Devil Dan 56

how likely is it that Brodeur would let in 2 playoff overtime wraparound game winners to the same team within a 3 year stretch...oh yea it happened


what are the odds of Carolina game 7 2009 happening?

How about Carolina game 4 2009 happening. What are the odds of letting in a game winning goal from the blue line with 0.1 seconds remaining

What about letting up 14 shots on goal in game 1 vs Philly in 2010 and STILL LOSING. Or Daniel fvcking Carcillo scoring an OT winner against us

Or how about Eric Staal tying up game 2 with seconds left in 2006 just after Parise put us ahead? What are the odds of that? It happened

with the choker in net...anything is possible. I'm sick of all this over analyzed statistical mumbo jumbo. Everything that has happened to the Devils in the playoffs since 2003 defies this

Nice revisionist history.

Oh the one in Game 7 double overtime IN THE CONFERENCE FINALS when Fetisov for some unknown reason threw the puck to the middle of the defensive zone? After they beat Boston and Buffalo? Or the one where the whole team was down and out in 5 games in 97?

Game 7 in 2009? Oh, right, after they got shutout in Carolina in Game 6. The game 7 that had a tying goal because Nic Havelid decided he doesn't like defense and stood around while a pass went through him from the blue line to the side of the net. And then Colin White went 30 feet out of position to leave Eric Staal going down the wing at full speed. Anybody remember Parise and Gionta failing to connect a pass across the crease that would have tied it back up after that? Nope?

Game 4 in 2009? The goal from the point that was deflected by Ruutu and the team was looking for an interference call that it never got? And then he followed it up with a 44 save shutout the next game?

Carcillo's OT goal? In game 3? When NO ONE SHOWED UP? Where Brodeur made save after save in the 3rd period while the offense was skating in circles?

Please. Marty is definitely not the player he was. He definitely has lost a step, and he definitely has lost some big, big games (like last night), but to cherry pick all this crap out and somehow leave out games like 5,6,7 against Philly in 2000, the finals in 2000, the 2003 conference and stanley cup finals, the 2006 Ranger series. I mean every damn goalie in the history of the sport has won and lost big games. I don't know who these super goalies are that you think can win the cup every year, never lose a big game, and never blew a lead, but I'm gonna guess they hang out with unicorns and talking squirrels in a magical mystical imaginary forest somewhere.

Maybe it would've helped if he said stuff to the actual team...

"COME ON DEVILS!!! GET ON YOUR SKATES!!! PRETEND YOU GIVE A DAMN AND MAKE SOME NOOISSSEEE!!!!!!"

"COME ON ZACH!!! ACT AS IF YOU AREN'T ALREADY LOOKING AT PROPERTY IN 10 OTHER CITIES!!! MAKE SOME NOISE LIKE AN AIRPLANE TAKING YOU AWAY FROM HERE JULY 2ND MIGHT MAKE!!!!"

"MARTY!! SURE YOU'VE BEEN PULLED AFTER BLOWING A 3 GOAL LEAD AND YOUR LEGACY IS FOREVER TARNISHED OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS OF MEDIOCRE PLAYOFFS BUT STAND UP ON THAT BENCH AND MAKE SOME NOOOIIISSEEE!!!!"

Listen to those classless Nashville fans and their you suck chants! Hahaha. Loud crowd, I'm pulling for 'em

Clemmensen shouldn't scare anyone! Move him side to side! Or shoot glove!

His lateral movement isn't the greatest and he drops on every shot.

And who would have thought then that he would go on to become the most beloved and hated, and then beloved again, and then hated, and then beloved sometimes when he's winning, but then REALLY hated when he's losing, then washed up, then not so washed up, but still beloved, and then very washed up again, and thus hated, but then still beloved when he keeps a low GAA, but hated when the back up goalie wins some games, and then......

And if Moose is in and the team loses in 5, how smart does it look knowing you had your franchise HOF goalie sitting on the bench because Moose played really well recently in his spot starts? I mean, we're calling for Moose in the playoffs based on wins over the Capitals, Islanders, and Senators.

Have we looked at what happened when Moose was starting consistently? Better yet, here's the teams Moose has beaten this year...

Carolina (not in playoffs)
Los Angeles (8th place)
Nashville (4th place)
Philadelphia  (5th place)
Washington (8th place)
NY Islanders (not in playoffs)
Ottawa (7th place)
Tampa (not in playoffs)
Dallas (3rd place)
Florida (3rd place)
Edmonton (not in playoffs)

So... 4th place, 5th place, 7th place, two 8 places, 4 non playoff teams, and two 3rd places who would be ranked 7th if not for divisional seeding.

And I say this as a big Moose fan, but he's a back up.

Great Carter can stay on the roster then as a winger and start over Boulton. Playoffs are 7 games away  and fighting almost becomes non existent when they start.

So does Rolston

I was at the game at MSG and also in Ottawa last night. The thing that pissed me off at the MSG-game was that the staged fighting did nothing to improve our chances of winning the game at all. Instead, we lose Salvador with a 10 minute misconduct, fall behind early, never able to tie it up, getting closer again and then giving up another goal on a pp that resulted from Boulton's stupid boarding. We play the game essentially with three lines and a 4th line of total stiffs while the other lines play extensive minutes a night before we play another important game in Ottawa. Now, yesterday was a totally different game, but it shows you basically have a better chance at winning with a more disciplined style of hockey. Boulton and Konopka both dressed, but I guess Boulton was too tired from the night before to have another fight.

Quite a few here in the forum think it's all real hatred between the players... in reality it has nothing to do with it. Cam Janssen's only chance to stick in this league and make lots of money compared to the average Joe is to fight whoever Deboer tells him to fight. He is like a pit bull in a dog fight. Real hate? Yeah, maybe DURING the fight because it is either him or me, but I wouldn't be surprised if in the summer Janssen and Prust play golf together. It's their job.  You think it's hate? The moment Brodeur skates at the other end to fight Lundqvist I will believe it is hate, but not a second sooner. When professional fighters fight it has nothing to do with hate and everything to do with keeping their jobs.

Whether you like fighting or not us up to you, but to say they don't hate each other is kind of ridiculous.

Brodeur (from his book): "I hate the Rangers, and Lou hates them to death."

“If they didn’t want to do it and didn’t think it was necessary, then they wouldn’t have done it,” Janssen said. “It takes two guys to fight and we both agreed upon and we both obviously thought it was necessary and that’s why we did it. It just kind of calmed everything down, but it was still actually a very physical game. They thought, ‘Hey, you’re not going to come into our barn and you’re not going to push us around’ and we thought, ‘Hey, we’re coming in your barn and you’re not going to push us around, so let’s do this right now.’ It what it is. We got it off our chest and we battled.”

Said Rangers center Brian Boyle after the game (3/6/12): “They hated us tonight, they wanted to kill us and we didn’t match that. I think for stretches we did but we need to take a look in the mirror."

“I guess in John’s world you can come into our building and start your tough guys, but we can’t do the same in here,” DeBoer said. “He’s either got short-term memory loss or he’s a hypocrite. So it’s one of the other.”



As for the opinion of other players...

Ryan White - "You don’t see it very often. A lot of people don’t really like it, but I bet the people at Madison Square Garden liked it. I liked it, I thought it was pretty cool. There were some big boys going at it, that’s for sure."


Now, did it backfire this time? Yes. But it could have gone either way. If the Devils got the momentum off of it and won, everyone would be talking about how smart Deboer was. Keep in mind the Devils beat the Rangers 2 weeks ago with a very similar start. No one seemed to complain then.

Which is all well and good, but the concussion data, while far from perfect, is scary. I don't have much of a problem with fighting for protection, but if players can't get energized for a rivalry game without a teammate risking his future health, then they shouldn't get paid to play hockey.

I understand the tradition, but we know more than we used to. We need to evolve. Once upon a time players didn't wear helmets. The sport survived that change.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If you remove fighting from the game, you will have stick-swinging anarchy. If you remove that release of aggression from a game, it will come out somewhere else. Anyone here who has played any kind of organized hockey (and I think most of us have at some point), you know how quickly a game can escalate.

Another thing, call it canned or staged or whatever... the fact of the matter is these 2 teams HATE each other. They wanted to get it right out in the open and set the tone for the night. That game was a playoff caliber game until the Devils dropped off a bit.

Ah ok. Thanks everyone haha. For some reason I thought he was justified in jumping in, you know since carter was getting cheap shotted on the ice.

The 31-year-old Avery lounged back in his chair and said: "I am officially retired; I threw my skates in the Hudson [River]."

Wow. He's a jerk AND he litters, too.

..hang on a second.. what we witnessed here tonight, was something that had only happened 4 other times in league history. *Courtesy WFAN; "This is only the 5th time in NHL history a starting goalie has made 39 saves or less, in the span of 3 games!" 13 saves tonight, 12 against Tampa, 14 against Vancouver.

I know our offense is going to take a beating from the fans.. but let's be real! This is the 3rd game in a row we're holding other teams to 15 shots! The defense is blocking practically every shot that comes Marty's way. (the likes of 1999) What does OUR goalie gotta do to steal a game?! 10 shots? 8 shots?  

He let in one goal and they got shutout... Was he supposed to win zero to negative one?

Sorry Moose should have started this game.

And heeeeere we go....

Honestly there's no excuse for this kind of an off game today.  They just lost Friday, they have hell month coming up on the schedule, a home game against arguably a bottom five team without Lecavalier and Hedman was vital to win, cause now this could easily become a four-game losing streak headed into Washington Thursday, which won't be easy either now that they finally seem to have a pulse.  

Yes, the team's going to the playoffs barring a full nuclear meltdown but they can't lose too much of their edge here with a tough stretch still to come, the six-game losing streak in March during Sutter's last year was the beginning of the end for that season.  Plus the trend of letting the opposition's top line (when they only have one line to focus on) beat us I don't like.  At least with the Florida teams.  Not to mention the home woes, that have been constant since the Rock opened.

The 'no excuse' and 'must win' stuff is totally over done. Tampa came out firing and the Devils didn't. Add in garon making some huge saves and the defense having a bad game and it's a loss. It happens. If you look bigger than the last couple of games though this team is clearly coming together off the ice and, with the exception of break downs like today, they are buying into Deboer and his system. These are the things that matter.

I was trying to find Lemieux's game 7 goal in 1994 to post here, and I got lucky and found this clip from the old awesome Rock 'Em Sock 'Em tapes. (Which I now have to search the attic for)