INSIDE HOCKEY

In his first season in the helm, Head Coach Jacques Lemaire has been building a new team.  His team struggled during the first two months as the team tried to forget their Sutter training and learn Lemaire’s form of hockey.

Now, two months later, the team has started to turn into a super-team.  But they have not completely formed into that super-team yet.  There are still problems here and there, but the team is adapting quickly and turning into the scariest team in the league.

Sure, there are teams that are suffering due to injuries, but it’s no excuse.  The Devils are plagued by the same injuries and the same illnesses.

But the genius of Devils hockey is that they have always been able to take a young player from Lowell, insert them into the Devils lineup, and adapt like there was no one missing from the lineup. 

No one can tell if there is a player missing…that is the genius of Devils hockey.

“The reason why we have been getting a lot of wins lately is because we expect to be successful,” Jamie Langenbrunner said.  “We play the full game.  No matter what happens…we play the whole game.

“To be doing the things we’ve been doing lately, we had to have some confidence.  I definitely think there’s a lot of confidence in the locker room and we’re not letting anything rattle us.  That’s the important thing.”

New Jersey Devils vs. Washington Capitals, 5-2

With Alexander Ovechkin out again, the Capitals looked like they didn’t need him.  That is…the Devils let them think that during the first five minutes of the game.

The Capitals were 4-1-0 without Ovechkin going into Saturday’s game…that one loss to their record without Ovechkin, just so happens to be the night they lost against the Devils.

With Devils rookie Matt Halischuk in the penalty box for tripping during the first period (the only Devils penalty of the game), Capitals Mike Green sent a pass to Brendan Morrison, who sent it across to Tomas Fleischmann waiting inside the face-off circle.  With a quick slapshot, Fleischmann beat Martin Brodeur at 4:15 to tally the Capitals first power play goal.

Mathieu Perreault followed at 5:02 for another goal that sailed right under Brodeur’s arm. 

After that goal, the sloppy play the Devils had during those first five minutes abruptly stopped and the remainder of the 54 minutes and 58 seconds belonged to them.

“We weren’t playing that bad,” coach Lemaire said.  “I know at the time, we started to turn the puck over in the first period.  But getting two goals against will make you do that.”

“We feel that if we are able to stay in the game, we will be successful,” Brodeur said.  “Even though it was two-nothing early, we kept at it.”

“I think the key for us is that there hasn’t been any panic in any situation of the game,” Jamie Langenbrunner said.  “It started from the bench all the way through the lineup.  There hasn’t been any panic.  You kind of feed off that.  We have confidence in here that we’re behind two-nothing, there’s still a lot of game left.  We knew we hadn’t played well so far.  I think we did a good job of getting back to playing our game and not changing anything, but getting our game out there.  We did a good job.”

The goal that started the fire inside Prudential Center was Colin White’s first goal at 9:47.  This goal was extra special for White and the Devils.  White is partially blind in one eye after he took a puck to the eye last season. 

There have been many moments on the ice where you can’t help but notice that White can’t see something happening on the ice and he’ll toss the puck in a direction where no one (on either team) is standing.  Or a play goes bad on his watch, in his zone.  His teammates try to not only cover up the mistake for the team, but it looks as if they are hiding it from White himself.

So when White tallied the first goal of the game, it brought the Devils alive as they cheered White on from the bench and on the ice.  This goal was special…it made them believe and feel confident that they could bring the Capitals down.  It also sparked something very powerful in White as he moved around the ice with such a massive presence that you couldn’t help but notice that the White of old was back on the ice.

“That goal gave us the light we needed to come back and play really well,” Brodeur said.

“Any time you can get one from Whitey,” Langenbrunner said.  “It’s a big bonus.  I’m excited for him.”

In the second period, with Green in the box for tripping, it took Langenbrunner 19 seconds to capture the puck from the top and rip it across the ice to beat Jose Theodore at 5:44.

Zach Parise made it 3-2 at 14:40.  With a pass from Travis Zajac, Parise carried the puck in from the blueline, went one-on-one with Theodore to beat him for his 10th goal of the season.  Parise has scored a goal in each of the last four contests, marking a 4-game goal streak.

At 19:04, the goal that became the talk of the night came from rookie Matt Halischuk.  On the young rookie line with Nicklas Bergfors and Tim Sestito, Halischuk went top shelf to score his first career NHL goal.  Sestito’s assist on the goal marked his first career NHL point.

Going into the third stanza, Cory Murphy rounded out the win with a fifth goal for the Devils at 3:15 off of a pass from Travis Zajac at the face-off.

The Devils held off the Capitals the remainder of the game to take their eighth straight consecutive win.  They are first all around, taking the number one spot in both the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference.

The Most Talked About Goal

After the game, everyone was talking about Halischuk’s first career NHL goal.

“It’s pretty special,” Halischuk said of his first NHL goal that was sitting up on the shelf in his locker after the game.  “I didn’t know what to do there…but it’s definitely exciting.”

“I think it was Jamie [Langenbrunner] that got the puck there,” he said looking up at the puck with tape wrapped around it marked ‘First NHL Goal.’  “It’s pretty special, getting it from the guy that’s your captain like that.”

“It’s nice,” Brodeur said of Halischuk’s goal.  “We’re growing up with them in here with all the young guys.  When you see a NHL first goal, it’s always something special. 

“I was talking to Patrik [Elias].  His [first] was off his skate, and in the end it went up for a review,” Brodeur said laughing.  “With him (Halischuk), it was a really nice goal off the crossbar.”

“When you get into the NHL,” Langenbrunner said.  “You dream of scoring that first goal.  It was great to see him get it in such a big situation too.”

“It’s great,” Parise said.  “Everyone remembers their first goal.  Not many are going to be prettier than that one.  I mean that was a great shot.  He’s going to be a really great player in this league.  He’s done a lot of great things and hasn’t been rewarded on the stat sheet, but you can tell he’s been playing really well lately.

“That’s great.  That’s big for us when he’s able to contribute.  He can be a good player in this league.”

Notes

Unlike previous reports throughout the media world stated on Wednesday night, Capitals have confirmed that Michael Nylander (Washington Capitals) will not be going to Russia this season.  Nylander has a no-trade clause and the Capitals will retain Nylander for the remainder of the season.  Nylander was a scratch on Saturday and he will remain on the roster, according to the Capitals.

Mike Green assisted on both Capitals goals for a two point night.

Jamie Langenbrunner (1g, 1a), Nicklas Bergfors (2a), Cory Murphy (1g, 1a) and Travis Zajac(2a) all had two point nights.

Andy Greene’s proving to be exactly what fans have been saying: “Andy Greene Equals Wins.”  Saturday night’s win marked Greene’s 13th win of the season in the last 14 games he has appeared in. 

He made Devils history on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins as he became the first Devil to either assist or score the game winner in five consecutive games.  Daniel Alfredsson was the last NHL player to do that back in January 2007 when he played for the Ottawa Senators, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.