Hello Devils fans! I’d like to thank RWTD blogger Darren S. for giving me the opportunity to become a member of the RWTD family. I look forward to my future here as a blogger and I greatly appreciate the privilage to do something I love. Now back to business… I will be starting a weekly summary every Monday called “Second Look”. These weekly reviews will summarize the Devils weekly record, score, top performer, and a breif summary of each game.
—————————————————————————————–
The Devils began the week of Sunday the 8th with a road game in Calgary on the following Tuesday, the 10th as New Jersey took on Calgary. This game, unlike the next two, results in an embarrassing loss to the Flames. In one of the most horrific displays of defense and net minding the team has displayed, the one against Calgary is one of the seasons worst. With only 14 shots on net, the Flames managed to hit the back of the net on 6 of them, 8 total saves by TWO, New Jersey goaltenders. Brodeur got yanked after making 3 saves on 5 total shots faced in the first, followed by “The Moose” stopping 5 of 9. The Devils answered 4 goals too late with a tally by Kovalchuk, his 16th of the season, but it wasnt enough of a spark to get the team going, Calgary recorded 2 more to finally put the nail in the coffin. Six to Three is your final. Despite a rather, dissapointing loss to a team that has turned it on in games of late, the Player of the Game award goes to Captain Zach Parise. Along with line-mate Ilya Kovalchuk, the two recorded two points each, Kovy, a goal and an assist, Parise, 2 assists, but managed to finish with a +/- ratio of 0, oddly enough despite the final score.
FINAL 3 – 6 
The New Jersey Devils played 3 road games in the past week, the middle game against Edmonton up north in Oil-Country January 11th. The Devils & Oilers remaind scoreless up until the 2nd period when the Dev’s broke the silence and recorded yet ANOTHER short-handed goal which was credited to Ilya Kovalchuk. New Jersey looked as though the game was theirs until the mid-way point when Ales Hemskey beat Hedberg to tie the game at 1 goal a piece. Edmonton managed to force it to overtime, against the HOTTEST team in the league in games decided after regulation. Just over a minute into overtime, Zach Parise nets the game winner and the Devils take the W, 2-1. Ilya Kovalchuk walks out of Edmonton with the RWTD Top Performer award as he tallied a goal and an assist with six shots on net and ended the evening a +1.
FINAL OT 2 – 1 
My first game as a Devils blogger resulted with a win on Saturday the 14th. The Devils looked solied and consistent, despite a hot goaltender in Ondrej Pavelec who stopped 23 out of 25 Jersey shots on goal. The Devils were scored on first by Jets captain Andrew Ladd about 15min into the first on a shot Marty got a big piece of. With a scoreless second that most will have probably forgotten, it was a spectacular diving stick save by Pavelec on Henrik Tallinder that made him appear as though he was unstoppable. Devils recently acquired defensemen Kurtis Foster broke the zero as he netted his second goal of the season which tied the game at one. Three minutes later, Elias scores the eventual game winner on a beautiful tic-tak passing play from Clarkson to Sykora, through Patrick’s legs to Larsson, cross ice to Elias for the score. The Devils hold off the Jets for the final score of 2 to 1. The top performer of the game award goes to Martin Brodeur. In his first start since being benched in Calgary, Brodeur stopped 22 of 23 shots faced and looked like his old self again.
FINAL 2 – 1
The Devils return home Tuesday night to face those same Winnipeg Jets walking out of last week with a 2-1-0 record recording 4 points and maintaining a sixth place spot in the current playoff picture. In my eyes the player of the week goes to Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk finished the week with 4 points on 2 goals and two assists. Kovy was a +1 for those three games and an average of 74:50 minutes of ice time during the three game span.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
