TORONTO – That sudden Goal-Every-Game line added two more. Trouble was, nobody else did.
And now the Devils hit the road for 12 of their final 19, where they’ll be unable to escape top checking, beginning here last night against the Maple Leafs, the start of a five-game road trip.
Brian Gionta, whose installation Feb. 11 on right wing with Scott Gomez and Patrik Elias created this GEG explosion, scored his 18th of the season, and Elias his team-leading 28th Friday, but it wasn’t enough.
The Devils’ three-game winning streak ended in a 3-2 Meadowlands loss to the Thrashers, who played without superstar Ilya Kovalchuk, a disciplinary scratch for missing the team bus to Friday morning’s skate.
Last night, they were struck by disciplinary action themselves, expecting to face the Leafs without tough winger Grant Marshall, ejected Friday with a match penalty for deliberate injury on Ben Simon. Marshall was automatically suspended pending league review.
That loss to Atlanta was one of those games-in-hand the Devils had on the Atlantic-leading Flyers, one against an out-of-hope team, one they needed to win. They entered yesterday trailing the Flyers by five points with only two games in hand, meaning they trailed by more than just the schedule.
The loss in Pat Burns’ 1,000th NHL game as a head coach overshadowed the continued blitz by the GEG boys.
Gionta stood 7-3-10 in the nine games they’d been together, despite rarely seeing power play time with Gomez and Elias. Gomez stood 3-14-17 in those nine, and Elias 8-9-17. Gomez brought a six-game point streak and Elias a four-game goal streak into last night.
Now, Gomez is receiving extra attention. He was checked through the gate onto the Thrashers’ bench Friday, and wound up in a scuffle with Jeff Cowan, among others.
“A couple of guys were jabbing at me, saying they were helping me up. Well, I got up and let him know I was helping him up,”Gomez said.
Burns took no solace from the NHL milestone trophy, the top-shelf guitar or the painting he received in a ceremony before that 1,000th game.
“It was great, but it’s the game that’s important,”Burns said. “I’m disappointed we lost.
The Devils may have been looking ahead to last night and taken Atlanta lightly without Kovalchuk. They had nothing of the edge that saw them outscore their three previous foes 18-6.
“They were hitting us. They’re allowed to hit. That’s part of the game,”Burns said.
So are road trips, and they will determine whether the Devils receive the favorable seed that helped them win the Cup last season.