The beef-up has begun at the top, and the Devils are playing catch-up, waiting anxiously for the trades that appear necessary and inevitable, while the conference-leading Senators have already made theirs.
There’s still plenty of time, and the Devils can still pull off an Eastern championship, but they’re lowering their sights, having already frittered away most of this amazing home-heavy stretch.
They entered last night the same seven points behind the Senators, who visit Newark tonight, that they were when they opened this stretch of 15-of-18 at home, 4-6 in Newark.
“We’ve lost time, and there are only so many games left. We’ve lost an opportunity,” Jamie Langenbrunner said.
The difference is that they’re no longer the Atlantic Division leaders, a spot now held by the Penguins.
“I think the most important thing is for us to win our division,” Langenbrunner said. “We want to get home ice in the first round. Winning the division is more important that first place in the conference.”
The Devils have lost the first two meetings with the Senators this season, 4-2 in Ottawa Oct. 8 and 4-1 Oct. 27, the Newark opener.
They’ve noticed that the Senators have already rented major stretch and playoff help by extracting Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore from Carolina.
The Devils are believed trying to upgrade their team both on defense and at center. Brad Richards, Olli Jokinen, Ladislav Nagy, Robert Lang and Martin Havlat are names mentioned by inside figures up front, with Dan Boyle, Brian Campbell, Rob Blake, Joni Pitkanen and John-Michael Liles among the possibilities on defense.
The Devils have 26 games remaining, six more than they’ll have when the Feb. 26 deadline passes. If they’re going to be better now by dealing, they’d best be better right now to maximize effect.
“If you can have more time together, it’s a benefit,” said Langenbrunner, traded with Joe Nieuwendyk to New Jersey at the 2002 deadline. “You know what you have and there’s an opportunity to play together. It gives the guys who get traded a chance to settle in.
“It wasn’t until the next year when you felt like that was your team.”
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The scary arterial skate cut suffered by Florida’s Richard Zednik flashed back on Martin Brodeur to his youth, when a fellow player died when another “stepped on his jugular. There was no one [medical] there. I talk to my kids’ coaches a lot because of that experience. It’s a contact sport with a weapon on your feet. It’s surprising it doesn’t happen more,” Brodeur said.
Coach Brent Sutter noted that several younger leagues require protective neckwear, and that Tommy Albelin spoke of a teammate dying on the bench in Sweden because of a similar cut.