Devil of a game

It’s been a bumpy start for the New Jersey Devils, who won only two of their first 10 games and, in a couple of them, had to dress fewer than 23 players because of salary-cap issues. The Devils put together a 2-1 victory over Anaheim last night, as future Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur stopped 27 of 28 shots, and Kings coach Terry Murray said he was impressed by the way the Devils improved in that game.

MURRAY: “They got better later, as the game went along. They changed a lot of lines, a lot of D pairs. They score what ends up being the game-winning goal, and the game really started to get going. They were skating better and just doing the stuff that the New Jersey Devils do, shutting things down on the defensive part of the game with a one-goal game. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready to match the intensity right away.”

Then there’s Brodeur. The four-time Vezina Trophy winner is 38 years old but isn’t slowing down. Brodeur has appeared in all 11 games for the Devils this season, either as the starter or in a relief role.

MURRAY: “He can have an effect on you emotionally, going into the game as a player, where you’re going to hold on and try to make one more play, looking for something better because you want to feel there is nothing there. That will talked about. It’s very important that you put a lot of pucks to the net against the New Jersey Devils. They’ve been noted as one of the premier defensive clubs over the last decade. Any time you have a time that is structurally as sound as they are, you just get the pucks to the net. That breaks down the defending team. Now you’ve got to turn around and face your net. Now there are loose pucks and rebounds, and the people in front of Marty now become more of a normal look, where you can take advantage of it, hopefully. But he’s a great goaltender, probably the best goaltenders who has ever played the game, so we’re going to have to really focus on doing the right stuff offensively, with net presence. We’ve got to get traffic on him. When he sees the puck, it’s going to be stopped, so our screens in front of him are going to be very important tonight.”

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