The Pittsburgh Penguins ensured that more will be said about a New Jersey Devil’s collapse with a 6-1 win on Wednesday night. The Penguins, knowing the pressure was on the Devils to pull out a win, jumped on the scoreboard early with 2 goals and essentially controlled the flow of the game from then on. Brian Gionta managed to end the Devils scoring drought with a goal in the first, but the lack of a capable defense and offense led to a shooting contest for Pittsburgh.
The offense of the Devils put up a meager 24 shots to go with the lone goal which translated to an easy night for Marc-Andre Fleury. Sidney Crosby continued his point streak to 16 games with a goal and assist and is just 1 point shy of 100 points on the year. Evgeni Malkin also was a huge factor, dominating the game when he was on the ice and had a power-play goal.
The highlight of the game for Devil fans had to be Brent Sutter walking across the ice to yell at the refs. Now Sutter had a good reason to be yelling as Hal Gill came off the bench at the end of the period and went after Clarkson who had been in a scrum with Crosby earlier. Sutter’s complaint was that a brawl could have broke out because the ref’s didn’t have things in order, which is true but it is still sad to see that Sutter has more intensity than the rest of the team. Maybe Dainus Zubrus will finally wake up after being knocked around the entire game yesterday.
There were a few questionable or missed calls from the game last night. Zach Parise was struck in the face with a stick in front of a ref but there was no call. The Mike Rupp penalty that led to Sidney Crosby’s goal in the 2nd was very questionable but the fact of the matter is even with the missed calls the Devils would have lost. The Devils have been outscored 22-7 during this six game losing streak and the offense was anemic again last night.
Brent Sutter said after the game that this Penguins team is a “different team” and he is definitely right. The Devils, with 98 points and the Atlantic Division lead currently, need to start checking their rear-view mirror for the red hot Penguins with 92 points. The Devils are going to have to turn things around Friday night at home against Tampa Bay. The night should bring a decent crowd as the Devils are honoring Martin Brodeur for setting the all-time wins record.
Here’s a video of Clarkson putting down Guerin in hopes to cheer Devil’s nation up (It seemed like Clarkson and Guerin both said something along the lines of “good fight” to each other after which is pretty cool):
