A Devils Disaster

        Tonight, we saw one of the best performances that we've ever seen from the Los Angeles Kings, and one of the worst performances we've ever seen out of the New Jersey Devils. The Kings defeated the Devils 4-0, quite easily. The only Devils player that came to play this game was Martin Brodeur. Brodeur was not bad, as he had no support from anyone on his team. The Devils looked slow out there, with star winger Ilya Kovalchuk possibly nursing on injury. Kovalchuk, along with stars like Zach Parise and Patrik Elias were invisible out there. Another player's performance that was particularly bad was that of defenseman Marek Zidlicky. Zidlicky often waits too long to pass the puck, and eventually turns the puck over.
        But before I get too carried away with how bad individual performances were tonight, one poor team effort must be addressed: the power play. New Jersey's power play went 0 for 6 tonight, and created almost no scoring chances. In fact, New Jersey was hurt by their power play because their lack of offense weakened the momentum they were trying to create. No one on the power play was anywhere near decent. Ilya Kovachuk forced passes that caused turnovers. The forwards were slow, and did not win the battles on the boards throughout the entire game. Zidlicky created turnover after turnover. And defenseman Peter Harrold is just not skilled enough to play on the power play. There are more capable players to play the point on the Devils than Peter Harrold. After pointing out the flaws of the Devils power play tonight, my point is this: the Devils certainly dropped the ball on this game, and on this series for that matter.