Last night the Devils five game winning streak came to an end as they fell to the St. Louis Blues - who are 11-0-2 against teams in the Eastern Conference - in a shootout. Here are some notes on that game as well as notes on other Devils related topics.
- As you know, I didn't see last night's game as I was covering the Barrie Colts / Sarnia Sting game on behalf of TheHockeyGuys.net. With that said, I did see the extended highlights and will post a couple thoughts on the game. In the mean time, if you want to see my prospect report, which includes notes on Devils prospect Reid Boucher,
click here.
- From what I saw the Devils played a pretty good game last night. They didn't take it to St. Louis and the game appeared pretty even, but they certainly had a chance to get the win. In all honesty I was very surprised to see the Devils lose a shootout to the Blues. Heading into the game the Devils were 9-2 in shootouts and the Blues were 1-6.
- It was nice to see Zach Parise get on the score sheet again last night. Parise now has points in seven straight games and looks like the Zach Parise of old.
- Ilya Kovalchuk with two apples, and nice ones at that, last night. He now has tallied at least two points in four of the last five games.
- How about Alexei Ponikarovsky? He has seven points (2G, 5A) and a +5 rating in eight games since being acquired by the Devils. An interesting stat I found is that the most ice time he has in one game since being acquired is 15:41, meaning he's certainly not producing like this due to large amounts of ice time.
- The Devils are 5-0-1 in their last six games and really have a chance to go on a run and gain ground on the Eastern Conference's top teams. New Jersey's next five games are against Florida, Buffalo, Anaheim, Montreal and Toronto; all of which are winnable games. It's not a reach to suggest they could be among the top four in the East by the end of this stretch.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets have had scouts at two straight Devils games and the Devils recently had a scout at a Blue Jackets game. I can't confirm the teams are talking and certainly don't know if anything will come of this but I found it interesting. Looking at the Devils roster, the only real need I see for them is some help on defense. The Blue Jackets aren't exactly deep on the back end and if they move a defenseman they will just need to replace whoever they deal.
Maybe New Jersey is looking at a guy like Sammy Pahlsson to help them in the playoffs and in the faceoff circle?
- Earlier in the year main stream media members have said the only way they can see Devils President and General Manager, Lou Lamoriello, entertaining offers for Parise is if they are out of the playoff race and feel their chances of re-signing him are slim. New Jersey is 5th in the East and for some reason these rumors are still floating around. He's not going to be traded. Period.
- I don't think Lou Lamoriello is going to be very active at the deadline. They're set up front and are locked in with their goaltenders so all they could really use is some help on defense. Ideally Lamoriello would like to get his hands on a puck-moving defenseman like Marek Zidlicky or Lubomir Visnovsky, but in all honesty the asking price for those players is likely higher than Lamoriello will want to pay.
If New Jersey adds a defenseman at the deadline it will likely be someone like Hal Gill, Bryan Allen or Brett Clark.
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