SUNRISE, Fla. — The Sunshine State has provided a new dawn for the Devils, who desperately needed this do-over from the start of their season.
Two straight triumphs pulled them back to .500 after two opening defeats, and this fragile team isn’t much concerned about style or opposition strength quite yet. The important aspect, to them, of their 3-2 victory over the Panthers last night was the word victory.
“We’ll take it, we’ll take it,” Jacques Lemaire said after the Devils gave back two leads before winning on David Clarkson’s power-play goal with 3:35 left to play.
“Overall, this was probably our best game from the first minute to the last,” Lemaire said. “We’re playing better and better and I still think we can play better. I think it’s coming.”
The Devils outshot Florida 16-4 in the first, but didn’t connect until 11:14 of the second, when Paul Martin centered from behind the net, through the legs of Panthers defenseman Keith Ballard, for Rob Niedermayer to rap home from the front of the crease.
Rostislav Olesz answered at 13:58, converting a 2-on-1 feed from Radek Dvorak, past Johnny Oduya, with Martin a step behind Olesz.
Travis Zajac put New Jersey in front again at 17:47 of the second, set up in the slot on the power play by Andy Greene, who has assists in both games he has played this season. Zajac’s goal was his third of the year.
Zajac was in the box when Florida’s Stephen Weiss tied the score 2-2 at 14:37 of the third.
But with the team’s confidence in the balance, Clarkson gave New Jersey the victory by steering in Zajac’s power-play pass to the top of the crease.
“It’s important for our identity, because sometimes there are bad bounces. That’s the resilience,” Bryce Salvador said.
Martin Brodeur was solid again, surely the most important sign for the Devils.
“In these two games on this road trip,” Brodeur said, “we did a lot of good things.”
Mostly, win.
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After an extremely high NHL source last night told The Post that the Devils have terminated the contract of 40-year-old Brendan Shanahan, Devils GM Lou Lamoriello confirmed that the NHL’s leading active goal-scorer is now an unrestricted free agent.
Lamoriello also confirmed that Shanahan’s $1 million salary now comes off his salary-cap hit. Shanahan re-signed with New Jersey during the summer, but essentially was “cut” at season’s start. The NHL granted the Devils non-roster status for Shanahan, who was then placed on waivers.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman last night called dire predictions of a dramatic decrease in the NHL’s salary cap next season “absurd.”
“Over the last few months, there’s been a lot of speculation that the cap’s going to go down 20 percent. That’s absurd. That’s just made-up. It isn’t going to happen,” Bettman said. “I think it will be somewhere near where it is ($56.8 million), up a little, down a little, somewhere near where it is.”
Devils visit Caps tomorrow. . . . Ilkka Pikkarainen sat as Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond made his season debut. Cory Murphy and Andrew Peters remained healthy scratches. . . . Ex-Devil Scott Clemmensen dressed as backup to Tomas Vokoun after returning from his grandmother’s funeral in Iowa.