Devils might shake up lines

Just back from the Rock, where the Devils made some news in their morning skate with an apparent shakeup of lines in the wake of being shut out by the Rangers in Game 1.

Coach Pete DeBoer had Zach Parise skating with Travis Zajac and Ilya Kovalchuk, while Patrik Elias, Dainius Zubrus and Petr Sykora were together.

What gives, coach? "Obviously we didn’t score a goal [Monday] night. Shuffling guys around has been something we’ve done all year." But . . . "Definitely not married to those combinations.''

So we shall see come game time.

Parise said he had no idea the changes were coming.

"Getting shut out in the first game, we just have to do a better job of finishing," he said. "But I don’t know the reasons behind it. Maybe he was feeling something. Maybe he saw something different and he wanted to change . . . It can be a nice jump start sometimes. It all depends. I think everyone is pretty comfortable playing with whoever right now. I’ve played with Travis a long time, played with Kovy quite a bit this year.

"It’s a little different game, but we’ve played with both of them and we’ve done well together."

Said Elias: "It’s not a big deal. I’m sure he was trying something to get going again and it’s fine. You adjust. We created some other opportunities with the lines before but not enough scoring, obviously. We just want to change it up. No one is really looking into it too much. It’s normal. It happens in the regular season and now it’s happening in the playoffs. You have to adjust and play. We’re all familiar with each other so it’s not a big deal."

Said Kovy: "We want to be a little more productive tonight so that’s why the lines were shaken a little bit . . . We’ve played a lot [together], with Zach especially. It’s not going to be an adjustment at all. It’s always nice to play with great players."

Meanwhile, Martin Broduer issued a clarification through a Devils spokesman regarding comments he made after Game 1 that were fodder for a back page headline in one New York tabloid this morning.

Brodeur made what most of those present - including me - took as a throwaway line mostly meant in jest in which he said one way to stop the Rangers from blocking shots would be for some of those shots to hurt them.

"That was not the intent of his comment," the spokesman said. "He was jst trying to make the point that we need to get pucks through. He would never even think like that. It was just an off-the-cuff comment."

Here is a good blog account about the incident.