The Least You Should Know:

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- In the first game against his old team,?Zach Parise?had an assist and drew the penalty that led to the Wild's third goal.

By Jeff O'Connor

It's another disappointment.? Another frustrating night and another loss.? But the season-long weakness was actually a strength last night.

It wasn't quite the result that the Devils had hoped for in their season opener, but there are still some positives to take out of the 3-0 loss in Pittsburgh.

The first thing to realize about opening night, is that everyone tends to overreact. Had the Devils won, it would have been the same thing, except the other way. It's one game and they played on the road against a very good team. The Devils won't be panicking, they'll be getting ready for another important division tilt against the Islanders tomorrow night.

It felt like the 2012 Eastern Conference Semifinals all over again on Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center, as the New Jersey Devils downed the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1.? The game featured sharp goaltending, a fancy Marek Zidlicky, goal and relentless forechecking.? More importantly, there were two players that looked like their 2012 selves: Bryce Salvador and Anton Volchenkov.

Salvador logged 24:24 of ice time with a plus-1 rating and five blocked shots.? Volchenkov was just as brilliant as he posted 17:10 on the ice to go along with a plus-1 rating and two blocked shots.

As camp begins, the team is starting to take shape. Still, many questions remain about the roster and who will be a contributor this year. Here are five of the biggest questions coming into the season.

1. Can the defense begin to rebound?

The Devils did not.

New Jersey ended its disappointing campaign with a flat, uninspired effort in a 4-0 loss to New York at Madison Square Garden.

The suspension means Volchenkov will half of the Devils' remaining eight regular-season games.

It's one game more than I thought he could get, but I'm not surprised the NHL went up to four after watching the video. Shanhan harped on a few things. One, Volchenkov extended his elbow to the point where it became "reckless elbow contact to the head" of Marchand. Two, Marchand tried to avoid the hit and turned his head, but it doesn't change the fact that Volchenkov didn't pursue the puck and turned what could've been a legal body check into an illegal elbow. Three, Volchenkov was in control of the play and in control of his body and clearly pursued the elbow to the head instead of playing the body. Shanahan also referenced Volchenkov's prior suspension and Marchand's injury (likely concussion) as factors, so at least the NHL admits a player's injury status affects how they rule. When you watch the video, it's hard to disagree with the four-game ban, which is often the case with Shanny's home movies.

Here's the video of the hit (care of Puck Daddy):

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK3VvK4Fd0U]

Marek Zidlicky played his best game this season. The Devils outshot the Buffalo Sabres 39-22 and even scored a power-play goal.

Yet, all that still couldn't translate into a win.

Finally tonight something will.

https://twitter.com/TGfireandice/status/321012717257359360

Yet, they still blew a two-goal lead and lost a very important point.

New Jersey scored a shorthanded goal, on its power-play, an even-strength goal and even on a penalty shot. Still, the Devils lost 5-4 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a shootout on Friday at Tampa Bay Times Forum.

Wins don't get much bigger than that. The Devils desperately needed a "W" before tonight's game and it became even more crucial considering the sterling effort they got from Johan Hedberg. As bad as last night was, tonight was a strong, strong effort across the board. Some thoughts...

Moose call: Honestly, that game shouldn't have even gone to overtime. While the Evander Kane goal (Holy shit, what a shot) was unavoidable and basically unstoppable, the Mark Stuart score only happened because Andy Greene had brain fart and tried to play a bouncing puck about a foot in front of Hedberg. If you look on the replay, Hedberg was in perfect position to stop Stuart's shot and likely would have. Now, does that mean the Jets wouldn't have scored another time and forced OT regardless? No, but I use it to point out that Hedberg was about as iron-clad as goalies get, especially backup goalies. Moose had probably his second-best game since taking over the full-time gig and it couldn't have come at a better time. The Devils needed this game in every sense of the word and their goalie delivered. Hedberg doesn't need to play this well every night, but the Devils do need his play to be close to what they've gotten in two of the last three games. The most impressive thing I saw from Moose tonight was how he stayed calm and didn't get overwhelmed or downtrodden after the Stuart goal. We've seen him in past games (Saturday night in particular) give up goals in bunches after the defense lets him down or a bad bounce leads to a goal. Tonight, however, he bounced right back and got better as the game went on. He was the absolute reason the game didn't end before OT and he was the reason they won in a shootout. This was very much a goaltender duel and in the end, Hedberg made a couple more saves when it was necessary. Impressive, indeed. Necessary -- absolutely. Now, let's see if he can do it two games in a row.

https://twitter.com/TGfireandice/status/309687173458829312

We haven't seen those top two line combos since the first games following the Ponikarovsky trade. But wait! There's changes afoot on the back end, too.

https://twitter.com/TGfireandice/status/307177460531867649

Also, there will be some changes on defense, with a certain slow-footed Russian getting a night off.

Well, that got out of hand quickly. After a strong first period, the Devils seemed completely overwhelmed by the tempo of the game and just never got it going. All of the textbook problems were there and you have to wonder if Marty's late scratch may have played a factor. Some thoughts...

Funky: I delved into it briefly during the pregame post, but the Devils have been less than stellar over the past two weeks. During that stretch, they've failed to put together an overall game as strong and complete as some of their early season efforts. Is it the injuries and lack of depth catching up to them or is this the Devils team we should get used to seeing? I tend to think it's a bit of both. The Devils probably aren't as good as they showed in the first couple weeks, but they're certainly better than the team that lost 9-3 over the past two days. They're in a funk, which Pete DeBoer has been aware of for a few games now. DeBoer has tried to find a way to spark the Devils out of their funk, specifically using line changes to try to get players out of their comfort zones and force them back into doing some of the fundamentals of the Devils' gameplan. It's worked for some players (Travis Zajac's goal from Patrik Elias tonight), but for the most part the alterations have been unsuccessful in getting the Devils back to playing their basic game of forechecking, taking away the other team's best player and being responsible with the puck in their own zone. Is it time to panic? Not by a longshot, but the time to be concerned has definitely arrived.

Definitely Sochi bound: Patrik Elias (Czech Republic), Ilya Kovalchuk (Russia), Anton Volchenkov (Russia)

As long as they keep this up: David Clarkson (Canada), Andy Greene (U.S.)

For his part, Volchenkov told Gulitti that he thought Schenn left his feet, but said, "it's hockey." Here's the video of the hit, complete with an explanation by the NHL's Czar of Discipline, Brendan Shanahan.

Scoring Summary:

First Period- Claude Giroux (2)