Some things that slipped through the cracks from the Devils' 5-4 overtime win over Tampa Bay Friday night.
**With Friday's win, the Devils reached 100 points for the fifth time in six seasons and 10th time in 12 seasons. The 100 points surpasses last season's total of 99. It also was their 48th win over the season, moving them within one of the team record 49 set two seasons.
**With a goal (the OT winner) and two assists Friday, Zach Parise raised his season point total to 92 -- the third highest single-season total in team history. He is four away from Patrik Elias' single-season record of 96 established in 2000-01. Parise's goal was his second in the last eight games and 43rd of the season.
**Travis Zajac's two assists, including one one Parise's winner, ended a drought in which he had one point (an assist) in eight games.
**Jamie Langenbrunner's two-goal game was his fifth of the season and raised his career-high season goal total to 27.
**Overlooked on Parise's winner was the play by Paul Martin, who made the pass up to Zajac to catch the Ligthning in a line change and create the 2-on-1.
**If the Devils beat Buffalo tonight and Philadelphia loses to Ottawa, the Devils clinch the Atlantic Division title. The Devils lead Philadelphia by six points for first in the division. The Devils have four games left and the Flyers have five.
***
It's 8 a.m. and I am waiting at Newark Airport for my flight to Buffalo, which has been delayed 15 minutes. There's no word yet on whether there will be a morning skate today. There is also no official word on Scott Clemmensen being called up from Lowell.
Clemmensen played in Lowell's 3-1 home loss to Portland Friday night and gave up two goals on 24 shots.
terrific offensive performance. zz pops got it done. shanny was cool as a cucumber on the p/s.
limited shots against too, altho some were way too point blank.
but this malaise can easily reemerge...to exorcise the demon we need a strong follow up performance tonight...a saturday night away game against a desperate sabres team.
win tonight, and we can officialy say the devils are back.
Posted by: SonicDude | April 04, 2009 at 08:06 AM
Gotta love how Zajac and Parise feed off each other. Look at their celebration after Zack scored. Langs stepped up last night. When that line doesn't score, we as a team falter. Big win and much needed. Now we just need Marty to step up and we'll be back on track.
Posted by: Falcone | April 04, 2009 at 08:22 AM
Air travel has been a little hairy the past 24 hours, good getting out there. I feel like its the shorter flights that get delayed / canceled the most.
Posted by: Mike M | April 04, 2009 at 08:30 AM
TG - just an fyi:
"**With Friday's win, the Devils reached 100 points for the fifth time in six games."
I think you mean seasons, not games.
Outstanding follow up on the game and the events, as usual.
Posted by: MAS | April 04, 2009 at 08:34 AM
Towards the end of last night's post-game show on MSG+, Steve Cangielosi mentioned that tonight (Saturday) is "Scott Clemmensen Bobblehead Night" in Lowell, but he'd probably miss it due to a Devils call-up. So much irony on this team this year, no one could predict this stuff.
Posted by: Scott E | April 04, 2009 at 09:06 AM
I still think it is amazing on how drastically different this team is when they score 3 or more goals in a game. If you take out the 2 shootout wins in which they won 3-2 (note there was one or two games they won 4-3/6-5 in a shootout but the scored 3 goals before the shootout they are 39-3-1, when they don't they are only 9-23-3 when scoring less than 3 goals. That is a HUGE difference. I mean if you included the two "shootouts" I didn't that record gets WORSE when they don't. That means when the Devils score 3 goals or more they are pretty much unbeatable.
Posted by: Drew | April 04, 2009 at 09:06 AM
The defense is still too tight. Sutter should mix them up. Too many penalties drawn in the offensive zone too, 3 more last night. It was good to see the veterans step up offensively. I want to see Marty steal a game for us tonight, he has looked very ordinary over the last 7 games.
Posted by: DH | April 04, 2009 at 09:54 AM
I forgot to mention that the Devils have surpassed last season's total of 99 points. I added that above.
Posted by: TG | April 04, 2009 at 11:18 AM
The connection between Parise and Shanahan last night was very special. The way they celebrated together was touching to watch.
Posted by: Jeff in Hoboken | April 04, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Nice touch about Paulie. I think he deserves a lot of credit and I would consider him our best or most reliable D man out there right now.
Posted by: Danny | April 04, 2009 at 01:19 PM