As expected, Kovalchuk was booed loudly by the Kings faithful. Image by Kelvin Kuo/US PresswireAs Devils fans, we can hope that change in the calendar month might bring a change in luck for this team. Unfortunately, the Devils had to play the Kings last night, which was still in the month of October, which has been a pretty bad month for the Devils and ended up losing to the Kings 3-1.
If the Devils want better luck in November, someone is going to have to step up and start putting in goals for the Devils. Rookie defenseman Matt Taormina scored the lone goal Saturday night as the Devils fell to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1. The Devils have dropped 4 of 5 and goals scoring seems to be the major problem surrounding this team at the moment.
A few of the problems on offense are:
Kovalchuk is scoreless in 3 which is not something you want from a guy being paid as much as he is.
Parise is now scoreless in the last 4 games. News gets worse than that surrounding Parise though. Parise suffered what the team is calling a lower body injury midway through the game and did not accompany the Devils to Vancouver. Instead, he and general manager Lou Lamoriello flew back to New Jersey on a red eye flight or private jet. The Devils are fearful that Parise may have suffered a serious right knee injury when he was hit by Kings winger Kyle Clifford with 3:40 left in the second period.
Jason Arnott, who started the season out with 2 goals in 2 games has quieted since then
Travis Zajac hasn’t found the back of the net since opening night.
Point is, if these guys start putting pucks in the net, the Devils will be in much better shape.
As for the game last night against the Kings, Justin Williams gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 6:52 of the first period when he pulled the puck back while approaching rookie defenseman Tyler Eckford in the right circle. Williams skated around Eckford and beat goalie Martin Brodeur on his stick side. Michal Handzus gave the Kings a 2-0 lead at 9:32 in the second period with a power play goal. The Devils answered at 10:38 on a Taormina goal but L.A. struck quickly at 11:02. Rob Scuderi’s slapper missed the net and hit the end boards. It caromed out to Stoll in the left circle and he backhanded a shot in as Brodeur came sliding back across the goal mouth after playing the shot from Scuderi.
The Devils head to Vancouver for a Monday night matchup and as mentioned above, will not have Parise in the lineup. We will keep careful eye on the Parise injury for you.
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