INSIDE HOCKEY

Five minutes before game time, coach Jacques Lemaire decided that he was going to put Dainius Zubrus on the first line with Zach Parise and Travis Zajac, bumping captain Jamie Langenbrunner down to the second line in hopes of getting more than one scoring line.

“I wanted to have at least two lines that would be able to score,” Lemaire said.  “I felt that I’d put Jamie with Rolly and that would maybe make some offense." 

Zubrus didn't seem bothered by the change. 

“Mario [Tremblay] told me I’m going on the right side,” Zubrus said.  “Even going into the warm-ups it doesn’t mean much.  We start the game, and we had a couple of good shifts early and then it stayed that way for a couple of periods.

“The first four or five years I played right wing. Prior to the NHL, I played right wing most of my life.  I feel pretty comfortable there.”

This change in the line-up proved to be great not just for Zubrus, but for the game itself.  While Parise and Zajac can work with just about anybody on their line, it helps boost the performance of other players looking to find confidence in their game again.  Except this time, they weren’t just sparking the confidence in Zubrus.  They were sparking confidence in everyone.

“If you guys are asking me if I was excited, yeah, it was fun,” Zubrus said.  “You get to know right before the game that you’re playing with those two guys, they do make things happen.  They hold onto the puck.  When the puck is on their stick in their end, they’re going to make something happen.  They don’t just get rid of it.  They try to make plays and you have to be ready.”

New Jersey Devils vs. Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4 OT

In the first period, Carl Gunnarsson got on the scoreboard for Toronto at 6:11 with a hard shot from the blue line.

While it may have taken a shift for Zubrus to get his wherewithal on the new line arrangement, once he got his bearings, the whole line clicked. 

“When he first started in the first couple of shifts, he [Zubrus] was just average,” Lemaire said.  “After that, I don’t know what happened.  He started to control the puck and play like I’ve seen him play in the past, especially playing with Zach and Travis it helps to get better.  You could see that he was as good as he could be.”

With Zubrus and Parise in front of the net, Jonas Gustavsson concentrated on Zubrus at his front door.  Zubs slid the puck around Gustavsson, over to Parise at the other side of the net, where he quickly put the puck into the net to tally the Devils first goal at 7:10.

The line followed up with another goal at 13:40 from Parise.

In the last minute of play in the period, Niklas Hagman took a puck to the abdomen from Colin White, who was less than three feet away when he tried to send a hard shot to the net.  He went back to the bench in pain, but continued playing the rest of the night.

In the middle stanza, Vladimir Zharkov took a high hit to his jaw from Jamal Mayers at 4:10.  Mayers was called for roughing on the hit.

Zubrus got his third goal of the season (as well as his third point in his third game back) at 9:22 from Zajac and Parise.

After Zubrus’ goal, Gustavsson was pulled, and Vesa Toskala was put in for Toronto.  Gustavsson allowed three goals on 19 shots during his 31:47 of play.

Shortly after the change of goaltenders for Toronto, former New York Ranger enforcer Colton Orr scored on Martin Brodeur on a breakaway at 14:41, slicing down the two-goal lead. 

Lemaire wasn’t happy after that goal.  The same Devils players on the ice for the first Toronto goal were also on the ice for that second goal.  He started to make plans to change that scenario.

At 17:19, rookie Patrick Davis recorded his first career NHL point with his first NHL career goal.  Captain Langenbrunner skated out to collect the puck for Davis to keep as a remembrance of his first NHL goal.

“He should be rewarded for the effort that he puts in,” Lemaire said of Davis.

In the final period, Lemaire’s line changes took effect.  Zubrus was knocked down to the fourth line to split up the problem line.  Zharkov, Rod Pelley and Nick Palmieri were on the ice during the first two Toronto goals.  Lemaire thought that a veteran presence was needed on that line to prevent another goal for Toronto.

“I tried to make another line better,” Lemaire said of why he removed Zubrus from the top line.  “After how many goals am I going to change it?  Two were too many.”

Langenbrunner was put back on the first line with Zajac and Parise.  Zharkov was bumped to the same line as Brian Rolston and Dean McAmmond.

“Zubrus, he was on the fourth line” he said of the third period change.  “I was looking at their first line and I felt that [Toronto] had a pretty good first line.  Palmieri, I knew didn’t have enough experience playing against them.  I was looking for a guy who had experience.”

Zubrus was bumped around to different lines throughout the period.  After the 10-minute mark, he was on a line with Jay Pandolfo and Palmieri.  Later, he was put onto the second line with Rolston and McAmmond.  All in all, in Zubrus’ first home game since his return from his injury, he saw a total of 20:37 in ice time, just four seconds shy of the amount of time Parise spent on the ice.

“I felt good,” Zubrus said.  “I’m not in top shape, but I’m in pretty good shape.  It seemed like the more I was playing, the better I was feeling.”

At 14:59 of the third, the two-goal lead was sliced again by Alexei Ponikarovsky.  Brodeur thought he had the puck jammed against the post, but Ponikarovsky saw it and put it in on the other side of Marty, making it a 3-4 game.  That goal was what started to make this game look ugly.

Matt Stajan tied up the game at 18:29 of the third period, forcing the game into overtime.

As the seconds wore down, Lemaire tried to put his winning combo of the night back on the ice with 10.1 seconds left in the game.  They were not able to create anything fast enough, so the game went into overtime.

In the extra period, the Devils got a lucky break at 3:52 when Luke Schenn was called on a hooking penalty at 3:52. 

“I thought I had a step on him” Zajac said.  “I felt him kind of behind me.  I couldn’t really get a shot off.  He got a hook on me.  I was pretty tired, so thankfully he took a penalty and we were good.”

Lemaire put four forwards out onto the ice for the power play: Rolston, Parise, Zajac and Zubrus.

“We have a lot of plans, but they’re not all done,” Lemaire said.  “They are not executed every time.  It’s a play that we work on definitely.

“I said, ‘You guys go on and figure it out.'"

It took only 22 seconds into the power play for the group to take the game.  Zajac tallied the game winner at 4:14, ending the game in a 5-4 win.

“It’s been tough scoring goals lately,” Zajac said.  “To be able to get a couple of breaks and some chances tonight, it felt good.”

“There are teams where you act a different way,” Brodeur said of playing against Toronto.  “I would definitely like it to be solid against every single team, but for some reason, especially in this building, we always have weird games against these guys.  It’s been [that way] for years.”

According to Lemaire, this was an ugly win for the team.

“When you get a lead and things are going well, and then you see that some of the players go off on their game and then they keep playing like this,” Lemaire said.  “You get a lead, and they’re having fun, then the other team comes back… then it’s an ugly game and an ugly win.”

The Devils host the Los Angeles Kings at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

“We’re going to get ready for the Kings on Sunday and after that we’ll try and play better,” Brodeur said.  “We know they’re going to work hard.  That’s a team that right now they decided that a lot of it has to do with effort and we have to be ready.”

Notes

Everyone wanted to know after the game how Zubrus was doing in his third game back after being on crutches for the past few months.

“I feel pretty good,” Zubrus said.  “I don’t feel like I’m doing any harm.  I think it’s one of those injuries where the more you play, the better you feel.  I feel good.  I feel good enough.  With time, I’m sure I’ll be 100 percent.”

In this game, Parise’s performance had everyone thinking that this would be the night that Parise would outshine others throughout the league based on how he was producing during the game.  Some saw a hat trick.  Others saw a few hat tricks.  Lemaire saw something else.

“Zach is Zach,” Lemaire said of Parise.  “He’s our top player.  He could have had ten goals.”