I agree with the post game comments made by Jaques Lemaire. The Devils didn't put forth an acceptable level of effort. "I know the games we played here were [against] good teams, but still I’m looking at the effort overall. The effort overall has got to be better. We said all along that there’s parity in the league and if you’re not playing 60 minutes, you’re in trouble. You look at Buffalo, they played pretty much 60 minutes. They didn’t look as good when we were at our best, but they just kept playing." The Devils did just this in their game against the Penguins on Saturday Night and easily rolled out of town with 2 points under their belt. Tonight, I'm not sure what happened.

The Devils looked flat in the first period and within 6 minutes, the Devils were in a 2-0 hole. The first goal that the Sabres scored was a decent looking goal but the second by Kennedy was 3-ply soft. Make no mistake about it though, the Devils looked much better in the second period. They were moving their legs and cycling the puck very well. Andy Greene made a nice play, sneaking into position on the PP and wrisitng one over Ryan Miller's shoulder to cut the defecit in half. The Devils kept a little pressure on the rest of the period and Ryan Miller bailed out the Sabres a few times to help keep their lead.

The third period I thought the Devils made a few too many mistakes, including another "Too Many Men" penalty and just never looked very hungy until it was 3-1 and Miller made an incredible stop on Niedermayer.

I'm not trying to take anything away from the Sabres. They are a deep team with a lot of offensive power, they forecheck very well and they have a guy in between the pipes that makes up for mistakes made by his teammates. I just think that if NJ played the entire game, the results would have been different.

I'm still on Brian Rolston's case. He had 6 shots last night and nothing to show for it. He got a great feed from Oduya and couldn't finish it and in my opinion, when you pay a guy as much as we do Rolston, he has to finish those. I don't understand the problem with Rolston. Last year, we said it was his ankle and Brent Sutter but now he plays for the guy he loves to play for and just doesn't seem to do any better.

The Devils need to figure it out in a hurry as they head up to Boston to take on the Bruins tonight (preview coming later). Hopefully Saturday's crew shows up and leaves last nights crew in NJ.

Save of the Night goes to Ryan Miller with his stop on Niedermayer late in the game.

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 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.

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

That game last night was literally a roller coaster ride. The Devils started off and looked very good, then started to head down hill, got an extremely lucky goal in the end to force OT. They looked OK in the extra period and then were lights out in the shootout, although Marty got a little lucky on the Stamkos shot and a little luckier on the Malone miss.

The Lightning fans must feel pretty awful this morning about the loss. It's never easy to give up a last second goal and have points snatched away from you. I certainly think it showed in the OT as the Lightning came out completely flat for the first couple minutes.

Parise got his first point while on the power play early in the game which was an important issue for this team. The Devils need to get confidence on their PP and I think Parise putting one home will certainly help that and going 1 for 2 on PP oppurtunities is nothing to be ashamed of. Allowing TB to go 1 for 4 on PP oppurtunities is also a step in the right direction.

I thought Marty played an OK game, stopping 41 shots is respectable but I can't help feeling like he's lost a step this season. Those Stamkos goals were a little hard to stomach but I don't know who I blame more, Marty for letting them go by for the Devils D for letting Stamkos set up shop in the slot like that not once but twice.

Parise in the shootout was just sick, no other word to describe it. We saw that move against the Rangers in pre-season but I guess TB didn't have film on that one. I know he used his backhand A LOT last year and it looked like that's what Smith was expecting. On a seperate note, Smith took a pretty hard hit in the second but I was glad to see him stay in the game.

So as I pointed out yesterday, Lemaire got his first win as a Devils coach against TB in 1993 and repeats that again in 2009. The Devils were able to string together 6 more wins after beating TB in 1993, lets hope that can repeat that performace, starting with Florida tomorrow night.

My Three Stars:

1. Stamkos 2. Parise 3. Zajac

Lets start out with the positives, the Devils played much better than they did on Saturday night. They played with much more emotion, the offense didn't look completely lost and Marty, at times, looked better. They seemed to figure out how to pass to one another and the Power Play looked...ok. The Devils defense was able to contain Gaborik and Dubinsky and kept them fairly quiet all evening.

During the game last night, I thought that Rob Niedermayer has really come in and found a spot to fit in on this team. His line seems to do the most forechecking of any and while some might say they lack a finish, he had a nice goal last night.

Now, on to the bad stuff from the game.  They still made some pretty big mistakes and still took a dumb penalty or two, although I will say the refs screwed up the Bergfors diving call and the completely missed the 6 Rangers on the ice right before the Oduya penalty. Skating the puck out  in front of the net is just an stupid mistake to make, even if it doesn't end in the other team scoring and in the end Marty let in a soft goal that eventually became the game winner but to be fair, the Devils did have the whole third period to try and tie the game.

With Sutter in the mix last season, I thought the Devils did a great job of rolling 4 lines but the 2009/2010 version of this team really lacks a 4th line. I thought the Rangers 4th line did a tremendous job last night and the Devils 4th just took up space whenever they were out there.  So far I am not impressed with Andrew Peters and feel that maybe we should rethink his place on this team.

So far this season, scoring does seem to be an issue but it's only game 2. Yes, losing to the Rangers hurts, no matter what time of the season it is. It's just amazing to me that Lundqvist seems to have some hold on these Devils. His record vs Marty is, in my opinion, so much better than he actually is. I'm not worried about this team because afterall, its only two games. Look around the rest of the league, Carolina, Detroit and Vancouver are also winless so far and Colorado, who was supposed to be so bad, is 2-0. It's early and the Devils just need to find their game.

Devils get a couple of days to work on things and head to Tampa Bay on Thursday night