Watching the New Jersey Devils you see many of the Maple Leaf weaknesses

The Maple Leafs were quite fortunate in their game against the Devils last night. The massive snow storm kept almost everyone away from the game which took away any advantage the crowd may have given the home team. Only about 2500 fans made to the game which made it one of the smallest attendance to an NHL I've ever seen.

In addition I have never seen Martin Brodeur look so shaky. A combination of age and a terrible defense has robbed him of his confidence.

Another factor working in their favour was that interim coach Jacques Lemaire has not had an opportunity to fix the Devils' defensive game. Lemaire has always had strong defensive teams and I expect later this season the Devils will play much stronger in their own end.

It was a boring game played by two struggling teams after one of the longer breaks in the schedule. By no means was this a strong effort by the Maple Leafs. Their powerplay was dreadful again and produced no goals and only 3 shots on 5 opportunities. They won only 38% of faceoffs and had long stretches where they could not get the puck out of their own end. But the giveaways by the Devils killed them just as they have for the Leafs all season. That was the difference in the game.

• Brian Rolston attempts a cross-ice pass in his own zone. Kris Versteeg gets his stick in the way of Rolston's on the follow-through. The puck goes right to Colby Armstrong in the slot. Armstrong goes in and scores. It was as brutal giveaway by a $5 million player (yeah the Leafs have them too).

• Right after the Devils kill a Leafs power play, Versteeg carries the puck into the zone against 3 Devils. Versteeg somehow loses it, Dainius Zubrus can't knock the puck away so Versteeg picks the puck up again and gets a shot off. Brodeur stops it but there's a rebound. The Devils defensemen White and Tallinder just stand their and watch John Mitchell steps in to put it home easily.

• Clarke MacArthur beats Anton Volchenkov on a dump-and-chase. While David Clarkson and Anssi Salmela set up in the slot, MacArthur turns to find Nikolai Kulemin open above the slot with no one really on him. Patrik Elias lunges but Kulemin has him beat. Mikhail Grabovski goes to stand right in front of Brodeur with no one noticing. Salmela steps up on Kulemin, Kulemin gets around both to curl a shot short-side through an uncovered Grabovski screen. Clarkson only got to Grabovski after the puck's in the net.

• Johan Hedberg is in the net for the third period. With a 3-0 deficit, he's not seeing a lot of action. After Mitchell is stopped in the Devils' end, New Jersey breaks out. Mattias Tedenby makes a simple-looking pass to Jamie Langenbrunner in the neutral zone. The captain misplays it and loses it to Tomas Kaberle. Kaberle looks up, sees Armstrong with open ice in front of him. So it's essentially a one-on-one between Hedberg and Armstrong, and Armstrong scored his second of the game through Hedberg's legs. A weak goal to allow, but the turnover in the neutral zone created the situation.