Marty definitely looked locked in last night.
Well it looked like the Devils’ gooses were cooked. They blew a 2-0 lead on what could be considered a lucky goal with 26 seconds left. That would have deflated any normal team. However, these are the Devils. They got up off the mat and in the second overtime, Jamie Langenbrunner delivered on a breakway 1:58 in…and now the series is tied headed to Ottawa.
Dany Heatley has killed the Devils this series and it looks like Madden and Pandolfo are in an early series funk. Thankfully Martin Brodeur snapped out of his a little early and delivered a 43 save performance that was star worthy (I had him as my first star honestly…Heatley 2nd and Langenbrunner 3rd). The Devils really hammered Ottawa in the first 20 minutes but spent the next 60 battling a Code Red before the Devs rallied in overtime number two. Langenbrunner had at least 5 great scoring chances before the GWG…and that is a dilemma for the Devs as they go onward…finishing what they started.
The bigger key may be the scoring chances however.
They should look at Ottawa as a lesson learned when you don’t jam the skate in the other team’s throat…expect it to bite you in the arse. The Devils will have a considerable storm to weather in Game 3 but the Devils have won in Ottawa before…everyone knows about Game 7 in 2003…but they did win another game in that series as well. Brodeur will be a huge reason why this team succeeds as always but they need a healthy Elias and well he didn’t look quite 100% last night. Hopefully tomorrow night, the EGG will return to its full glory so it may take some of the scoring slack off the ZZ Pop line.
The key is all in the scoring chances…the Devils just have to finish theirs better. If they can, they can take control of the series. If not, they may have to rely too much on Marty and that is too much to ask for…..even for a great Hall of Fame goalie.
