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Devils back to their old tricks Justin Dahan (HV) The Devils are up to their old tricks. Gary Bettman may be adamant that the trap is gone from the game; I guess he has yet to watch the New Jersey Devils. Those Devils haven’t changed their style at all. Give them credit; it wins them many hockey games, it also helps that they have a superstar goalie in Martin Brodeur who bails them out whenever a mistake is made.
You could just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs, the latest victim of the Devils trap system and Brodeur’s game saving goaltending. The Devils have been struggling offensively but they still have been able to come out with a win more often than not.
Jaime Langenbrunner opened the scoring when he beat Mikael Tellqvist with a shot from the slot. Patrik Elias had the Devils other goal. Patrik had this to say about the goal, “It might be the ugliest goal I ever scored but I’ll take it” The puck bounced off two or three players before finding its way to the back of the net. Darcy Tucker had the lone goal for the Leafs, he scored it late in the third ending Martin Brodeur’s shutout bid.
The game itself wasn’t that exciting; not to watch and according to Matt Stajan not to play either, “It was a boring game to play, they were sitting back” Stajan said about the Devils style of play. He elaborated on his frustration with the Devils style when he remarked, “You’d skate in their zone and you’d have no play. They’d take away your play”
You have to give the Leafs credit though, despite the Devils neutral zone trap the Leafs managed 34 shots on Brodeur. Brodeur just stood on his head when he had to. The Leafs could have had the game if Brodeur did not stand on his head. Despite Brodeur’s great game he still was a little flustered on how Darcy Tucker’s goal went in, I had a little moment of weakness on that goal, “I don’t know what happened there but overall I felt great” Brodeur said about Tucker’s goal.
Devils coach Claude Julien had this to say about his team lack of scoring, “perhaps when Scott Gomez returns to the lineup there will be more scoring for the Devils”. Right now Gomez is listed as day to day. New Jersey head coach Claude Julien is hoping Scott Gomez will play sometime this week. For now the Devils are content with their trap as a strategy to win.
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