Battle Of Hudson

Andy Greene and Jaromir Jagr celebrate Jagr’s milestone 700th goal

Given the Devils’ offensive woes for most of the last two seasons, it’s tempting to think that GM Lou Lamoriello somehow managed to trade for a brand-new team without anyone realizing it after they scored eleven goals in two games since coming back from the Olympic break.  Our eleven goals – in a 5-2 win over Columbus Thursday and a 6-1 win on Long Island this afternoon – include no fewer than five power play goals and one very crucial shorthanded goal by Adam Henrique against the Blue Jackets.  Aside from a spotty stretch in the first period today and the second period on Thursday the defense has been very solid, and goaltenders Cory Schnieder and Martin Brodeur each got a win on the board.

Of course most of the story from today’s game was about Brodeur, who if there was any doubt left there was a real possibility of him being traded, it’s been been slowly erased the last two days from watching the broadcast and seeing various quotes in the newspapers leading up to this game from Marty to Patrik Elias, who was getting a bit nostalgic himself at the thought of seeing a guy he’s played with his long career not be around anymore.  It’s the pink elephant in the room nobody wants to acknowledge openly but will certainly allude to.  Even the tone of today’s broadcast was funereal, with Chico Resch and company all but saying Marty was likely to move on.  After the game, Andy Greene got the puck for Marty’s 683rd career win – all with the Devils.  I don’t think he has number 682 in his collection.  What’s more uncertain at this point is where he’d go although for the first time after the game Marty acknowledged he wouldn’t have to be a starter to okay a trade, so long as he played more than he is going to here.

I already went through my feelings on this issue ad nauseum a few days ago so I won’t belabor the point anymore until he actually does get traded.  I was very tempted to go to Nassau to see his possible final game but just didn’t feel like spending the better part of an entire day going to and from the dump when I’m going to two home games already in this four-day stretch and had to spend some time installing my new computer hard drive today.  It was fun enough watching on TV, if odd to see a four-goal second period outburst.  Through twenty minutes it looked like it would be a typical nip-and-tuck Isles game in spite of not having John Tavares.  To his credit, Marty was sharp when needed in the first period and the Devils got on the board first when Adam Henrique fired a wrister past Evgeni Nabokov and off the camera in the net.

Up 1-0 after the first, the Devils broke the game open in the second period, leading off with a milestone goal as Jaromir Jagr scored his 19th of the season at 3:31, but more importantly the 700th of his career.  Jagr’s accomplishment even impressed fellow legend Brodeur, who tapped his stick on the ice in tribute to the goal.  Jagr joked after the game he wouldn’t keep the puck for his 700th goal, he’d wait until he scored 800.  Watching him this season you can’t always tell whether he is joking or not.  Barely a minute later Ryane Clowe scored a power play goal to give the Devils the always-dreaded three-goal lead.  Even though Kyle Okposo spoiled the shutout less than a couple minutes later with a perfect deflection, unlike Thursday night I didn’t get a feeling of doom in this game.  Not with how the Devils were playing.   Sure enough, Marek Zidlicky fired home another power play goal at 8:07 – the Devils’ third goal in less than five minutes.  Funny that the power play has put up five goals in two games since the break, when they were 0-12 before the break after sending down Eric Gelinas.  With Gelinas back, the PP is humming again.  For good measure even Mark Fayne got into the act, firing home an uncharacteristic slapshot goal for just his third of the season.  Gelinas himself closed out the scoring late in the third period after the Isles decided to goon it up late and give the Devils a seven-minute power play and an extended five-on-three.

Thursday’s game was a little more competitive but no less critical, although just like today the Devils jumped out to a three-goal lead in that game too, even quicker than they did today – scoring three goals in a 2:45 span of the first period, forcing Jackets coach Todd Richards to call timeout after just 8:54.  Artem Anisimov‘s fluke goal just a few minutes later got me nervous, and Marian Gaborik‘s tally in the second period cut it to 3-2, bringing back visions of Florida Game 3 in the playoffs a couple years back.  However, Henrique scored his second of the game shorthanded in the final minute of the period after a brilliant alley-oop pass from Elias, and from there the Devils regained control of the game.  Elias tried in vein to get Henrique a hat trick with an empty net late, but instead his pass deflected off of defenseman Jack Johnson and into the net for a goal of Elias’s own.  At least it gave him a puck to send home to his newborn daughter.  Perhaps the only downer of that game was the dual injuries to Damien Brunner and Bryce Salvador, both of whom missed today’s game as well (a charley horse and an upper-body injury for the captain after getting hit up high with a puck in the third period).

Despite the Devils’ two wins, they haven’t gained much ground as of yet with Detroit keeping a firm hold on the second wild card spot following a pair of dominant wins coming out of the break, and the Flyers’ win today kept them three points clear of us though it also brought the Rangers closer to the pack.  I’ve said it before but this point I will reiterate, the games against the Sharks and Wings could be make or break for this season.  If the Devils win both, it could really jumpstart a playoff run.  Of course if we lose both, Lou needs to recoup some assets back to at least salvage something out of a lost season where we won’t even have a first-rounder.  Although with our luck we’ll probably split, still be three points out in no-man’s land.  Either way it’s go big or go home time for the Devils…time’s running out to make a move, literally and figuratively.

Devils goalie Martin Brodeur during practice earlier today (NJ.com)

For most teams in the week before the NHL’s trade deadline, their positions are already clear.  Most have already been lumped into the buyer or seller category depending on their position in the standings.  In the Devils’ case though, they’re in that place nobody wants to be – no-man’s land.  Not really in seller or buyer territory (yet), the Devils still sit three points out behind four teams for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.  Of course, that could change very quickly for the better or the worse in the next week given the Devils’ pivotal slate of games in the tri-state area with a home game tomorrow against fellow playoff hopeful Columbus, a road game on Long Island Saturday against an Isles team without John Tavares or Frans Nielsen and in pure seller mode, another home game Sunday against the playoff-bound Sharks and the final pre-deadline game next Tuesday against Detroit, also fighting for one of the East’s final wild-card spots at the moment.  With the Devils’ current limbo status, questions continue to swirl around UFA’s to be Jaromir Jagr, Marek Zidlicky, Mark Fayne and yes Martin Brodeur among others.

Clearly the Brodeur saga’s going to be front-page news on the tabloids should something break there, since there have been loud whispers – as of yet unsubstantiated – that the legendary Brodeur wants to move on given his unhappiness over playing time (he hasn’t started a game yet since the Yankee Stadium meltdown in late January, though coach Pete DeBoer’s already said he will get a game this weekend).  The closest thing there’s been to a leak was the admission from Canadian journalist Renaud Laviole before the Olympics that Brodeur had met with GM Lou Lamoriello to discuss his future, whatever that entailed.  Publicly Brodeur’s denied asking for a trade and it’ll be a cold day in hell if you ever get anything from Lou on the subject.  It could have been an innocuous enough meeting but given the recent public fiasco with captain and longtime mainstay Martin St. Louis reportedly asking out of Tampa following GM Steve Yzerman‘s well-chronicled initial snub of not picking him for Team Canada, not to mention the unexpected departure of Daniel Alfredsson from Ottawa last year, it seems as if the NHL’s joining every other major sport in the respect that nothing lasts forever.  For all the chatter about how Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk left, through the last two decades Devil fans have been spoiled with Brodeur and Patrik Elias playing their entire careers here to a very high level.

Clearly few stars in any sport last their career with one team, whether it’s Ray Bourque getting dealt from Boston or Jarome Iginla from Calgary or Wayne Gretzky being sold traded by the Oilers, it’s not exactly a foreign concept that a player who’s so clearly identified with one team finishes up elsewhere.  But with guys like St. Louis and Alfredsson recently wanting out from organizations they’ve played so long for, it just reinforces our own mortality in the sense that it’s entirely conceivable Brodeur is in another uniform by this time next week.  Maybe it’s for the best in a purely business sense given that Cory Schnieder‘s clearly the man now and going to be so down the stretch if the Devils have any hope of a playoff run.  If Brodeur’s going to walk as a FA to extend his career elsewhere it’s the pragmatic approach to get something for him now, especially since there’s always the chance a GM overpays for the name value that Marty brings.  However from a selfish point of view, I don’t want to see Marty go anywhere.  I want the relationship between Marty, the Devils and the fans to remain special and for Brodeur to be an exception to the rule that star players don’t finish their career in the same place.  While it’s not my place to tell Marty he shouldn’t play anymore and have a Mike Modano in Detroit type finish to his career next season, one of the reasons I’m a big sports fan is it’s an escape from reality, at least most of the time.  In a utopia, Marty finishes his career with one last shutout in the final game of the season on April 13 to the cheers of an adoring, sellout crowd as the Devils prepare to open the playoffs later that week with Schnieder in net.  Of course, it’s pretty rare if you can go out the way NFL legend John Elway did with a Super Bowl win and MVP in his final game.

Marty isn’t the only future HOF’er with an uncertain future.  Although Jaromir Jagr (unlike Marty) doesn’t have a no-trade clause he’s made it known he does want to stay and doesn’t want to be a rent-a-player.  Jagr even went so far as to say earlier today that if teams did trade for him they should talk to him first to make sure he wants to go there, since in his words, ‘I have no contract…I have one month left’.  Meaning he isn’t exactly going to be killing himself financially if he doesn’t report to wherever he gets dealt.  While Marty’s fate is purely tied to whether Lou will ask him to waive his no-trade and Marty does it, Jagr’s fate is seemingly tied to the Devils’ position in the standings.  Clearly if the Devils have any hope of a playoff run they have to keep their leading scorer.  If they fall further out of the race by next week though, it’d be irresponsible not to test the market to see what you can get back for a legend still playing well at the age of 42.  Surely he can help a team in March and April.  Hopefully it’s us.

If Marty’s situation is one saga that I’m getting weary of, our eight-nine defensemen logjam over the last two years is one I have no patience left for.  With UFA’s like Fayne and Zidlicky and captain Bryce Salvador also expendable to everyone but the team itself, it’s becoming decision day soon.  Even Lou can’t keep shuttling guys to the minors and coming up with phantom injuries forever.  I’ve said this before but the old Lou wouldn’t have tolerated Scott Niedermayer being sent back down to Albany after he made his debut at nineteen and proved he belonged.  Ironically of the three kid defensemen it’s been the one I thought least likely to stick that has earned the most trust of the staff in rookie Jon Merrill.  While his offensive game hasn’t caught up to his defensive game yet, Merrill did show flashes of what he could be with his OT winner against the Oilers just before the Olympics.  Of the three kids, Eric Gelinas has contributed the most offensively with 22 points, including 13 on the power play.  While Gelinas is a big reason the Devils’ power play was in the top ten before he was sent back down to Albany (and the PP has plummeted since), he hasn’t quite earned the staff’s trust defensively after a strong early start with fellow youngster Adam Larsson.  While Larsson has the most experience of the three, and was playing some of his best hockey alongside Gelinas before his injury, he’s had a checkered season between scratchings and injuries, the latest one a lower-body injury that’s sidelined him at Albany.

Even with Larsson still in the minors though, the Devils have eight defensemen for six spots as it is with Gelinas having rejoined the team and the other seven apparently healthy.  Our upcoming lineup decisions will be very interesting to say the least.  Will Anton Volchenkov and coach favorite Peter Harrold sit in favor of Gelinas and Merrill?  Or will the kids sit yet again for the vets in a must-win game?  You don’t figure they’d have brought Gelinas back (especially with a struggling PP) to sit though.  It’s extremely unlikely Salvador, Zidlicky, Fayne or Andy Greene sit when healthy.  Even if Salvador’s struggled at times, the Devils are living in denial when it comes to their beloved captain.  While I don’t want to bag on a guy who’s as classy as they come, he’s struggled (particularly since coming back from injury) and it’s not as if him being captain has made him vocal leader of the team either.  Whenever anyone in the press wants to get a state of the union, they’ll go to Marty, Elias, even Jagr before they go to Salvador.  None of which would bother me as much if Salvador’s presence wasn’t blocking our talented younger, more mobile defensemen.  You can see it every time the vets play and the kids don’t, our utter lack of footspeed leads to a conservative gameplan on defense and not enough transition game on offense to compete with the top teams in the league.  Even in games the Devils have won it’s been either because of a great goaltending performance by Schnieder or a odd offensive outburst in front of Marty.  There hasn’t been any sustained success in over a year now though.

So what will happen with the eight, re nine-man defense?  You’d have to – have to – figure someone goes (especially with Lou’s rare admission that having eight D last year was a distraction) but who?  Maybe Zidlicky, if Gelinas earns enough trust from the staff in these final four games before the deadline to be the offensive hub from the blueline.  Perhaps Fayne if they know he’s not going to re-sign and Larsson gets healthy.  Salvador going would make things a little less clogged up but that’s not going to happen.  Or quite possibly one of the kids themselves are gone, packaged in a deal for an under-30 scoring forward preferably if it came to that.  Granted, as much as I keep trying to convince myself or the readers something will happen, the fact is Lou’s had two years to alleviate this logjam and has done very little other than acceding to a trade request by Henrik Tallinder over the summer and shedding his salary in a dump to Buffalo.  That made the eight-man logjam a more healthy seven-man one until the emergence of Gelinas and Merrill this year clouded things even more, as improbable as that once seemed.

Whatever happens, this shouldn’t be a dull deadline for the Devils.  If it is, then Lou hasn’t done his job in all likelihood.  If we fall out of it, then everything must go as more than one clearance ad has said.  If we don’t fall out of it we still need to make a move or two on defense and address the Marty situation, even if we don’t add a scoring forward (which would be hard to do with limited assets, given our lack of a first-rounder this year).  Of course our off-ice drama begins with how the team does on the ice, starting tomorrow.