Two weeks into the season, the Devils have one win and three points in the standings. Saying they've been a letdown would be an understatement. Yet tonight they travel to Montreal and hopefully they can re-start their season and then focus on grabbing another divison title and top seed in the East and
The first obvious issue the Devils have had is their defense. With Bryce Salvador out with a concussion and Anton Volchenkov benched with a broken nose/whiplash, they're lacking even more on the back-end now than they were during preseason. Tonight's six defensemen will be Andy Greene, Colin White, Henrik Tallinder, Matt Taormina, Matt Corrente, and Olivier Magnan-Grenier. That's three veterans and three rookies. Not an ideal situation for any team, but I think the older guys are the ones who have to start pulling their weight. Tallinder and Greene haven't been too impressive so far, while the best pair for the Devils has been White and Taormina. I don't really see how the Devils can fix the defense's abilities with the players they have right now. The only solution (and how I hope it's a temporary one) is to keep the pressure away from the D. The forwards need to control the puck more and sustain pressure in Montreal's zone tonight.
Another issue the Devils have had so far stems from their goaltending (it hurts to type that just as much as it hurts to read it). While you can't put all the blame on Marty Brodeur due to the struggling defense, he's let in his fair share of softies so far. His only really good game was against the Sabres, and although he earned a shutout in that one it's difficult to say he stole the game.
The final issue, and the one thing I really have a problem with, is the team's inability to play a full 60 minutes. They seem to leave their talents in the locker room during the second period. It's true that the team in general isn't getting any good bounces and it's true that everybody's missing good opportunities by millimeters but I don't think I'd be as disappointed in this terrible start to the season if I could see a hard-hitting and strong forechecking effort for the whole game. Even when the Devils won in Buffalo, they didn't play a solid second period. That needs to change. And fast.
And if it's going to change, now is the perfect time for it to happen. The team has had four days of rest and head coach John MacLean bag-skated their butts off during Monday's practice. If they're not raring to go right now, I really don't know what could possibly pump this team up and show them they have to work harder and longer. Plus, the game is in Montreal. The arena will be rocking, Marty will (hopefully) be spectacular in front of his hometown crowd, and let's just be honest here: Nothing feels better than shutting up the other team's fans in their house. I love hearing no sound through the TV as much as I love hearing the other team's arena go from utter cacophony to basically totally silence.
Three things the Devils need to prove tonight: They can play in the face of adversity, their offense can actually perform well, and they can play hockey for a full 60 minutes at the level we know they're capable of playing. And then they need to keep proving those things for the rest of the season. Ironically, this is their seventh game of the season. The Devils need to play it like it's a game seven of a playoff series. They need to skate and play as hard as they can. They need to control the puck for the whole game and score goals-preferably a lot of them. They need to get in Carey Price's face and rattle him up, and not let him feel comfortable 'til he's back in the locker room mulling over how the Habs failed to gain two points.
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