PHILADELPHIA — The $100 Million Man says “enough.” Ilya Kovalchuk declared yesterday he is taking responsibility for reviving the disastrous Devils’ power play.
“It starts with me. Somebody has to take charge and just shoot,” Kovalchuk said as the Devils prepped for this afternoon’s crucial meeting with the Flyers “Our power play is embarrassing. We’ve got all the talent in the world and we can’t even get into the [offensive] zone.”
On the road, the Devils’ power play is worse than embarrassing, scoring once all season in 43 tries. It also has allowed a shorthanded goal, leaving them net-zero in more than a full game’s worth of extra-man play. It’s a wonder the Devils have won four of 13 road games that way, not so much that they have lost their past four on the road.
Kovalchuk has one power-play goal among his piddling four this season, a 4-on-3 overtime winner at home against the Oilers on Nov. 12. Andy Greene owns the Devils’ lone road power-play goal — in an Oct. 27 loss in San Jose. Since then, the Devils have squandered 27 chances in eight road games.
The Devils desperately need a spark after their latest uptick of winning three of four matches was doused by Thursday’s 5-1 loss to the Canadiens. Worse, that game showed what might have happened in their 2-1 shootout triumph over the Flyers last Saturday in Newark if Johan Hedberg had not be spectacular in net.
Hedberg yielded two scores in 98 seconds to the Habs and the Devils trailed by a handful before Jason Arnott’s shutout-breaker. Hedberg is expected to face the Flyers today.
John MacLean, back on the hot seat, yesterday forced his team to watch tape of Thursday’s loss, and no one seemed to enjoy the screening.
“What was said should hit home with a lot of guys,” Jamie Langenbrunner said.
MacLean, who said he would have liked to have benched nine players Thursday, reverted yesterday to the lines that started but did not finish that debacle.
“A lot of the stuff [Thursday] wasn’t lines and systems — it was minds and battles,” MacLean said.
The MacLean Watch is on, and it is more than surprising that general manager Lou Lamoriello hasn’t made some move to shake up his team. But with this visit and a Monday trip to Pittsburgh, the Devils are reaching a breaking point, and failure to win at least one of these two might bring down this regime.
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MacLean said Martin Brodeur did not skate yesterday, but he might today. He has missed eight of the past 11 games because of a bruised right elbow.
