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Devils Doing Fine After Losing Holik


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Devils doing just fine after losing Holik

By DARREN (N)Єverson

Faceoff.com correspondent

http://www.faceoff.com/home/news/story.htm...0224191417.html

They don't sit around pondering what's wrong with old friend Bobby Holik's new team, the New York Rangers. They have their own club to worry about, although -- at 37-16-4-4, sitting atop the Atlantic Division -- they don't have many worries these days.

But when they do think about it, or at least, when they're asked about it, the New Jersey Devils are surprised. On July 1, when Holik ended his 10-year Devils career by signing with the Rangers, one of three possibilities seemed inevitable: The Rangers would get better, the Devils would get worse or both. Instead, the one thing that not even the Devils themselves could've expected has happened: nothing.

The Devils are on their way to the playoffs for the seventh straight season, while the Rangers are on the verge of missing the postseason for a sixth straight year.

"It's amazing," goaltender Martin Brodeur said. "It's a good thing I didn't bet on that. I mean, I'm not saying they're not going to make it, but it's amazing they're in the position they're in. Definitely injuries were a big factor, but every year it seems to be the same thing."

In the Rangers' case, "the same thing" is no post-season for potentially a sixth straight year despite a loaded lineup.

"You look at their lineup, it's pretty scary," Scott Stevens said, "but that doesn't always mean you're going to win."

If anything, the Rangers' plight -- they stood 11th as of Feb. 24 -- reinforces the righteousness of the Devils' organizational approach: valuing young players, discipline and defense over aging, high-priced forwards reared in someone else's system.

"There has to be chemistry," Stevens said. "You put all of the goal scorers on one team, it doesn't mean you're going to win. I think you need a little bit of everything to put a hockey team together. I think that's how you go about it. Sometimes hard work will beat talent, so I think you need a combination."

Brodeur spoke of the Rangers' trading of young players. "They had that defenseman," he said, searching for the name. "He just scored on me (on Dec. 23) ... Lintner? Richard Lintner? I thought he was really good. He played a couple times against us in the pre-season, and they just traded him away."

But in exchange for Lintner and three other young players, the Rangers got Alexei Kovalev. And for the free agent Holik, they didn't surrender a single person.

The Devils, meanwhile, lost the punishing center who personified their style of play. How have they been able to adapt?

"It's a combination of things," Stevens said. "I think John Madden, there's no question he's a pretty good checker. He's taken that role, that whole line and done a very good job. Joe (Nieuwendyk) has done a good job in the leadership area and with his play."

"He was a big part," Brodeur said of Holik, "but he wasn't a guy who played 25 minutes for us. You have a guy like Mad Dog (Madden) that stepped up. Everybody knew he was able to do it, but now it's his responsibility to play against the top guys, and he really loves it."

INJURIES: Oleg Tverdovsky (concussion-like symptoms) is still on injured reserve, but he is skating on his own and is starting to stiffen his workouts. Sergei Brylin remains out for probably the rest of the regular season with a broken right wrist. Colin White (sprained right knee) is walking but will go on injured reserve, general manager Lou Lamoriello said.

ONE MORE MILESTONE: Now the Devils have two achievements to celebrate when they honor Joe Nieuwendyk sometime before season's end for scoring his 500th goal.

On Feb. 23, Nieuwendyk became the 65th player in league history to reach 1,000 points. As was the case with goal No. 500 -- a brilliant solo move at Carolina Jan. 17 -- Nieuwendyk made this one count. He scored the tying goal in the third period of the Devils' come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Penguins.

So what's next for the 36-year-old two-time Stanley Cup winner?

"Another Stanley Cup would be nice, wouldn't it?" Nieuwendyk said.

WELCOME ABOARD: It's not the major trade that has been rumored to be a possibility, but it is interesting. The Devils on Feb. 24 acquired 29-year-old center Pascal Rheaume (4-9--13) from the Thrashers for a conditional pick in the 2004 draft.

Rheaume, who first signed with the Devils organization in 1993, will report to New Jersey, where he'll provide some needed depth. The Devils were thin at forward until Brian Gionta and Turner Stevenson returned from injury against Pittsburgh, and with Brylin out and Steve Guolla back in Albany for conditioning, the Devils only had three true centers (Scott Gomez, John Madden and Joe Nieuwendyk).

THE LINES: Pat Burns made a minor adjustment in the Devils' 4-3 victory at Pittsburgh Feb. 23, breaking up Patrik Elias and Scott Gomez, but it remains to be seen if they stay apart.

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Excellent article. Where are those morons who said the Rangers were instantly a playoff team while the Devils were done?

Guess some people don't like to eat crow.

Well, I was wrong about the Rangers finishing with over 90 points. I think I said 92 for them and 91 for the Devils.

So, who else is going to admit, "they're wrong." <_<

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Although July 1st dates my prescence here... I was one of the few that argued the Devs would be fine and that one player does not make or break this team... meaning Holik isnt a Mario Lemieux... bur rather a team effort...

Although I was quite pissed that Holik left... but kinda expected it... he was my fave player though...

I had 4 teams of the Atlantic making the playoffs... with Flyers winning the divison, NJ at 2nd, closely contest by the Rangers at 3rd, and the Isles coming down from a high season...

If the Isles make it... I'll be as guilty as most in my predictions... the rag$ couldnt get it done... Although missing Bure and Leetch for a long amount of time... plus a lot more inlcuding Holik... hurts any team...

But just to fess up; I counted the Pens out because I thought Lemieux was done... I was wrong as apparant to the scoring leaders chart... So overall I was right bout them; just wrong reason ;)

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Oh yea; just to add, I was criticized for favoring my local team too much to give Devs the #2 spot in our divison... I had to "face reality" that the rag$ would now be better than the Devs...

hehehehe... wish that forum I was on was still good... stupid arguements ended the golden days of it...

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I was sort of in between, to tell you the honest truth I didn't know what to think. One thing that I never imagined was that The Rangers would have problems scoring goals. With Bure, Lindros, Nedved, Dvorak, Holik, and Lundmark, I thought they were set. And that probably would have been the case if not for the injuries.

But looking at their bottom 6 and their defense (I had heard from a lot of different fans that Kasperitus' defenseive abilities have always been suspect.) I thought that they could end up allowing a lot of goals again.

Also, remember that their goaltending, while good, was a little bit precarious, with Richter starting to show signs of age, and Blackburn a largely unknown quantity (although he picked up well for Richter when Richter went down last year)

I still thought the Devils could be better. I liked the Sykora trade, I really thought one of Berglund or Gionta was really going to take the bull by the horns (what a dissapointment), I was hoping that Salomonsson would pan out and give us a solid top line of Elias-Nieuwendyk-Salomonsson. I thought that Friesen-Gomez-Brylin would be a great second line, and I thought that guys like Berglund, Langenbrunner, Madden, and Stevenson would be good checking line guys. I thought that the BIG 3 would change the way we played the game, with the puck being moved much more quickly through the neutral zone with fewer turnovers.

But I did think there was a good possibility that the Rangers could run roughshod over the league this year.

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"There has to be chemistry," Stevens said. "You put all of the goal scorers on one team, it doesn't mean you're going to win. I think you need a little bit of everything to put a hockey team together. I think that's how you go about it. Sometimes hard work will beat talent, so I think you need a combination."

I'm sorry but don't you guys think this is the quote of the year?

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