Schwei On Ice: Johan Is The Man
By John Schweibacher
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The Devils finished up November with three wins in four games, thanks to the goaltending of Johan Hedberg who also led New Jersey to its first back-to-back victories of the season.
Two of the three wins last week for the Devils and Hedberg came in shootouts. Hedberg is now 18 and 6 all-time in shootouts, the best winning percentage among active NHL goaltenders that have played in at least 10 career tie-breakers:
· Johan Hedberg 18-6 .750
· Mathieu Garon 18-7 .720
· Kari Lehtonen 23-9 .719
· Jaroslav Halak 12-5 .706
· Pekka Rinne 14-6 .700
· Jonathan Quick 15-7 .682
· Martin Brodeur 34-18 .654
· Jose Theodore 15-8 .652
· Rick DiPietro 17-10 .630
· Martin Gerber 10-6 .625
Hedberg actually has "cooled off" in shootouts. The Swedish-born goaltender won his first six NHL tie-breakers while with Dallas and Atlanta before losing one to the Devils on December 2nd, 2007 at Prudential Center. Hedberg would then win nine of his next 11 shootouts to improve his career mark to 15 and 3 through December of 2009. The Devils loss against the Sabres back on November 10th was Hedberg's first ever shootout defeat on home-ice, but last week's pair of tie-breaker wins upped his career mark at home to 10 and 1.
(Thanks to nhlshootouts.com for its help in providing the shootout info.)
In addition to his shootout wins, Hedberg also registered his 1st shutout for New Jersey, 5-0, over the Capitals last week. It was the first time a Devils goalie other than Martin Brodeur shut out any opponent since February 13th, 2009, when Scott Clemmensen defeated the Bruins 1-0. No New Jersey goaltender other than Brodeur had blanked the Capitals since November 13th, 1992, when Craig Billington and the Devils beat Washington, 2-0.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Hedberg's shutout was just the 14th by a New Jersey goalie other than Martin Brodeur since Brodeur collected the first of his NHL-record 112 back on October 20th, 1993. Here are the shutout totals for the now six Devils goaltenders other than Brodeur who have posted shutouts:
· Scott Clemmensen 4
· Mike Dunham 3
· Chris Terreri 3
· Corey Schwab 2
· John Vanbiesbrouck 1
· Johan Hedberg 1
Colin White begins the week three games shy of 700 for his NHL career. Only four defenseman have appeared in more career games as New Jersey Devils:
· Ken Daneyko 1283
· Scott Stevens 956
· Scott Niedermayer 892
· Bruce Driver 702
· Colin White 697
The Devils have already used 11 defenseman this season but other than White and Andy Greene, none of them have played the equivalent of one full-season (82 games) for New Jersey. Here is how they rank in career games played for New Jersey:
· Colin White 697
· Andy Greene 233
· Mark Fraser 72
· Henrik Tallinder 24
· Matt Corrente 22
· Matt Taormina 17
· Olivier Magnan 16
· Anton Volchenkov 12
· Tyler Eckford 7
· Alexander Urbom 7
· Mark Fayne 4
Mattias Tedenby scored a penalty-shot goal for the Devils in their 5-0 win over the Capitals last week. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Tedenby was only the third rookie in Scouts/Rockies/Devils history to take a penalty shot. The first two were Rocky Trottier (Bryan's younger brother), who scored against Edmonton on December 17th, 1984, and John Madden, who was stopped at Nashville on February 29th, 2000. Trottier's penalty-shot tally was the first ever attempted by a player in a Devils' uniform and it came in a 5-2 victory against the defending Stanley Cup champion Oilers, New Jersey's first-ever win over Edmonton. Madden' miss came against one-time Devils' goaltender, Mike Dunham in a 2-1 New Jersey win over the Predators.
The Devils begin the month of December with a home-ice contest against the Montreal Canadiens before heading to Pennsylvania for a pair of Atlantic Division road games against the Flyers and Penguins.
Martin Brodeur shut out the Canadiens in Montreal back on October 21st in the lone meeting so far this season between the Habs and New Jersey. The 3-0 win was Brodeur's 9th career shutout against his home-town team, just one shy of the most Brodeur owns against any NHL opponent:
· NY Islanders 10
· Montreal 9
· Philadelphia 9
· Carolina/Hartford 8
· NY Rangers 8
The Devils face the Flyers Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. Last week, the demolition began on the Flyers former home, the Spectrum. New Jersey went 14-26-6 all-time against Philadelphia at the Spectrum in 14 NHL seasons from 1982-83 through 1995-96 and won all three of the playoff games played between the two clubs in their lone post-season series meeting back in 1995. The Devils are 17-17-5 at the Flyers' new home, now known as the Wells Fargo Center, 3 and 6 in the post-season.
New Jersey makes its first visit to the Penguins new home arena, Consol Energy Center, Monday night. The Devils took all three games in Pittsburgh last season, the Penguins' last at the Igloo. New Jersey went 45-33-3 against Pittsburgh all-time at Civic Arena, 7 and 8 in the playoffs.
Schwei's Plus/Minus:
Minus: Road Woes: Devils have dropped four straight games away from home. New Jersey's first four wins of the season had come on the road.
Plus: Home sweet Home. After starting season 0-5-2 on home-ice, Devils have won four in a row at The Rock.
Minus: Road Power-play: New Jersey has gone 0-for its last-23 with the man-advantage away from home and has gone just 1-for-43 on the road so far this season; Andy Greene's PP goal in San Jose nine away games ago.
Plus: Johan Hedberg. Stoped 113 of 117 shots as Devils go 3-1-0 over four games, holding the two highest scoring teams in the NHL, Washington and Philadelphia, to just one goal combined.
