Take it out of each of their paychecks because a game like this is just unacceptable.

Sure, after the game, each Ranger was saying how their play was a disgrace, but the loyal Garden fans deserve more from this. If the Rangers don’t want to compete at home, the fans need something for their efforts.

And Giant-like apologies just won’t do it.

“There was nothing good about the game,” said center Brandon Dubinsky. “I’m not going to hide under a rock, though.”

Fine, they all were there in the dressing room after the match fielding answers to the questions. Each Ranger, though, has a certain responsibility to come in and play hard every night, especially at home. They owe the fans that. To do any less is a disgrace to the uniform they wear and tarnishes every great who wore the Ranger sweater since 1926.

“Everyone had a bad game on the same night,” Christopher Higgins said when asked about the game, but this is more than that, you have to wonder why the Rangers performed like this, especially after the mockery of a game just two weeks ago against the Islanders.

After that game, John Tortorella was livid, but tonight was more reserved.

“If we have to go with a coach losing his mind making an idiot out of himself every five games then we are beating our heads against the wall,” Tortorella said. “It can’t be that way. We have to find some consistency. I think we played pretty well Islander game.

“Guys, I am being honest with you, I don’t have an answer on why we played the game tonight the way we did. I thought we practiced well, I thought we got enough rest and they were in good spirits. I just don’t know why.”

Neither do the 18,200 fans, all of whom deserve their money back. At least they got treated to the NHL debut of Chad Johnson, the 23 year-old backup goalie, who stopped 17 of 20 shots on the night after coming in for Henrik Lundqvist to start the second period.  Although Simon Gagne was able to score on the first shot Johnson faced, thanks to a turnover by Dubinsky, the rookie hung in there.

“I thought he settled in, made some good saves,” Tortorella said. “It’s a tough position for a kid to come into his first game into this storm or whatever you call it.”

Fortunately the Rangers are able to play tomorrow, so they won’t have to sit and mull over this game. And maybe they can ring out this bad 2009 with some sort of win and maybe put this game behind them.

And maybe the fans will forget this game too.

Martin Brodeur has done just that, appearing in his 1,000^th career game Saturday night to open the New Jersey Devils’ 2009-2010 season.

Opening the new year at home, the Devils lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2.

Brodeur saw a lot of action early in the game, as the Flyers out-shot the devils 5-1 in the first six minutes of the game.

The Flyers struck first, when Jeff Carter fired from the right faceoff circle off of a pass from Scott Hartnell at 15:47 in the first period.

Despite plenty of chances to even the score, including two 5-on-3 opportunities, the Devils found it very difficult to keep the puck in the offensive zone and rotate lines efficiently.

“That was probably the most negative in our game tonight, long shifts by different groups,” Devils’ coach Jacques Lemaire said.  “Because after, you don’t have that energy, especially in the first game.”

Philadelphia then used the momentum of penalty kills to add to their lead.

New Jersey native James van Riemsdyk sent a pass from the left blueline to Ian Laperriere, who took a wide-angle shot from the right faceoff circle that flew past Brodeur nine minutes into the second period.

Mike Richards put the Flyers up 3-0 six minutes later. Richards dumped the puck into the zone to Matt Carle. Carle sent the puck around the back boards and Richards picked up the puck and banged it off of Brodeur’s left leg pad, where it flipped into the top of the net.

Fans began to leave 7:34 into the third period when Darroll Powe fired a routine shot from the left faceoff circle that riccoted off of Brodeur’s mitt and into the far corner of the net. With his second assist of the game, van Riemsdyk notched his third point of his two-game-long NHL career.

The Devils maintained a shot lead over the Flyers for most of the game, but the visitors took advantage of the opportunities given.

New Jersey got on the board 9:44 into the final period when Philadelphia took a too-many-men penalty. Brian Rolston moved in from the point to the left faceoff circle and fired a dart into the net behind Flyers’ goalie Ray Emery.

Nicholas Bergfors and Dainius Zubrus were credited with the assists.

Any thought of a comeback was squashed at 11:13 when Matt Carle skated cleanly into the offensive zone and shot a puck that deflected off of Brodeur’s leg bad.

The Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner restored some energy to the building when he and Zubrus combined on a 2-on-1 short-handed breakaway. Langenbrunner fired five hole and Emery was unable to stop the puck.

“The best thing out of this game, I thought the guys kept playing, even though they took a big league,” Lemaire said.  “The guys were positive on the bench and talking about ‘don’t let up’ and working, and ‘we’ll get goals’.”

Brodeur stopped 22 of the 27 shots he faced, and Emery stopped 24 of the 26 shots aimed in his direction.

Had the Devils won, it would have been Lemaire’s 200^th career coaching victory.

New Jersey has another opportunity to get the milestone win for Lemaire against another Atlatic Division foe Monday in the second game of the season when the New York Rangers visit the Prudential Center at 7 p.m.

While the Sound Tigers are initiating its run for the Calder Cup championship, the Islanders will be planning for next season, starting with the NHL’s draft in which the Isles are assured of a   top-two pick after clinching the league’s worst record.

After losing the last two games by a combined 15-1, the Isles produced a far more competitive effort against Atlantic Division-rival Philadelphia before the Flyers erased a one-goal deficit en route to a 3-2 Saturday afternoon victory.  The Islanders will conclude the regular season Sunday against the Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins.

Closing the season with back-to-back home games looked to be a positive for coach Scott Gordon, whose club finished the road slate 9-29-3 yet can finish the campaign with a record greater than .500 at home if they can beat a Bruins squad that will likely rest its top players in a meaningless game.

“We played way better and smarter today. It was a better effort but at the end of the day, it’s a loss,” defenseman Mark Streit said. “We played some good hockey over awhile and then we lost it. We’re missing consistency in our game and if you want to make the playoffs, you need to play consistent. We’re not doing that yet.”

Simon Gagne epitomized the difference between the two clubs. The forward broke a deadlock and netted his 35^th goal at the 16:19 mark of the second period for what proved to be the game winner. Joffrey Lupul netted his 25^th goal on a power play chance 5:03 into the second, giving him three goals in the past two games against the Isles while also becoming the sixth Flyer to score 25 or more goals this season.

That figure underscored the Islanders season-long scores problems.  Rookie Kyle Okposo is the leading scorer with 18 and unless he finishes with a multi-goal game against Boston, the Isles will not have a 20-goal scorer for the first time in history.

Okposo provided some sparse good news for the home team, returning to the lineup after a groin injury suffered April 1 in Washington sidelined him for four games. He logged three shots in playing 22:01.

“It came back pretty naturally. I was only out for a week,” Okposo said. “After that first shift, it was easy. Our line had some good chances. I took a couple of bad penalties that I shouldn’t have.”

Added Gordon: “He played well. I’m sure he would’ve liked to get a couple more opportunities but his skating was fine and we’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

Mike Knuble scored the Flyers second goal on the power play 10:51 into the second as Philadelphia finished 2-3 with the man advantage. Tim Jackman responded by re-tying the game at 2 just 4:36 later before Gagne bested  goalie Yann Danis 52 seconds after Jackman’s goal to extend the Islanders losing streak to three.

Gagne took Mike Richard’s blue line-pass, waited a beat to allow Bruno Gervais to skate past him, and blasted a wrist shot that beat Danis (24 saves) off the stick side for a 3-2 edge.

“We didn’t give up a lot of chances five-on-five,” Gordon said. “The difference in the game is the special teams. Our special teams have struggled over the last 10 games with both power play and penalty kill.”

Sean Bergenheim continued his hot play, netting his eighth goal in his past nine games to open the scoring 14:06 into the game. Doug Weight fired a deft left circle pass that Bergenheim deflected with his backhand between Martin Biron’s pads to the delight of most of the announced sell-out crowd.

Biron’s only mistake came off a Philadelphia defensive-zone turnover, allowing Jackman to corral the puck and fire a short-side shot that nestled inside the left post. Biron finished with 30 saves.

The Islanders fell to 26-46-9 and entered the contest with 568 man-games lost to injury.

“Obviously it would be nice to play healthy once in awhile,” Streit said. “It never happened this year. With a very young team, you have to [gain] experience. Hopefully next year we’re going to be better and improve in certain areas.”

Notes: Before the game, Weight was awarded the the Islanders’ Good Guy Award for his cooperation with the media…There were no fights in the game, compared to the four the last time the teams met on the Coliseum ice March 28.

“Congratulations to the players,” said head coach John Tortorella in the postgame press conference. “They have fought through it the past couple of months here, [through] ups and downs, lots of things going on around the team-but they found a way. They set themselves up to win one more home game to get in and they got it accomplished.”

The Rangers did all their scoring in the first period, drawing first blood after only eight seconds of play on a contentious goal that probably should have been called off. Markus Naslund stole the puck in the Flyers zone and, after passing to Ryan Callahan via Chris Drury, rushed the net where he would up jamming it past Philadelphia goaltender Martin Biron. After reviewing the play, the officials let the goal stand, presumably because there was no hard evidence that Biron had covered the puck before Naslund struck it.

The early goal was exactly what the Garden crowd ordered. Even before the puck dropped the noise was comparable, if not louder, than it had been at nearly any point this season, including Adam Graves night.

Fired on by the crowd, the Rangers doubled their lead at 12:06 of the opening period. Callahan got his 22^nd goal of the season, tipping in a Derek Morris slap shot from the blue line. “Mo shot from the point, I tried to get a stick on it and was lucky enough to,” Callahan said about the goal. “That was really big to get two quick ones. It kinda calmed us down a bit.”

The Rangers clearly owned the first period and could have led by three or even four goals. But Morris picked up a tripping penalty late in the period and New York was forced to start the second with a man disadvantage. The Flyers dominated the powerplay and, though they did not get a goal, clearly took control of the tempo of the game. Daniel Briere’s powerplay goal at 9:14 was the logical consequence. The Rangers had clearly lost steam and were pinned in to their end most of the period. Only in the final minutes did they appear to get back on their feet.

The catalyst was once more Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers All Star goalie, who simply got better as the game wore on. The Swedish backstop faced 38 shots on the night, saving all but one. The most spectacular-a glove save from point blank range-came at 4:28 of the final period, when the Blueshirts were struggling to hang in the game. “I don’t know if it was the turning point,” Lundqvist said when the idea was suggested to him afterwards. “As a goalie, when it’s a 2-1 game, it’s fun because every save can be the difference…I did my job and here we are.”

The final minutes were tense and the Rangers also got lucky, with the post and crossbar sparing the team the equalizing goal. New York also had to face another shorthanded situation, when Markus Naslund was called for interfering with Biron, but managed to kill the penalty. In the final two minutes, the Rangers forecheckers did their job superbly, keeping Philadelphia from advancing past neutral ice and preventing John Stevens from pulling his goaltender for an extra skater. The final minute was pure bedlam; the Garden crowd on its feet, Rangers players throwing themselves into shots.

“We fought it for a little bit there. We were under siege for awhile,” said Tortorella. “But we just kept on fighting and tried to figure out some way to get through the game and win it.”

Mission accomplished. After firing Tom Renney Feb. 23, the team has gone 11-7-2 under Tortorella. Would the Rangers have made the playoffs with Renney? “Who knows? That’s one of those questions you’ll never know,” said Scott Gomez.

Notes: By a unanamous vote, Renney was named this year’s Good Guy for his cooperation with the media, as voted on by the New York chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, while Henrik Lundqvist was named team MVP.

Martin Brodeur, Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Gionta all achieved career milestones in a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday afternoon.

Brodeur reached the 100 career shutout plateau, only the second goaltender ever to reach that mark. He was stellar Sunday, stopping 27 shots in his third game back from injury.

Brodeur now has three shutouts to go before tying Terry Sawchuk’s all-time record, and six wins away from tying Patrick Roy’s all-time wins record.

“It’s remarkable. It really is,” said Devils Coach Brent Sutter. “Marty is a special player and he’s been able to rise to the occasion.”

His teammates also rose to the occasion against the Flyers, treating the crowd to a fast start for the third game in a row.

Nearly four minutes into the game, Zach Parise found Langenbrunner in the left circle and Langenbrunner put the puck in the net for his 200th career goal.

The Devils’ offense was sparked by the defensemen moving the puck up the ice more aggressively than opponents are used to.

“Good defense is good offense, and good defense isn’t just when you’re in your own zone. Good defense is how you play in your zone but also how you forecheck and how you create opportunities in your offensive zone,” explained Sutter.

Thirty-seven seconds into the second period, Johnny Oduya rifled a shot and Brian Gionta was able to redirect the shot behind Flyers goalie Martin Biron for his 300^th career point.

“Johnny made a great play getting it through to the net. It makes things a lot easier for us when the D is getting it through. Just tried to get in position and tipped it by him,” described Gionta.

Oduya, playing plus-nine hockey during the three-game homestand along with Paul Martin, was rewarded for his aggressive offensive play in the third period.

Brendan Shanahan dug the puck out of the corner and fed a wide-open David Clarkson in the middle of the ice. Clarkson saw Oduya flying up the ice and made a tape-to-tape pass, allowing Oduya to get past the last defender and fire a shot from the slot. Biron could not get to the puck in time.

Biron made 39 saves on 42 shots Sunday when every Devils player on the ice with the exception of Bryce Salvador got a shot on goal. Parise, Gionta and Langenbrunner each had five scoring attempts.

On the other end, the Devils blocked 15 shots, including five by Oduya and three by Salvador.

Brodeur only saw 27 shots, including only six in the second period.

“He does a good job stopping that first one, then it’s up to us to let him see it or not let it go through at all, and when it happens to go through he does a good job getting it to places where we can get it, and we’re trying to get the puck up and out of the zone as quick as we can,” Martin said about playing in front of Brodeur.

Despite the small amount of shots Brodeur faced, he was more challenged against Philadelphia than he had been the previous two games.

In the first period, about half way through, Brodeur found himself on the left post as the puck was being moved around to his right side. He dove over onto his right side to stop the puck, leaping off of his skates and landing hard on the ice.

At 15:42 in the first, Scottie Upshall of the Flyers tested Brodeur from the right wing, and was able to try again on the rebound, but Brodeur stopped both shots.

At 14:14 in the third period, Brodeur made a terrific save on Mike Knuble, twisting his body to entrap the puck. The Devils turned the puck over right in front of the net, and

Knuble swiped it up and put it on goal from the left post.

As the final horn sounded, the Devils soaked up the cheers of the home crowd for the last time until March 10, when they return from a road trip to face the Calgary Flames.

The Devils were 1-2 on their last road trip, getting shut out twice.

“We weren’t happy with the Southern road trip obviously, those three games we didn’t play very well. But this week we’ve been playing pretty good hockey and so we just have to carry it through,” Gionta said.

If the Devils are able to continue the current level of play, expect them to roar straight through to the playoffs.

This is just the way the sports business goes these days as Therrien took the fall for the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins, after leading his team to the Stanley Cup finals last season.

“I owe it to the franchise and the organization to take the steps necessary that I think are best, and that’s what led me to do what I did,” Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero said about the change.

Therrien will be replaced by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Dan Bylsma and it will be his job to turn around the Penguins.

The Pens are in worse shape than the Rangers. They currently sit tenth in the conference with 59 points with no sign of pepping up. But the Rangers are in a free-fall, with 66 points and sixth in the conference. The Blueshirts have just one win in the last eight games and some of the losses have been brutal.

Yet, none are as bad as yesterday’s 5-2 drubbing by the Philadelphia Flyers, where the Rangers let in a 5-on-3 shorthanded goal in the second period. The team is looking lost, and Renney may be the next coach to get the ax if something doesn’t turn around quickly.

“I take full responsibility for where this team is right now,” Renney said. “It comes with the position so my job is to correct this, get us winning, and getting us feeling better about ourselves.”

Renney is just trying to be captain of the ship and it’s not his fault that the personnel on the club have not jelled. This past summer it was general manager Glen Sather who gave the foolish contract to Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival has shown he’s not a $5 million a year player.

And when they signed Scott Gomez and Chris Drury in 2007, it was to have them play with front-line wings like Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan. As we have seen this season, neither can step up with the spotlight shine upon them.

Also, can you blame Renney for Sather signing so many back-end forwards? Dan Fritche was a bust and Aaron Voros has not become Sean Avery, who now may be back in a few weeks. Patrick Rissmiller was so bad that no team wanted him on waivers, although the cost would be minimal.

Frankly, the only reason why the team has a sixth place standing is the play of Henrik Lundqvist, who has been hung out to dry too many times by his defense.

Even the Ranger players don’t want to see their coach fall. “They’re not the ones on the ice,” Drury said of Sather and Renney. “We put the jerseys on. They give us guidelines on what our system is on what the scouring report is on what the game plan is [but] we’ve got to execute it. Clearly, a 5-2 loss at home we’re not executing.”

So you can’t blame Renney, but unfortunately he may not get a chance to turn it around. Although unfair, a coaching change may have to take place, with assistant general manager Jim Schoenfeld possibly taking the bench. A new voice may make the team respond in a positive way. It has worked in the past for a number of clubs, including the Mets last summer when Jerry Manuel took over for Willie Randolph.

It’s unfortunately if Renney does take the fall. He has done a tremendous job with the Rangers over the past three seasons and now – as this space has advocated in the past – deserves to have a chance to turn around the team.

But if Therrien’s firing teaches us anything, it’s that every coach is one step away from the unemployment line.

The Rangers entered the second period down 1-0 with a man advantage. Jeff Carter was sent to the penalty box after 19 seconds to give the Blueshirts a 5-on-3 powerplay and a golden opportunity to even the score. Instead, Flyers captain Mike Richards managed to score for the visitors, delivering a blow from which the Rangers never recovered. Philadelphia scored three more times before the period was over, to take a 5-0 lead and effectively put the game out of reach.

“You get in a 5-on-3, you’re down one, a big point in the game, it ends up in your net, it’s not good,” a visibly dejected Chris Drury said after the game. “That goal was a killer, no question,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who had one of his worst nights as a Ranger. Lundqvist saved just 10 of 14 shots before being pulled for Stephen Valiquette halfway through the second period. “After that we had a couple of minutes where we were running around and lost focus a little bit…it’s a tough way to lose a game, a big game.”

Lauri Korpoikoski and Nikolai Zherdev scored for the Rangers in the third period to briefly make things interesting. But despite doing everything they could to pressure Martin Biron’s net, there were no other goals in the game. “Disappointment, frustration…just a tough, tough day for us,” said Lundqvist.

The Flyers run in the second period prompted the inevitable “Fire Renney” and “Fire Sather” chants from the Garden faithful. Asked about the chants after the game, Rangers head coach Tom Renney said he took “full responsibility for where this team is right now.” The coach’s job, he said “is to correct this, get us winning, get us feeling better about ourselves, be a solution–as simple as that.”

Drury did not accept management’s role in the team’s slump. “They’re not the ones on the ice,” he said of Sather and Renney. “We put the jerseys on. They give us guidelines on what our system is on what the scouring report is on what the game plan is [but] we’ve got to execute it. Clearly, a 5-2 loss at home we’re not executing.”

The Rangers captain went a step further, telling reporters to “write your stories, your whatever. It [criticism of the team] should start with me.”
Drury, clearly his own harshest critic, said he was disappointed in his own performance. “I look in the mirror; I’m not doing what I was brought here to do,” he said. “I’m not leading the way I should lead, not playing the way i should play.”

Renney said he would be challenging the players in one-on-one settings in the days ahead. “I think we’re a good staff and I think we’re capable of doing that and this team wants very badly to win,” he said. “So it’s all hands on deck right now.” Renney would not name individual players when asked, saying only “pick a name. We all have to step up right now. It’s not exclusive to one guy. It’s an all-in thing. It’s time to man up.”

Drury was more downcast. “Losing is no fun,” he said. “It keeps you up at night. It kills you. It eats at all of us. We’ve got to find a way to get wins here.”

The team is fading fast in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference. First place in the division, which seemed such a realistic possibility just a short time ago, is now nine points away, with the New Jersey Devils also having a game in hand over New York. Philadelphia is now firmly entrenched in second place, three points ahead of the Blueshirts with two games in hand, while Florida and Buffalo are breathing down the Rangers neck in the conference standings. New York is tied with Montreal for fifth place in the Eastern Conference, with both teams on 66 points but the Canadiens having played one game less. The Sabres and Panthers are both on 64 points. A playoff berth, in other words, could quickly become jeapordized if the Rangers keep this up.

They’ll have a chance to set things on the right path on Monday night, when they visit the St. Louis Blues.

With a 4-1 victory, the Devs have moved into a temporary tie for fifth place in the Eastern Conference with the Philadelphia Flyers, before the Flyers beat Anaheim later in the evening.

The win also pulled New Jersey within one point of Montreal in the standings, and two points of Atlantic Division co-leader New York Rangers.

With many of their top players scratched with injuries, the Habs looked like the Devils of earlier in the season.

“It changes dynamics on your team, but as an opposition you don’t get caught up in that. You worry about your own game and how you have to play. I don’t think anyone felt sorry for us when we went through that situation,” said Devils’ coach Brent Sutter.

Against the depleted visitors, New Jersey found the back of the net first.

Defenseman Mike Mottau chipped the puck out from the boards and pushed the puck to Patrick Elias at center.

Elias made his way to center ice before making a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Brian Gionta on the right wing, crossing the blue line. Gionta sped to the right face-off circle and fired, rifling the puck underneath Canadiens’ goalie Jarolsav Halak’s right leg pad, with 14:21 gone in the first period.

“We had a four-on-two broken with two back checkers, so I looked at the middle, it wasn’t there, and I tried to find a spot on net,” said Gionta.

Third on the team in points, when Gionta scores New Jersey gives itself a much better chance of winning. The team is 9-1 this season when “Gio” finds the net.

“I think we’re finding an offensive spark. We’re playing good hockey the last 20-30 games; it balances the attack a lot more when we’re going,” Gionta said of how his line’s success parlays into team wins.

But nothing was certain even with that recent history backing the Devils.

Montreal tied the game two minutes later when recent-call-up Max Pacioretty took a pass from Kyle Chipchura up the right boards and put his first career goal over the shoulder of Scott Clemmensen in goal.

“We don’t give up too many odd man rushes, let alone two-on-one, and that one guy (Pacioretty) came down my left side and beat me over the glove, plain and simple,” explained Clemmensen.

Despite the game being tied, the Devils would not give up control of the game’s momentum. Shortly after the Canadiens’ goal, agitator David Clarkson and Montreal winger Tom Kostopolulos got together at center ice to fight. Earlier in the period, Clarkson jawed with several of the Canadiens after Mike Rupp took a brutal hit in the corner.

The fight, which Clarkson won by takedown, kept the crowd and the Devils’ bench energized.

New Jersey regained the lead with a minute and a half left in the first period when Zach Parise faked a pass and put the puck in through Halak’s five-hole.

John Madden broke a 24-game scoring drought in the second to give New Jersey a two-goal lead. Madden and Rupp broke a two-on-one down the ice, and put the puck top-shelf over Halak.

After the second period, Halak’s night was finished. Marc Denis replaced Halak in goal for the third session. Regular goalie Carey Price was injured before the Habs’ last game against Tampa Bay, as was forward Alex Tanguay.

At the other end of the ice, Clemmensen was keeping the Habs off the scoreboard.

With 4:15 left in the second, Clemmensen made several key saves against Tomas Plekanec’s line, preserving the 3-1 lead.

“It was a tough game, because it was a two-goal lead, which is very deceiving, especially in this sport,” said Clemmensen. “Any time if they score, it’s three to one most of the game, and if they get that one goal, that makes it a one goal game and the complexion of the game changes a lot from there.”

Clemmensen maintained his high level of play in the third, making two glove saves off of face-offs in front of him half-way through the period. Clemmensen saved 33 of 34 shots he faced, including all seven power play shots the Canadiens took.

Clemmensen’s win was secured at 13:11 in the third period. Bryce Salvador saved the puck from leaving the Devils’ offensive zone, and put a shot on net from the left side.

Salvador’s shot bounced off the net and Parise recovered the puck to the left of the net. Parise made a slick backwards pass to Jamie Langenbrunner in the slot, and Langenbrunner put the security goal past Denis’ left glove.

“We’re tough when we have the lead after two (periods). We’re tough to come back on,” Parise said.

The Canadiens out-hit and out-shot the Devils throughout the game, but New Jersey was in control of the tempo throughout.

“Four to one final score I don’t think was very indicative of the type of the game it was tonight,” said Clemmensen.

The Devils, coming off of a three game road trip, responded to Coach Sutter’s criticism of the team’s play in Dallas on Wednesday.

“I had good vibes coming into the rink today that we were going to play a really good game. We had a tremendous effort from out goaltender right on out — go right through the whole lineup, everyone played very well,” said Sutter.

“I trust that group inside that room. There’s times through the year that where coaches are going to challenge their players and that’s the way it is, that’s the game, that’s sports,” Sutter said of his Wednesday post-game comments.

Sunday the Devils will continue their push for the top of the Eastern Conference when they take on the Ottawa Senators at 5 p.m., at the Prudential Center.

Next week, New Jersey will travel to Carolina for a match, come home to face Atlanta, and then embark on a nine-day, six-game road trip. This is the second long road trip of the season for the Devils, who finished 4-1 on a five-game, 18-day trip starting before Thanksgiving.

“No games are easy; it’s going to be a tight battle to the end. We’re almost to the midway point now, and I don’t think anything is going to change here in the second half as far as how tight it’s going to be. We’re going to find a way to get a few more wins than we did in the first half, and then we’ll be in those upper four teams,” said Langenbrunner.