NHL GameCenter Live is something I've been meaning to checkout for a long time and last week, I finally got to pull the trigger on it. If there could be something classified as a "Hockey Addiction" I truly believe that I should be standing in front of a group of strangers, stating my name and telling them I love hockey a little too much. So this GameCenter Live is the greatest tool made to feed my addiction.

I will get the one downside of the service out of the way and then talk about all the things I love about it. I'm a Devils fan (duh!!) and I live in NJ which means when the Devils are on, I don't get them on GameCenter Live because of the whole "Blackout" rule. I have to wait 48 hours after the game to get the archive footage so thinking I could use GCL to follow the Devils while my wife uses the TV to watch her shows isn't something realistically possible but I've come to terms with it. Thankfully hockey for me doesn't live and die with the Devils.

So now on to the good stuff. The real-time stats that are in GCL are phenominal and its just on click away. If you are a fantasy freak, you can choose to follow the hits, shots, and goals of one player with the Play by Play Game Tracker. If you have 4 guys playing in one night you can watch those 4 games at the same time. I also found the Live Chat a fun way to watch a game, chatting about hits and goals and how great it was to watch Hartnell sucker punch Sean Avery. I've also utilize the archives into my pregame write-ups. It's a great way to go and watch the previous game of the next Devils opponent and figure out what type of team they are facing, which players are hot and what their tendancies are.

GameCenter Live is certainly worth the money and at $119 for the rest of the season, it's really not a heavy hit on the wallet. According to the Director of Social Media Marketing & Strategy for the NHL, there will be a free preview of GameCenter Live tomorrow (January 26th) and I highly suggest you check it out if you've ever thought that GCL might be a nice thing to have.

I can't say that the Devils didn't work tonight because I thought overall they played a pretty good game. As I pointed out in my preview of the game, the Devils haven't been putting many pucks in the net and that trend continued tonight. If you discount the emptynet goal the other night, this is the 3rd straight that they don't score more than 1 goal in regulation. It's not that the oppurtunities weren't there, because they were . The Devils got 32 shots on Halak and 16 total scoring chances but credit Halak with a strong game.

Devils looked on fire out of the gate and Parise had a beauty of a goal as Langenbrunner hit Parise in stride. The Devils ended the period a little sloppy and allowed the Canadiens to get the equalizer. The Canadiens would take the lead in the 2nd on a nice tip and then get the insurance goal after a huge Devils swarm in the 3rd.

Fraser had a hell of a fight trying to create a spark for the Devils.  I don't think D'Agostini knew what kind of guy Fraser was because he was clearly overmatched.

January is shaping up to be a month I think I'd like to forget. They are 5-5 in the 10 games played so far this month but they've lost 4 of the last 5 and have a tough matchup this week with a very good Sabres team.

NJ heads to the Island tomorrow night for a rematch of Monday afternoon. I hope they show up for this one. Not sure the Devils change their gameplan from tonight, they just need to figure out how to get the puck in the net. The are certainly all kinds of slumps throughout the season and the Devils scoring is certainly something that is always a victim of that. Eventually the goals will come again, we just have to weather the storm while the Devils struggle in the goal department for now. As for the powerplay, we won't even get into that catastrophe right now.

 

 

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (33-14-1) versus the Montreal Canadiens (23-23-5)

The Last Devils Game: Going into the game, I believe everyone was a little down on the team. NJ had just come off the worst performance of the season against the Islanders but the Devils did the little things correctly against the Panthers. The offense got chances and the defense played much better. Marty stopped every shot and defeated Florida 2-0

The Last Canadiens Game: Montreal got into a 3-1 hole against the Blues but got huge goals from Benoit Pouliot and Mike Cammalleri to force overtime, securing them at least one point in the game. Ty Conklin made a HUGE save on Andre Markov and Andy McDonald took the puck to the other end and fired a laser into the net giving the Blues the 4-3 win.

The Last Canadiens / Devils Game: They last met in Montreal on Jan 9th. An up-tempo battle all game brought a 1-1 tie into overtime. Parise got the puck on his stick with no one between him and the Halak, made his move and froze Halak, and earned the Devils' second win over Montreal this season.

Tonight's Matchup: Just build on what was done Wednesday night against the Panthers. Keep getting the puck to the net. The Devils, like most teams, sometimes look to get the pretty play a little to often where as Wednesday night they concentrated on getting the puck on net, which opened many scoring oppurtunities. Going into the Panthers game, the Devils were finding themselves in early holes by giving up too many 1st period goals. Against the Panthers, it's something they didn't do. They need to continue working on that tonight and not let Montreal get out to an early lead. NJ needs to start finding the back of the net more consistantely as the Devils have scored only 11 goals in their last seven games, a stretch that has seen the club go 3-4-0. The Power Play has been awful recently and every game I hope that finds a way to gain momentum.

This is the first trip back to NJ for Brian Gionta, who was injured in the first Canadiens trip this season, so I would expect there to be a little something extra in his effort tonight. Scott Gomez isn't having the best season in my opinion but you know he always steps up his game against the Devils. Marty gets the start yet again tonight but he loves to play his childhood favorite team. Halak gets the start for the Canadiens tonight. Ilkka Pikkarainen was placed on Waivers yesterday so I would imagine that opens the door for PLx3 or Andrew Peters to get the chance to play tonight. I thought both Davis and Palmieri did well enough the other night to deserve a spot in tonight's lineup.

So my lines would be...

The Devils that took the ice against the Panthers were a very different team than the one we watched Monday afternoon. The effort that the Devils put on the ice was exactly what they needed to snap a 3 game skid. It wasn't a perfect effort but it was good enough and something to build on as the get ready for the Canadiens tomorrow night.

When the Devils skated off the ice after the 1st period tied at 0-0, I think most fans collectively took a deep breathe. The first hurdle in this game was to make it through the first period and not find themselves in this huge hole that had certainly become the trend during the 3 game skid. In the 2nd period, the Devils were getting loads of chances but not finding the back of the net and as the clock clicked down, I was afraid that a 0-0 tie after two might be too frustrating to the Devils but thankfully at 18:30 of the second, Zajac took a nice feed from Parise and beat Vokoun. Nick Palmieri, who was making his NHL debut, earned an assist, his first NHL point on the goal.

The defense had a much better game and Marty, whose recent workload has been something that has worried me, didn't have to make too many saves last night (22) and none of them were very difficult. The one thing that stands out to me about the defense is that they didn't make the obvious mistakes and if the Panthers were making a move, another Devil would recover and help out and end any threat the Panthers were making.

I'm still not happy with the passing but even with that said, the Devils got their chances. They took a total of 32 shots on goal and ended the game with a 2-0 win but I think that score favors the Panthers because Vokoun worked the entire game. If it weren't for Vokoun, this could have easily been a blow out. The Devils tried to switch up the types of shots they fired at Vokoun and Lemaire must have been preaching, "get the puck on net" because that is exactly what they were doing. The offense was threatening all night, something that the Devils offense has lacked over recent games.

Nick Palmieri certainly was entertaining and I thought a good call up. Patrick Davis was decent as well but of the two, I thought Palmieri had the better game. I thought both of them injected energy into this team that had been flat for a few games. I don't see any reason why the two of them shouldn't stick around for a few games.

The losing streak is over and the Devils should feel good about the performance given last night. The Canadiens come into town tomorrow night and then back to Long Island on Saturday night for what I hope is not a repeat of Monday afternoon.

If you missed the game of want to see highlights, watch the following video...

 

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In another quick story I wanted to touch on was the thoughts I had posted the other day about Patrice Cormier. The ruling on his suspension is coming down on Monday and I found out yesterday afternoon that apparently there is a rule in the AHL that if you are suspended for the rest of the season in any other league, you are basically inelligible to play in the AHL but that rule isn't cut and dry. AHL Commissioner David Andrews reviews all cases and can decide if he wants to allow a suspended player to play in his league. It seems like a huge hurtle because I can't figure out why Andrews would want a guy who just took a play out of the Hanson Brothers play book. So, should Cormier get suspended for the rest of the season, which logicall should be the case, it would appear to me that his career would be on hold until September.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (32-14-1) vs. the Florida Panthers (21-20-8). This is the 3rd meeting of the season.

The Last Devils Game: A few words to describe it would be, awful, atrocious, horrendous, shocking and unpleasant. The Islanders gave the Devils an old fashioned beat down the other night (afternoon) running away with the victory 4-0.

The Last Panthers Game: The played the Atlanta Thrashers in a pivotal matchup to try and climb their way back into playoff position. Neither team is known for defense or shutouts but that is exactly what the Pathers did to the Thrashers, shut them out 1-0.

The Last Devils-Panthers Game: Florida came into The Rock and caught the Devils by surprise, or at least caught me by surprised. The basically pushed the Devils around and skated away with a 4-2 victory, getting their first 3 goals within 24 minutes of the game.

Tonight's Matchup: Survive!! That should be the motto for the first period. As bad as that sounds, the Devils need to survive the first period and not get into another 2 goal hole that the seem to love doing lately. The need to just get back to the basics, get some better passing and breakouts going and maybe doing that will lead to sustaining some type of offensive pressure which will lead to quality chances at getting pucks in the net. The bottom line is whatever the game plan was on Monday, THROW IT OUT AND TRY AGAIN!! The Panthers shouldn't be overlooked because they're on a nice 3 game winning streak right now and 5-4-1 in their last 10.

As reported yesterday, Patrik Elias has been diagnosed with concussion symptoms, which apparently is different that having an actual concussion, but has been put on IR so he will sit out at least until at least next Tuesday. His absence in the lineup isn't a minor issue but at the same time, it's not going to mean a guarenteed losing streak. The Devils also called up two wingers despite having having Andrew Peters and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond as healthy scratches, which makes me wonder why we have them.

I can only guess at the lineups at this point.

SMOKED!!! That's the word I would use to describe what the Islanders did to the Devils yesterday afternoon. This is the first time this season that the Devils have a 3 game losing streak where all three games were lost in regulation, so some people may say I am being too hard on them but this type of play can't continue.

Whenever the shot totals for the other team are more than double what you put on the board, that screams to me that you are playing too much in your own zone. The Islanders outshot NJ 46 to 20 yesterday and out played them in ever aspect of the game.

NJ found themselves in a quick hole for the third game in a row and this time it happened really quickly, finding themselves down 2-0 before the first 5 mins of the game had been played. The Devils took far too many penalties, which in return never allowed their offense to gain momentum. The passing was terrible throughout the game and the Devils were unable to really have any type of quality scoring chance. At the end of the 2nd, the Islanders scored another 2 goals in a 3 minute span and put the game out of reach.

Denis replaced Marty for the 3rd and stopped all 14 shots that came his way but the offense didn't even show up for this game. The Devils now sit 3rd in the conference and 4 points ahead of Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division. Devils should get a workout in practice today as Lemaire tries to wake this team up and get them ready for the Panthers tomorrow night.

In other News:

Patrik Elias - There is very little news on Elias as of this morning. Devils are still saying he will be evaluated this week and then move on from there. Elias remains home resting with a suspected concussion and neck injury, but Lamoriello still won’t use the word concussion. He did say that Elias would be examined by a specialist but wouldn't elaborate on the type of specialist Elias would be seeing.

Patrice Cormier - There was lots of buzz around the net and hockey media yesterday concerning the hit that Patrice Cormier of the QMJHL (Devils 2008 2nd Round Pick) put on Quebec Remparts defenseman Mikael Tam. I'm not sure what Cormier was thinking but you can see him come off the bench and go right after the guy with the puck. (I don't think he was targeting Tam, I think he was targeting whoever had the puck). The video was certainly disturbing and their was a lot of anger about the hit and a lot of anger at Lou because Lamoriello does not believe that criminal charges or a suspension for the remainder of the season are warranted for the elbow. There was a lot of discussion about whether or not this play would impact his pro career.

I don't agree with the decision he made but at the same time, I don't think it will impact his career one bit. Should the QMJHL suspend him for the rest of the season, I do believe you will find Cormier in a Lowell Devils uniform rather quickly. He's an extremely talented young hockey player and I believe that the Devils organization won't allow him to sit idle for the next X amount of months because of a suspension.

That was quite the game last night at MSG and the credit really only belongs to Lundqvist and Brodeur. Marty was a little better than Lundqvist, who belive it or not has never shutout the Rangers at MSG in the regular season until last night and was the first time he's had to make 50 saves in a shutout. I actually thought the Rangers looked better throughout more of the game than the Devils did and the Rangers rocked the Devils in the faceoff circle, winning 64% of the faceoffs.

The Good:

* Marty and his 51 saves, some of them being extremely hard and getting very lucky on some of them (Gaborik in the OT).
* The Devils did a decent job with Gaborik limiting him to 5 shots on goal for the night.
* Devils were able to get a good number of shots (45) on Lundqvist
* Patrik Elias continues to be money in the shootout but makes one wonder why we keep leaving him out of the top 3 shooters.
* Only took 2 penalties all night and Parise HAD to commit a penalty when he did.

The Bad:

* The Devils defense didn't do a good job with much as they let the Rangers pile on 51 shots on Marty.
* Devils wasted a 5 on 3, even though they got a few shots off.
* Passing all night was atrocious
* Devils didn't sustain any kind of pressure and many of their offensive attacks came inconsistently.
* 3 periods done, 96 shots on the board and ZERO goals.

The Final Thought

The Devils didn't play great and the Rangers didn't play much better but where better than the Devils. Both goalies were phenomenal and this is a big win for NJ because it comes against the Rangers in MSG. Coyotes play host to NJ tomorrow night in a game I hope Denis gets to play.

Say hello to the Captain of Team USA for the Vancouver Olympics...

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Being that I am the only writer on this site, weekends are hard for me to keep up with so Monday Mornings are my time to review the weekend that was and this weekend was certainly a wild weekend for the Devils.

Friday night: The Lightning were really giving the Devils are rough time and weren't allowed to let the Devils sweep the season series when all of the sudden...



No one could fix the lights issue so the game would be postponed.

Saturday Night: The Devils travel to Montreal and I thought both teams played a really good game, hard fought and didn't make a ton of mistakes. The OT period was certainly something to enjoy and sometimes your team gets a little lucky. With just over 2;30 to go in the OT, Parise is forced to go get a new stick from the bench which just happens to put him at center ice by himself and Zajac gets the puck to him and he scores on a pretty nifty backhand. Doc's call was on for the ages...



Sunday Evening: Time to finish the Lightning game but a 3-0 hole is too big a hole to climb out of with the time remaining. Credit NJ for making a game of it but lost 4-2 in the end.

Rangers up next, tomorrow night to be exact.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (30-10-1) vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning (16-16-10)

Season Series: The Devils have won all three previous meetings this seasons. The Devils won the two meetings in Tampa Bay utilizing the shootout and beat TB at home on Dec. 4th when Jamie Langenbrunner broke a 2-2 tie with 38.1 seconds left. The Devils have not lost a season series to Tampa Bay since 2006-07.

The Last Devils Game: Hard to find anything negative to say about it. The Devils came out of the game and really gave it to the Stars and kept it going through the 2nd and 3rd periods and Marty rolled to his 106th shutout.

The Last Lightning Game: The Lightning were on a roll and then Buffalo got 3 goals in the first 2:11 of game and outlasted the Lightning 5-3.

The Last Devils / Lighthing Game: As I mentioned above, the Lightning and Devils looked to be headed to an extra frame again until Jamie Langenbrunner tipped an Andy Greene shot from the point with 38.1 seconds remaining.

Tonight's Matchup: I give part of the credit to the success against the Stars to the pregame festivities. I think having the Stanley Cup in the building and celebrating a championship certainly makes a team hungry for wanting another, especially the guys that weren't here for one.

I'd like to see Marty get a rest tonight as he's had to do some work in the last 4 games and could probably benefit from a night off and the Lightning have a few guys that can be scary at times, which is a good workout for Denis.

There's no reason the Devils can't sweep the season series with the Lightning tonight as long as the continue the same work ethic they had against the Stars. I'm sure having lost the 3 previous meetings with the Devils is playing in the Lightning's head as well.

Prediction: Won't be a shutout and based on the previous three games, it will be a close one. Devils win 4-2 with an empty net goal.

For a view of this game from the Lightning's aspect, visit our friends over at The Hockey Bay Blog