I'd like to thank the bottom two lines for showing up. Why aren't they playing 20 minutes a night?

I don't care if Datsyuk is playing with Bertuzzi and Leino, I'm sick of people making excuses for him. He has not been up to snuff at all this season. He's on pace for 64 points. Ick. Sure, he needs wingers to start finishing on the chances he creates, but what happened to all the highlight reel stuff that he's capable of by himself. He's been money in the shootout, which is good when you have a team like New Jersey playing Rob Niedermayer and Jay Pandolfo for half an overtime (playing for the shootout) but he's been invisible lately and it's hard to stomach.

Zetterberg was carrying this team on his back for a few games about two weeks ago. He got tired apparently, because I've seen very little effort since then. We know what he's capable of. We know what Lidstrom's capable of. We know what Datsyuk's capable of. We know we're not seeing that, but we're blaming the Meeches, the Howards, and the Leinoes. Yawn.

Second line didn't mesh at all. I barely noticed Cleary, Leino did all the wrong things tonight, and Bertuzzi just did his own thing. It's time to do something drastic and start spreading guys who want to try around the lineup. Why not try four balanced lines? Separate the checkers from the scorers -- because if you've noticed, the checkers are actually producing all the offense these days, while the scorers are just skating leisurely around the ice. Why not try something like this?

Holmstrom - Datsyuk - Eaves
Miller - Zetterberg - Draper
Abdelkader - Helm - Bertuzzi
Leino - Cleary - Maltby

I put basically zero thought into those lines. I just wrote names down. But I like it, because it's different. The "same" lines, no matter whether or not the Eurotwins are together, are just not cutting it. Those are some awful looking wingers with Zetterberg (for scoring purposes).. but keep in mind, Zetterberg's played with basically everyone else. He's had nothing to show for it, and his wingers have had nothing to show for it.

I don't want to hear about Jimmy Howard anymore when Osgood's letting in goals like the second and third he let up tonight. Osgood's the playoff guy, and he's experienced, sure, but those were a pitiful pair of goals. Just hold the goalies to the same standards, maybe, the standards of an NHL goaltender, please.

Not happy tonight. The third period was the Detroit team we know taking over and really laying it on the Devils -- shots were 11-3. When are we going to get that for a full sixty minutes? Brodeur's a solid goalie, but I'm tired of having an excuse to fall back on every night. "Bad effort, but a hot goalie." "Didn't have the goaltending tonight." "Would have won if not for Bertuzzi. It's Bertuzzi's fault that Datsyuk and Zetterberg are doing absolutely nothing." Right? Boring. Team is underacheiving as a whole and has not had all cylinders firing for a few weeks. They can. We've seen it.

And I miss it.