Sometimes I wonder if Devils fans know how important Travis Zajac is!!

Devils center Travis Zajac has been voted one of the league's most underrated players by his peers.

In the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and NHLPA Player Poll, Zajac was tied with Patrick Sharp of the Chicago Blaclhawks for third most-underrated player in the league.

Loui Eriksson of the Dallas Stars was voted most underrated while Frans Nielsen of the Islanders finished second.

Zajac was the only member of the Devils to be mentioned in all of the voting, which included five players and coaches in several categories.

A total of 318 NHL players took part in the poll.

Among the categories were Teams you'd most and least like to play for; coaches you'd most and least like to play for; worst and best ice; smartest player, toughest player and best skater.

Here is a link to see all the results:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/allstar/poll/

                    

Season Series: This is the second and final meeting of the 2010-11 season between these teams. Tomas Holmstrom and Danny Cleary scored before the Dec. 11 game in New Jersey was two minutes old and Detroit cruised to a 4-1 victory.

Big Story: Holmstrom and Cleary will both miss the rematch with injuries, as will Chris Osgood, the winning goalie in the first game. The Red Wings have also been without star forward Pavel Datsyuk, and their depleted corps at forward could be pointed to as one reason why, although they continue to lead the Central Division, they have one fewer win in the past 10 games than the last-place Devils.

Who's Hot: Rolston (2-4-6) and Elias (3-2-5) have four-game points streaks for the Devils. Martin Brodeur is 5-0-1 in his last six starts, allowing two goals or fewer four times.

Injury Report: New Jersey hopes to have forwards Nick Palmieri (upper body) and Vladimir Zharkov (flu-like symptoms) back after they missed two weekend games. Defenseman Colin White is expected to miss a second straight game with a lower-body injury. Fellow blueliner Matthew Corrente is out with a sprained left shoulder. Forward Zach Parise (knee) and defensemen Matt Taormina (ankle) and Bryce Salvador (concussion) are on injured reserve.

Detroit forward Valtteri Filppula is day-to-day with flu-like symptoms. Holmstrom remains out with a broken hand. Osgood (sports hernia), Cleary (ankle) and Datsyuk (hand/wrist) are all on injured reserve, as are forward Mike Modano (wrist) and defenseman Brad Stuart (jaw).

Interesting Stats: The Devils have jumped out to 2-0 leads after the first period in each game during their current run of four consecutive victories. Cory Emmerton became the fourth player on the Red Wings to score his first NHL goal this season, following Tomas Tatar, Jakub Kindl and Jan Mursak.

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Stan Lee and the NHL have teamed up to create a super hero for each NHL team. To check them out, visit facebook.com/theguardianproject but truthfully, don't we really care about one team only??

Meet our superhero. A Maverick of the Garden State, straight from the Underworld - now introducing the New Jersey Devil!

The Devils had gone 20 straight games without scoring more than three goals, which is an unbelievable stat itself. But when they trailed, 2-1, after two periods Sunday, they still believed they could come back against the Lightning. They did so by scoring five goals in the third period.

Maybe they are finally believing in themselves? At least, they did so for a game. We've seen these games a few times this season, where the Devils play an unbelievable game and we wonder if this is the turn around point. Without a captain the team was forced to pull together and play as a team, just like they did the last time Langs was injured and they won.

The production was there from the guys you expect to find their way on to the scoreboard. Rolston had 2 assists as did Kovalchuk. Clarkson found the net twice and Elias and Arnott found it as well. Marty stopped 33 of 36 which is a fine outing after sitting a bunch of games.

Now the Devils sit for a few days and take on this same Lightning team on Friday but this time in Tampa. I'm sure a team as good as TB is will be looking for a little redemption for yesterday's loss.

The New Jersey Devils biggest supporterWhen it comes to Devils fans, I think we can all agree on one thing and that is that we are used to people talking smack about our team. For years, we've heard it all: NJ plays boring hockey, NJ doesn't care about offense, NJ has no fans, NJ is what killed in the NHL in 2005, NJ is and always will be a trap team, etc etc.... It doesn't usually bother me but I've had read one particular hockey journalist for years and I've finally had enough.

Whenever ESPN's Scott Burnside decides to focus his attention on the NJ Devils you can be guarenteed one thing, that it will be a column full of hatred and facts that have no basis what-so-ever. For the past 6 or 7 years, I've watched Burnside put on paper that this will be the year of the Devils demise. Congratulations Scott, 2010/2011 is FINALLY the year you are correct. It had to happen at some point!! I'm sure journalists wrote for years that this would be the year the Rangers won the cup and finally in 1994 they were right!!

Today, he and fellow ESPN hockey columnist Pierre Lebrun wrote a column debating the ramifications of the Jamie Langenbrunner trade. Let me share some comments made by Scott Burnside..

"Let's start with the Devils, who continue to solidify their place as not just the worst team in the NHL this season, but also maybe the worst team in franchise history. "

I am the first one to admit the Devils product on the ice this season has been complete garbage but to go so far and say its possibly the worst team in franchise history is a bit much. Please do some research and use your brain. Those teams in 1983, 84 and 85 to start the franchise were certainly worse, especially given the high quality of talent existing in today's NHL compared to back then. If Parise were healthy, he alone would have helped NJ win at least 5 or 6 games which would currently have them in an outside shot of making the playoffs this season.

"I thought it pretty funny when you asked Lamoriello if Martin Brodeur might be approached about a move. The GM simply answered: "No."

Why would that be funny?? Can't argue with what Marty has done for this team in the past and many believe he still has something left and everyone is entitled to a bad season. He has one year left on his contract and after embarrasing himself this season, you don't think he'll want a season of redemption? You probably wrote Tim Thomas off after last season as well but look at him now.

"Moving Langenbrunner, and any other pieces of driftwood from the Devils' lineup, does open up some salary-cap space that could allow Lamoriello to re-sign restricted free agent Zach Parise."

Please check your facts. Langenbrunner was due to be an UFA this summer so Jamie doesn't even factor into the equation when it comes to Zach Parise. Yes other players or "driftwood" as you so nicely phrase it will need to go in order to give Parise the contract he deserves.

"It’s hard to imagine he would want to, given the sorry state of the franchise."

This was in reference to Parise resigning in NJ. I guess one bad year after making the playoffs every year from 1997-2010 including 2 cups and another Finals appearence certainly justifies this quote. The Peguins who you write nothing but wonderful things about were a joke for a long time. The Flyers were just as bad as the Devils are just a few years ago but found their way to the Finals last season. Should I keep going?

If it were just this article, I wouldn't be writing this post but if you look at his archive, you'll see the hatred his spews about NJ on a regular basis. Part of me says I shouldn't even address the things this guy says because a) it just shows that I read his crap, which causes him to write more and continue being emplpoyed by ESPN and b) he works for ESPN who. honestly, doesn't really care about the NHL. Anyone significant in my book left that network when the dumped this league in 2005. If he were a real hockey journalist, he'd write for someone more involved in the NHL.

I didn't get a chance to really sit down and watch the game last night. I do know that the Devils appeared to play decently to start the game and headed into the locker room after 1 period up by a score of 1-0 and were probably feeling pretty good about themselves. In the second, as usual is where the game changed for NJ. Hartnell and Leino hooked up twice, including a bouncing puck that made Hedberg look foolish for the second game in a row. Briere added 2 more goals in the third and the Flyers sent the Devils home with another mark in the L column. The Devils head to Philly on Saturday which is sure to be another tough game.

The big story of the night however wasn't NJ losing or having another bad bounce kill them, it was that Lou Lamoriello told Jaques Lemaire right before the game that Jamie Langenbrunner would not be playing, which of course led to all kinds of speculation.

As the night progressed, I heard that Jamie is getting traded to:

* Philadelphia for picks, which to me was highly unlikely even though we are at the bottom of the league. Lou never deals players to teams in the same division.
* The Bruins were going to be getting Langenbrunner for picks
* The Stars were the team and a conditional draft pick was coming back

No matter what destination I was hearing for Jamie, it was pretty obvious that only draft picks were coming back. The deal got done this morning and in the end, one our followes on Twitter (@rchess) was correct with the Stars and a conditional draft pick rumor.

For me, its not about replacing Jamie. He was a great player for NJ in the past but over the last year or so, he hasn't been on the tops of my lists. He had a some type of issue late in the season last year and never really did what I thought a man wearing the "C" should do for this team. So i do feel by getting rid of Jamie, the Devils have gotten better. His 4 goals and 10 assists in 31 games played this season is easily replaceable.

This trade also sends a message to the rest of the team and guys shouldn't get too comfortable. Maclean may or may not have been the right guy to coach this team but a coaching change hasn't really done much for this team. I'll say that since Jacques has taken over, I haven't seen that "we could care less" attitude I saw in Atlanta but the results haven't changed. The Devils can't just sit there and do nothing while losing games. The only thing left to do is to try and start shedding guys. If losing guys and only getting picks in return is what happens, then I am all for it. Let the fire sale begin and start getting some more youth in Albany experience in the NHL. Oh yea and resign Parise in the off-season and once Parise returns from injury this season, he should find a "C" on his jersey.