The New Jersey Devils were flattened by the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight 5-0.  The season, which had been on the rise, was just deflated by Sidney Crosby and his teammates.

Crosby finished with two goals en route to a five nothing thrashing over New Jersey.  He was not the only star for the Pens, as goaltender Danny Sabourin earned his first NHL shutout against Martin Brodeur.  Sabourin faced and defended 20 shots while Brodeur, who saved 19 of 24 shots, was removed from the game in the earlier stages of the third period after allowing his fifth, to Crosby no less.  Kevin Weekes cleaned up the Devils mess, finishing with six saves on six shots.

The Devils continued to struggle when not scoring first (0-6-1), something that head coach Brent Sutter must address in the locker room.  I mean how a team can expect to have success if it continues to struggle in basic components of the game of hockey.  The Devils allowed yet another power play goal, now 12 of 14 this season, in which they have allowed a PP goal.  The only two not of this sort were against the Rangers and season opener at Tampa Bay, games which they lost anyway.

Adam Hall, Petr Sykora and Erik Christensen also scored for Pittsburgh in their rout.  I do not think that anybody expected this, especially a complete rout of a team that was on the rise, 2-0-1 in their last three games before facing Pittsburgh.

I will not trouble you anymore with my feelings and let ESPN take over for me.  The last time the two teams played, the Devils scored five times against a much better goaltender.  They could not score against Danny Sabourin, Tomas Vokoun, Martin Biron, or Henrik Lundqvist earlier in the season.  That’s four shutouts and an additional three games where they only scored one time.  I was confident that Sutter’s offensive style would bring goals to the table, not take them away from the team.  Elias, Gionta, Zubrus, Parise, even the defensemen- nobody is putting the puck in the net…

Special Teams- The Devils allowed another power play goal (Pens 1 for 5 PP), as I mentioned earlier, while they failed to score on their four man advantages.  I believe they are 2-30 or worse in that department, while they slowly drift into the bottom of the league in PP and PK efficiency.

Attendance figures- 14,032 of a possible 17,625.  That's about 80% full tonight.  I would love for people in attendance to let me know how many people they thought were in the arena tonight.

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