KANATA, Ont. – Brent Sutter’s Devils are off and running. Running around, sometimes, too.
The dual-edged sword of attacking hockey leaves them vulnerable to counterattack at times, and Sutter’s backline has some adjusting to do. Paul Martin, after only three NHL seasons, is the longest-tenured Devil on this reconstituted group of six that brings a 1-1 record into this afternoon’s showdown with the same Senators who closed the Meadowlands to hockey last spring.
Without Colin White, who has an eye injury, and with Richard Matvichuk still waiting for his season debut, the group is comprised of Martin, veteran signees Karel Rachunek and Vitaly Vishnevski, rookie Andy Greene, second-year man Johnny Oduya and 25-game NHL vet Mike Mottau. It’s hardly Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Ken Daneyko, and yes, Brad Lukowich would have helped.
In one regard, they’re already well ahead of last season. Greene and Mottau (his first NHL goal) each scored in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over the Panthers. They didn’t enjoy a goal from a defenseman until their 13th game last season, courtesy of Brian Rafalski, nor a second before December, from Lukowich in Game 25.
And there was Greene, looking justifiably confident in his skating and puck-handling 25 games into his NHL career, down at the Panthers goal line, bouncing in a boards rebound. In years past, he might have been benched for so scoring. This is Devils heresy, Liberty Hall.
“We’re not telling our defensemen not to join the rush. Sometimes they have to,” said Sutter, uttering words seldom heard in New Jersey.Martin says the duty is more evenly divided from under Lou Lamoriello and Claude Julien, when he and Rafalski used to log inordinate ice-time.
“We’re going to be better than a lot of people think at the back end,” Martin said. “To a certain extent, it is different. I don’t think we have free rein, but it’s up to us to keep the pressure on. We used to play a checking-style defense, but now we’re trying to get the forwards up, and if there is a breakdown Marty [Brodeur] is there. The D has to be smart in this system.
“We have to know when to pinch. When to pinch? Those are new words. That’s probably the first time I’ve said that,” Martin said of the previously verboten blue line gamble.
Brodeur will again seek his first victory of the season this afternoon. Kevin Weekes performed heroics in stopping 20-of-21 first-period Panthers shots Saturday. Weekes won his Devils debut in his first competitive action since suffering a concussion Sept. 21, his first regular season game since Jan. 11 and first victory since Dec. 12.
It hasn’t been all roses on the Devils’ defense. That first period Saturday found Panthers taking turns firing from the circles. There will be heaps of pressure left on these defensemen, who are likely to be left on their own much more often than in past Devils editions. Their ability to withstand those situations, and avoid helping create them, will tell much about this team’s season.
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The Devils visit the Panthers again Thursday and Atlanta Saturday, the fourth and fifth stops on this season-opening nine game road swing. . . . Brodeur said his round-trip from Florida to New Jersey to Florida Friday and Saturday, which kept him out of practice Friday and from Saturday’s morning skate, prompting Weekes’ start, was not related to immigration documentation. “Personal reasons, and that’s it,” he said.