I honestly have been sitting here for fifteen minutes wondering how to start this blog.  All I’ve had for that long a time was the title and theme of my post.  I’ve never actually heard this Bon Jovi song until tonight, but the lyrics sure do fit this Devils team don’t they?  We can cycle the goaltenders, change the forwards and bingo-ball the defensemen around.  In the end, no matter who’s in the lineup this team will continue to find ways to blow games and seasons.  Our main constant the last three years has been the coach – Pete DeBoer.  At this point I’m thinking of calling him Lead DeBlower (a moniker I saw on a message board, boy does that fit too).  In practically a must-win game against the lousy Florida Panthers, who have Brian Campbell and a bunch of nobodies left on their team after the latest liquidation deadline sale in Sunrise, this team flat out choked plain and simple.  With a 3-1 lead late in the second, yet again this team of losers could not get the job done AGAIN.  For all the leads we’ve blown in the last three seasons it’s been against DeBoer’s former team that we’ve been the most snakebit, blowing three-goal leads twice in 2012, as well as two-goal leads in the pivotal Games 6 and 7 of the playoffs before winning both in OT.  Last year’s double-disaster in Florida culminated with a blown lead in the final minute against the Panthers that short-circuited that season.  And now this disaster, which may have been the worst of all.

Not only could the Devils have blown a season tonight, but this game could have reprecussions even beyond this year as the golden boy Cory Schnieder continues to spit up the bit since the Olympics.  As well as he played before the break, he’s come a cropper when it mattered most allowing fifteen goals in his last three games, looking bad on a breakaway in the third period that tied the game and then allowing a clunker on goal number four.  Cory certainly hasn’t played well in any of the big showdowns with former teammate Roberto Luongo this season and I can no longer defend his record with a string of performances like tonight.  While Cory is always stand-up in defeat, at this point his admission that he needs to be better isn’t just talk.  He really does need to be better, though at this point he probably won’t get the chance now that Martin Brodeur‘s won back the job with four straight wins since the break – ironic after all the unneccesary drama surrounding him two weeks ago.

Not that this game was on Cory alone by any stretch.  Indeed even during the first period, this team was floating around with their head in the clouds as the Panthers peppered Schnieder with a dozen shots in the game’s first fifteen minutes before a good coaching move by DeBoer calling an early timeout, settling the game down.  For my ripping of DeBoer earlier, that did buy the Devils two periods as they eventually turned it up a notch and pounded home three goals past Luongo including captain Bryce Salvador scoring for the first time in the regular season since 2010, and ageless Jaromir Jagr scoring his 1000th professional goal (including the KHL, Czech League and playoffs).  Patrik Elias beat Luongo with a seeing-eye shot through a screen to make it 3-1 and with the Devils holding Florida without a shot for the majority of the period it seemed as if the game was safe.  I should know better but I had visions of the game against the Isles a couple weeks ago which was a dud early but turned into a runaway late.

Of course when faced with a chance at any real prosperity when the standings tighten up and there’s a shot to move up into a playoff position, this team finds a way to blow it up.  They’ve won three in a row exactly once all season, they blow leads at an alarming pace and make the most mind-boggling mistakes doing it.  It was actually the well-respected vet Elias who had a rookie mistake on his first turnover, a blind pass that set up the Panthers’ opening goal by Campbell.  It was the usually steady Jon Merrill that actually did have a rookie mistake on the Panthers’ second goal, backing off the ghost of a player once known as Scott Gomez to cover a guy who already was covered, allowing Gomez a free shot and pass off the rebound to the immortal Quinten Howden.  It was the normally reliable Jagr who shot a breakaway wide early in the third period that could have iced the game.  And it was the normally steady Mark Fayne whose turnover led to the game-tying breakaway goal by Brad Boyes.  Although even that goal looked bad from Schnieder’s perspective, he beat him clean without a T. J. Oshie type of deke.

I knew right then we were going to lose.  I would have been better off turning the TV off at that point, the way I wanted to do during our dumpster fire of a first period.  Being the glutton for punishment I am, I kept the game on though I wasn’t really watching I did hear the bad lead goal Schnieder allowed, an unscreened shortside shot by Scottie Upshall.  Probably a fitting end to this game, given that this whole season Schnieder’s been like the bad luck charm of the team, doing just enough to lose whether it’s 2-1 or 5-4.  Maybe it’s not fair – and we’ll never know how the furor surrounding Marty at the deadline or the games he got because of it affected Cory and kept him from getting back into a rhythm – but right now the crease is and should be Marty’s.  It seemed from November on this goaltending thing was destined to be a no-win situation for anyone involved.  If Cory took the crease and ran with it, Marty would be miffed and demand a trade (which essentially happened) or leave town at the end of the season to chase win #700 elsewhere.  If Marty kept the job and kept winning, Cory would realize he couldn’t ever make headway replacing a legend and want to leave to get a chance at his own legacy elsewhere.  While I’ll always defend Lou Lamoriello making the trade for Cory, ultimately it looks like it’s not going to work out…call it the right move at the wrong time.

For all the kvetching about the goalies though, they aren’t solely responsible for all these blown leads – after all it was the great Marty who was in net for last year’s twin meltdowns in Florida.  They also aren’t the ones stockpiling slow, mediocre defensemen that block NHL talent like Adam Larsson and Eric Gelinas from playing.  In fact our best stretch came with both in the lineup when we won five of six in November against tough teams, but now Larsson is stuck in Albany while Gelinas is in and out of the doghouse.  And while I’m on a full-blown rant…is Michael Ryder alive?  I know scorers are streaky but when you have zero goals in twenty-two games or whatever it is, then the fact you do literally nothing else right sticks out just a bit more.  As essential as Marek Zidlicky can be adding offensive punch from the blueline (especially with Gelinas back in the doghouse), Gelinas could have had a game like Zidlicky’s tonight – going -4 and committing a crucial, unneccesary late penalty.  But even with our defensive snafus and everything that went wrong, we still outshot this joke of a team 25-9 in the last two periods and somehow still blew the game.  Four goals on nine shots….just think about that for a second.  Right now Cory’s looking like he was a bit overrated playing in front of a good team in Vancouver.  I hate to keep going back to the goalies but I’ve been defending Cory’s play this year and decrying his unjust W/L record until recently.  Maybe I’d be less apt to put this game on goaltending – which truth be told it really wasn’t for the most part – if it wasn’t for the whole fifteen goals allowed in three games thing.

At least right now the Marty hero-worshippers and Cory-haters can get their wish.  I can’t see any way barring injury where Cory gets more than one, maybe two starts the rest of the month.  Whatever, maybe we can make an illusory run towards a playoff berth with Marty but in the end this team will still find a way to blow it no matter who’s in net.  Even if by some miracle this team somehow makes the playoffs, what makes anyone think they can go on any kind of a run?  Between a spotty offense, slow team speed, questionable defense and so-so goaltending, those are the hallmarks of a mediocre team, not a title contender.  Especially as they continually find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.