Smells like home cooking

The Devils were quite upset with the officiating in tonight's 2-1 loss to Montreal at Bell Centre, which allowed the Canadiens to leapfrog over them into first place in the Eastern Conference.

Head coach Brent Sutter didn't waste any time in his postgame press conference getting to the questionable calls by referees Eric Furlatt and Don Koharski against Mike Rupp and Jamie Langenbrunner, which eventually led to Andrei Kostitsyn's winning power-play goal with 5:43 remaining.

"It's a 1-1 game with seven or eight minutes to go in the hockey game and it was taken out of hands, so what are you going to do," Sutter said.

Rupp was called for crosschecking Andrei Markov, though it appeared he merely collided with him. "I thought he went down pretty easily," Rupp said.

And Langenbrunner is still trying to figure out what he did to warrant his hooking call on Saku Koivu.

"Both teams were battling and you hate to see something like that be the deciding factor," Langenbrunner said. "I have a hard time watching it and finding it. I can't remember doing anthing and usually you can kind of tell when something happens."

Although he faces a possible fine from the NHL for criticizing the officiating, Sutter did not hold back.

"Both calls upset me," he said. "The fact that the first call was called five seconds after the incident happens and because the fans yell. If it's a penalty, call it right away. And I just watched the video and i still don't know where the second call came from. To put a team down two men with seven minutes to go in a game like tonight, that's why I don't get paid the big money to be an official."

And Sutter didn't mention that Chris Higgins appeared to be off-sides immediately preceding Kostitsyn's winning goal. But Martin Brodeur did when asked if the officiating was a factor.

"It's always something that's a concern, especially when you miss an obvious off-side call on the goal," Brodeur said. "But it's just a game and there's a lot of missed calls, so you can't worry about that."

John Madden was visibly uspet when asked about the officiating, but held back from ripping the referees. "I'm going to leave that alone," he said. "I really would like to say a lot, but to be honest with you, me saying something and putting money in someone else's pocked isn't what I'm going to do."

The officiating overshadowed that the Devils scored only one goal and have scored just four in their last four games. They've lost three in a row now and are clinging to a one-point lead over Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division. That could change after the Penguins' game against Atlanta on Sunday.

            

Comments

[jules]

I'm still pissed at the refs, too. It's unfortunate that they more or less cheated us out of a point.

But did Sutter mention anything about the lack of scoring being a problem?

Just wondering.

[Brian]

I'm glad the Devils are just as pissed as I am. I hope the league fines Koharski rather than Sutter. They shouldn't fine Sutter for speaking the truth.

[TG]

It was when I asked about them not scoring that Sutter went into his "It was a 1-1 game with seven or eight minutes" answer. He was trying to be positive about the team's effort, which was better than the previous three games -- even though it didn't show on the scoreboard. He shook up all of the lines and thought "they repsonded really well."

"We played hard enough to win here tonight and, like I said, it got taken out of our hands," Sutter said. "Right or wrong, it was. It was a really good game. We had better intensity. Our detail was much better tonight than it had been the last three games."

John Madden took a different view, though.
“I can’t see any positives tonight,” he said. “It was a good effort, maybe that’s it, but still no goal production and a whole lot of nothing going on out there. You’re not going to win hockey games like that. It just makes the wear and tear on the team that much harder.”

[Maxwell]

I'm surprised with the copy/paste job here TG.

Two different fonts - tisk tisk! Are you recycling your writings??

[Al]

Bottom line is that we did not generate enough scoring chances, Zubrus has become a power forward and Ovechkin made him look MUCH better than he actually is, remember he was a waste for Buffalo in the playoff run.

Karl Racheunek just sucks and if mistakes are going to be made I rather have it done by a young and upcoming player (Greene) than some journeyman bum. KR did a horrible job QB'ing the second PP unit and Andy does a better job on that front. Our D my be a bit bigger and same with our fourth line but it's the same team from last Spring and it's the same result: Marty has to bail them out night after night. We miss Gomez 45 assists.

[Al]

Koharski needs another pastry of his choice.

[angie]

While the refs did a poor job tonight, the onus is on the players to make Marty's job easier and be able to overcome these late penalties. If I remember correctly, there was a game earlier this season where we lost on a let minute 5-on-3 goal. If we scored more goals, the penalties would have been a minor problem. This team has the potential to score a lot of goals, but this season, the Devils have been extremely streaky. The players have to find a way to be consistent in time for the playoffs if they want to get anywhere.

[TG]

I actually don't know what happened with those different fonts. I didn't copy and paste there, though I did re-use some of the quotes that will be in my story in tomorrow's Record. I typed everything over. Sometimes I have to copy and paste if an internet connection is unreliable and I don't want to risk losing everything if I get knocked off line before finishing my post. That wasn't the case tonight, though. Very strange.

And Zubrus' numbers were padded by playing with Ovechkin in Washington, but from what I've been told and some of what I saw on TV he was pretty good for Buffalo in the playoffs. He was used more in a defensive role. He didn't play on their top two lines. He was a big reason why the Sabres beat the Rangers because he shut down Jagr.

I thought the coach sent him a message tonight by putting him on the fourth line. They want him to play more physical and he did tonight.

[Maxwell]

I'm just messin' around TG - you do a great job and I don't think anyone would criticize you for using text for an article in a blog post or vice versa.

Hey I tried to post something that was flagged as spam again.

I guess it was too long? Either way, it's not spam. Feel free to edit if it needs to be cut down. I think I made one or two good points in there...

[mikeford]

you deserve to lose any game you only score 1 goal in anyway.

[Brian]

I agree TG, Zubrus had some good shifts with Rupp and Asham in terms of physicality and energy. He looked good playing with Pandolfo and Madden on a line earlier in the year, I wonder if Sutter may try that again if these new lines don't produce the desired results.

[Jon]

I was so pissed after this game........but i love when sutter speaks his mind!!! REFS GIFT WRAPPED THIS GAME FOR THE HABS. ugggg......!

[devils fan]

The refs did not cost us the game it is the lack of o. Yes we had alot more shots then the other night but no traffic in front of the goalie and no rebounds.Like angie said above if we score more goals we win plain and simple

[Devs4Life]

The calls were ridiculous last night. Something must have been up, because that game was rigged.

[Mike]

I feel bad for the Maple Leafs. The Devils are pissed and are going to take it out on someone very soon!
Keep your heads up Devils and just GET EVEN!
For God's sake someone please give Marty ONE game off before the playoffs start! Maybe against Tampa coming up?
Let Marty lie in a hammock being fed grapes and fanned by hotties! lol

Hey I just had a thought. Do you guys think they might put up a statue of Marty outside The Rock when his number is retired?
I would petition to make that happen!

[TG]

In case there's any confusion from my side, I don't think the officials cost the Devils the game. Those two calls impacted the winning goal, but the Devils left themselves in position to be hurt by the officiating by scoring only once. You're not going to win a lot of games with one goal and that's all the Devils have been producing for the last week.

[mike]

Like Tom mentioned, Zubrus played well with Buffalo IN A CHECKING ROLE, yet Lou signed him to center the top line. Does anyone else see the flawed logic ? Lou signed him for 6 years!! DZ should be playing with Madden and Pandolfo, and Lou needs to target a LW or center in the offseason, plus an offensive defenseman. Looks like another 1 round and out this season, just hope we don't lose to the Rangers.

[SonicDude]

I didn't see the game last night but we must find a way to create more chances.

elias appears to be disappearing again, and zajac continues to frustrate me with his high potential yet pedestrian play.

fortunately we have more games to maybe work on some new stuff.

but i wouldn't mind a call up and look at noah clarke or vrana or bergfors. i know none of these guys are ready, but maybe they can give us a little offensive spark with their hustle.

[Kramer]

Ok...bad calls happen, and the Refs "usually" realize it and try to make things even. Remember that Korharski HATES us, so the Devils will get two minutes just for giving someone dirty looks. I do have issues with the delayed call, if its a penalty, then call it. Don't wait for the crowd to complain then raise your arm. Worse was the scoring play was blatantly offsides...if that is called, play is stopped, the drive and momentum are broken, no goal is scored. I agree, if the Devils scored 5 goals, this is not an issue, but in a tight game, during a tight divison and conference race each point is critical. The refs NEED to do a better job! They need to be held accountable for blown calls that have a direct influence on the game. Also, think of HOW many games over the years the Devils have won by one goal or lost by one goal. This team has always played it close. We are not a scoring juggernaut, never have been. That is why handing a game away on blown calls hurts even more.

[Shari]

Sutter said that The Team played well, but I just didn't see it. I don't think that they played well at all for most of the game they looked nervous and were scrambling to get to the puck, they spent alot of time trying to get out of their own end again. For a little while in the 3rd they started to take it to them but it was too late, then more bad calls came and that's the game, this is 3 games now that I saw Whitey pull a VV and take Himself out of position to make a hit and Motts couldn't take the Man, and the puck is in the net. I think that when The New Man on D gets over His nervous thing and gets used to things He is going to be good for The Team.

[Laura]

They shouldn't have needed the last 7 minutes of the game to get a second goal, especially with how mediocre Price looked for much of the game. The team clearly needs to work on breaking out of their own zone - when it takes 3 or 4 tries to get over center ice, there's an issue.

[MikeDeadworks]

I would love to see a Marty statue. That is certainly something that should be in order!

[Jeff]

I have to say it almost seemed the Habs Fans intimidated the officials, everytime a Hab hits the ice for any reason the get riled up like the refs missed something. Maybe that's why they get so many Powerplay chances compared to other teams. While not making excuses this was at least the second point stolen from us late in a game by incosistent and poor officiating. The league really needs to start penalizing officials for bad calls. I mean they added a second referee and things got worse especially with the new crackdown on certain rules. In a 1-1 game the whistles need to go away unless it is extremely obvious and needs to be called I watched the replay a couple of times on the Langenbrunner Penalty and is that's a penalty every team in the league would be on the powerplay for 60 minutes a night. While the bad call did lead to us losing the game it shouldn't be an issue if we could score some goals and generate some offense. I was not happy with the line combinations they took our limited firepower and diluted it even further. As for our powerplay why isn't Jamie on the point he's the only player on the team with a shot that can hit the net with consitency. I mean geez if you want 2 defensemen on the power play put one of them in front of the net as a screen.

[Barb]

That felt like a tight checking playoff game where there isn't a lot of scoring. Sure there is still a lack of Devils offense but until the last five minutes, the Habs also only manufactured one goal. They played well defensively clogging up the neutral zone, blocking shots & keeping everything to the outside of Price. The loss would sit with me better if the Habs didn't generate their momentum from their power plays. The Devils are the 6th least penalized team, 4th least on the road. There are few cases where the Devils took more penalties than the opposition. No one mentioned Mottau's penalties but the guy doesn't take a lot of them & last night he ended up with two. Then our two most clutch players, Parise and Langenbrunner, get called. If they called Madden, then we would definitely know something was up. And how about that call the fans wanted on Marty?

[Mario]

Agree with last nights game comments. 1 goal = loss. Worst than last year. Devils management should be held accountable for not being to solve the team offensive problems in recent years. No excuse with the cap. Bergfors plays one game and he is gone? Zajak has no business being on a 2nd line nevertheless the PP. Any winger he gets goes into a scoring slump. Let's get back to Gio and Parise and Elias. Rupp needs to be on the PP. Build an offensive line around Madden with the winger scraps that remain. 9 defensemen? Is Lou on medication?