devils102

Love Mark Fayne's defensive game... Gotta work on his shot. For a big strong dude his shot is SOOO limp. Never goes through.

Sometimes you don't even know within the game what he's going to do. He made a great save on the last great chance by Phoenix. Then a soft goal. I'm not a goalie coach by any stretch... but it seems that he is not picking the puck up as well this year as in years past. The last two goals are good examples as well as the the one against Montreal. If there's a stick or body anyone near the play he seems to really struggle stopping them. Marty plays much more like a butterfly goalie as in he challenges and makes himself big, whereas he used to be much more of a reaction goalie. Don't know if the reflexes are going with age or with a lack of confidence?

Prototypical Devils player in my opinion. Too bad it ended the way it did. But he was great in the 2003 cup run.

Good call. I thought I checked his past teams on the boxscore but I guess I forgot.

Next goal is going to be huge! I'm wondering if they screwed up the trivia question tonight... Who are the 3 players playing tonight who played for both Montreal and NJ. 1. Ryder 2. B. Gionta 3. ??? I'm going through the boxscore and I can't figure it out. Am I missing someone obvious?

I knew as soon as I posted that he was going to score, ha.

Zajac isn't shooting tonight!

Jagr is not shooting the puck tonight.

Soft goal on Brodeur. And a terrible PP. And tons of giveaways. Not a good start so far.

I hate this kind of garbage. The Devils are the only team that gets called out for playing the trap. You watch LA play and it's good physical hockey and then as soon as the Devils are involved it's the trap. Melnyk has the same blinders on that effect most owners of Canadian teams. Canadians love hockey and they will keep coming regardless of how good the team is so why spend a ton of money and take on risky contracts when the money will roll in anyway. And then suddenly it stops rolling in because after years of mediocrity the fan base becomes disinterested and money is tight so you have to move the team. Then it's a big national tragedy when the teams leave and the Canadian media plays it up like its the big pro-American commissioner who hates Canada.(I'm Canadian btw) It's easier for Melnyk to delude him into thinking his team is close to a Stanley Cup then actually take any risks. Last year the team had the HIGHEST average of shots per game and were 27th in scoring! They also allowed among the most shots per game and were 2nd in goals allowed. So you got really good goaltending and had really crappy forwards or just unlucky forwards. This year the offense is up but the goaltending isn't as good so the team is worse. Yet somehow they are one piece away from being a contender. Sorry, don't see it.

Shutouts suck but looking on the bright side... If Detroit loses tonight, we are two points out of the first wild card spot and three points out of second in the division. If Elias and Brunner get back soon and we can get on a run... there's no reason we can't make the playoffs.

Yeah it's about confidence at this point. Which is why I don't get why are two hottest goal scorers are on the bench in place of two guys that's haven't scored in nearly a month. But meh at least we got one point.

I would go with Henrique, Ryder and Clowe since they are scoring lately. If we need more... Boucher then Zajac, Zidlicky.

Listening to the radio feed tonight. They keep mentioning Gelinas being in and out of the lineup or whatever. Apparently Scott Stevens dictates the ice time of the defencemen which I didn't realize. They even attributed Gelinas missing a recent shift after a giveaway to a decision by Stevens. I don't think that will make anyone happier about the way young players are handled on this team, but I just didn't realize the committee approach to some of the decisions being made (according to Matt and Sherry anyway).

How much of this team is still the same as it was when the Atlanta Thrashers were around? The GM didn't do Claude Noel any favors.

The obvious choice is to pick Crosby because he's amazing. If there is a player out there who epitomizes the type of player I wish we had on the team it would be David Backes. Good lead, super competitive, hard worker, physical, good scoring touch. Kind of a rich mans David Clarkson. I think he would complement the type of guys and the system we have really well.

Yeah Jiri Hudler is a bit of a snub given the year he's having and some of the non-NHL'ers that are on the roster. This is the last kick at the can for some of these older guys and likely for this national team as a whole for the foreseeable future. Other than a couple young guys, they don't have many promising players coming up on the horizon to replace the vets.

Cool website. Thanks for sharing. I suspect there will be changes made to next years Canadian World Juniors team starting with our old friend Mr. Brent Sutter.

I forgot how awesome that poem/song was. Happy Holidays all!

Just don't have it tonight so far.Schneider has not stolen us the game like he did in LA... but regardless the deal deserves to be down 3-1.

And I think that's the downside of butterfly goalies... If the shot was on the ice he would have had it... If you shoot high on a butterfly goalie you know he's going low if he can't see it.

That penalty sucks because there were 2 other players there to play the puck... one who was right in front of Gelinas.

Feels like a Christmas game... Not a ton of energy by the Hawks and the crowd is dead.

The goal was kind of fluky but 1-0 is not an unfair score based on the play so far. Devils are having a hard time getting the puck deep and the Hawks forecheck is really good. They have a ton of speed.

Went off of Fayne. Lucky bounce for the Hawks. But it should be 1-0 based on the play so far anyway.