Biron Backstops Rangers to 2-1 Victory in St. Louis

This game began looking like the early-90′s Roger Neilson-led Rangers against the mid-90′s Jacques Lemaire-led Devils—it was just that boring, but the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues were able to put together some solid entertainment from the second period and on, as the Rangers skated to a 2-1 victory tonight in St. Louis. It was not necessarily a bad game, but neither team was too sharp early on, and it was not a masterpiece, but the Rangers were able to win their third game in a row, once again without the help of Gaborik.

• First period: Everything that hockey should be was nowhere to be found in the first twenty minutes. There were no glaring scoring chances, no big hits, no nice passes, just nothing but boring and slow hockey. The total shots on goal for the period were 6-2 in favor of the Rangers. They did find a way to blow two powerplay opportunities, though, while being able to kill off one of the Blues’.

• Second Period: The Blues would open the scoring a little more than two minutes in, when Brad Winchester redirected an Eric Brewer shot past Martin Biron, who had no chance on the play. The Rangers would even the score seven minutes later, on a beautiful passing play by Mats Zuccarello, who found Derek Stepan (12) streaking to the net, before he shot the puck between the legs of Jaroslav Halak. Stepan remains third in the league in rookie scoring. Six minutes after that, Sean Avery (2) would finally snap his 35-game goal scoring drought when he tapped home a rebound off a Marian Gaborik shot. Originally, it was thought that Gaborik had scored the goal, but after looking at the replay, the puck went off Halak’s shoulder, then off the crossbar before floating even with the goal-line, for Avery to knock in. I somewhat predicted Avery’s goal on Twitter, when early in the first period, I said, “I say Avery scores a goal tonight. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sooner or later.” Dubinsky would end up with an assist on both goals, giving him 20 on the season.

• Third Period: This would be much like the first period, only it was the Blues who controlled the play for most of the time. The Rangers had a hard time even entering their zone for the first half of the period, and had to kill a double-minor to Sean Avery near the midway point. They were able to hold St. Louis to only one shot on goal in the four minutes, and only eight for the period, despite spending most of the period in their own end. With the Blues pressing late, David Backes would take a bad cross-checking penalty with under a minute to go, and the ensuing faceoff in their end would kill any hopes of a rally, and the Rangers would finish with a 2-1 victory.

Martin Biron may have only faced 25 shots, but he was superb tonight. He made several key stops in the second period, and more in the third. He was very steady and had excellent rebound control. The move to play him tonight instead of the hot-hand in Lundqvist was questioned by some, but this is why Biron was brought in—to play in, and hopefully win the second of back-to-back games. (By the way, he is also a fantastic talker. What a post-game interview this guy gives!)

The Rangers powerplay was futile once again tonight. It’s almost comical that they get better scoring chances while shorthanded than with the man advantage. As nice as it is to score a shorthanded goal, or rush down the ice and get a good chance, their powerplay is in trouble. As I said earlier today when I called out Gaborik, he and the team as a whole need to shoot more—it is that simple.

Not related to the team’s play, would the Rangers consider replacing Joe Micheletti with Kevin Weekes, who filled in with the HNL crew tonight? Every time I see him, whether on MSG or a Canadian Network, he always sounds intelligent and his commentary is spot on. In other words, he is not a bumbling, nonsensical fool like Micheletti. He and Sam Rosen would work well together.

Devils Fans Deserting at an Alarming Rate: Show What They’re Really All About

A Devils’ fan asks to be put out of his misery, by strangulation, so he can mimic his team’s salary cap situation.

With the way fans of the New Jersey Devils have been acting this season, you would think they were Union Army soldiers in the middle of December 1862 with Ambrose Burnside at the helm. Okay, so Lamoriello and Lemaire are not too far off from that level of ineptitude, and that has caused fans to turn a blind eye to how terrible the team has been this season. We could sit here and joke around all day that the Devils never really had a large fan base to begin with, that aside from games against the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers, no one bothers to risk their life trekking through the streets of Newark to that beacon of false hope known as the Prudential Center.

It’s a shame that with such a beautiful arena, the Devils have no one to sit inside and watch them play. They had all their glory at that crumbling piece of concrete and asbestos Continental Airlines Arena, which included three Stanley Cup victories, but at this new arena, they have only three playoff wins. If they would not mind, I would contact Mega Movers and see if they can put the stadium on a truck and haul it over to New York so the Rangers can use it. At least in their mediocrity over the years, there were still fans in the seats.

Even when the Rangers missed the playoffs for seven straight years, there was still a good amount of people who ventured down to Madison Square Garden. They might not have sold out, but they certainly had more than the average 7,000 degenerates who show up for Devils games. The reason I say that is because they are just not too bright; they seem concerned about other teams before their own. It is because they have an inferiority complex, knowing that their team is smack in the middle of the New York and Philadelphia markets. To the north is Rangers’ fans, to the south, Flyers’, and they just cannot get it through their thick skulls that no one cares about New Jersey Devils hockey. This drive to be recognized and make people think that the Devils fan base is wide-ranging is what prompted them to move to Newark in the first place, because fans could now take the train in from New York City, but what they did not realize is that there are no Devils fans in the City. Hell, there aren’t many Devils fans in New Jersey. But I applaud their management for being so considerate to Rangers fans for providing them with an easier way of transportation for three games a season.

This complex is what prompts them to chant “Rangers suck!” rather than “Let’s go Devils”. They whistle their stupid little tune and then all ten fans in attendance scream out against their neighboring rivals. This would not be so bad if it was just at Rangers-Devils games, but they do this 41 times a year. Every single game, old and young fans yell at the top of their lungs about how the Rangers suck. I guess they haven’t taken a look at the NHL standings in the recent months.

This fan must have spent an upwards of $200 to create this masterpiece. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, eh?

Needless to say, I am extremely happy with the way this season is evolving. The Devils sit in dead last place, the laughingstock of the entire NHL, made so by their undying summer quest of trying to lock up Ilya Kovalchuk for eternity. We have all been predicting this for many years, you know, and of course Devils’ fans wanted no part of the truth, because they thought Martin Brodeur was going to stay spry and agile into his 40′s. Now he’s 38 and he is starting to look like a 38-year-old. The unbelievable saves he made in years’ past are now easy goals, while even mediocre shots have been able to find a way past him—just ask Brian Boyle about that one.

The funny part is, it is entirely his fault. Rather than be a team player and focus on championships in later years, he has tried to play as many games as possible, only so he can own every NHL goaltending record. The Devils embarrassing playoff exits three seasons in a row, to the Rangers, Hurricanes, and Flyers have been proof of that, because Brodeur has been on of the main culprits, showing how tired he is. Looks like the Devils won’t have to worry about that this season.

Anyway, what angers me is that the fans are not sticking by to watch this disaster unfold. Even last night, at the cusp of yet another loss, there were no boo’s in the crowd. Oh silly me, that’s because there were more Rangers’ fans than Devils’ fans—poor example on my part. Instead of booing and showing frustration, fans are choosing just to not show up, but that really is not making an impact because they never really showed up to begin with. Even some of my friends, who have been fans their entire life are not even watching the games on TV. I asked one last night if he watched the game and he responded, “Oh, they were playing?” He wasn’t be sarcastic either. These fans genuinely don’t care anymore. It does not matter how bad your favorite team is, but to not turn on a rivalry game? That’s just pathetic. I have only one friend who watches them on a nightly basis. He sits in his recliner with his infant son on his lap, and a glass of hard liquor on the rocks in one hand, to try to teach his kid how to not play hockey. The glass just makes it more easier.

I tell my one friend all the time, who I always ask if he is watching, that it isn’t fair. Other teams have had seasons like this (cue the Flyers in 06/07) and fans actually stood by the team, even if they booed more than cheered. The Devils are going to be bad like this for the foreseeable future because they have no farm system, more importantly, no goaltender who can fill Brodeur’s shoes (before you bring up Jeff Frazee, let’s be real here), and half the aging veterans have no-trade-clauses. In other words: you’re stuck. The Devils enjoyed success for so long, which you could argue was false success because of their boring, trapping ways, but it was success nonetheless. Now they are having a bad season, their first since 1996 and fans can’t take it. They are showing what kind of fans they truly are, and what they have been all these years.

Rangers Close Out 2010 with a 3-1 Victory Over Devils

The standings may show the New Jersey Devils to be the worst team in the league, but tonight, when the New York Rangers came to town, they upped their game considerably and battled hard for the entire night. The Rangers would eventually overcome them, with a 3-1 win, but it was a hard-fought sixty minutes by both teams. I stated earlier this afternoon that the Rangers could not take them lightly, and as close as the score was, I do not think that was the case. The Rangers did not play very well, but they were not terrible. The Devils, meanwhile, played very well but when you are in the midst of a season like this, the breaks do not go your way. This would be evident in the ensuing three periods.

• First period: The Devils got off to a great start by keeping the puck in the Rangers end and cracking the score sheet just over six minutes in. With Henrik Lundqvist down and a scramble in the crease, Travis Zajac shot one past Marc Staal who almost got his skate on it. This would cause some worry in the Rangers, as they were getting badly outplayed, but then Brian Boyle (14) would counter with the tying goal less than a minute later. It started in their own zone with Brandon Prust, who carried the puck out and gave it to Ruslan Fedotenko, who fed Boyle for a quick shot, that hit off the bottom of Martin Brodeur’s glove. Needless to say, it was an extraordinarily soft goal that he should have had, but the Rangers will take it. They would only muster up 5 shots in the period, but Brodeur looked shaky, and they may have scored more goals had they not been outplayed so severely. The Devils would have 16 shots and control play for the majority of the period. The Rangers were lucky to get out tied.

• Second period: As unstable as Brodeur was in the first period was as good as he looked in the second. The Rangers still did not generate an adequate number of shots, but Brodeur made several nice saves, including one on Sean Avery later in the period. The tempo of play also increased, as the game became more hard-hitting and even prompted a fight between Boyle and Dainus Zubrus, who is nothing but a gutless thug. The Rangers would end up giving up 20 more shots in the middle frame, bringing the Devils’ game total to 36, but that would not stop the Rangers from taking the lead 2-1, on a goal by Michal Rozsival (3). Stepan would get the puck to Dubinsky behind the night, who fed Rozsival at the right circle, and his shot appeared to be going wide, before it took a dramatic deflection off Andy Greene and past Brodeur short-side. Lundqvist was keeping the team in the game.

• Third period: The two teams kept playing hard, and the Rangers would get a glorious scoring chance early, with a four-minute powerplay. However, the Devils would kill it off easily and the score would remain the same. The Rangers were able to keep pressure off Lundqvist, who had a heavy workload through two periods. He would end the game with 43 saves in total, a season high. The game would wind down and Jason Arnott was just inches away from tying the it late, when he was a foot away from the crease with the puck on his stick and a wide open net, but he shot it over the top of the net and into the crowd. Brandon Dubinsky would ice the game with an empty net goal, sealing a 3-1 victory against the Devils.

The Rangers did not play a very good game tonight—it was not terrible, but I don’t think they were prepared for a Devils team who obviously had tonight’s rivalry matchup circled on their calendar. In other words, they were extremely lucky to come away with a win tonight, and thanks to a blooper first goal, a lucky bounce on the second, and some amazing goaltending, they were able to keep the Devils reeling, and winless with Jacques Lemaire as coach.

Chris Drury also had a sub-par game tonight. He took a very bad offensive zone penalty with under four minutes remaining in regulation, and luckily the team was able to kill it off. He is still looking for his first goal since his return from a broken hand.

Brandon Prust and Brian Boyle continue to be this team’s unsung heroes. They work hard every night and have developed unbelievable chemistry with their other line mate, Ruslan Fedotenko. They have become a true joy to watch on this team, and they deserve some powerplay time, while Gaborik and Co. continue to struggle just getting shots on goal.

And so the Rangers close out 2010 with a victory over their rivals. It really was not as much fun tonight, beating up on the worst team in the league, but a win is a win, and the Rangers did exactly what they needed to do.

New Jersey Devils: Are John Maclean’s Days Numbered?

It’s a shame that the blame for this disastrous season of New Jersey Devils hockey will rest on the shoulders of a man who once was a fan favorite as a player for this team, one who scored nearly 350 goals while wearing the red, white, and black [and green]. John Maclean is in his first year as a head coach in the NHL, and he is finding out that games are not like the AHL, where it’s okay if the team loses, as long as the players learned something along the way. In the NHL, the big show, games are about winning—something the Devils have done only five times out of 20, and only once on home ice.

The blame can really be thrown in any direction: an aging Brodeur, a shoddy defense, an injury plagued start to the season, or perhaps even a cancerous acquisition in Ilya Kovalchuk, but nevertheless, it is John Maclean who will take the blame, for even though you can use any one of these aforementioned excuses, this team should not be this bad. They have not even been bad, that has been an understatement. Devils teams of the past who were based on 95% defense and 5% offense still found a way to average more than two goals a game, something that the Devils have not even come close to. They have scored a minuscule 36 goals in 20 games—it’s a miracle they have even won five games with that number. In return, they have also given up 65 goals, an amount that does not lead the league, but might as well since it is so disproportionate to their amount of goals scored.

Their goaltending, which has always been their one, true consistency, is in shambles. Martin Brodeur has been injured twice now, including this recent spell that will have him out the next two weeks. His stats this season are 4-10-1 with a goals against average of 2.74. I could jump on the wagon and say Brodeur was never that good to begin with, his numbers a product of a trap defense that had him facing only 20 shots a night, but for now, I will leave that alone as more attention does not need to be brought upon it from someone who is not a Devil’s fan—they can now see it for themselves. What does Brodeur have left to play for, exactly? He has three Stanley Cups, four Vezina’s, and almost every single goaltending record in the book. The drive towards those records reflected a player only playing for personal statistics found on the back of a hockey card, and not playing for his team, something that is so evident when looking at the amount of games he would play during the course of the season, an amount leaving him so tired that his team would be bounced out of the first round of the playoffs in embarrassing fashion. But that’s okay, he’s still the winningest goaltender in history. Keep telling yourself that, Marty.

Johan Hedburg, the Devil’s backup whose signing was praised as the next best thing since sliced bread, has been atrocious this season. His record is only 1-2-1, but his GAA is a bloated 4.53, and the Devils look like they will now be relying on call-up Mike McKenna to hold down the fort until Marty the Magnificent can make his gallant return. With no amazing prospects in the farm system, aside from Jeff Frazee who is said to be solid, the Devils are empty in the goaltending department, and should consider drafting one this season with their first round pick. But they will have to choose wisely, because one of the picks will be taken away by the NHL as punishment for the Kovalchuk fiasco.

As for Ilya Kovalchuk, I already said previously that the Devils had 27 games last season to see what he would bring, in terms of putting extra fans in the seats and developing chemistry. What they got was a point per game player, but nothing outstanding. He continued to be his same old self, being lazy on defense and pretending to not know what backchecking is. The truth is, to write about Ilya Kovalchuk would be cause for a separate article as his season has been a microcosm of the Devils: all promise, and all fail. Remember during the preseason when the Kovalchuk-Zajac-Parise line was tearing it up and scoring two goals a game? Remember when The Hockey News picked the Devils to finish in fifth? Parise’s injury cannot be why this season has gone by the wayside. Kovalchuk is a six-time 40 goal scorer—you don’t score 342 goals before reaching age 28 by being terrible. No, the blame will rest on the shoulders of coach John Maclean, who has not been able to motivate this team.

It is worthy of mention that last night, as the Devils were having yet another loss handed to them, Maclean could be standing on the bench with his arms crossed and shaking his head, the obvious frustration strewn all over his face. But unfortunately, shaking your head does not translate into anger with your players. I am not one to advocate a coach having a conniption, but if there is a team in the league that needs such a wake up call, it would be the Devils. Had it not been for the New York Islanders losing twelve in a row, and the Edmonton Oilers stuck in the middle of a rebuild-and-learn season, the Devils would be occupying last place all by themselves. But still, this team is not so bad that they should be playing like this.

Jacques Lemaire coached this team to their best regular season in franchise history last year, winning 48 games. What thanks does he get? He was booed out-of-town because fans were sick of defensive hockey. “Give us run and gun!” they said, begging Old Lou for an offensive minded coach, and this preseason, fans got their wish when the Maclean-lead Devils were tearing through opponents on the score sheet. But when the regular season started, that all went away. The team did have the offensive tools in Parise, Kovalchuk, Zajac, Elias, Rolston, and Arnott, but the defense was just not there to protect the team’s 38-year-old goaltender. The goals against mounted while the goals for went down, to compensate for the lost defense. Maclean is now left there with no options to go to. He cannot spark his superstar, because Kovalchuk is now in one of his frustrated moods, and he cannot wait for Parise to return, because it will be too late.

If the Devils want any hope at salvaging this season, they will need to fire John Maclean. When they get healthy, they are just one large winning streak away from coming close to contention, and then one more from surmounting the deficit they have created. It may sound crazy, but the Devils are not done yet—every season we sit back and say that this is the year they miss the playoffs, and every year they make it. This season we said nothing, and look at what has happened. The Devils are one team that can still salvage this season, but they will need a new coach. There are not many options out there, but I can think of one that absolutely makes sense, and that is Bob Hartley. The ex-Avalanche and Thrashers head coach has Stanley Cup experience, has coached Kovalchuk in the past, and most importantly, plays a defense-first style. Devils fans may shudder at that phrase “defense-first”, but look at where it got you: three Stanley Cups and the top of the league’s respectability (before angering the league with the Kovalchuk situation).

Rangers Defeat Wild 5-2 in Gaborik’s Return to Minnesota

Martin Biron stopped 25 of 27 shots in tonight's victory over the Wild.

Marian Gaborik spent eight seasons with the Minnesota Wild, and in the meantime, set records for virtually every offensive category in the franchise’s history. Aside from Jacques Lemaire, Gaborik was the face of that franchise during his tenure there. Tonight was the first time he would get a chance to face his former team, after being injured last season when the New York Rangers faced them. The promotion for tonight’s game was a Marian Gaborik bobblehead, and although that was to pay tribute to him, the fans were a little less kind, booing his name when it was announced for the starting lineups, and then some additional scattered boos when he touched the puck.

For the Rangers, though, tonight they got a very important and much needed bounce-back victory after playing what was arguably their worst game of the season last night in Colorado. The Rangers would get a solid team effort and pull out a decent 5-2 road win in Minnesota.

The Rangers and Wild got off to a slow start, with an uneventful first period that heard some aforementioned jeers directed at Gaborik. But the player known for his finesse and skill showed a bit of an edge early on, with a big hit just seconds in on Greg Zanon, and another one later on. The Rangers would go 0-1 on the powerplay in the first, continuing their struggles, and leave the period scoreless.

In the second period, the Rangers would blow the game open. Artem Anisimov (7) would score a little less than nine minutes in on assists from Matt Gilroy and Mike Sauer. The Rangers would then get their third powerplay of the game, and snap an 0 for 17 streak when Michael Del Zotto (2) shot the puck into a wide open net past goaltender Niklas Backstrom. Derek Stepan fed him with an excellent cross ice pass to continue his recent hot streak, and Dan Girardi would add a secondary assist on the play. Then with one minute remaining, Dan Girardi would take a shot from the point that missed the net (or was it intentional?) and landed on the tape of Alex Frolov’s (5) stick, who finally succeeded in scoring a wraparound goal, a move he tries at least five times a game to no avail. Marian Gaborik would end up with the secondary assist, his first point against his former team.

Early on in the third, Brandon Dubinsky (12) would pretty much ice the game with an unassisted breakaway goal. Eight minutes later, with the Rangers on another powerplay, the puck would come out of the zone to Kyle Brodziak, who skated over the red line with Del Zotto attempting to hip check him, but missed, allowing Brodziak to come in 2 on 1 with Matt Cullen, who buried the puck behind Martin Biron to get the Wild on the board. The Rangers would quickly counter with a Ruslan Fedotenko (4) goal, off assists from Brian Boyle and Brandon Prust. For Boyle, this would be his first assist of the season, to add to his eight goals. The game would end with the Rangers victorious, in a desperately needed win to stop a losing streak before it could expand.

Martin Biron played decent until the second goal he allowed to the Wild, scored by Martin Havlat. It was from a bad angle and between his glove and the post, and it was one he should have had. Nevertheless, he was solid and did not have to be that good as the Rangers rallied around him and played some good defense. Del Zotto would unfortunately continue his sloppy play, taking a penalty in the third and making a bad decision that directly led to Minnesota’s first goal of the game.

For Marian Gaborik, this was also an important win as he finally got a chance to face his former team. He only had one assist, but played very physical and had four shots on goal. The Rangers will now get ready for a game against the struggling Calgary Flames Monday night. Expect Lundqvist to be in net, after getting the night off tonight.

For John Tortorella, tonight’s game was his 300th NHL win.

New Jersey Devils Have No Choice but to Revert Back to Old Ways

Photo Source: Star Ledger

Had Jacques Lemaire not brought this franchise their first Stanley Cup back in 1995, fans of the New Jersey Devils would have thrown a ticker-tape parade when the defensive-minded coach announced that he would be retiring after last season. Lemaire, who became legendary for instituting the neutral zone trap, a smothering defensive system, took note that the style for which he became famous was no longer relevant in the new NHL.

But even as fans sat back and complained, the Devils made their way to yet another division title, playoff appearance and recorded the most wins in their franchise history with 48. Imagine that as a coach, leading your team to their best season ever and still the fans want to boo you out of town.

So desperate for a change of style were the Devils that they did something Lou Lamoriello had never done in his twenty-plus years of being a General Manager—do something stupid. It may sound ridiculous, but any way one spins it, the Ilya Kovalchuk contract is going to bog down this team for the immediate future. Don’t believe me? Check out the roster for the Devils game against the Penguins on October 11, when they dressed only three forward lines. They did this because they had injuries and could not afford to call anyone up. The NHL even investigated it because it was against the CBA, which stated that a team cannot play unless they have a minimum amount of players.

Conveniently, higher paid players Brian Rolston and Bryce Salvador are injured, so the Devils barely escape the claws of salary cap death early on this season.

Still, it was all worth it, right? Kovalchuk, the two-time fifty goal scorer was going to put fans in the seats, set career highs, and get rid of those two evil words forever associated with New Jersey Devils hockey…defense first!

Getting back to why this move was just plain stupid (putting aside the 15 year part, that is just laughable), the Devils had 27 games last season to see what Kovalchuk would bring. The team did not experience any dramatic increase in attendance (Newark is still Newark), and the Devils were not much better with him than without him. Sure he scored a point per game while he was here, but points are not all that matter. Kovalchuk is everything the Devils have not been in their 28 year existence. He’s flashy, offensive minded, careless on defense, not a terrific teammate, and has never done anything in the playoffs (not really his fault when you consider the team he played for prior).

The best part is he loves to overstay his shifts. This is important because we can all look back at a time when the Devils rolled four lines equally, sometimes with the fourth line getting more than the first, especially if the team was winning and they went into trap mode. During the end of last season and playoffs, if the Devils had a four-minute powerplay, he would be out there the entire time and look lethargic by the time it was over. The reason why this is important is because what effect will this all have on Zach Parise?

Before Kovalchuk’s acquisition last season, Parise saw that he had only one full season in front of him before reaching restricted free agency. As this team’s franchise player, he was going to make out like a bandit, sign a long term deal, and be content with the fact that the Devils were his team. But now the Devils will never be his team, because of Kovalchuk. Just think, you were going to be the team’s go-to guy, the player everyone looks to for the clutch goal late in the game—the hero, and now, that is all gone. No matter what kind of contract he signs, he cannot out-wait Kovalchuk because of the immensity of that contract.

Other teams may recognize this and try to poach Parise next season, and given the Devils financial situation, they may not be able to retain him. Either that or Parise signs a short term deal and then bolts when he hits unrestricted free agency. Either way, I do not see Parise being on this team a four years from now. You may think that players can put aside their differences and harmoniously play together on the ice, and be friends in the locker room, but more often than not, that is not the case. After all, hockey players are people too.

So now the Devils are six games into their new era, with the gun-slinging John Maclean as their head coach. The Devils began the season playing what was probably the most fast-paced hockey in the franchise’s history, and where did it get them? They lost a close one in overtime 4-3 to Dallas on opening night, got embarrassed in Washington 7-2 causing Brodeur to get pulled, lost to Pittsburgh 3-1 when they dressed only three forward lines, tightened up for a 1-0 win in Buffalo, fell to Colorado 3-2, and last night, played well in the first period to take a 1-0 lead on the Bruins before giving up four goals in the second to lose 4-1.

The Devils are not sacrificing defense for offense here, they are simply sacrificing defense. One could excuse the poor performance on a new system, if the team was actually scoring. But they have only scored 10 goals in six games, and have allowed 21. Martin Brodeur has looked awful, and he has been the goalie of record for all six games. Backup Johan Hedburg, who relieved Brodeur in the second period of the Washington game, did not look to hot himself—he allowed a goal on the first shot he saw and gave up another one shortly after.

It is because of all this that I give John Maclean until the end of October before he is reverting the team back to their old ways. Perhaps not a trap, but a defensive minded system. Lamoriello will insist on it because I have no doubt that he was not the one behind Kovalchuk, and wants to say, “I told you so.” to Jeff Vanderbeek. Brodeur, meanwhile, will insist on it because all he cares about now are what the stats will look like on the back of his hockey card. Should one look out of place towards the end of his career, we may have a catastrophe on our hands. That and the fact that Brodeur just cannot handle the work load he normally gets. Let’s face it, the 77 games he appeared in was the Devils post-season death sentence last year, but he still was playing behind a trap defense, and did not get as much work as other goaltenders in the league. Now he is going to want to play the same number of games, but because he will now have to face scoring chances like a real goalie, he will whine until the Devils change their system.

If John Maclean does not change this Devils style back to defense in the next two weeks, he will not be coaching this team much longer.

Devils Acquire Jason Arnott, Try to Reclaim Past Glory

This afternoon the New Jersey Devils acquired former Stanley Cup hero Jason Arnott from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Dave Halischuk and a second round pick and 2011. This move will prove to be both good and bad for the Devils.

Devils fans will never forget the Cup-clinching, double overtime goal Arnott scored in 2000, and within two seasons of that monumental event, he was traded to the team he scored against, the Dallas Stars. After playing three solid seasons there, he then moved to the Nashville Predators, where he would end up becoming captain, and again, string together four very good seasons.

Although battling injuries for the last few seasons, Arnott is still a very tough and strong presence up the middle, as he stands 6’5” and 219 pounds. The reason why this move is good for New Jersey, is because they needed a checking center with offensive capability, something they lost when John Madden bolted for Chicago before last season.

Any way you look at it, this movie is not terrible. Should he stay healthy, he will easily put up 50-60 points. However, this move does not show the Devils going in the right direction.

With several disappointing and early playoff exits since the lockout, General Manager Lou Lamoriello has been trying to reclaim past glory. First was when he brought back a then 35 year old Brian Rolston early in the summer of 2008, and then later that off-season with the addition of a 38 year old Bobby Holik.

Both had won the Cup with New Jersey in previous seasons.

Arnott falls under the same, recent trend from the Devils, who also brought back former Cup winning coach Jacques Lemaire last season, before he was let go just weeks after this past season ended. Arnott will be 37 this October, and for a Devils team that already has eight players over the age of 34, this move really does not speak much for the future.

Jason Arnott is also slated to make $4.5 million in what is the final year of his contract. It’s a pretty big cap hit, but that amount seems to be the going rate for a 50 point player.

This series of moves seems eerily similar to Neil Smith during the tail-end of his tenure with the Rangers in the late 90′s. When nothing else was working, he resorted to bringing back the 1994 Cup heroes and former Oilers teammates of Mark Messier, who were then way past their prime. It worked a little bit, but fizzled out after a short while.

Could Lamoriello be running out of options, and bringing back aging stars is all he has left? We will soon see, with still an entire off-season still to come. It will be interesting what direction the Devils take.

Martin Brodeur on the Devils: “We’re Not Far Away”

On Friday afternoon, New Jersey Devils beat writer Eric Marin got a chance to sit down with the almighty Martin Brodeur, for an interview to discuss the off-season and the current Stanley Cup Finals matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks.

For a team that very rarely sees things go wrong over the course of a season, this will now year number seven without a Finals appearance. The Devils have made it a habit in recent seasons to make an early round exit, something that Devils fans themselves will even say is a result of Brodeur not being on the top of his game.

Brodeur is the winningest goaltender in NHL history, and also owns records for most shutouts, games played, and minutes played. He normally could be considered as someone who knows what he is talking about, but as we have seen, his arrogance gets in the way.

It was towards the end of the interview, when Brodeur, commenting on the future of the Devils remarked, “We definitely know that we’re not far.”

Not far away? Oh really?

A prophecy from the Mighty Fatso himself!

This coming from a player on a team that has a terrible farm system, no name defense, no coach at the moment, no first round pick, a shoddy offense, and has a decision facing them whether or not to keep trade deadline acquisition Ilya Kovalchuk or homegrown hero Zach Parise, because they cannot keep both.

The Devils are on the way down, a path they have built for the last seven seasons. Lamoriello recognized it, which was why he brought in Lemaire this season, and Rolston the season before. He is trying to reclaim past glory, much like Neil Smith did with the Rangers, in bringing back 1994 Stanley Cup heroes in the late 90′s, a crop of decisions that ultimately led to his down fall.

So just what did Brodeur mean by saying they are not far away? Surely it was not about his team. Perhaps these are more reasonable:

We’re not far away…from a first round exit.

We’re not far away…from selling out every game. (LOL JK)

We’re not far away…from the hot dog stand. I’m hungry.

We’re not far away…from another diving penalty.

We’re not far away…from my next alimony payment.

We’re not far away…from New York, where everyone on this team really wants to play.

Martin Brodeur and his Devils will be in for a tough season next year, made even tougher by the fact that they will have to give Zach Parise a contract of over $7 million, something that Lamoriello very rarely does. Will he continue to be his cheap self and not retain him, or bite the bullet and go against his ways?

We will surely find out if the aging Brodeur will still attempt to play a hundred games in an eighty-two game season.

Every season we say the same thing; the Devils are in trouble. It’s early, but I’m getting that vibe already, unless their GM works some summer magic.

Jacques Lemaire, the Embodiment of Class, Retires

This afternoon, the head coach of the New Jersey Devils, Jacques Lemaire announced his retirement. Various sources claim he will still remain in the organization with another job, but as a coach, this is the end of a glorious career in the National Hockey League.

As a player, Lemaire won eight Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens and two more as their general manager. He then won his last one in 1995 as head coach of the New Jersey Devils, where he would put the stamp on the organization for years to come, even when he was no longer there.

Lemaire would grow to become unpopular with fans as he played a strict defensive system known as the neutral zone trap. It was in Montreal that he created it, and in New Jersey where he let it thrive. He would also bring it to the Minnesota Wild, where unfortunately, was never able to capture previous success.

The trap was without a doubt a very boring style of hockey, but it yielded results. Lemaire won forty games or more nine times, won one Stanley Cup, and made it to the conference finals two additional times. This style was able to transform a not-so skilled team into one that could compete with the best in the league.

However with the Devils, it would transform an already stacked defensive team into an unstoppable monster during the regular season. Players like Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, and Scott Niedermayer made careers out of playing this system. It would also turn Martin Brodeur into a hall-of-fame caliber goaltender.

Lemaire’s only Cup as a coach would come in the strike-shorted 1994/95 season, the year after the Devils made it to the conference finals and lost to the Rangers. But after that victory, the Devils could never seem to get it right in the playoffs, although they dominated regular season play. Lemaire would be fired from the Devils in 1998, coming off a forty-eight win season, a career high that he would match two more times.

Even after Lemaire left, though, the Devils would remain a defensive minded team with coaches such as Robbie Ftorek, Larry Robinson, Pat Burns, Claude Julien, and Brent Sutter. His stamp, although unpopular, was a sure way to get wins. The Devils would win a Stanley Cup in 2000 and 2003.

From New Jersey, Lemaire headed to the Minnesota Wild, where he would coach in their inaugural season and remain there for eight years. The teams he coached there were never loaded with stars, but he kept them competitive, winning forty games or more four times and making the playoffs three times. At the end of last season, Lemaire stepped down as coach and many thought his career would end there. Then Lou Lamoriello called…again.

The Devils had an aging goaltender, no-name defense, and an average offense, Lemaire was once again the perfect candidate for coach. The Devils were expected to do well but not to the extent they experienced this season. Lemaire led them to forty-eight wins, but the Devils were ousted in the first round of the playoffs by the seventh place Philadelphia Flyers.

With that, would come the end of an era.

During all this time, perhaps the one thing that Lemaire will be most noted for is professionalism. If you go to a dictionary and look up “class”, it is his picture you should find next to it. From when his teams were struggling, to when they were winning, he always maintained his composure both on the bench and in press conferences. This carries a lot of weight, because some coaches now take it upon themselves to be bullies and tyrants.

Many will claim that Lemaire helped to contribute to the NHL becoming boring during the era he coached in. People want offense and his system put defense at the forefront. But when it comes time to get wins, Lemaire was able to achieve that. He turned bad teams into good teams, and a good team into a Cup winner.

Lemaire’s legacy will live on, as it should.