds after Steen’s goal, the Devils started to take back control of the game starting with a row between Clarkson and Jamal Mayers. What made this fight interesting was that Clarky was able to get in two last punches before Mayers KO’d and went down on the ice. Clarky stood over him victorious, as if he had just won the title in a boxing match.

Langenbrunner followed this change of events for the Devils with a goal at 9:14. Colin White (D) followed with one of his own from the blueline at 13:42, ending the period’s scoring at 4-3. Mike Rupp and Ryan Hollweg matched up for a bout of their own a couple of minutes after White’s goal and were sent directly to the dressing rooms to serve their five minute penalties.

In the final period in regulation, the Devils spent too much time defending the net rather than going after the puck and getting it out of the Devils zone. This allowed Toronto too many opportunities to score and allowed Mayer to tie up the game up at 9:15, with assists from fourth liners Dominic Moore and Hollweg. A little over a minute later with Zubrus serving a hooking penalty, the Devils allowed another power play goal at 10:25 from Alexei Ponikarovsky.

But the Devils were not done, nor were they going to allow Toronto to win that easily. With just 52 seconds following Toronto’s fifth goal of the night, Zach Parise tallied the tying goal, forcing the game into overtime.

The scoreless overtime led to a shootout with only Patrik Elias beating Toskala at the net, while Kaberle and Niklas Hagman beat Brodeur to win the game for the Leafs 6-5.

“I think it was a tough game,” Brodeur said after the loss. “They did what they did. It’s all an effort we make together to play well.”

Andy Greene was the third star of the game, assisting on three of the five Devils’ goals. Matt Stajan was the second star of the game with two goals (one of which was a PPG) and an assist. Zach Parise took the first star of the game with his game tying goal (his seventh goal of the season).

The Devils next game is on November 1 against the Atlanta Thrashers at Prudential Center. Game time is at 7:00 p.m.