| | EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Alexander Mogilny isn't feeling the pressure of being the answer to the New Jersey Devils' long search for a prolific scorer.
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Coming to New Jersey might even help his production, Mogilny said Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the Devils acquired the speedy right wing from the Vancouver Canucks for two young centers, Brendan Morrison and Denis Pederson.
"I'm coming into an established, solid hockey club," Mogilny said after the pregame skate for Wednesday night's game against Dallas. "That's probably what I needed a little more. I can loosen
up and go play hockey and have fun. That's exactly what I needed."
Playing with the Canucks the last four-plus seasons, Mogilny didn't have a lot of help. He had to create many of his scoring chances and that's not really his game.
Mogilny is a finisher. He's not going to carry the puck behind the net or skate the length of the ice and beat three or four players and score a goal.
And with the Devils, he won't have to do that.
Coach Robbie Ftorek has him on a line with rookie phenom Scott Gomez and fellow Russian Sergei Nemchinov. Both will create chances for Mogilny, who had 21 goals and 17 assists in 47 games with the Canucks this season.
Mogilny, who led the NHL in 1992-93 with 76 goals, has played well in recent weeks. He scored a goal against the Devils in the Canucks' 4-2 victory on March 4.
"He has a lot of talent and he knows where to shoot, like the goal he scored on me on Vancouver," Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. "He's an explosive player. The speed and whatever he is going to bring to the table will be a lot different than the players we had here."
It might take Mogilny, 31, a few games to get adjusted to New Jersey. He looked exhausted after the skate on Wednesday morning.
The day before the trade, the Canucks just finished off a week on the road. He arrived home at 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning and was back at the airport in Vancouver 13 hours later taking a trip east. He didn't arrive in New Jersey until 4 a.m. and then was back on the ice six hours later.
"It's a little culture shock for me right now," Mogilny said. "It's a new exciting beginning again. It will take some time."
Realistically, the Devils can afford to wait about three weeks for Mogilny to adjust, which would coincide with the start of the playoffs, a troublesome time for the Devils in recent years.
While the Devils have been one of the NHL's best regular-season teams the past three years, they have been a postseason disaster, never getting beyond the second round, and losing in the opening round the past two seasons.
The Devils made other acquisitions besides Mogilny in the past two weeks. The team got defensemen Vladimir Malakhov and Deron Quint and recalled defenseman Colin White from Albany after trading defenseman Lyle Odelein.
"This is a new team, so many new faces in the last two or three weeks we are not used to that," Brodeur said. "The organization made the moves for us to be successful. It's up to us to go on the ice and make it happen."
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