INSIDE HOCKEY

Sometimes the Devils make winning look a little too easy but sometimes, they let the little things get away from them.  They ‘sit back on their heels’ and watch everything they worked so hard to attain get taken away from them just as easily.

With so many teams competing for as many points as they can gain as the regular season begins to enter the home stretch, the Devils should be focused on how they plan on approaching the playoffs.  These games should be playoff style games where they have everything to lose and everything to gain. The last part of the season should be about how they will perform in the post-season, which means that all bets are off.  This is either the year they will win the Cup, or let it pass them by.  How they approach that situation begins now.

“It’s still points,” Martin Brodeur said.  “You just can’t give up opportunities to move up in the standings or give yourself a comfort zone for later on in the season.”

Their need for offense that exists on more than one line is becoming harder and harder to come by.  With the loss of Patrik Elias, the team has begun to suffer tremendously.

This isn’t the first time this season that Elias has been missing from the lineup.  This is just the first time that too many key players are missing from the lineup, especially ones that meshed well with other teammates.  There is still no return date set for either David Clarkson or Paul Martin.

“They are not in my sight yet,” Lemaire said.  “One day they will appear in front of me.”

Now, with all three out of the lineup, it would appear that it is time for an offensive trade to happen.

Brian Rolston has not been the same since Elias went out on injured reserve.  Rolston has scored only one goal and one assist since Elias' demise.  In the game prior to the concussion, Rolston had scored two goals.  It took seven games (including the Colorado game where Elias was taken out early in the game) before Rolston could score a point.  That is, the first time he went on a seven-game stretch without a point after finding a teammate that he worked with so well.

Dean McAmmond and Jamie Langenbrunner have been trying to generate something together with little to no luck on Rolston's line.  The other two lines are no better.  In some cases, young rookies trying to prove themselves on the ice are having their chances sabotaged by a veteran who is trying to protect his own job from a rookie who could breakout and replace him.

“Niedermayer played good,” coach Lemaire said after the game.  “He was a little tired towards the end.  We demand a lot from him.  We’ve got to get more from the other guys.”

“And he’ll be 60 years old at the end of the season,” Lemaire jokingly said of Niedermayer (and how hard he’s been working him).  “He’s got to slow down.”

In fairness, Niedermayer has been working hard for the Devils since day one.  It's just unfortunate that his linemates are not working as hard or as well as he has been trying to do since he threw on a Devils jersey for the first time.  He is dedicated to his job and has given every ounce of himself to the Devils, but he can't perform the job of three men all at once.  He needs help.

It also doesn't help that Jay Pandolfo and Niedermayer were on the ice during every single Kings goal scored on Sunday night.  It would appear that the line (or an individual) is not working if all three goals took place when the two were on the ice.

While there are several teams that have already started their massive turnovers of labor on each of their four lines, where do the Devils stand in all of this?  They will need something offensively going down the latter part of the stretch, especially someone that can synch with the offensive talent that is already there.

The biggest danger for the Devils now is if something were to happen to either Zach Parise or Travis Zajac.  The two Zs work so well together, if something were to happen to either one of them, the Devils would be completely and utterly finished for the season.

That is why it is vital for the other three lines to start working offensively (and defensively).

New Jersey Devils vs. Los Angeles Kings, 2-3

In the first period, an interesting shot from Johnny Oduya bounced off of Jack Johnson’s skate, hitting the inner pad of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick as he went down.  The puck went five-hole off of the pad and into the net.  A strange goal indeed, but the Devils had no qualms about taking it!

In the second stanza, the Z-line worked its charm again with a goal from Travis Zajac at 5:54.  An early lead in the first half of the game got the Devils hopes up so much that this could be an easy win, but they failed to defend that lead. 

Michal Handzus delivered the first blow at 19:31, slicing the two-goal lead in half.

This game was starting to look just as ugly as the game from Friday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs where the Devils started off strong, only to have the Leafs come from behind, tie up the game and send it into overtime. 

In the third period, the Kings came back with an unusual goal from Wayne Simmonds at 18:14 to tie up the game.

As Devils luck would have it, Andy Greene was called for tripping with one minute left in the game.  Drew Doughty was able to capitalize on the man advantage with 27.3 seconds left in the game, stealing the rug out from underneath the Devils, 3-2 when the final buzzer sounded.

“The last two goals and the penalty,” coach Jacques Lemaire said of what went wrong.  “Just to let Doughty shoot on the penalty kill.

“We still had good chances.  We had chances where we could put the game away.  Their goalie was good.  He made some good saves.  We could have been a little better on certain plays there.  As I said, we had our chances.”

Notes

The Devils had a bit of a shake up since their last game.  Last season when coach Brent Sutter wanted to shake things up, he switched the locker room around.  The Devils locker room has been switched around once again.

Coach Lemaire stated that Zubrus will no longer remain on the top line.  As effective as the Z-line has been, Zubrus is needed elsewhere.  He needs Zubrus to return to center.

“Zubrus played well,” Lemaire said.  “Our top line has been really good.  Zubs plays great hockey. It’s not that he’s not doing a good job. He’s doing a great job.  I like the way that he plays.  I need him at center.”

As for something to add to the rumor mill, Atlanta’s GM was being entertained by LA’s GM during the Devils-Kings game.  Something could be in the works.

The Devils head to Toronto on Tuesday and play Toronto again at home on Friday.