N.J. Devils ~ Defending Newark From Kings and Elimination

From the desk of:   THE BRICK CITY DEMONS

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

Stanley Cup Finals

Kings Lead Series 3-1

I  -  LAK 2; NJD 1*

II  -  LAK 2; NJD 1*

III  -  LAK 4; NJD 0

IV -  NJD 3; LAK 1

* overtime

GAME FIVE

Los Angeles Kings

vs.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

From

THE ROCK

Brick City, Newark

NEW JERSEY DEVILS:  Game Four's Counter-Offensive In Los Angeles Brings the Battle for Lord Stanley's Cup

Back to Newark.

How much more can the renaissance men offer?  Are they crafty enough to win three more games?  Can Martin Brodeur hold back another seventy-five shots?  That's what it will take.  It's certainly another way of looking at things, isn't it?  Martin Brodeur, along with Petr Sykora and Patrick Elias, are the last horsemen of the old Stanley Cup winning Devils.

Martin Brodeur looks up to the task.  But that doesn't rule out Jonathan Quick being better.  And Quick just needs to be better in one game.  Not three.

Coach DeBoer knows this, and reactivated Petr Sykora.  And who can blame him?  The Devils needed more scoring.  Say this for Coach DeBoer, he's been pro-active throughout these playoffs.  Did his move to reinstate Sykora help?  Sykora was plus-one, with one shot on goal.  So the jury is still out.

But I do not think it is a coincidence that Patrick Elias scored his fifth goal of the playoffs, and the Devils won.  I also do not think it was a coincidence, that Dave Clarkson registered a point, and the Devils won.  Likewise, with Ilya Kovalchuck's eighth goal of the playoffs.  If Kovalchuck is indeed hurt, he is still trying.

The Carter-Bernier-Gionta line has been quiet.  The Devils rode their backs for a few games.  So it's not like you can just stop expecting them to come through now.  And the Devils are also still waiting for Zach Parise to erupt.  Beyond a shadow of a doubt however, Adam Henrique continues to be the Devils' best player through this series.  He scored his fourth goal of the playoffs, and the Devils' second goal of Game Four, in the third period.  Without Henrique, where would the Devils be?  Certainly not in the Finals.

Adam Henrique's goal was the Devil's response to Los Angeles tying the game on Drew Doughty's power play goal at 8:56 in the third which negated Patrick Elias' score exactly one minute earlier.   Adam's goal turned out to be yet another game winner for Henrique during these playoffs.

The Devils are still spitting into the wind when it comes to the power play.  They are now 0 for 15 this series, while L.A. seemingly has their power play working now, as they have scored three times in the last two games on the man advantage.  That does not bode well for the Devils at all.  Not if they plan to win three games it doesn't.  The Devils can't realistically expect Martin Brodeur out-play that stat.

The Devils have proven this much during the series, they can defend Los Angeles for prolonged periods of play.  And finally in Game Four, they proved to themselves, they can score goals again.  They had to wait till the third period for the goals to come.  But throughout these NHL playoffs, three goals has proven to be good enough to win.

While the Devils keep waiting for a couple of their top scorers, to score..., more, in the mean time, the defensemen have been contributing their share of points.  Volchenkov, if you remember, scored in Game One.  Marek Zidlicky added an assist in Game Two, and most recently in Game Four, Bryce Salvador picked up two assists, and Andy Greene one.

If you're going put yourself behind 3-1 in the series, I guess heading back to Newark is the next best place to be.  And so, the Devils will try and hold home ice Saturday night.  They showed a lot of fight in Game Four.  There is still some fire burning in the Devils.  Saturday night, they dance again in Brick City.

Mike.BTB

N.J. Devils ~ Dancing Off To Philly

From the desk of:   THE BRICK CITY DEMONS

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE  ~  2012 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

Eastern Conference Semi Final Round

Devils Lead Series 3-1

I  -  PHI 4; NJD 3

II  -  NJD 4; PHI 1

III  -  NJD 4; PHI 3

IV  -  NJD 4; PHI 2

III overtime

Game Five

NEW JERSEY DEVILS
vs.

Philadelphia Flyers

From

The Land of Bad Cheese Steaks

PHILADELPHIA

NEW JERSEY DEVILS:  Look What The Devils Did to the Flyers..., Again!   Can Advance to Conference Finals With Win Tonight.

Dancing Near The Fire; Game Four
No Sympathy Needed; Series Tied


That's three wins over the Flyers in a row.  After snatching victory in overtime of Game Three, this time the Devils started out down 2-0 in the first period after taking yet more penalties, and allowing a short-handed goal to Claude Giroux.  But here's all the difference.  After committing their second penalty at 11:43 of the first period, in which Giroux made them pay, the Devils didn't commit a single penalty the rest of the game.

The Devils stayed out of the box, and therefore were able to press on with offensive opportunities.  They consistently kept play in Philly's end, and kept taking shots at Ilya Bryzgalov all night; forty-two to be exact.


If the Devils were busy in Philly's end, that means Martin Brodeur was facing minimal shots on goal in his end.  The Flyers managed twenty-two shots against Marty.  He stopped twenty.  But from the midway point of the first period on, he denied the Flyers on all attempts.


Another game, different heroes.  That's the way this Devils' team has been.  Petr Sykora was the first to step up Sunday.  He scored a minute and a half after Giroux's goal in the first.  Sykora's power play goal definitely reset the game.  With two minutes left before the first intermission, trade deadline pick-up, Marek Zidlicki tied the game at two all with his first of the playoffs.  Zidlicki also assisted on Sykora's previous goal.


The second period stayed scoreless until Dainius Zubrus took assists from Adam Henrique and Petr Sykora, and scored his second goal of the playoffs.  It turned out to be the game winner.  But in the third period, Dainius Zubrus made sure.  With fifteen seconds left in regulation, he scored the Devils' game sealing fourth goal en route to a 4-2 final in Game Four.


Once again, the number FOUR seems to be the magic number working for the Devils.  And so, they will be skating for their fourth victory of the series tonight.  They'll try to wrap things up on enemy ice; in Philadelphia.  The Devils have three chances to win one in order to advance into the Eastern Conference championship round against the winner of the Washington Capitals/New York Rangers series.


"Pleased to meet you....  Hope you guess my name!"




* Devils Playground graffiti;Buskwick
Mike.BTB

N.J. Devils ~ GAME ONE; Stanley Cup Playoffs

From the desk of:   THE BRICK CITY DEMONS

2011-2012

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

Quarter Final Round:

GAME ONE

#6 - NEW JERSEY DEVILS

vs.

#3 - Florida Panthers

From,

Sunny and Too Hot

FLORIDA

NEW JERSEY DEVILS:  Panthers in for a Hell of a Time.


Is this the last Dance With the Devils?  Too many players are gone from those Stanley Cup seasons.  Some remain.  But this is by and large a different team than those.  Once these playoffs are done for the Newark Demons, there will be another summer contemplating Martin Brodeur's retirement, and Zach Parise's inevitable free agency.  And lest we forget, this team just missed making the playoffs last season for the first time in a long time.  So, no, these are not the traditional Devils at all.


But they certainly aren't the Devils of last season either; the team that went through two coaches and neither one of them is here today.  Lou Lamoriello builds winners.  But no coach is safe working for Lou Lamoriello.  The Devils' long-time GM may have struck upon a good one with Peter Deboer though.  Peter DeBoer stepped in and tinkered around with his over abundance of wingers, and molded a mix of veteran Devils with new young blue liners, and created a #6 seeded team while playing in a ridiculously tough Atlantic Division.


In addition to Coach DeBoer facing his former team, this is a very favorable match-up for New Jersey. And Coach DeBoer might very well have the pulse of both.  The Florida Panthers earned the #3 seed by winning the Southern Division.  So the Devils will be headed to Florida for Game One of their quarter-final playoff series Friday night.


The Florida Panthers purged many players after last season in exchange for a pack of younger hungrier cats.  And low and behold, here they are.  But if Florida's rising April temperatures don't melt the Panthers chances of advancing, the Devils have a bunch of forwards that will surely set them aflame.


Zach Parise, Ilya Kovalchuck, and David Clarkson, all have thirty goals or more.  Then bring in the old vet Patrick Elias with his twenty-six goals.  Add Petr Sykora, and Dainius Zubrus, and what you have are two lines worth of frequent scorers.  But beyond them, there's little else.


The x-factor in any Stanley Cup run, of course, is the goalie. The Devils still have Martin Brodeur; the all-time NHL wins leader, between the pipes.  There were times this season he looked every bit of his thirty-nine years of age.  But, if the way he played over the second half of the season is any indication, then he's still capable of taking any team on the magic carpet ride.  He should be fairly fresh heading into these playoffs.  For a goalie accustomed to starting nearly every game over his career, Brodeur started in sixty-one games this past season.  And for the fourteenth time in his Devils' career, he surpassed thirty wins in a season.


Florida might be young, eager, and skilled, but the Devils will prove too much for them.  As a matter of fact, I can see Coach Deboer and the Devils orchestrating a complete undressing of the Panthers over the series.





Mike.BTB

N.Y. Rangers ~ Still Leaders of the Pack

From the desk of:   RAISE GRESCH WITH THE GREATS

Battle of the Hudson

MONDAY NIGHT FINAL

N.J. Devils       2

N.Y. Rangers  4

Rangers and Devils end season series tied 3-3

NEW YORK RANGERS:  Clinch Playoffs With Win.



Salute the colors of the night; Ranger Blue; Devils' Black; and Bloody Face Red - Ryan Carter's, that is.  In truth, all players skated off the ice Monday night sporting bruises in all three hues of pain.



Before the scheduled hockey game was to be played, there were some season long, and not so old grudges stemming from Game Five to settle.  Coach Peter DeBoer sent out a starting line of his lesser skilled, more physically spirited attitude adjusters and mood managers on the ice.  It's interesting he did that.  In Game Five of Battle of the Hudson, New Jersey resoundingly pummelled the Rangers.  Was his thinking, keep a good yet struggling team down by beating them down?  If you ask Ryan Carter, he might say his Coach's plan backfired.  He might.  I'm just saying.



As the home team, Coach Torts recognized DeBoer's move, and say what you will, gladly accepted the challenge by sending out his own line of Reckless Rangers.  Needless to say, it only took three seconds after the initial drop of the puck till the ice was littered with gloves and elbow pads.



In New York's corner - Brandon Prust; Mike Rupp; and Stu Bickel.  In New Jersey's corner - Eric Boulton; Cam Janssens; and Ryan Carter.  Of the six purpose players, Ryan Carter suffered the most damage.  During his game opening fight with Bickel, he opened up a head wound after falling in a vulnerable face/head first manner.  His dripping blood stained the ice.



For the Devils, it was an omen.  That melee was quite literally the beginning of the end to their night.  Less than two minutes into the game, Brandon Dubinsky put the Rangers ahead.



Thirty-three seconds into the second period, Dan Girardi put the Rangers up by two.  Then the Devils struck.  Patrick Elias made it a 2-1 game.  Mats Zuccarello had an answer for that however, when he scored at 7:33 of the period making it a 3-1 Rangers' lead.  But half way through the period, Petr Sykora made it a one goal game again.



The game stayed that way for the first 18:50 of the third period until Derek Stepan deflected a puck by Martin Brodeur to seal a Rangers 4-2 victory.



The Rangers and the Devils end this regular season's Battle of the Hudson tied with three wins apiece.  The victory now gives the Rangers ninety-seven points.  In the tight Atlantic Division race and in the Eastern Conference standings, that's three points better than Pittsburgh and five better than Philadelphia.  Overall, ninety-seven points is the second best mark in the NHL behind St. Louis, who have already hit 100 points.



The biggest reward of tonight's rebuking of the Devils?  The Bueshirts have officially clinched a spot in the 2011-2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  That's another small step for Rangers Kind.

Next up:

Wednesday, March 23, 2012

Detroit Red Wings

vs.

NEW YORK RANGERS

From,

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
33rd Street at 7th Avenue

NYC

Mike.BTB