SUNRISE, Fla. – The snowball alert is on. Off to their worst start since 2001, the Devils’ season-opening road trip is becoming a hole from which they’ll have to climb out.
You keep waiting for the Devils’ top line to come out, and one never does. Same thing with a stopper defensive pair. Even their Hall of Fame goalie. They’re still searching for any of them.
“It’s a long year. We’re only four games in,” Brent Sutter said after the Devils fell to 1-3 on the season, shut out 3-0 by the Panthers here last night. “The guys are competing and playing hard. I don’t have an issue with that at all.”
But the Devils may be taking this egalitarian “all men are created equal” stuff too far. It’s as if they’re trying to prove – by necessity – that systems are more important than skill. The evidence is mounting against them.
Martin Brodeur, who set the NHL record last season with 48 victories, stands 0-3 this year after the Devils fell 3-0 to the Panthers here last night. It all bodes ill for the Devils, now 1-3 on their nine-game season-opening road odyssey, with tougher foes on tap.
“We’d had trouble defensively, but today was not too bad, but we couldn’t put the puck in the net,” Brodeur said.
Sutter had hoped that his new charges would adapt to his forechecking strategy, particularly after two days of work, but the result was another loss.
“Early on, when you make a switch in systems and it doesn’t work right away, you feel it a little bit,” Brodeur said.
Not since they lost their first four (one in OT) in 2001, have the Devils started so poorly. That 01-02 season cost Larry Robinson his job after two straight trips to the finals and the 2000 Cup.
For the third straight game, the Devils were outplayed in the opening period, although it took Florida half the period to begin churning. The Panthers took the lead on a dubious goal by Rostislav Olesz at 14:48, after Johnny Oduya lost control in the left corner and was crosschecked from behind to the ice by Josef Stumpel. Stumpel passed into the offensive right circle, where Olesz fired unimpeded long side on Brodeur.
The Devils have been outscored 4-1 in their last three first periods, and outshot 50-28, including 12-10 last night. New Jersey endured a 21-9 first period shot disadvantage to the Panthers last Saturday here, but won 4-1, the Devils’ only victory.
Sutter himself bore a much of the blame for the back breaker, taking an unsportsmanlike-conduct call for disputing a penalty assessed to David Clarkson in the second. On that 5-on-3, Olli Jokinen connected at 13:05 with a right point slap that eluded Brodeur’s glove as the Devils’ goalie left too much room to cover on the short side.
“Yup, that’s my fault,” Sutter said.
A screened power-play wrister from Nathan Horton in the right circle hopped over Brodeur’s waffle with 32.3 seconds left in the second to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead.
Tomas Vokoun won his first game as a Panther by turning in Florida’s first shutout of the Devils since Roberto Luongo’s 4-0 triumph on Jan. 27, 2006, one night after the Devils were blanked in Tampa. The Devils were last shut out March 14 at the Meadowlands, 3-0, by the Penguins.
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Individual game Devils tickets for Newark are on sale today at Ticketmaster . . . Richard Matvichuk was still in limbo after Lou Lamoriello said Wednesday he is trying to move the 34-year-old defenseman who is not part of Brent Sutter’s plans. Lamoriello did not attend the game, a rarity, and was believed in New Jersey trying to complete the deal.
Panthers 3 Devils 0