Apparently the New Jersey Devils have taken a page straight out of the 2008 New York Mets guide to closing out a game. "If leading late, assume opposing team will give up and game will be won."
Twice now in the series, the Devils have held leads with victory in sight, and twice they have conceded the game winning goal under a minute to go.
Already, fans are playing the blame game, and yes, this is exactly what I intend to do.
Some are pointing fingers at a suspect Defensive corps that probably is barely in the middle of the pack compared to the rest of the league. If this core was so bad, why did they put together stellar numbers infront of a goaltender who never started more than 10 games in a single NHL season? Including impressive wins against top echelon opponents.
The defense wasn’t blamed then for the losses with Clemmensen in net, then why are they getting the blame when a Hall of Fame goalie is in net?
Some fans are blaming Brodeur for the loss. I will fully agree that he should have had the first and fourth goals, no questions asked. But he cannot put the offense together, he cannot score goals [well realistically] from his end of the ice. It’s the job of the players making multi-million dollars.
Yes, Brodeur should take the fall for 2 goals, but that still leaves 2 unaccounted for. Oh, and all arguments here on out that Marty is too tired when it comes playoff time, are hereby dismissed, cause he missed 50 games this season, and still couldn’t steal them more than 1 game.
“The role players never stepped up,” is another cry. Well, lets see who the Devils got goals from. The equalizer came from Langenbrunner who had missed 2 games in the series with a lower body injury. He took a brilliant feed from Parise down low and buried it past Ward. Later, Jay Pandolfo, who was scratched for nearly every game down the stretch, scored the first go-ahead goal. After the Cane’s tied it, Rolston answered on the powerplay to take the lead back. This team was on fire, and had Carolina on their heels, all they needed was one more to find the back of the net, and it looked like it was going to happen.
But then something happened with about 6 minutes to go.
They went defensive. The shell came back, the offense died, and Carolina smelt blood in the water.
Even watching at home, you could tell the ice was beginning to tilt towards the Devils end as Carolina began rush after rush, forcing Brodeur to make highlight reel saves to compensate for Devil breakdowns. But yet, they stayed defensive, and it was their demise.
I personally look no further than the man behind the bench, head coach Brent Sutter. Throughout the series, Sutter failed to have his team give him 100% effort for the entire 60 minutes. All season long, he never matched lines with the opposing teams, and for the last 2 games he did. Putting the geriatric line out there against the Staal line killed the Devils. As did the team thinking the game was over at the 18 minute mark of the 3rd period.
For those who wish to look beyond Sutter and say there needs to be a player out there to step up and be a leader on the ice, I ask that you find him, and ask yourself, would he honestly want to come to New Jersey.
Just like every year since 2003 except for 2, the Devils are playing golf following the first round.
When is enough enough? When will the ownership hold people in the front office accountable? Could this finally be the year? Please?
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