Last night the New Jersey Devils went into Florida to take on the Panthers and won Game One 3-2. Though the Devils didn't play great, besides the first period, a win is a win come playoff time. Here are some notes on the game.
- Anton Volchenkov didn't play very much last night. He played just under 12 minutes which was the lowest total among all Devils defenseman. He had two of the Devils six blocked shots in that time.
- Dainius Zubrus played outstanding last night. He had a goal, an assist, four shots and seven hits in just over 16 minutes of ice.
- One area the Devils have a pretty big advantage over Florida is depth up front as well as better top end talent. The Devils top line created quite a bit last night but didn't get on the board. That's nothing to worry about for New Jersey, though, as players from all three other lines contributed to a goal. The Devils depth up front certainly paid off last night.
- The Devils had 44 hits last night. Their leaders in that category: Zubrus (7), Andy Greene (5), Alexei Ponikarovsky (4), and David Clarkson (4). Couple surprising names in there.
- Interesting stat: Ilya Kovalchuk (27+) and Brian Campbell (25+) played the most out of every player in the game last night, and they were two of three players combined that didn't register a hit.
- If the Devils want to win this series, they definitely need to improve their powerplay. Percentage wise, they ran at 17% last night, it was actually pretty good, but if you're getting six powerplays a game you need to take advantage of that. This is the playoffs. You don't get that amount of opportunities very often and when you do you need to make the most of it. Luckily for the Devils they did enough to ensure a win.
- Another thing the Devils need to improve on: holding leads and playing a full 60 minutes. They played one of the most dominant periods of playoff hockey I've seen in a long time in the first period yesterday. They were swarming loose pucks, continually generating grade A chances and capitalizing on a fair amount of them. With that all said and done, they barely held on to win the game. Jose Theodore's play played a large role in that but even so, the Devils need to do a better job in playing that way for 60 minutes.
- One line the Devils are going to need to keep their eye on: Sean Bergenheim - Marcel Goc - Mikael Samuelsson. All three of these players are pretty experienced and very good in the playoffs. They combined for four points, eight shots and to go 11-3 in the faceoff dot. New Jersey needs to do a better job containing them.
- Quick note: depending on news that comes up with or things I decide I want to write about I may have two blogs up a day on some days. Can't guarantee it, but I want you all to be aware just in case I post something you may want to read.
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