Devils miss chance to clinch Atlantic Division, chance to finish second in East nearly gone

Tonight's 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs was costly in multiple ways for the Devils.

First, it cost them a chance to clinch the Atlantic Division title. They still need one point in their final two games after Philadelphia rallied to defeat Florida, 2-1, tonight.

Second, it probably cost them a chance at finishing second in the Eastern Conference. With Washington defeating Atlanta, 4-2, tonight, the Devils now trail the Capitals by four points with two games remaining, the Capitals need only one point in their final two games against Tampa Bay and Florida.

The Devils finish with a game Thursday in Ottawa and Saturday afternoon at home against Carolina.

It now looks like they will play Carolina, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia in the first round. The Rangers can finish no higher than the seventh seed.

With just two wins in their last nine games (2-6-1), the Devils are headed in the wrong direction at the worst time of the year.

"It's defiinitely a concern," Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner said. "The teams that are getting into the playoffs -- Carolina pounded the Islanders (9-0) and Pittsburgh winning (6-4 over Tampa Bay) -- everyone around is revving up and playing well and we have to find a way to do the same. We've got two games left and we have to find a way to get a win in both of those."

The Devils appeared to be rebounding from their six-game losing streak, but tonight's loss raises some  red flags.

"We felt we were building something for a couple of games," right wing Brendan Shanahan said. "This is a setback. We've got to get back at it (Thursday)."

***

Athough some players and even head coach Brent Sutter pointed to the Devils' 48-18 shots advantage as evidence that they didn't play a completely terrible game, others knew the shots were meaningless when you lose to a team like the Maple Leafs, who are in last place in the Northeast Division and not anywhere near the playoff race.

"I look at as we lost another games that we shouldn't be losing," Langnebrunner said. "It doesn't matter how many shots we had."

A span of nearly nine minutes in the first period was the Devils' downfall tonight. The Leafs got goals from Mikhail Grabovski, Jeff Hamilton and Christan Hanson during that span to grab a 3-0 lead.

The first one happened after errant backpass by Bobby Holik into the defensive zone. Then Colin White lost coverage in the defensive zone and Mike Mottau nearly covered for him by blocking a Grabovski's pass out of the corner, but couldn't control the bouncing puck, which Grabovski got back and fired past Martin Brodeur.

The second goal came after a bad outlet pass by Andy Greene resulted in a turnover in the neutral zone. The Leafs counterattacked and Hamilton scored on the rush.

On the third goal, Hanson, the son of Hanson brother, Dave, of Slap Shot fame, was left unchecked in front to put away the rebound of a Jason Blake backhand.

"They're mistakes that can't be made," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "You can't do it this time of year. Three straight goals, you can't let it happen."

***

The Devils had differing opinions on how well Leafs goaltender Martin Gerber played.

Sutter said, "Their goalie was the first start of the game tonight."

Gerber did make a few very good saves, but there were other chances the Devils either missed on, the puck trickled wide (Travis Zajac's shot on the 5-on-3) or they simply hit him with the puck.

That contributed greatly to the Devils going just 1-for-6 on the power play.

"It was just one of those nights where I don't necessarily think Gerber was making great saves, but he just sort of had the luck on his side," Shanahan said. "I think we did a lot of good things on the power plays, actually. We got good entries, good control. It was just one of those things where we had lots of shots on goal, lots of traffic. But we just didn't get to the loose pucks. We didn't put in rebounds. We had scoring chances we just didn't finish.

"I thought the power plays were actually pretty good. The only thing we didn't do was just finish the play correctly."

Gerber robbed Shanahan with his left arm during the 5-on-3 advantage in the final minute of the frirst period.

"I think he trapped it between his arm and his body," Shanahan said. "I don't even think he knew where it was. He was looking around for it. We were all looking around for it."

Comments

[DrivingMEnutz29!]

Good effort by the team and they probably would have won if Marty didn't can ready to play tonite. He was awful in warm-ups and he was even worse in the game but i dont blame him because when he's not ready, and you can see that he's wasnt all there, you put in ur back-up goalie. Yeah that's right, BACK-UP GOALTENDER, SCOTT CLEMMENSEN!!!! Did he crap on the floor in the locker room or something, did he knock up Sutter's daughter??? I tell you ehat he did, won 25 games this season and played like he wanted the puck to hit him in the worst way but no Sutter says, " Marty's not ready so we are gonna leave him in so he can blow our confidence against in the start of the third" aaaa hello...START CLEMMENSEN

[chessarmy]

meh, it doesn't matter anymore just bring on the playoffs. The Devils are either dogging the rest of the season because they're too focused on the post season or they really are this bad. I don't know what it is, but if they keep playing this bad they won't make it past the first round. Its sad to witness, Marty's career is slowly coming to an end and with each year that passes by you have to wonder if he ever will win that 4th cup.

[DrivingMEnutz29!]

Why don't we pull brodeur and put in clemmensen!!! Obviously everyone on the team was ready to play. but brodeur. He was awful in warm-ups and it showed during the game. RIDICULOUS!! What kind of thought process is that, you pull his you know what, and put in some who wants to play. Stupid coaching. Scott was the heart and soul of this team and one of the best Tenders in the league all year long but i guess he's not weekes and we cant trust him.

[DevsFanInTX]

Putting in Clemmer would do what, save a game that Marty needs to fight through with the playoffs coming up? Yes, the game was costly for us in the standings, but winning this game with Clemmer means nothing if Marty continues to play this way in the playoffs, which is what matter. At first I was considering that I would put Clemmer in too, but the more I think about it, Sutter is right. You don't bench the goalie who obviously needs the work. I don't think it is fair to say Brodeur is tired, he simply was not in the right mindset tonight. I think I'd rather try to keep him in game-mode and give him a short break before the playoffs begin, rather than start playing Clemmensen and seeing Marty walk into the playoffs cold just so we win 1 or both of the last games.

[Jeff in Hoboken]

IMO, this really wasn't the terrible game everyone makes it out to be. Yes, our defense is suspect and Marty really should have had 3/4 of the those goals. We were getting chances, but sometimes things just don't click. We should have scored in those first 6 minutes of domination, but things didn't go our way. In that terrible stretch, we didn't have shot totals like we did tonight. We've had trouble with Toronto all year, so I can't really get too upset at this loss.

This said, we should win in Ottawa and would love a beating on Carolina for the season-ending icing on the cake.

[Henrik L]

TG thanks for ansering my previous question about who would be in east. Sorry I missed your answer at first. Just saw it now when I came home from the game. Keep up the good work!

[RickyM2]

Don't pull Brodeur.. Let him work through this. He's a game player, and he was born for high caliber hockey. He can pull it off in the post season. I'm afraid Clemmensen will wont be able to handle a bad 1st period defecit. I'm not saying he can't handle it. I just dont know for sure. But if we wanna have any chance with Clemmer in the post season, he has to play by saturday just to get the rust off. Again, it was White who passed the puck (again) to the wrong colored jersey and gave up another goal. He's the weak link on the D Chain. White needs to shape up or be shipped out. Dont blame Brodeur at all here. The rest of the defense got caught with their pants down. They very much under estimated Toronto's desire to play in the first period. However, they will get it together in time if Sutter gives them a kick in the a@@. As for Toronto, they had the same problem, they gave up 48 shots on goal. But our forwards were robbed time and time agian. It was one of those games where a goalie had the game of his life!!! He's also looking for a job next season after being released by Ottowa last month. He had to play at 150% if he intends to pay his mortgage next season after he gave 11 goals in his last 2 games. If we shoot like that in the post season, we will win games as long as we get our defense in tact. NOTE TO SUTTER: for the defense, NO MORE MEETINGS, START WITH THE BEATINGS!!!

[njosh]

Games like this scare me a lot. Yes, Brodeur had a terrible game and the defense (once again) gave him no support, but the pressure on Gerber and the Leafs were pretty much constant. Thank god it wasn't in our end the whole time, I'm sure the score would have been a lot worse. I feel like the Devils need to loosen up a bit, they looked nervous, anxious and frustrated.

I think the Devils will play Pittsburgh first round. If that happens, the Devils cannot be this sloppy in their own end or else Malkin and Crosby will tear us to pieces. I think that Carolina and Ottawa will be big tests for us and if we can bring it back and win both games, we should be set for the playoffs.

[AK47]

DrivingMEnutz29!,I think they could win this one if they would capitalize on half of the PP chances they had. Good PP can take very far in regular and post season. Devils have to find they way to start producing on it. All teams there are in the playoffs (scratch Rangers) are in the top 10 on PP. Even if we play well 5 on 5 and knowing how bad our PK is we are not going to win many games.

[JK]

I'm really frustrated with this team, they look slow, sloppy, listless and generally disinterested. Yeah they got 48 shots but the majority are from the perimeter. The defensive positioning is terrible and they have just made some brain dead decisions with the puck. Marty was just awful and has been terrible in the last two weeks. No more excuses, this team had another great season but who gives a crap about that when they'll tank in the first round again. Oh Rolston WTF???? This team has absolutely no chance against Carolina or Pittsburgh.

[Matt]

Well the way Clemmer is being treated,I would not hold it against him at all if he doesn't resign with NJ, Weekes will he wont have anyone interested.

[Captain Fun]

All these suggestions of starting clemmenson are really misguided. I guess that's why you're here and Sutter is behind the bench. Marty is not tired, he's just had a bad stretch. Can we support him for all that he's given to us. At the first sign of adversity, you guys want to bail. That's not being a fan...its more than a schitzo in Bellview.

Marty needs to work himself through this. It would be nice to support him when it would be most needed.

Plus, we all now Marty is the #1 so why waste you anger on this. Its dumb and so are all these posts

[JK]

Clemmer is banged up and can't play anyway so everybody just give it a rest. That being said Marty has looked really bad the last two weeks and if he makes those saves on the horrible turnovers and gaffs like he has done a 1000 times nobody would even know or care about said turnovers. My confidence is waining though, I can't remember the last time he stole a playoff game or took over a series in recent memory in the post Stevens era. Being considered the best goalie ever he really must come through for us this first round until the Devs get out of this funk.

[RickyM2]

Another thing to everyone who has no hope in our team's ability to play. You worry about PITT, PHILLY, CAROLINA... Do not forget, we didnt get in to 3rd (still possibly 2nd) in the East with a team who sucks, those teams all are capable of sucking too, especially now that they are getting over confident. As Mike Tyson once said "Everyone is confident till they get punched in the mouth" They are playing other teams with the same sense of urgency. Thats what makes playoffs so interesting. It was this very same team who got us high in the standings. This team has answered slumps with winning streaks. You may not see it now, but this is still very much a cup contending team. We will all still be here making posts in the 2nd round of the playoffs!!!!! Slump or not, they aint going out like that!!!

[Scrat]

Ricky:

I like your Moxie. Keep on preaching. We need to be confident. We constantly say that's what they're lacking, well...we shouldn't follow suit. keep the faith that this team is still a cup contender, I believe it!

[Guy]

Well if we got one thing going for us, its that weirder things have happened... like the Rangers winning the Cup! haha

In all seriousness, this team misses Elias badly, but thats not an excuse. Biggest problems have been inconsistent play, both in between periods and during (2nd period tonight). Sloppy Defensive play (especially soft on the PK). Plus, Brodeur has not had a great game since 552.

As fans, you have to have hope that this group can figure out what has been happening and set it straight. This season is not lost until they have lost the 4th game in the playoffs. While it is frustrating to say the least, the problems i have seen can be worked out. It starts with giving a 100% 60 minute effort against ottawa.

[JK]

Umm yeah Tampa and Toronto are not playoff teams and we just played and looked terrible doing it. I expect and demand more of this team and I think the players would agree.

100 point seasons, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes, division titles mean absolutely nothing. This team has been an easy out in the first round far too many times and appears to be happening again. The thing that bothers me is all the teams around us are in playoff mode, look hungry and are ready to roll. On the other hand the Devs look so incredibly out of sinc, you can't just wait for the playoffs and hit the switch.

PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG DEVILS! I still love you!

[Mike]

No Elias is hurting this team.

[Drew]

I don't know what the team is doing, but maybe having the team do some hard workouts all day tomorrow or have a longer than usual practice. The 1 1/2 hour practices are doing anything helpful. I think sprints and a good 3 hour practice might be what we need. This is getting insane. We are 40-3-1 when scoring 3 or more "Real Goals" (2 games were 3 with SO goals). We are 9-24-3 when we score less than 3 and we are a total of 3-7-1 in our last 11 games I believe. I don't understand how a team can be playing so well and then start doing so badly. It seems like our chemistry got screwed up somehow. They need to figure out how to fix it and soon because I don't care what seed they are, if they stay where they are right now, they will play Pittsburgh and most likely lose in 5 or 6 games. I just don't see them beating ANYONE except the 7/8 seeds (who they won't play) in the first round. The only think I and any Devils fan can hope for is that they will wake up for the Playoffs and they are able to pull out G1 and ride it through the playoffs or at least the first round.

[Jack the Bear]

Being a long term Mets fan, I know a team collapse when I see one. Take it from me, you have to find the silver lining. Think of all the money you're going to save by not buying playoff tickets. I'm not buying any...this team has taken enough of my blood and given little in return. I'm not talking about Lou or Sutter.....the lack of character on this team is pitiful. With the experience on this team..this shouldn't happen. Every team has a bad game....not like this..Yes, there were a few bad defensive giveaways...but they held Toronto to just a few shots on goal. Broduer should stop celebrating his "greatest of all time" status, get out his old helmet and knock off the sh*t and play hockey. If you are really the greatest ever, you don't fold in the clutch..PERIOD.

[Braddock]

This is what happens when you are realistically a one line team. Without ZZ Pop, and essentially Zach, this team is on the outside looking in. Add in the aged vets that LL brought in who are obviously having a rough go of it finishing the season due to injuries and age, as well as a no name defense and an all galaxy goaltender working his way back into playing shape and you've got a recipe for back to back first round knockouts.

Guess that Havelid pickup was worth it, huh? He's definitely played at a high level for the 6 games he's played in. Woof.

Marty's dragging, Weeksie's out, and Clemmer's banged up. Not looking good rolling into the post-season.

And of course, it's pretty sad that not only did the Devs inflate their last two "sellouts", but that nobody bothers to show up for one of the last home games of the season with the playoffs on the horizon and the team in need of "the 7th man" to get them going. As the great Yakoff Smirnoff said, "What a franchise!"

[Jacko]

I'm really torn about this debate as to whether or not Brodeur should be playing the last two after playing soo many games the past few weeks.

On one side I think he needs the work, and needs to play through this and find his game because we will only go as far in the playoffs as he takes us. On the other hand, I remember the team rallying around Clemmer and playing harder because they knew they lost their security blanket. So maybe if they knew they were playing into front of Scott, they would pick up the intensity, even if it was just for one night.

All they need is one exceptional effort to get confidence back on our side. I feel like the effort isnt that far off, and having Patty back would be a big boost. But watching this team, it just appears they think wins are going to come to them because theyve done it before. Hopefully Brent hurts them today and they remember hard work is the only way we make a run this year. Im excited to see how it all unfolds.

[DevsCupChamps]

Benching Brodeur is one of the most idiotic suggestions anyone could make. If you're gonna go that route then there are a lot of other players that need to be benched or have their playing time reduced. The list of players that are invisible on the ice is long but outside of maybe Rupp and Pando, none of these guys are held accountable for weak play. How about Sutter actually makes the players earn their playing time?

[devilstown]

Guess what if Clemmer played I would say he could of, on a good night, stopped 2 of the 4 Marty gave up. You know what else,if that happened we still LOSE, 2-1. The Devils had plenty of chances to win this game, they couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat lastnight. To many "shank-a-potamuses" out there. They had 48 shots and at least that many that either missed the net or were blocked. I'm at every home game and watch every away game, for some reason the Devs don't think it necessary to screen the opposing goalie. They camp out on the side of the net either left post or right, but never in front. Even a big guy like Rupp never ventures in front of the net. I just don't get it. Watch the play in our own zone, it seems to me everyone is more overly concerned that they stay in their position, many times guys could make a play or hit, but act like they would get an electrical shock if they crossed a certain part of the zone.

OK, I've vented, but I still don't feel any better.

[Louie u]

Just a question to throw out there to all of you out there...Like you guys I am a die hard Devil fan, that's why at 7:45 I am posting on this site...When was the last time Brodeur single handedly won a playoff round? or how about a playoff game? We all know hot goalies make the difference in the post season. Brodeur has had a great career, but in the post season his stats are not the best, take away the years up until 2000 and look after that...lost the series to Roy in 01...and I know 03 he had all the shutouts, but his play was very inconsistent. In my opinion since then has not been impressive at all...every year at the start of the playoffs you here "with brodeur you never know how far the Devs will go"..well it's going on 5 years with no progress at all in the post season. I am not saying don't play Brodeur, all I am saying is Brodeur will not be the reason you will win a playoff series, It will be the offense scoring more than the opposition which will be tough to do with this current lineup..I hope I eat these words, but I really believe this team is only capable of beating the Canadiens in a playoff series..I hope I am wrong.