The Devils were facing a must-win situation tonight in Philadelphia. Down 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, New Jersey was looking to even up the series and head back to the Rock with home-ice advantage regained.
Unfortunately, the Devils came out flat, and got embarrassed on Philadelphia ice by the Flyers—the same team that made it into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season by the hair on their chinny chin chin—by the score of 4-1.
Unfortunate, yet not exactly unexpected. The Devils have not eclipsed the second round since their most recent Stanley Cup championship in 2003, and they haven't been able to escape the first round since moving into the Prudential Center.
The frustrations are legitimate. How are the Devils not taking advantage of the frequent power play opportunities right in front of them? New Jersey went 1-for-8 on the power play in Game 4, and are 4-for-24 in the series thus far.
If the power play isn't clicking, quite often the offense as a cohesive unit isn't as well, and that's very true in this series. The Devils didn't score a single even strength goal in Game 3 or Game 4. Ilya Kovalchuk, ...
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Article written by Doug Gausepohl
NHL Playoffs: New Jersey Devils Are As Close to Done As Done Gets
April 20th, 2010 by Doug Gausepohl Leave a reply »
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