John,

I know how difficult this write up probably was for you.

Let me say that I’m angry when Lemaire said earlier in January that the team was just trying to “make it” to the Olympic break (I paraphrased). It shows you the mentality. I believe the team is coming somewhat prepared for these games, but in the bigger picture – they’re LOOKING ahead. They’re saying, OK 2 more weeks – then after the Olympic break. We’ll have back Martin, Clarkson and Elias (who will probably be back before then).

I’m angry at Mottau’s constant mistakes and angry at the D in general. It makes me think getting Scott Niedermayer is that much more important.

But I know most here will say the last couple minutes really ticked them off the most (as the ones in Toronto did), but the Devils committed cardinal sin NUMBER ONE, when they let LA get a goal with under a minute in the 2nd period. YOU DON’T ALLOW A GOAL IN THE LAST MINUTE. . . and that allowed the Kings to win this game.

Our record against the West continues to be abysmal, but silver lining – these points are not gained in conference.

It makes a very interesting back-to-back with Toronto. If they can win, they ruin the debut for the new players and can probably win all 3.

Pretty good game for me.

But seriously, that sucked. Sorry.

57 minutes of shutout hockey last minute of the 2nd period goal given up. Last 2 minutes of 3rd period 2 goals given up. Does this sound familiar?? Pittsburgh and Washington both get 2 points today. Definitely a much needed win. Same person in the net as the last time this happened oh was that game 7 last year. I know it was not his fault. What do you people think?? lets hear it..

So I take it you’re angry…..

The Kings shouldn’t have won this game. They shouldn’t have won in Boston. They shouldn’t have won in Detroit. But somehow, the Kings are just having a magical season.

I’m STILL trying to figure out how Simmonds scored that goal. But the Devils should’ve been more focused on getting Smyth out of the goal mouth. That’s why the Kings got him, and the Devils didn’t seem to make an effort to knock him out of the way there.

First thing I thought of was “is this Carolina all over again?” I don’t watch enough Devils games to know how often this happens, but with a goalie like Brodeur, there’s really no reason why you should lose if you lead late in the game.

The Kings got lucky, for maybe the third time on this five-game road trip. But it doesn’t mean it’s the end for the Devils. Fact of the matter is, there’s only one other team in the NHL I’d less want to face: the Canucks. This’ll just be one loss that no Devils fan will remember come April.

I hope I dont ever remember this loss. I was sitting there in the middle of the third thinking that we were going to score a couple more goals and put this game away. 2 minutes left im making my kid food cause the game is over and I come back and we lost. Wow seriously maybe 2 minutes gone. Heart breaking but we will recover. Come on lets get these bad losses out of our system and move on.

LETS GO DEVILS!!!

Steve: They didn’t sit back. There’s no way you can tell me they didn’t. They put up more shots in that period than in any other, they were aggressive on the PP, every line looked to break through LA’s defense. That was not sitting back and if you think it was, you have a very different definition of “sitting back” than the actual one.

don_vas, longtime commenter:

57 minutes of shutout hockey last minute of the 2nd period goal given up. Last 2 minutes of 3rd period 2 goals given up. Does this sound familiar?? Pittsburgh and Washington both get 2 points today. Definitely a much needed win. Same person in the net as the last time this happened oh was that game 7 last year.

Kevin Y, visiting fan:

First thing I thought of was "is this Carolina all over again?" I don’t watch enough Devils games to know how often this happens, but with a goalie like Brodeur, there’s really no reason why you should lose if you lead late in the game.

My response to both, from the actual recap:

I’m angry that this will be compared to Game 7 against Carolina last season except this game wasn’t nearly as important, Brodeur was screened on both the game tying and game winning goal, and the Devils actually played better than the Kings for most of the game.

I’m angry that Ryan Smyth screened Brodeur for both Simmonds’ and Doughty’s goals. Seriously! The same player!

Or to summarize that short bit: SCREEN SCREEN SCREEN SCREEN SCREEN SCREEN SCREEN. Why in the world do teams set up screens, because the best goalies in the world can’t stop what they can’t see. Yeah, it’s all Marty’s fault he didn’t go all Hextall on Ryan Smyth (roll eyes). I’m going to bed.

Both goalies looked sharp, and the Kings got what all teams in form get – luck.
Zubrus, Neidermayer and Parise should have all scored and the final score should have been 5-1.
But that’s sport I guess.

the devils powerplay had the chance to put it away and didnt,and sorry but broduer looked out of position on the tying goal,a shame because he was excelent threwout the rest of the game.i would like to remind devils fans that even in the best season the devils have ever had there were signifigant slumps.i personally think they will break out of this one this week because the rest of the atlantic has caught up to them.

Biggest shocker for me was that I felt we played very well in the first period. Very well considering how poorly we were playing lately so maybe I was looking through the skewed lens of optimism. But none the less, I took that as a sign of things turning around for us. Look at the positives. Lately Parise and Zajac are scoring… and that’s just about it. Elias will be back soon. Clarkie will be back soon and Martin too. I knocked Zubrus LOTS, but he came back and is having an impact. We are clearly in a SERIOUS slump and the game review confirms that. When we have no answers as to why they are playing poorly it leads me to believe it is nothing more than a slump. It’s painful especially with the success we had in December, but the tide is turning guys. This will be a blessed wake up call and the timing couldn’t be better for the slide. Olympic break coming, and then there is still time to get back on track to go into the playoffs red-hot. BUT, (VERY BIG BUT), this needs to turn around very soon. We need a few great games before the break, and look who we face in the next two weeks. A revamped Leafs team, Blue skirts, back to back Philly, Preds, and our friend the Canes.

Gut check time for the Devils. Serious gut check.

First off, below is more of a therapy session for me than really coming up with the answers.

I try to be pretty level headed. Even good teams are going to have slumps – that’s hockey. But that was a very bad loss. From a mental standpoint, that is the worst loss of the season, by far, in my view. This team needed to get some confidence, and instead the opposite could come from this game. Does not matter the circumstances, blowing not just the lead, but then the game in last two minutes AT HOME can really shake the confidence, even with veterans. 3-6-1 in a 10 game strech has to be the low point.

I don’t have any answers – the 2nd and 3rd lines the team does look a bit worn out, but you can’t argue the whole team is tired with the way Parise and Zajac have been playing. The game does not fall on Marty, but I would still play Danis more. I just don’t think it is best to start Marty 76 times or maybe even more in the season – and I am the biggest Marty fan out there.

Bottom line is this is where we find out what this team has deep down. The 3 games this week are very winnable. If they can bounce back, I think all will be fine. If they continue to stumble, then I think the season will end up in disappointment. I don’t have any science for that, I just believe that is the way it will play out. Pittsburgh is going to come hard, and they will believe they can do it.

I would agree with the general sentiment that this was the worst loss of the season. Not necessarily because of the overall effort that the Devils put forward throughout the entire game, but because of the results that transpired from a complete collapse in front of the home crowd with barely five minutes to go in the game.

John, I agree with you that the setting of this game is quite different (Game 7 Playoffs VS Regular Season Matchup in January) and the actual method of scoring goals was different (relatively unhindered VS screen). But I think its impossible not to find some form of comparison between this game and last year with Carolina because the RESULTS are the same: two late period collapses. It was disturbing to say the least. This is about as demoralizing as they come. And I’m really not sure what the solution would be, either. Everyone needs to take more responsibility for how they contribuited to the loss. But at the same time, I don’t think the Devils played necessarily bad throughout the entire game. They just couldn’t finish.

So damn frustrating.

How long can we continue to have Mottau in our top 6? This isn’t the only game he has proven to be a liability. I’ve been saying for a long time that Mottau could be a good 7 guy to fill in, but shouldnt be in our top 6.

Martin will be back soon, and it will be a shame if Fraser sits and Mottau plays.

With that said, Mottau is a UFA after this season and wont be back unless we trade away fraser or corrente or eckford before the deadline.

Not to get to far ahead but, WHITE-SALVADOR-ODUYA-GREENE are set for next season, and Martin will more then likely be back, so Number 6 and 7 has to come from the three young guys…

I’m on the fraser bandwagon when Martin returns. I agree with White not being paired with Fraser because they are both similar builds and play a similar style of hockey. In fact Fraser kind of reminds me of a young White. Fraser has proven his worth many times so far this season. He’s stuck up for players when they’ve been punished (Elias) and, despite the few rookie mistakes he has made, I would say his benefits have far outweighed his negatives.

Just when my nightmares went away from the dreadful and disturbing loss against Carolina in the playoffs last year…