INGLEWOOD – An ounce of prevention didn’t help.
While some of their shortcomings were being exposed by speedy teams in the past three weeks, the Devils were also being decimated by a more insidious foe, one that could have been a factor in their losses to quicker opponents.
That silent and invisible foe was the flu.
At least eight regulars have been officially diagnosed with viral laryngeal tracheitis in the past six weeks, and as many as a half-dozen others have been felled by something that is at least similar. It amounts to half the team, and counting.
This raises the obvious question of why the Devils don’t give their players flu shots in September.
“I had a flu shot,” said Jason Arnott, who was felled by the ailment anyway last week, but recovered in time to fly into Anaheim to score a goal in the Devils’ 4-3 victory over the Ducks Wednesday.
“It was awful. I couldn’t do anything. I was light-headed, and I couldn’t skate at home. It affected my head and chest, and I had stomach cramps. I was in bed the whole time,” Arnott said.
Arnott’s case backs up the Devils’ flu-shot philosophy. Their doctors believe that flu shots are best used by persons over 45, whose lives could be threatened by the flu. Otherwise, they feel that the injections are risky, and that those who take them could suffer more severe symptoms.
In fact, the Devils’ doctors think that the majority of flu cases admitted to local hospitals lately were patients who had received the shots.
So, the Devils will continue to make the shots available to their players who want them, but they will not recommend their players taking the injections.
Patrik Elias was to sit out his sixth straight game, home in New Jersey with the flu, some 10-12 pounds lighter than he was. Among those who have been ill, in varying degrees, are Ken Daneyko, Scott Stevens, Vadim Sharifijanov, Denis Pederson, Petr Sykora (possibly food poisoning), Jay Pandolfo, Randy McKay, Lyle Odelein, Martin Brodeur and Chris Terreri.
“It has always been the player’s decision [to get the shot],” said Robbie Ftorek, who last night was making his homecoming to the Forum, the rink where he coached the Kings a decade ago.
The Devils were concluding their California trip, after squaring their three-game, four-night caravan in Anaheim, making Dominic Roussel look bad in a game where they had been outplayed early by the Ducks.
Once again, the Devils had all sorts of problems containing speed. Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne ran rampant, and Brodeur gave up a soft goal to Kariya, whose velocity on the left wing may have fooled the goalie into over-covering the short side.
But Roussel was more than able to return the favor. He gave up a 50-footer to Stevens, knocked Arnott’s shanked shot into the net, when it was headed over, and allowed Sykora’s centering pass to go in off him, something Brodeur duplicated for Ted Drury.
The Devils were lucky to gain their first victory of this trip, and only their second in six games, but much of their fortune was because the Ducks didn’t play honest defense, and Roussel did not provide NHL goaltending.
“We’ll take ’em,” Ftorek said. “I don’t know if they got a lot of pretty goals, either. Some of the ones that everyone thought a goalie should have, they didn’t get.”
One of the beneficiaries of Roussel’s largesse was Odelein, who had three assists on the night, setting up Sharifijanov after being stopped twice on grand chances to end his goose-egg in the goals column.
“I can dish, but I sure can’t score,” said Odelein, who shares the Canadiens’ record for assists in a game by a defenseman with Doug Harvey, at five, accomplished in 1993. *After All-Star break, Devils complete their season series with Ottawa at the Meadowlands Tuesday. The Senators have won all three meetings in season series after upsetting Devils in the first round of last year’s playoffs. These three regular-season losses have hit the Devils right in their psyche and damaged their self-image as contenders. They will be hungry Tuesday … Devils killed off all five Anaheim power plays, which Ftorek said was one of the team’s focal points … Last night was Devils’ last visit to the Forum, one of the older rinks that no one will mourn in its passing.
