New Jersey Devils star Zach Parise said Tuesday that the Devils “still feel pretty good” despite Monday’s 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers in Game 1 of the 2012 NHL Playoff Eastern Conference Finals.
“That game could have gone both ways, and we just didn’t play well enough for a long enough period of time. And that was a big difference. But we feel really comfortable with the way we played. I think we still have to be much better, and we will be,” Parise said. “This is not‑‑ it’s not an easy game playing against them. They make you work for everything. You have to be prepared to be hit and to create scoring chances the hard way, because they don’t give you anything easy.”
Parise said the Devils need to do a better job of creating traffic in front of Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
“I think you always preach the same thing, get in their sight lines. Every goalie is good enough now where they’re going to stop it if they see it,” Parise said. “We’ve have to do a better job getting in front of him and jumping on those rebounds.”