Devils Tie Series 2-2

What a great win tonight for the Devils, winning the game 4-3 on a Scott Gomez goal in overtime! Now if you're a Devils fan, you take a couple of things away from the game tonight.

1.) Consistency. The Devils stole this win. After building a 3-1 lead early, the Devils let it collapse and allowed the Lightning to climb back into this game at 3-3. This can't happen.

2.) Balanced scoring. Zach Parise now leads the league in scoring, with 6 goals coming in just 4 games. This is great, but the Devils need other players to step forward and balance out the scoring. You can't rely on one line, and especially not on one player, if you hope to go very far in the playoffs. We need our top line to play like the top line.

3.) Power play. The power play needs to produce more. We should have won this game 5-3 or 6-3. More production comes from less passing and more shooting. We consistenly outshoot the opposition, but a lot of those shots are coming from the perimeter, and a goalie like Holmqvist is going to read those shots and make the saves. Letting a goalie make a bunch of saves allows him to get his confidence built up early, as well as pushing our own confidence down a bit.

4.) Marty needs to play like Marty. This is now 3 goals allowed in each game, making it 12 goals over 12 games. He's making big saves, but also allowing some very uncharacteristic goals. Gotta settle down a bit.

5.) Faceoffs. We're doing well on faceoffs and this needs to continue, giving the winning team a huge advantage in controlling the play and dictating the pace of the game.

6.) Physicality. Playing Matvichuk with Lukowich tonight was a great move that really shows you what a brilliant strategist Lou Lamoriello is. Two big, playoff-tested, gutsy defenseman are a formidable opponent for a young line of LeCavalier and St. Louis, making the forecheck more of a challenge for Tampa Bay.

Coming off of a 4-3 overtime win against a hungry young Tampa Bay team and returning home to New Jersey for Game 5, the Devils should put up a good game on Friday night. They've got some confidence under their belts now, stealing a game in Tampa and coming back to what should be a raucous New Jersey crowd. Parise scored 2 goals in Game 4, and we got 2 goals from the EGG line as well. Hopefully these two lines can build on the confidence they've developed and transition into Game 5, taking the lead in the series and putting a stranglehold on the Lightning.

Solid win tonight, and as always....


Go Devils!