The Eastern Conference's six seed, the New Jersey Devils, beat the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime on Thursday night, giving them a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Despite the win, John Fischer of In Lou We Trust, questioned whether or not the Devils actually played well.
In the biggest picture, it's hard to say whether the Devils deserved this. Don't misunderstand me, I'm quite happy they won. I just wonder whether we can say they played a good game. They came out hard and played a great first period. They were pretty good in the third. They out-shot the Flyers at evens 28-23 and overall 31-28. The Flyers had little answer for Ilya Kovalchuk and Travis Zajac tonight. The team as a whole (except for the fourth line) ruled in shooting attempts, as the Devils put up a +13 Fenwick and a +16 Corsi. A margin that big usually means the Devils had an edge. Even when the Devils made mistakes, like the seemingly constant trouble with clearing the puck in the second period, the Flyers just didn't get to take full advantage on most cases. Plus, it helped that Bryzgalov didn't have such a great night in net.
Game 4 is scheduled for Sunday.
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