Paul Martin will be out 4-6 with a non-displaced fracture of his lower left arm above the wrist. The good news is that this break won't require surgery. A broken bone that requires nothing but a cast is easily healed. Martin isn't a guy that I want to lose for 6 weeks but it happens. After the Penguins game I was fearing he might be a long term injury. Not sure what this does for him in terms of the Olympics but time will tell.

Pandolfo is also slated to be out 4-6 weeks with a shoulder injury. Pandolfo’s right shoulder popped out on a hit from behind from former Devil Mike Ruppand the Devils are going to try and rehab it first before deciding if he needs surgery to fix. Pando's injury seems less severe than Martin's but in the end it might be more complicated.

We will have to see who comes to replace Martin but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Devils call up Ekford and Corrente for a couple of games. Hopefully Mottau can return to the lineup ASAP so the Devils aren't forced to call Cory Murphy back to NJ. What does that say when I am hoping to have Mottau in the lineup?

The Devils remain perfect on the road by beating the Penguins 4-1 on Saturday night.

Chris Kunitz comes close to beating Marty but the puck walks a straight line across the goal mouth.
Pittsburgh is taking it to the Devils early in the game and the Devils are just having so many issues getting out of their zone.
Fraser gets an ugly looking goal but Fluery wasn't getting much work so maybe that has something to do with it. That goal was due to the work of Zubrus more than anything else.
Kunitz on the doorstep all period but Marty's not giving him anything.

Devils wake up a little and start getting some shots on net but still think they were outplayed.

Love that Penguins announcers use the word "trap" in describing the Devils play. Just a little note for them, its 2009, not 1995.
Bergfors gets his second of the season after showing some speed around the back of the net. If he keeps showing me that, I am certainly going to be a fan of his.
Devils not getting outplayed anymore and starting to really take control.

NJ's stars are showing up for this game. Zajac hustles to the puck and makes it 3-0 and continues to get points no matter who his linemates are.
Just when the Devils announcers are starting to talk a little about the Shootout record, the Penguins make sure its not going to happen tonight in their building.
Chris Kunits, its not your night, just go sit down!!
Martin gets injured after blocking a shot from Guerin, we'll see what that becomes.
Parise seals it with a beatuy of a move in front.

Save of the night:

Devils win 4-1!! Marty owns the Igloo, he's going to hate to see it go.

Martin is injured, rumor is a broken arm, lets hope not. Pandolfo also injured on a hit from ex-teammate Michael Rupp. Both will see doctors on Monday.

Next game at home vs Buffalo on Wednesday night.

The Devils didn’t play a very good game against the Thrashers for some reason but they rebounded nicely vs the Hurricanes and then went in and took care of the Rangers in MSG. Seems that the Devils are playing more focused hockey away from The Rock this season.

Forwards

18  Niclas Bergfors – Grade: The kid is really starting to impress me a little bit. He seems to work hard for the puck and that paid off in his first goal of the season Thursday vs the NY Rangers. Grade: B- (C)

23  David Clarkson – Kind of a quiet week but did pick up an assist on the Bergfors goal. Grade: B (A)

16  Matt Halischuk – Still not sure about this kid and he’s on my very short list of guys that go once Elias is healthy– Grade: C- (D)

15  Jamie Langenbrunner – A goal and 3 assists this week, can’t ask for much more. Grade: A (B)

22  Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond – Only played two games, didn’t do much but I think he’s a better option than Andrew Peters. Grade: C-  

21  Rob Niedermayer – Picked up 2 assists this week. He continues to be very consistent. Grade: B (B)

20  Jay Pandolfo – He’s out there, playing his typical Defensive style but didn’t find the point column this week.  Grade: C+ (B)  

9  Zach Parise –  There he is… 5 goals and 2 assists this week. We knew he’d wake up! Grade: A (B+)

10  Rod Pelley –  1 shot but he’s winning face-offs., can’t complain about that. Grade: C (D-)   

25  Andrew Peters – Played in the Atlanta game only, didn’t win the fight he started. Can this guy do anything? Grade: F (F)    

17  Ilkka Pikkarainen – Not really playing much. He sat for the Carolina and Rangers games. Grade: F (F)  

12  Brian Rolston – No points this week. He’s supposed to be excellent under Lemaire yet this guy can’t find his way off the third line. Third liners don’t get paid 5 million a year. He has to wake up soon. Grade: D- (C+)

19  Travis Zajac –  He was taken away from his usual line mates yet continues to find his way onto the scoring sheet. That’s what a star hockey play does. Grade: A (A)  

8  Dainius Zubrus – Found his way onto the ZZ Pops line and got the game winner against the Rangers. Grade: B (C)

Defense

6  Andy Greene –  Logging decent minutes, not contributing in the scoring but doing a decent job keeping the other teams from doing so. Grade:  C (C)   

7  Paul Martin -  He’s playing the most of all the D guys and staying out of the box. Grade: B- (B-)

27  Mike Mottau – He’s your average D guy but he took on Avery which ups anyones grade because Mottau isn’t usually a fighter and he had a nice defensive play on a wide open net vs NY.  Grade: B (C) 

29  Johnny Oduya  – Didn’t we give this guy a ton of cash this summer? Contract weighing him down? He’s not doing much out there. Grade: D- (D)

24  Bryce Salvador  -  Assisted on both goals in the loss vs Atlanta but he’s contributing. Grade: C (D)  

5  Colin White - Another average week for Colin White but he continues to play very disciplined hockey. Grade: C (C)

Goalie

Marty Brodeur – Marty is getting older and over the past few years, we noticed that it takes a little time for Marty to get going. He’s a good goalie, and at moments he’s great but we are 8 games into the season so we haven’t seen the real Marty yet. He didn’t have a great game against the Thrashers but got the SO vs Carolina and did well vs NY so each week he is getting better. What more can we ask? Grade: B+ (B)

The Devils remain perfect on the road this season. In this matchup against the Rangers, the Devils looked much more focused and together. On multiple occassions, the Devils were able to get behind the Rangers defense which created many oppurtunities for them. I think thats a by-product of the aggressive style Tortorella is teaching his defense. I thought Lundqvist did a good job stopping most of those oppurtunities but no one can stop them all. Parise's first goal, one of the occasions the Devils got in past the D, was a beauty. Bergfors also had a nice goal, which was not the first of his career as it has been mentioned some places, he scored one last year when he was up for a few games. The game winner by Zubrus was a lucky goal and I've watched the replay at least 20 times now and I'm still not sure how he got it in the back of the net but luck is a part of this game and no fan will ever turn that away.

Zajac to me is really becoming a star this season. Last season we saw the potential in him but now Lemaire has taken him away from the linemates he was comfortable with and placed him on a new line and he still get points and oppurtunities. Parise, in my opinion, is the best player on this team but Zajac isn't far off that list.

Overall, it was a great game last night and I was completly wrong about the Devils coming out flat. They had a lot of jump right from the beginning and while they struggled a bit in the second and let NY back in the game, they capitalized on the mistakes the Rangers made in the third and won the game. Good job by all, they do it again Saturday night in Pittsburgh against the Champs.

I'm not a big fan of the Devils schedule so far this season. We've heard a lot of talk about how games won't be spread out this season because of the Olympics in February but the last time the Devils played a game was Saturday night. I find that having so many days off in between games makes a team flat and sloppy when the next game comes around. Lets hope that's not the case tonight.  

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (4-3-0) vs. New York Rangers (7-2-0). This is the second meeting of the season. The Rangers won the first meeting on Oct 5th, 3 -2.

The Last Game: The Devils are coming off their first win at home, a 2-0 shutout victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Rangers, who have been a surprise this season are coming off a 7-3 pounding by the visiting San Jose Sharks.

Game Thoughts: This has the makings of a classic Devils / Rangers game. There are a couple of story lines to watch like: Avery vs Brodeur, The Devils are a perfect 3-0 away from The Rock, Marty Brodeur is one shutout away from tying Terry Sawchuks record and how nice would it be to see that happen vs NJ's biggest rival and then there is Henrik Lundqvist's dominance over the Devils throughout his career. Tortorrella isn't happy with the Rangers last performance so expect them to come out firing. This is the start of stretch where the Devils play four of five on the road, so they'd like a nice start to the time away from home with a win against their biggest rivals.

For coverage on the Rangers side of things (they cover NJ too), go visit our friends at Hockey Blog.

As I had feared last Friday, the Devils didn't do a very good job agasint the Thrashers. We will never be sure if the Devils were looking ahead to their game the next night with the Hurricanes or if they lost fair and square to Atlanta. One thing is for sure, the Thrashers outplayed the Devils for 40+ minutes. However, Saturday was a different story and the Devils, as a team, got the win. It really was a complete team effort and if they play like they did on Saturday night, win or lose, a fan can't be upset with that kind of performance.

The "Too Many Men" penalty is getting rediculous though. The Devils have been called 4 times in the last 5 games for having too many men jump on the ice. It's one of the worst penalties to take because it's just a complete lack of concentration. It's simple, jump on when you man jumps off, or is ready to do so. Devils worked on it in practice this week and I pity the next guy that does it.

In other news, Cory Murphy was placed on Waivers yesterday and cleared waivers today and has been assigned to Lowell. He's actually not the guy I wanted to see go, that honor belongs to Andrew Peters. He plain SUCKS. He can't score, can't pass, takes dumb penalties and can't even win a fight. Why is he here? The Lowell Devils signed left wing Dean McAmmond to an AHL contract today. McAmmond has 178 goals and 253 assists in 934 career NHL games but I doubt we will be seeing him in the NHL.

I really hate these gaps in between games as the next game isn't until Thursday at MSG.

The Devils come home after a succesful road trip that saw them grab all 6 possible points available to them.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (3-2-0) vs. the Atlanta Thrashers(2-1-0) and the first meeting of the season.

The Last Game: The Devils fought their way back from a 2-0 defecit against the Washington Capitals and beat them 3-2 in a shootout. Goals were scored by Rolston and Clarkson in regulation and Parise and Langenbrunner put pucks in the net in the shootout. Marty stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal. Atlanta is coming off a 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Game Thoughts: The Thrashers, in my opinion, have been playing better hockey this season. They started to season 2-0 but are coming off of a bad loss to a bad team. As always, Ilya Kovalchuk is the dangerous threat for the Thrashers as he has 5 goals and 1 assist in the 3 games played by the Thrashers.  Pavelec is a decent goalie but certainly a beatable goalie. These are the type of games that scare me as a fan. The Devils last played on Monday night and on paper the Thrasher don't pose as much of a threat but I find these are the games the Devils struggle with. The Devils are winless at home this season as well, so yes, I'm nervous going into this game. Carolina comes to town tomorrow night and I am hoping the Devils aren't looking ahead to that game because of the playoff loss to Carolina last spring. Marty gets the start tonight against the Thrashers and it was about this time last year that Marty got hurt against the Thrashers so here is hoping history doesn't repeat itself.

It's that time of week again. Each and every Friday, I will hand out my grades for the games played from Friday night through Thursday Night. This week, only 2 games were played in that time frame, @Florida and @Washington. It was mentioned to me last week that I may have been a little hard on the Devils with my grades but they were 1-2 at the time and had just lost to their biggest two rivals. A trip through Florida and Washington DC seems that have made quite a difference.

Forwards

18  Niclas Bergfors –He got one assist in the 2 wins this past week but it was an important assist and came after a lot of hard work. I do expect more from him. Grade: C (C-)

23  David Clarkson – 2 goals, a GW and one that forced OT. He did much better in front of the net this week and dropped the gloves to try and spark the Devils after going down 2-0 to Washington. Grade: A (C)

16  Matt Halischuk – Played in only 1 game on the road trip, didn’t do much. If I were him, I’d be worried about my spot on the team once Elias is healthy. Grade: D (D)

15  Jamie Langenbrunner – Still only has 1 goal that counts but he had the two shootout goals that translated into wins. Grade: B (C)

22  Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond – One game played, no points, very little ice time. Grade: D  

21  Rob Niedermayer – Another week, another 1 goal and 1 assist. Seems to be a pretty consistant player. Grade: B (C-)

20  Jay Pandolfo – He did a good job of shutting down the Caps top players. Grade: B (C)  

9  Zach Parise – Picked up a couple of assists but like Langenburnner, had two important shootout goals. Grade: B+ (B)

10  Rod Pelley – Not a good week and didn’t get any shots this week. Grade: D- (D)   

25  Andrew Peters – Played one game, the other two, he was where he belongs..SCRATCHED!! Grade: F (F)    

17  Ilkka Pikkarainen – Part of the horrific 4^th line still that has very little production. Grade: F (D)  

12  Brian Rolston – Had a better week, a goal and a couple of assists. His goal against the Caps, which cut the lead in half, was extremely important.  Grade: C+ (D)

19  Travis Zajac – Most consistent player through 2 weeks. Grade: A (A)  

8  Dainius Zubrus – Still hasn’t picked up his game much, only picked up one assist in the three wins last week. Grade: C (C)

Defense

 6  Andy Greene – Picked up 1 assist this week. Grade: C (C)   

7  Paul Martin -  Picked up another assist, remains consistent. Grade: B- (C)

27  Mike Mottau – Not doing much out there but not hurting us either. Grade: C (D) 

29  Johnny Oduya – Hasn’t found his way to the score sheet but leads team in PIM (no majors). Grade: D (D)

24  Bryce Salvador - Hasn’t done much but he did have 1 fight. Grade: D (D)  

5  Colin White – Got one assist against Washington and somehow has stayed out of the box. Grade: C (D)

Goalie

Marty Brodeur – Had a much better week and got his GAA down to 2.93 from 3.63 last week. He’s been getting better each game and even though he started out poorly against Washington, he turned it on and shut them out for 2 periods plus OT, including many PP opportunities to start the third period. He became the first goalie to reach 30 shootout victories this week with a win over Washington in the shootout. Grade: B (D)

Games Coming Up This Week: Altanta, Carolina  and @NY Rangers

For the New Jersey Devils, it didn't get much worse than losing their first two games of the season on home ice to their most hated rivals, the Flyers and Rangers, but getting away from the Prudential Center seems to have been just what the doctor ordered. Jamie Langenbrunner's shootout winner on Monday night helped the Devils complete their comeback from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Washington Capitals 3-2 and sweep a three-game road trip that started out with a pair of wins in Florida over the Lightning and the Panthers.

The Capitals appeared to dominate the game early on with two goals in the first, but like their previous three games, they couldn't hold on to that lead. The Devils did a decent job quieting down the Capitals’ top line after the first two goals and Marty came up with a few clutch saves down the stretch to give NJ a chance. Brian Rolston cut the Capitals’ lead in half with a nice goal midway through the second period, setting up an exciting third period. It looked as if the Capitals were going to put the Devils away early in the third period after Bryce Salvador took a bad penalty for roughing and, Marty Brodeur took one for high sticking during the ensuing power play, giving the Capitals a 5 on 3 advantage for 53 seconds. After NJ successfully killed off those penalties, they got caught with too many men on the ice, immediately sending Washington back on the power play. Thankfully, the Devils penalty killers were able to keep the Capitals from scoring and the momentum swung back to the Devils. With a little over 7 minutes to play in the period, Niclas Bergfors fed the puck to David Clarkson in front of the net and he was able to flip it passed the Capitals goalie to tie the game at 2. The Devils kept the pressure on for the remainder of the game but were unable to score another goal in regulation which meant the game would go to overtime.

The Devils had a chance in overtime after Washington got called for tripping, sending NJ on a rare OT power play, but Jose Theordore robbed Zach Parise of a game winning power play goal. The Devils and Capitals headed to a shootout which NJ won 2-1 with goals from Parise and Langenbrunner, who are both 2 for 2 in shootout opportunities this season.

The Devils come home to face the Thrashers on Friday night at The Rock.

Three Stars:

1 - David Clarkson - 1 goal, 5 shots and 1 huge fight
2 - Marty Brodeur - Stopped 31 shots on goal
3 - Alex Ovechkin - 2 assists

Save of the Night

The Devils have found a little confidence since leaving the confines of Newark, NJ. They are currently out on a 3 game road trip and have won the first two games of that road trip beating Tampa Bay in a shootout and taking care of the Florida Panthers in regulation. It would be very satisfying to come away with a win tonight and finish the trip with a perfect record, which would be huge considering the mood in the locker room one week ago.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (2-2-0) vs. the Washington Capitals(2-2-1) and the first meeting of the season.

The Last Game: The Devils played their best game of the season Saturday night defeating the Florida Panthers 3-2 in regulation. David Clarkson put home the game winner with just over 3 minutes remaining in the game. The Devils Powerplay was 2-for-6 and looked to have some life to it. Even though it was, in my opinion, their best outing, there were certainly minutes where the Devils play wasn't very "snappy." Case in point, the Panthers tied the game at 2 while on the powerplay. Weiss skated into the Devils zone, blew by two defenders and rocketed a wrist shot over Marty's left shoulder.

Game Thoughts: The Capitals are certainly a much stronger opponent than either the Lightning or the Panthers. Ovechkin, Backstrom and Semin is one of the most dangerous lines in the league. Ovechkin (five goals, five assists) and Backstrom (two goals, eight assists) are tied for the league lead in points with San Jose’s Dany Heatley and Joe Thorton with 10 each. Semin (five goals, four assists) is only one point behind so the Devils defense will have to be on top of their game tonight. The rumor is that it will be Marty v Theodore in goal tonight despite the reports that Denis would play a game during this road trip. Theodore has a 2.90 GAA (28th inthe league) vs Marty's 3.22 GAA, which is 38th in the league. The Devils should be able to put some pucks behind Theodore tonight but the same can be said for the Capitols. Both teams are pretty even when it comes to special teams. The Caps have lost their last 3 games (one in OT) and will be looking to get back on track. I would expected this game to have a pretty quick tempo to it and really be an entertaining game.

Head over to the Capital's Kremlin for some insight on this game from the Capitals point of view.

Elias News: He's is continuing to skate on his own but team management has not said when he would be skating with the team. “Everything is progressing,” Lamoriello said. “He’s been skating every day since he started last Tuesday and will continue to do so.”