New Jersey Devils at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7:30pm

Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario

Dave Turner:?

This is a tough decision, but the play of Eric Gelinas has put the Devils in a tough situation. If Gelinas wasn't playing as well as he is, the decision would be quite simple: send him back down to Albany. In the preseason he was good, and now in three games, he's already showing signs of the big-time expectations that this club has for him.

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's always great to answer some reader questions, especially now that we have quite a few games worth of information to go on. If you have a question, always feel free to tweet @SNYDevils.

Jonathan Harpula - @Starpula - Larsson for Yakupov? Who says no at this point?

Via Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice:

Fayne said he first hurt his back during the team?s April 15 game in Toronto, but it didn?t start to really bother him for a few days after that.

?My back tightened up during that game,? he said. ?It was sore, but I could play the next week, but then something hit one of the nerves, a bulging disc, and it would just shoot down my leg. It?s weird that it happened two games after. I just have to stay off it.?

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.

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.

Via Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice:

?I think it?s tough for anyone in that situation,? he said. ?But, at the same, you?ve got to understand why you?re sitting out, try to work on things. It?s always different too watching the game from up top. You get a different perspective on things. You see the game from a different angle and sometimes that can be helpful.?

Did Fayne understand why he was sitting out?

https://twitter.com/Ledger_NJDevils/status/315488411211419648

https://twitter.com/Ledger_NJDevils/status/315488579142963201

Via Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice:

Devils coach Pete DeBoer said D?Agostini will play right wing tonight, but he hadn?t decided his line combinations yet or which forward will come out of the lineup.

?The line combinations we?re not set in stone yet,? DeBoer said. ?We?re going to have another meeting after pre-game skate. So, we?ll decide on that this afternoon, , but he?s for me a top nine type forward, so we?re going to give him that opportunity.?

Pete DeBoer announced after the Devils' morning skate that there would not be any lineup changes for New Jersey's meeting Friday in Philadelphia.

https://twitter.com/TGfireandice/status/312594564835848192

Pete DeBoer told the press corps on Friday that?Tallinder will not trek to Raleigh?with the Devils?for the Devils' game with the Hurricanes on Saturday. Tallinder injured himself during warmups Thursday night.

https://twitter.com/Ledger_NJDevils/status/310091310096850947

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.

The slide continues for the Devils in what was possibly their worst overall effort of the slide. Far too little pressure and attacking between the first five minutes and the last five minutes, lackluster defensive play and obvious frustration were the main highlights to take away from tonight's game. Some thoughts...

Rock bottom: Did the Devils hit rock bottom during the second period tonight? Pete DeBoer certainly hopes they did. He said as much after the game and about halfway through the second period, it was hard to disagree with him. There were brutal defensive breakdowns -- repeatedly. There was an offense that failed to get more than two meaningful shots on Anders Lindback from the halfway point of the first period to the final seven minutes of the third period. There was mediocre goaltending, albeit by a goalie who was hung out to dry on multiple occasions (including the second and third goals) by the players in front of him. So what now? The Devils have to realize that this is about as bad as it can get. They Devils were beaten 5-2 by a team that's not better than them, but definitely outplayed them. They've lost six straight and eight out of their last nine. Perhaps most disturbing is that six of those eight losses were to teams that are currently outside of the playoff picture, which means the Devils aren't only losing ground among the middle-class teams in the East, they're also dropping future tiebreakers against the team they could end up battling for playoff spots. Tonight was the first of six home games in eight contests. It's where the Devils need to get back into playing their style of hockey or else this won't be rock bottom -- and that's a really, really bad thing.

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

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

I'm not going to say the Devils stole this one, because they played well enough to win, but boy, the Caps' penalty problems certainly got them going in the third. With a noon start coming Saturday, this was a big win for the Devils and they could ice what's left of the Caps' season with a sweep of this two-game series. Some thoughts...

Dueling Russians: Alex Ovechkin came out firing on all cylinders in the first two periods, playing with the jump and speed that he used to display on a regular basis. There was the ridiculous undressing of Bryce Salvador and the spin move that left Henrik Tallinder useless and finally an end-to-end rush that he shot wide. It was vintage Ovechkin for 40 minutes and although he didn't score, it appeared only a matter of time before Ovi buried one. But then all of a sudden to star the third, Ilya Kovalchuk seemed liked a different player. Perhaps energized by Ovi's sudden resurgence or pissed off by his team's poor effort in the second period, Kovy was all over the ice in the third. Even before he scored the game-winning goal on a picture-perfect one-time setup from Patrik Elias, Kovy was rushing Caps goalie Braden Holtby and drawing penalties with strong work along the boards. It was always like Kovy realized there was nothing else going for the Devils tonight and took it upon himself to be the best player on the ice for the final 20 minutes. Of course, it helped that he basically played the entire period because of how much time the Devils spent on the power play during the third. Still, on nights like tonight, we're reminded that the Devils have something that only a handful of other teams have: a player that is the most skilled player 95 percent of the time he's on the ice. I mean, really, how many other players could've taken the shot that he scored the game winner on? Just fantastic.

https://twitter.com/NHLDevils/status/301354572172103683

Also, Mathieu Darche, who has been skating with the team despite not having a contract, was not at the skate either.

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.)

https://twitter.com/TGfireandice/status/297433102911938562

This decision would like be a lot easier if Larsson had played terribly last night -- except the young Swede did just the opposite according to DeBoer, further complicating matters.