PHI VS NJHungry Devils leave Flyers flummoxed

It's all about the will to compete.  

And four games into this Eastern Conference semifinal series, the New Jersey Devils will to compete has driven the Flyers into the ice.  

The Flyers once again were stunned after Sunday's 4-2 loss, saying they can't understand why the Devils are killing them in every aspect of their play.  

The Devils beat the Flyers to every loose puck. If a Flyer gets there, they steal it from him. They deny them entry passes. Or any semblance of getting a forecheck going.  

Their down low pressure and cycle is too much for the Flyers to handle. And the Devils are so hard on the puck, the Flyers run around expending energy they can't recoup.  

"Tonight it was, yeah," said Flyers coach Peter Laviolette of the Devils' willingness to compete harder than his club. 

"They move better they were quicker. They came up with pucks. The speed and quickness which we do things and puck battles have to be at  a higher level." 

Scott Hartnell again seemed baffled after the game. 

"It's just more frustrating the way we're playing,"  Hartnell said. "We're playing soft hockey. We're playing almost scared to take a hit or make a play. We're getting pushed off pucks way to easy and that leads to us more D-zone time. 

"We've got tired D out there, and that's why [they] are looking like they're dominating us. We're making soft, stupid plays. 

"It's shocking to us too, the way we're playing. I've gotta be better. I've gotta count on my centreman to bring his A game and our right winger as well and our D working  together. 

"I don't know if we're spread out or we're just nonchalant. It seems it goes D-to-D and we're just losing pucks. That's when they're coming at us - Parise and Zajac and Henrique and Zubrus. All those guys are fast and strong. It's definitely showing up that they're the better team so far?" 

Even Claude Giroux seems baffled. 

"I don't know what to tell you," Giroux said. "It's frustrating to see. Including myself, we're not winning battles. We're always playing in our zone. We need to find a way to play better." 

 

Giroux's level of frustration in this game exploded at the end of the second period after Dainius Zubrus had capped off a Devils rally with a go-ahead goal, making it 3-2, Devils.

Marty Brodeur played a puck outside the trapezoid without a call and Giroux started arguing with the officials and Patrik Elias coming up ice. He then turned and made a line to Zubrus along the boards, hitting him high in the head and earning a penalty for illegal contact to the head. 

Laviolette said it was frustration spilling over on Giroux's part  because of the non-call on Brodeur. 

"For me, it looks like textbook like the kind of hits we're trying to get out of the game," Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. "I understand Gary Bettman and Bill Daly were here tonight. I'm sure they'll look at that."

 

Should Giroux be suspended? 

"That's for people to make decisions above me," DeBoer replied.

Giroux said he was not trying to injure Zubrus. 

"I was just trying to finish my hit and he kind of leaned in and kind of tried to chip the puck in," Giroux said.

 

"I didn't see the replay, so I don't know. Obviously I'm not a dirty player. I don't want to hit guys on the head. I was just trying to finish my hit there. 

Giroux has no history and that works in his favor as does the fact Zubrus returned to the game in the third period uninjured. 

"He surprised me," Zubrus said. "I don't think the puck was that near, so I was just trying to get in on the forecheck. He decided to play me. I had a similar hit earlier in the year where I felt the point of contact was in the head and it was a similar thing where he didn't get me in the jaw or anything, didn't knock me out, but I still needed a few seconds for sure just to kind of get back to it and get my feet back under me."

Quotable

From Giroux: "We just gotta find a way to play better because right now the way we're playing, we're not going to win any games. We're letting Bryz [Ilya Bryzgalov] play by himself. If it wasn't for him, we would have got killed."