There was no celebration for regaining a share of the division lead again. The Devils squandered another two-goal lead in last night’s shootout loss.
The Devils visit Ottawa tonight, and if they’d held onto their 2-0 edge, or the 3-2 lead they held with 19 seconds left, they would have been trying this evening to pull within one point of Senators, who have led the Eastern Conference since Game 2. Instead, their two-game winning streak is over, and they’ll be dispirited as well as tired tonight.
There was plenty of blame to spread around and Brent Sutter shoved some of it at the feet of rookie David Clarkson, who made two costly errors in the 4-3 shootout loss to the Thrashers last night in Newark.
“Up 2-0, you’d think you’d win. We made two mistakes. That’s what happened,” Sutter said.
“He (Clarkson) didn’t pick up his man coming through the neutral zone, Clarkie, and for the second goal, takes a bad penalty,” Sutter said. “A young hockey player’s mistake.”
It started well for New Jersey when Zach Parise converted a rebound off Johan Hedberg for his 21st to put the Devils in front 17:10 into play. When Brian Gionta scored for the second straight game, 3:09 into the second, victimizing Bobby Holik, who had handed his stick to Ken Klee, the Devils should have been cruising to a third straight victory.
Instead, only 50 seconds later, Ilya Kovalchuk halved the Devils’ lead, literally let off the hook on his stick by John Madden, to slip home Chris Thorburn’s rebound. Clarkson failed to prevent Thorburn’s open shot, and Madden critiqued himself for not staying on Kovalchuk.
Clarkson was serving his second penalty of the night when Todd White evened the score at 11:31 of the second, steering in Mark Recchi’s pass to the front from the right end line.
Madden put the Devils back in front at 7:45 of the third, skating the end zone and shooting from the right side, just behind the end line, off Hedberg’s stick and in off the left post.
Hossa forced OT with 18.1 seconds left in regulation, with Hedberg pulled for a sixth skater. Eric Perrin’s pass from the right side slipped under Brodeur’s right pad, and Hossa shoved it the remaining foot for his 26th.
In the shootout, Pascal Dupuis scored in the 10th round and Arron Asham was unable to answer for Atlanta’s victory.
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Yet another source said yesterday the Devils are trying to deal one of their eight defensemen, probably Johnny Oduya or Andy Greene, for a Top Six rental forward, almost certainly a center. Another figure reiterated Chicago’s Robert Lang as a possibility and good fit, although he has another year on his contract and would probably be more costly.