Tonight the Devils will be taking on the Maple Leafs for the third time in their last four games. They have split the last two games played and tonight’s game is a special one indeed. It will be the debut game for the Devils newest acquisition, Ilya Kovalchuk. It was breaking news that got out last evening that the Devils had acquired the three time all-star for Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, prospect Patrice Cormier and a first round draft pick. Jersey also received D Anssi Salmela and each team swapped second round draft picks in the next Entry Draft.

Kovalchuk comes to NJ and is already leading the team in goals with 31 and 27 assists for 58 points. This is by far the most explosive player the Devils have ever had on offense. I am not discrediting the talent in which Elias has been and the up and coming play we have seen from Zach Parise, but Kovy is in another element than these guys. He is not known for his defense, but the Devils seem to have that area of their game under control, what they desperately need is someone who can take a game under their wings. Kovy is just that kind of player and he was brought over from Atlanta in hopes to stop the recent Jersey bleeding. The Devils have allowed the Caps to vault past them in the East standings, as well as let the Sabres and Pens creep ever so close behind them.

Who exactly Kovy will be paired up with, I am not certain. I would like to see him play with Parise and Lags, but we shall see who Lemaire puts him with tonight. This is a dire time for the Devils. They have shown for the first time in years an aggressive attitude which sets a precedent across the league that they are in it for more than just a first round appearance this year. The Devils will look to finish up strong heading into the Olympic break and what would have the Devs feeling better then an offensive spurt from their newest teammate?

As far as tonight’s game goes, it will be at 7 EST at The Rock and after getting shutout by an Eastern Conference bottom feeder, 3-0 to the Leafs, the Devils should be hungry tonight, thinking of nothing but victories from here on out. Each team is 1-4 in their last five games, for the Leafs,that is expected, however the Devils will be turning things around starting tonight hopefully. The starters for tonight will be a well rested Martin Brodeur and Johan Gustavsson for the Leafs.

It is being reported from multiple sources, including the initial alert I received on my phone from ESPN in which Pierre LeBrun is saying that All-Star Ilya Kovalchuk is heading to New Jersey. Details on what made this deal come to fruition and who New Jersey had to give up will follow, I do have a sneaky idea it may involve Brian Rolston or Travis Zajac.

Finally got my computer working well enough to get back to posting. Let me discuss the mess that is the New Jersey Devils right now. They have fallen into the dark depths in which so many other teams already occupy, that being the mundane world of mediocrity. They could once be considered an elite team, but when you stop scoring and put the entire work load on a few skaters to fill the void than you will find no other result but a loss.

Last night was no different when they went up against the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo is one of a few teams the Devils have allowed to crawl within striking distance of them in the standings because of their awful play. Going into the game the Sabres were two points behind Jersey, so you would think they would have been ready to for this one right? No, once again, no offense showed up for the Rangers…errr I mean Devils (than again there doesn’t seem to be a difference lately between the two). Ryan Miller is a tough goalie to put pucks past to begin with, I understand that, but when you are playing poorly and have teams breathing down your neck it is time to snap out of it.

When that time will come I have no idea and based on what I have seen on the ice, neither does New Jersey. The Devils have scored one goal or fewer in 6 of their last 10 games. Last night ended with a shoot-out loss, getting us one point at least, but right now I don’t really see the positive in that. The team still realizes they aren’t scoring and despite getting another point for themselves, they didn’t make any improvements. This just means more bad times are ahead for the Devils until further notice. I don’t see this getting better before the Olympic break, so I just have to hope we get a win here and there to have a say in the Atlantic Division once play resumes, forget about the top overall spot because Washington is just running away with that. If the Devils front office (I am not knocking them because they are very smart in how they manage the Devils) had any balls, they would go after exactly what they know they need, which is a scorer. But that is not the Devil way, even though it is just what we need. Hopefully the guys we already have, which is who we will have all year, can get things turned around.

Sorry for this being the first post in a little while, but a slow internet connection was prohibiting me from accessing the site like I would have like to. Anyway, since I last wrote, the Devils had lost to the Coyotes. It now appears that was the first loss of this now three game slide they are on. I wrote that they are going down a slippery slope and quickly need to rectify it before it gets out of hand. Well, that clearly did not happen and the offense has gone into hiding. In this three game losing streak, NJ has only scored 4 goals (3 of which came in Phoenix). They have lost 5 of their last 9 as well and have slowly allowed the Penguins to come within just two points of the Atlantic Division lead.

Tonight they are facing the Florida Panthers, a team in which they lost 4-2 on December 11th at The Rock. The Panthers come into the match up tonight going 4-0-1 in the last 5 games and are just two points out of the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. For the Devils, they need to get back to smart hockey. They have to limit their turnovers and really tighten up their defensive performance. Marty has not been playing his best either, however, the guys in front of him have been playing very sloppy and making key mistakes.

In order to come out on top tonight the Devils have to hone in on the Panthers top line and limit the chances they get with the puck in the neutral zone. If they make that part of the ice smaller, it will force them to play small and they like to rush the puck at an accelerated rate, this will throw them off of their game. As long as they get back to playing the smart hockey they had been playing for much of the year, I expect the Devils to get off the chopping block tonight to at least, some what, right this ship.

I took some time to write about this game simply because of how mad I was after its conclusion. Well my hopes of time passing by and feeling better about things have proved to be futile. This game plain and simple pissed me off more than any other this year. I can deal with Jersey getting flat out-played in a game, but they dominated the Coyotes in terms of shots and scoring chances through out the game. When you outshoot a team 15-1 in the second period, only to be tied once it is over, says something was done wrong.

After a 51 save shutout in Madison Square Garden, Martin Brodeur had a terrible showing with just 15 saves and letting up 4 goals on a pathetic 19 shots. It’s not all Brodeur however; the Devils D tonight was just awful. Turnovers hurt us and sloppy passes were far too prevalent throughout the game tonight, you just can not win that way.

The Devils at least showed their resiliency once again by tying the game at two a piece in the second, but let’s be honest when you out shoot a team 15-1 you damn well better get some goals. They should never have been trailing to begin with, but it is what it is. The third period would see the ice tilted in the Devils direction also, however, another poor defensive play in front of the net, this time by Mark Fraser gave the ‘Yotes a 3-2 lead. A power play was given to Phoenix right after the go a-head goal after Fraser got his stick up to high on Winnik and they would capitalize with yet another bad goal to be given up by Marty, a blast from the point that looked like he just didn’t expect. The Dev’s would get a late goal from Rolston, his second of the night, but that fourth goal would prove to be too much to overcome as New Jersey completed its overall suck fest to the night.

I may be a bit harsh on the Devils for this loss, but I do not like what I have seen recently. We have played piss poor against the barrage of Western Conference teams that have come our way recently, with only the Stars game being a complete game from them. They are a mediocre 6-4 in their last 10 and perhaps I am being selfish by not being happy with that. But I do recall a similar course of success last year and anything they did in the regular season meant nothing as they were once again bounced out of the first round. This is a very delicate time for the Devils right now because of the amount of game they have coming up. With a nice run we can make some nice separation from the other teams behind us but it won’t be an easy thing to do. Last night was a terrible loss in more than just the fact that they played poorly, but also because the Rangers lost, the Flyers finally lost and the other night the Caps lost, we could have gained points on all of them. Another issue we have but don’t seem to be addressing is the work load of Brodeur. Yes, I understand he can still play every night, I think the entire league gets that by now, but with the extra play coming up for him with Team Canada, we need to conserve his strength at some point. No, we don’t have as good of a chance to win with Danis in net, but we have to do it at some point and maybe then it will be an excuse for these lacksidasical forwards to start scoring night in AND night out.

Things better pick up and quick because the Devils have an early afternoon game in Colorado against a tough Avalanche squad tomorrow at 3:00 EST/ 1:00 MT.