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Devils' Pete DeBoer has inspired team with his calm, confident dem


NJDevs4978

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The Devils were bracing to experience the wrath of new head coach Pete DeBoer like never before. They had just blown a 3-0 lead after the first period and lost, 4-3, to the Florida Panthers, the team that had fired DeBoer following last season.

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After a dejected Devils team boarded the bus to head to the airport, DeBoer addressed them. It was his 19th game as their coach.

“He easily could’ve snapped, easily,” captain Zach Parise recalled recently. “We were all upset for losing the game. We all wanted to win the game for Pete. You get fired by a team or you get traded, you want to beat that team.

“So he gets up on the bus and says, ‘Hey, that happens to every single team in the NHL once or twice a year. It happened to us tonight. Let’s not let it happen again.’ And that was it. He never talked about it again.

“We were all like, ‘This guy gets it. He understands.’ We all knew we stunk that night and let’s move on.”

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Zach is either very careful with his words or he is genuinely happy being here. I hope he sees all if this and decides he wants to stay beyond this season. I can't help but notice how much fun it looks like the guys are having. If what is said about debo is true, if seems like coaches like him are few and far between.

Edited by JRZYRIPPER
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DeBoer is doing a great job.

Parise is smart and the team is on a roll... it would be hard pressed to get a negative comment from him.

Lou said he is staying put (not traded); so hopefully we can work something out post July 1 (Parise would be a fool not to test the market at this point)

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I have to admit that in the beginning of the season I was often frustrated by how easy going he was when the team put out horrendous efforts, let up odd-man rush after odd-man rush, and were generally making mistakes left and right. But I guess this is because we're so used to having hard-nosed coaches here for the past few years.

I think DeBoer brings a really refreshing change of atmosphere to the locker room where he is confident and determined in what he wants on the ice, and gives the players time to adjust to it instead of reaming them out and hammering them into submission. It's an important psychological change and it certainly seems like the players appreciate it (ie Parise saying they would run through a wall for him). I don't know how well it will fare when / if the teams hits some serious adversity down the road, but for now the whole team looks like a unit.

Edited by Amberite
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Petey's been pushing the right buttons, but having Zach and Patty certainly helps. Zub and Clarksons play has certainly made a difference and deboer must have had some effect on their buy-in.

He hasn't juggled lines as much as tweeked them, and has drilled home his break-out strategy with our ever changing defensive pairings. He appears to be a very good Xs & O's coach, other than claude julien, he's matched up well against any coach he's faced

put the caveat "barring any monumental collapse...." in, and he's definately sticking around a few years

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Funny, I wonder how many of you would be saying this in the week before the all-star game when we lost three straight games. That was only about a month ago.

Well I think no one was singing his praises back then but at the same time there hadn't been a collective calling for his head type scenario.. I think it was pretty clear that the players were still adapting to the system and the subpar goaltending was not helping. Since then Marty has elevated his game and the team is playing better in front of him

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DeBoer seems like a good "mentor-type" coach. Let's see if his style and experience hold up in the playoffs. I like his "soave" style of being calm...

I am absolutely, however, flaberghasted when I hear the newspapers making a huge deal of the Devils "being in a playoff" spot. They make it sound like they're the old Atlanta Thrashers who made the playoffs once in a decade...

My Devils are "EXPECTED" to be competing year after year, no matter how strange last year was. I just hope the bar was not lowered on this franchise.

With players like Kovy, Parise, Elias, and now Larsson...playoffs should be an expectation year-in, year-out, or quite honestly, perrenial Stanley Cup runs should be the norm...

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DeBoer seems like a good "mentor-type" coach. Let's see if his style and experience hold up in the playoffs. I like his "soave" style of being calm...

I am absolutely, however, flaberghasted when I hear the newspapers making a huge deal of the Devils "being in a playoff" spot. They make it sound like they're the old Atlanta Thrashers who made the playoffs once in a decade...

My Devils are "EXPECTED" to be competing year after year, no matter how strange last year was. I just hope the bar was not lowered on this franchise.

With players like Kovy, Parise, Elias, and now Larsson...playoffs should be an expectation year-in, year-out, or quite honestly, perrenial Stanley Cup runs should be the norm...

It wasn't even a month ago that the Devils were heading into the break on a four game losing streak, tied for the last playoff spot. It certainly wasn't anywhere close to given that this team was going to the playoffs until recently.

I do think PDB is good for this team, which is full of self motivated vets and young guys looking to make an impression.

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Well I think no one was singing his praises back then but at the same time there hadn't been a collective calling for his head type scenario.. I think it was pretty clear that the players were still adapting to the system and the subpar goaltending was not helping. Since then Marty has elevated his game and the team is playing better in front of him

True there hasn't been an all-out calling for his head type of thing but it got pretty close back in December if I remember right.

I honestly did not like the hiring at the time and earlier on this season, but he is growing on me.

However I find the timing of this article to be pretty coincidental to their 9-1-1 run. I guess it is much easier to write this than when they were going on a slide earlier this year. It would be much more impressive if it was saying along the lines of "despite adversity, Devils rally behind their coach."

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I always liked DeBoer. My big problem at the beginning of the season was Oates and the powerplay. That has improved dramatically since recognizing that Larsson wasn't ready for sustained powerplay duty and when the strategy expanded from only attempting to set up a Kovy bombs away from the point. As much as the rest of his game sucks, Foster has been a help there also.

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Funny, I wonder how many of you would be saying this in the week before the all-star game when we lost three straight games. That was only about a month ago.

They were 26-19-3 at the break even with that 0-2-1 "slump", and exceeding expectations in the eyes of many, so I would hope most intelligent Devils fans wouldn't have based DeBoer's job performance on the results of those three games. But the entitled never take any setbacks well.

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They were 26-19-3 at the break even with that 0-2-1 "slump", and exceeding expectations in the eyes of many, so I would hope most intelligent Devils fans wouldn't have based DeBoer's job performance on the results of those three games. But the entitled never take any setbacks well.

And to me they are far and away exceeding expectations. I honestly thought in the offseason that they would spend all Feb-April fighting for the 8th seed. I just remember a few going nuts during that 3 game slide as well as an extended one back in early December or November.

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And to me they are far and away exceeding expectations. I honestly thought in the offseason that they would spend all Feb-April fighting for the 8th seed. I just remember a few going nuts during that 3 game slide as well as an extended one back in early December or November.

There are always a few who go nuts here during any losing streak, no matter how small it is.

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PDB has been a welcome breath of fresh air to the organization and the perfect coach for a new leadership group. Everyone in that locker room respects the hell out of him and wants to play for him from all the quotes and radio interviews I have read and listened to.

The players also seem to respect a coach that allows two HOF players (okay Oates isn't there, but he should be soon) do a lot of the coaching. We have seen in key defensive faceoffs that Robinson does a ton of talking, while in key offensive situations, Oates is the main guy running the show. Good to see them being utilized because we know Lemaire was a 1-man show. Even last game when Sykora got benched, you saw PDB going to Oates about possible new line combinations.

Also, assistants have always been the bridge between players and the head coaches, so it makes it a lot better when you can deal with and be taught a lot by coaches you feel very comfortable with. We know Robinson has always been that guy with the defensemen and I guess Oates is the same with the forwards.

Edited by devilsrule33
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And to me they are far and away exceeding expectations. I honestly thought in the offseason that they would spend all Feb-April fighting for the 8th seed. I just remember a few going nuts during that 3 game slide as well as an extended one back in early December or November.

I think a lot of people thought they were going to be battling for a lower seed. I sure did; I was thinking 6th-8th. And we both know we have our share of fans who can't handle so much as a single loss (all fanbases do), though it seems some days like we have A LOT of that type. This year has felt like a bonus to me...I knew they were going to be better record-wise than last year, but I didn't know by how much.

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I think a lot of people thought they were going to be battling for a lower seed. I sure did; I was thinking 6th-8th. And we both know we have our share of fans who can't handle so much as a single loss (all fanbases do), though it seems some days like we have A LOT of that type. This year has felt like a bonus to me...I knew they were going to be better record-wise than last year, but I didn't know by how much.

Very true.

Honestly this team is also exciting to watch again with the new aggressive style they play. I haven't felt this way since 08-09 season when we had our offense firing on all cylinders that year.

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Very true.

Honestly this team is also exciting to watch again with the new aggressive style they play. I haven't felt this way since 08-09 season when we had our offense firing on all cylinders that year.

Ugh....don't even mention 08-09. After the lockout, that was probably the team I had the highest hopes for and to lose the way they did was beyond traumatic...

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