Line tinkering pays off

Looking for more offense, Devils coach Brent Sutter made a last-minute decision to swap the left wings on this top two lines before tonight’s 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Zach Parise moved up to play with Patrik Elias and Brian Gionta – a combination that had some success in December  _ and Dainius Zubrus shifted down to take Parise’s spot with Travis Zajac and Jamie Langenbrunner. The change worked as Elias and Zajac both scored goals. Langenbrunner, Zajac and Zubrus also helped set up defenseman Karel Rachunek’s goal in the second period.

“We were just walking in to start the game and I told the assistant coaches, ‘this is what we’re doing’ and then I told the players,” Sutter said. “It was just a feel that I had.”

Sutter credited assistant coach Tommy Albelin with putting the idea in his head.

“Tommy had brought it up earlier in the day about changing some things up with our lines, some things we’ve had success with in the past with certain guys playing with certain guys and I thought about it and said, ‘Why not?’”

Although they warmed up with their old lines, the players were not that surprised by the changes.

“Obviously, we tinker with the lines here a lot,” Langenbrunner said. “We had no idea until the game started. We went out for warm-ups with the lines like (Friday’s loss to the Rangers). Who knows? Tomorrow morning at practice it could be back the other way.”

Other items from tonight:

***Colin White snapped a goal drought of 125 games with his first since Feb. 7, 2006 against Tampa Bay.

***With Rachunek also scoring, the Devils got two goals from their defense for the first time this season. The Devils' defensemen still have accounted for only 13 goals this season.

***The checking line of Sergei Brylin, John Madden and David Clarkson not only shut down the Kings' top line of Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Patrick O'Sullivan, but they also scored two goals (Clarkson and Brlyin) and set up White's goal (with Madden beating Kopitar on a left circle draw to get the puck back to White).

"As a team we worked hard to get the puck out and shut down their line there," Clarkson said.

Clarkson said he has been working on using his toe drag move to use an opposing player as a screen for his shot in practice. He did that to Kings defenseman Brad Stuart on his goal, shooting the puck between Stuart's legs and goaltender Jason LaBarbera's legs.

***LaBarbera was replaced by Jean Sebastien Aubin to start the third period after he gave up five goals on 24 shots.

***A chant of "Let's go Giants" sprang up from a small part of the crowd of 15, 279 a couple of times during the third period. The Devils' players will gather at Martin Brodeur's house Sunday night for their annual Super Bowl party.

 

Comments

[Anthony]

let's go giants

[Anthony]

another +2 night for oduya too...

[jules]

Tommy Albelin is the man!

Nice to win! Although there were some defensive breakdowns, luckily it doesn't matter so much when you score 6 goals. And great for White.

[Pat D]

That's so cool that the players get together to watch the super bowl. TG you should try and get in then report to us some of the conversations they had.

[BeeGee]

“It was just a feel that I had.”
Ohh, psshh. You know Albelin got the idea to change the lines from HF Boards.
Great win! Although, I guess this means we won't see another 6 goal game till March!

I hear Marty is a Giants fan!? Let's go G-MEN!

[devils fan]

great game but it is the last place team in the league it should of been like that

[Hoosier]

TG, it seemed the team was in a good mood after the win. I was very disappointed with the defense again though. The first two goals were scored from essentially the same place, and Kopitar missed that wide open net from the side of the net in the first or second. Did Sutter comment on that at all? They seemed to settle down after the Jack Johnson goal, but for the first 30+ minutes the Devils really lived on the edge. They definitely need to make some adjustments, especially because Brodeur has always been more susceptible when plays start behind the net.

The other thing I noticed was that on the PK, the Devils seemed to collapse down low a lot more. Was this something they were working on in practice? They almost got burned a couple times by big shots by Visnovsky (one hit the pipe) at the point because they didn't put much pressure on him. It's definitely something that needs to be fixed. The PK looks as bad as it did early in the season.

[BF]

TG, are you invited to Brodeur's house party?

[Pat]

Give the team credit for responding to all 3 Kings scores with goals of their own, and they were all only about a minute apart each time. What a way to take the wind out of their sails.

I was sitting in Section 117 with the Kings fan club. Almost all of them were good hockey fans. One woman held a sign up repeatedly that said, "that's ok, were in last place" every time they got scored on which was quite entertaining.

Maybe Brent should let Tommy get a crack on the bench to run the offense and have Johhny Mac up in the rafters designing a new breakout and PP rush.

[Sal from Garfield]

TG-

What are the chances that sutter will let the lines build some chemistry [and not switch them up again]?