Teddy

As we all know, Greene has emerged as a solid two-way defenseman. We have also seen guys like Corrente, Fraser, and Eckford get some NHL time with reasonable success.

Maybe I'm a super skeptic, but I'm just not sold on Greene totally yet.  Defensively he scares me a bit and has absolutely no strength.  Before I let Paul Martin go, I want to see Greene in March/April.

People keep forgetting this guy hasn't played a full season of hockey for 2-3 years.  He may just hit the wall like Oduya did his rookie year.  Greene's been playing very well offensively and decent enough defensively - is he a #1 guy?  No way.

Fraser is tolerable, Corrente isn't ready and Eckford forget it.

Paul Martin is hands down the best defender on the team and should be resigned - within reason, that is.

Ok, so you said the Devils and not Lou.  When it comes to these kinds of decisions, Lou IS the "Devils" and you know that...do you think someone else made that decision?  Everything else I posted was pretty much on the money.  But those quotes do show that you can be a little bit excitable when it comes to a young or newer player getting off to a good start.  That's all I was going for.

As both I and funetiklee both pointed out, Greene DID get the time under Sutter (read our ice times for the past two seasons), so you're wrong on that count.  As for effort, I don't attend practices, so I can't say how much Greene was worked with.  If you're saying that Sutter and Greene didn't jell, you may be right...it wouldn't be the first time that a coach and player didn't work well together.  

If Lemaire had so much confidence in Greene, why was he not in the opening night lineup?  Or the game after that?  Greene is getting this chance out of sheer necessity, not because Lemaire had this belief that Greene was going to be the next big thing.  To his credit, Greene is making the most out of his chance.

Maybe Greene didn't get the chance under Sutter merely because he didn't follow Sutter's instruction - just a thought.  

Greene and Oduya were both rookies the same year, so I'm not buying this "he didn't play because he was a rookie nonsense".  Also, that rookie year was under Julien who apparently wasn't a big Greene supporter either.

Greene has gotten shot after shot and never showed what he is showing now.  Personally my opinion is that Greene does what he wants to do - I'm not so sure how well he listens to his coaching staff.  It just so happens it's working right now under Lemaire.  This is just my view of it.

He is playing very well right now, no doubt about it.  Top 4 when Martin and Oduya come back?  Not a chance.  Mottau has struggled the last few games which I credit to fatigue and/or injury.  But there is no way he gets bounced from White's line and there's no way White plays the 3rd D pairing.

I really don't know how this team is winning right now - a lot of luck playing poor teams and good teams with their stars being absent - but live it up now.  Seeing Greene out against a subpar Crosby scared me to death.  I still don't see him as top 4 defensively.  Yeah, he's putting up numbers and frankly I'm too lazy to look up how many of the assists came on the PP, but the goals are all PP - nothing even strength which bothers me a bit.

Sorry folks, when Martin and Oduya come back Greene will be back on the 3rd line again.