It's over!

The Devils get to do something Saturday night they haven't been able to do all season: play a home game.

"We knew it was going to be rough," goalie Martin Brodeur said before the trip finale, a 2-0 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. "When you start with nine games on the road, that's almost a quarter of (your road schedule).

"It's not like we're losing games we should've won," Brodeur told the Newark Star-Ledger. "We're just not playing well."

The Devils fell to 3-5-1 with the loss and have been shut out three times as they get set to open the new Prudential Center in Newark on Saturday night against Ottawa.

Brodeur was right about getting the road games out of the way. But first-year coach Brent Sutter certainly wanted to get more points in the standings despite the lengthy road swing.

RANGERS 2, DEVILS 0: With all the difficulties the Devils had in their first eight games under coach Brent Sutter, there was none quite like the botched shift change that led to a huge goal Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

"It was terrible. A terrible mistake in any kind of hockey game," Sutter said after his defense left the team a man short at the end of the game's first minute, leading to Nigel Dawes' first goal of the season.

Dawes would score again late and the Devils were losers in the first of eight games with the rival Rangers. The Devils have dropped three straight games, earning one point.

"We did some good things, but we also made the same mistakes in the first eight games, so we have to correct those and go from there," said center John Madden.

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