Devils 3
Flyers 0
They trashed the high-flying Flyers, these Devils who are looking for a coach, looking over their shoulders at the GM in what started as emergency mode.
Today would be the perfect, logical time to bring in the new coach, giving him three days to work his wonders before the Devils play next. It still could happen, but looks unlikely now that they’ve won four straight and turned around their season.
The coaching question was left to simmer after last night’s 3-0 shutout of the division-leading Flyers at the Meadowlands gave the Devils their longest winning streak of the season.
“When we were looking at the schedule, it looked like after the Philly game might be the time, three days to get used to the new guy. But now, who knows?” Martin Brodeur asked after he passed Tony Esposito with his 77th career shutout for seventh place all-time.
The speculation continues regarding who will take over from interim coach Lou (6-5) Lamoriello – or when. Skeptics doubt that Brent Sutter would leave the junior team he part-owns, but he’s surely the leading candidate, and the Devils might not be the only possible suitor. Rick Dudley remains the other prime possibility, while Dave Lewis and Paul Maurice seem to have dropped from contention.
Instead, Lamoriello might just ride this streak until he loses, letting this era of good feeling grow.
“They should feel good right now about themselves,” Lamoriello said. “But they can’t feel too good because of the position we find ourselves in.
“They deserve tremendous credit because of the way they handled extenuating circumstances the past month.”
In addition to boosting their own self-esteem, they tarnished the Flyers’ league-best road record, handing Philly its first regulation road loss (9-0-2) since Nov. 14.
“This stretch has done a lot for our confidence. We’ve seen what we can do when we play as a team. And this was a big step for us,” Jamie Langenbrunner said.
It was like the old days, Flyer fans en masse helping make a respectable crowd of 16,016, the partisans vocal and, finally, fistic. It was also different from recent times, the Flyers having won nine of their previous 10 meetings including playoffs.
Zach Parise gave the Devils the lead at 14:47 of the first, converting the scrap from a broken power play attack. As their break-in broke down at the left boards, the puck came to Patrik Elias near the right point and he found Brian Gionta leading the race to the net through the left circle. Gionta lost control as he deked Antero Niittymaki, but regained the puck in the right corner, centering to the right corner of the crease, where Parise put away the sixth of his career.
Langenbrunner made it 2-0 with his second in as many games, scoring New Jersey’s second power play goal of the evening with a left circle slap past Niittymaki’s glove at 11:42 of the second.
Scott Gomez stretched his point streak to seven games on Langenbrunner’s goal, then extended the Devils’ lead to 3-0 with his eighth goal in that stretch, 8:08 into the third.
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Devils fell 5-2 Oct. 7 and 2-1 Nov. 30 in Philly this season. Alex Mogilny, still awaiting assignment after clearing waivers, shared team lead with Paul Martin with two points in those first two meetings. . . . Lamoriello said Mogilny’s limbo situation “won’t go beyond the next day or so.” . . . Sean Brown and Darren Langdon were Devils’ scratches.