Battle Of Hudson

With only one game tonight before the league descends on Ottawa for the All-Star exhibition weekend, the Devils (like most of the NHL) played their final game before the break last night. Unfortunately for the men in red and white, the last week hasn’t gone so well for them. Things have gone steadily downhill since the third period against Boston last Thursday, where the Devils surrendered a 1-0 lead and gave up three quick goals en route to a 4-1 loss. A desultory afternoon loss to the Flyers on Saturday by the same score drove home once again the point that the Devils can’t play with the big boys, since they’re just 1-6 combined against the Bruins, Flyers and Rangers – arguably the East’s top three teams.

Tuesday’s match against the Sabres – a talented team struggling with injuries and dissapointments and mired in a twelve-game road losing streak – was supposed to be a get-well card for the team before their week-long break but the script got complicated even before the game when the Sabres welcomed back not one, but two veteran blueliners to their lineup (Christian Ehrhoff and Robyn Regehr) off of injury. Embattled goalie Ryan Miller, who had allowed five goals or more in each of his previous four starts, stopped 27 of 28 Devils shots in regulation and overtime last night and eventually the last three shots of the shootout.

Counterpart Martin Brodeur would only need to make thirteen saves, by contrast, but allowed a freak goal off the boards to Jordan Leopold in the first period. Then in the shootout, Jason Pominville‘s wrister tied it up when just one more save would have won it and then after Adam Henrique was stopped by Miller, Nathan Gerbe scored the winner – condemning the Devils to their third straight home defeat in the middle of a six-game homestand, with the Rangers looming after the break next Tuesday.

Worse than the three-game losing streak and dropping back into a tie for the final playoff spot, the Devils announced today that there is no timetable for Travis Zajac to return from the achillies injury that’s plagued him all year. Now missing Zajac and defenseman Henrik Tallinder long-term from a team that was already going to be on the bubble to make the playoffs, the Devils face a potential crisis over the next two weeks when they have to play not only the Rangers twice in the next six games, but also the Flyers, Penguins and the surprising St. Louis Blues along with the struggling Canadiens.

Of less concern right now, both Henrique and Adam Larsson will miss All-Star weekend due to various ‘ailments’ – with Larsson resting a sore wrist (and staying in NJ for treatment instead of going back to Sweden over the break) and Henrique supposedly tweaking his groin last night, in a game where he not only finished the contest but took the final shot of the shootout. Without Henrique or Larsson, the Devils won’t have a single All-Star weekend representative, and something tells me that’s just the way GM Lou Lamoriello likes it.

The fact that players are either held out of All-Star weekend or decline themselves, like the Caps’ star Alex Ovechkin, only serves to make the festivities even more unneccesary. Or at the very least, ill-timed. At this point, the NHL might as well hold their All-Star game after the season the way the NFL does with the Pro Bowl (or at least did before stuffing it in between the Conference title games and the Super Bowl). Not that I’d ever want to see an artificial solution to gin up the All-Star game the way baseball does by tying home-field advantage of the World Series to the winner of the ASG.

With all this bad news around the Devils, it’s easy to overlook the good – like Alexei Ponikarovsky scoring a goal in his first game as a Devil, or the near-imminent return of Andy Greene to the lineup. Not to mention the improved play of Brodeur. However, the offense scoring a goal a game in each of the last three is just not acceptable, and that average likely won’t improve against Henrik Lundqvist next week. Neither is the flat way the Devils came out in the first period last night – freak goal or not, the team was asleep in the opening twenty minutes after having lost two in a row.

Things will have to improve for the Devils to get back on the beam, before this slump continues and people start speculating on how far out of the playoffs we need to be before the team should trade star winger (and UFA-to be) Zach Parise.

Going to Thursday night’s game against the Bruins, it kind of had the feel of being the first playoff game of the new season, with all the hype surrounding the game after the Stanley Cup champs kicked our tail two weeks ago at the Prudential Center. The teams’ second matchup in fifteen days would provide a barometer for New Jersey, to see how far they’d come in their last twenty games, where they went 14-5-1. Ultimately, the results were mixed as the Devils played very well in the first two periods but couldn’t finish on some terrific chances…then collapsed in the third period, as a 1-0 lead turned into a 4-1 loss.

During the third period surfing the Internet (since the game ceased being interesting once the Bruins got out front by two) I found out that the reason Henrik Tallinder was a scratch – something I had no idea about until I saw the scratch list before the game – was because of a blood clot in his leg, and that the big defenseman was expected to miss 6-8 weeks. Yikes…while Tallinder’s play has been streaky as a Devil, his calming presence will be missed. So far, Matt Taormina‘s filled in just fine when called upon though, and Andy Greene‘s supposedly expected back after the All-Star break.

If the loss was the bad and Tallinder’s ailment was the ugly, then last night’s trade for Alexei Ponikarovsky was the good…maybe. While Ponikarovsky’s career has fallen off the map since his days as a Maple Leaf, giving up a fourth-rounder and defenseman Joe Sova (someone I literally never heard of until last night) for a guy that even in this part of his career is still an upgrade over the dreck we’ve been running out on the third and fourth line is a trade you have to make. Almost certainly Ponikarovsky’s arrival will lead to the demotion of the dissapointing Mattias Tedenby, who’s put up just one goal, five assists and is a -15 in 43 games this year after a promising end to his rookie season in 2010.

Assuming Travis Zajac returns soon after the All-Star break (not a safe assumption, I know), the Devils can actually run out three effective lines with Parise-Henrique-Kovy and Sykora-Elias-Zubrus the set lines for the last couple of months and a likely third line of Poni-Zajac-Clarkson. Perhaps going 0-3 against the Bruins and struggling against other top teams drummed in the importance to Lou Lamoriello that the team didn’t quite have the depth to compete. Clearly in this day of the NHL, you need at least three lines that are able to score with a fourth line that isn’t going to kill you during its 5-10 minutes a night. When healthy, our fourth line will be Jacob Josefson and friends, assuming the staff decides to use him in that role. Anything would be an improvement over goon central, although perhaps Pete DeBoer‘s finally realizing he can’t have ‘both’ Cam Janssen and Eric Boulton in the lineup at the same time with the scratching of Boulton the other night.

While I’m looking forward to seeing how the new changes flesh out, I’m rather annoyed at this inconvenient first snowstorm of winter putting my plans of going to today’s Devils-Flyers game in jeopardy. Perhaps it’s for the best if I don’t go since I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep lately due to my allergic rhinitis but I’d hate to miss three out of four games (with the one I went to being the dissapointing Boston loss) since I sold both Tuesday games last week and this week, one to go to the movies and the other so my friend could go to the game. Especially missing Devils-Flyers, though I already had to do that once during a snowstorm a couple years ago where the Devils contreversially announced the number through the turnstiles instead of the actual tickets sold for their attendance.

I guess we shouldn’t complain much since it took a month for the first actual snowstorm of winter, I thought this winter would be bad when we had the pre-Halloween mountain of snow…but there’s plenty of time for winter to provide more inconveniences. Hopefully the snow stops sometime in the next three hours or so, since I pretty much have to decide by 11 whether it’s worth it to go. Just like Ponikarovsky – who may or may not get here in time for today’s game – I’m a game-time decision for today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmGLTaIOea4

Things are good right now in the swamp. Not only are the Devils winning (14-5-1 in their last twenty games) but they’re having fun as well, both of which are evidenced by this YouTube video of Patrik Elias‘s crucial goal in Winnipeg on Saturday. Fellow linemate and buddy Petr Sykora tried to get the puck to Elias in front, but Elias adroitly let it go through his legs to Adam Larsson at the point. Larsson in turn, had the presence of mind to fire the puck right towards the stick of Elias, who tipped it in for one of the Devils’ highlight goals of the season and the eventually winning tally in a 2-1 win over the Jets.

Not only did Elias’s third period goal win the game, but it also provided comic relief as Sykora went to hug his Czech comrade, but Elias veered towards Larsson and Sykora literally went splat, missing the hug. It led to a nice moment last night when Elias and Sykora did hug during the three stars after a more convincing 5-1 win over the Jets at the Prudential Center. Not to mention more amusement when postgame host Deb Placey didn’t even realize why they’d made such a big deal of hugging until Elias told her about what happened Saturday and that it was all over YouTube. Then the postgame crew – including Ken Daneyko and Chico Resch – pulled the highlight of the play and laughed about it themselves.

While it’s certainly easier to have fun when you’re winning, you do get the sense this Devils team genuinely likes each other and pulls for each other. Perhaps some of the looseness is just a product of coach Pete DeBoer‘s calm, upbeat demeanor. Admittedly at times I’ve been critical of the fact DeBoer doesn’t seem to have a strict side, but two things are becoming more obvious. One is that this team thankfully doesn’t need a boot up its rear end every few minutes the way many past Devil teams have – certainly there have been a minimal number of games this year where the team’s lacked effort. The other is that it does seem like DeBoer is willing to get on these guys in the locker room when it’s required (during one game a few weeks back where the Devils struggled early, he admitted he did ‘yell a bit’ at the team during the intermission). DeBoer does seem to agree with the philosophy that you don’t rip your team in public, but you can do it behind closed doors.

In addition to DeBoer, the leadership of the team is certainly strong with Elias, first-year captain Zach Parise and even the much-maligned Ilya Kovalchuk – who’s played some of his best hockey as a Devil over this last month and has even become as much of a force shorthanded as Parise or rookie Adam Henrique. There’s been none of the moodiness or worrying about players’ roles on the team that existed the last few years under a veteran core that’s mostly been swept out the door. Along with the stars, you have role players like Cam Janssen and Mattais Tedenby who also help keep the room upbeat. I’ve only been half facetious when I suggested elsewhere the only reason Tedenby’s still here and not back in Albany (given his dissapointing first half) is that he’s a good, fun kid that seems to be a positive locker room presence. Even when some quasi-contreversy flares up like Martin Brodeur being pulled after six minutes in Calgary, it seems to blow over quickly without any lasting impact.

Personalities and demeanor only tell half the story though…despite the injury bug that’s sidelined three of the team’s top four centers at one point or another – including Henrique, who’s sat the last two games with a mild groin pull – the Devils have picked up their play since early December, when the team came up with a critical road win in Toronto that kept them from going winless on a tough four-game road trip. Since then, the Devils have won consistently and haven’t even needed the shootout to do so – indeed, none of the team’s last seven wins have come with aid of the skills competition after an early season run where it seemed the team could only win in a shootout.

Every facet of the game has picked it up – offensively the Devils are starting to break out more and more frequently, scoring twenty goals in their last six games. Even the power play is starting to creep upward in terms of efficiency. Defensively, the team’s picked it up even while Andy Greene continues to remain on the shelf. Kurtis Foster‘s slowly found his niche and helped the power play recover from its two-season long coma while the Bryce Salvadors of the world provide a steadying presence. In a season where many key players around the league have been sidelined due to concussions, Salvador’s comeback after missing an entire season has been one of the more suprising aspects of this Devil season.

And yes, the goaltending has picked it up lately after the disaster that was last Tuesday in Calgary, where both Martin Brodeur and Johan Hedberg got whipped, despite only facing a combined fourteen shots. Both have responded off that game well, as the Devils have only given up a single goal in each of the last three contests. While Brodeur’s numbers have been poor for the balance of the season, he’s given up just one goal in five of his last eight starts overall.

One of the games where Brodeur did give up more than a goal was the Devils’ last machup with the Cup champion Bruins, who racked the legend for six in a rare noncompetitive effort from the Devils this season. After losing 6-1 at the Rock barely two weeks ago, the Devils get another shot at the Bruins tomorrow night in the same building. Unlike last time where the Bruins had won every game seemingly for a two-month stretch (and most in blowouts), Boston comes into this game playing like mere mortals after suffering road losses to Carolina and Tampa Bay over the last week. Despite the team’s three-game winning streak and the fact the Devils are now a season-high nine games over .500, they have the look and sound of a team coming into tomorrow’s game hungry, after being embarassed in front of their fans two weeks ago.

With just three games left before the All-Star break, the Devils aren’t just looking to gain revenge on the Bruins but also create more seperation between themselves and the pack of teams fighting for a playoff spot. As much as it annoyed me not being able to go to last night’s game, hopefully the team gives everyone more to cheer for tomorrow night.

In Alberta, the Devils endured a mixed bag of success and frustration. Their 1-1 record barely scratched the surface of what kind of week it was for the Devils, who haven’t gotten good news on the injury front lately. After coming back for eight games last month, Travis Zajac will remain shut down until at least the beginning of February due to ‘soreness’ in his surgically repaired achilles tendon. Super rookie Adam Henrique (one of the Devils’ two All-Star weekend representatives along with fellow rookie Adam Larsson) will miss at least today’s game against the Jets due to a mild groin strain, and Andy Greene will have to wait at least another week to resume skating.

With Henrique out, Danius Zubrus will take his place on the top line, centering Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk with David Clarkson getting bumped to play with Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora. In goal will be Martin Brodeur, for the first time since getting pulled on Tuesday after allowing two bad goals on just six shots in Calgary. Unlike other times where Brodeur was pulled early, Johan Hedberg didn’t fare much better – allowing four goals on just eight shots the rest of the game. Shaky goaltending and ill-timed defensive breakdowns condemned the Devils to a 6-3 defeat against former coach Brent Sutter and his Flames despite outshooting Calgary 38-14 during the game.

Coach Pete DeBoer stuck with his plan to start Hedberg in Edmonton the next night, despite the fact he wound up playing the majority of the game in Calgary. This time, Hedberg fared much better allowing only an Ales Hemsky third-period power play goal. It was enough to send the game to overtime though, after the Devils could only manage a short-handed Ilya Kovalchuk goal in the second period. However, a power play that’s suddenly coming to life helped win the game for the Devils in overtime as Elias found Parise in front for a redirection goal and a 2-1 overtime win.

Despite their inconsistencies in net and constant injury issues, the Devils remain in playoff position with a 24-17-2 record and their schedule gets easier, at least travel-wise over the next month. Over the next three weeks including the All-Star break, the Devils will play six straight home games and will be at the Rock for ten of their next thirteen with the only road games at the Garden, Philly and Buffalo. In other words, the Devils don’t leave the tri-state area for another month, until their trip to Montreal on February 19. In fact, other than a trip to Detroit in April, the Devils won’t leave the Eastern time zone for the rest of the season.

That said, it’s not as if home games against the Jets, Bruins, Flyers and Rangers before the break are going to be by any means easy. At least the All-Star break will actually be a real rest for the entire team with none of the veterans being selected this time around. Henrique and Larsson (the Devils’ only reps for All-Star weekend) won’t exactly be getting major minutes in a twenty-minute long Young Stars game. Not to mention the week between the Devils’ last game before the break and first game after it will give the walking wounded more time to heal.

None of that will mean very much if the Devils don’t continue to win and maintain playoff position though.

It was Saturday Morning on November 12th and the NHL season was still going through the puberty phase, where some teams reach it earlier and fly out to a fast start, and some teams take a little longer to reach their goals.

It was a warm evening that night in Boston, where the temperature were hovering around a balmy 50 degrees by face-off, definitely a warm number for Boston in November, much less September.

The action inside the TD Garden was going to reflect the warmer temperatures outside as well.

The Buffalo Sabres, winners of 4 straight and a team with high expectations based on the actions of new owner Terry Pegula, and sitting 1 point behind the surprising Toronto Maple Leafs in 2nd place with a 10-5-0 record, rolled into town to play the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, who were also on a 4 game winning streak, appearing to have completely shaken off the Stanley Cup hangover that plagued this team in October.

The game started off on the right foot for the Sabres, as Thomas Vanek scored his 11th at the 5:38 mark of the 1st period. This game had that look, a preview of what could come in the future, maybe a Eastern Conference Finals preview?

Then, the roof caved in, compliments of one play.

Milan Lucic took a ‘run’ at Ryan Miller on a breakaway attempt in the 1st period, and while Miller stayed in the game, you can tell something just wasn’t right. Miller did make 19 saves in the 2nd, but the Bruins scored the next 3 goals of the game in a 22 shot onslaught in the 2nd period. And to start the 3rd period, enter in Jhonas Enroth, who gave up another three goals and the Bruins routed the Sabres 6-2.

At the time, Miller had what was described as a sore neck. Turns out it was a concussion and Miller once again would miss an extended period of time.

What was more stunning about this incident (besides other hockey fans calling Sabres fans whiners, as if they wouldn’t react the same way), was the lack of retaliation by the Buffalo Sabres. What kind of message did this send throughout the locker room? I bet not a good one, especially with Miller, who is viewed as a team leader. And maybe that was one of the warning signs of this team: A goalie generally should not be viewed as one of the leaders of any hockey team.

The implications of this event at TD Garden? Lets examine the numbers:

Before Lucic On Miller:

Buffalo: 10-5-0 20 points +13 goal differential
Boston: 7-7-0 14 points +13 goal differential

After Lucic On Miller:

Buffalo: 8-14-5 21 points, -29 goal differential
Boston: 20-4-1 41 points, +57 goal differential.

Wow. Just wow.

Is this the sole reason the Sabres have fallen to the depths of the Eastern Conference? One never can know. Sure, the Buffalo Sabres have had their share of injuries, just pointing to this as the SOLE reason for the demise is a cop-out, much like NHL fans who moan about a lack of effort and caring being the reason for losing. It starts with talent, mixed in with staying injury free, effort, etc.

Harping on these excuses just turns one away from the truth: Maybe the Buffalo Sabres as currently constructed, just are not a good hockey team, and that very much looks to be the case. As a fan of this team for over 30 years, the idea of getting hot, sneaking into the playoffs, and losing a tough 1st round series just does not excite me as a fan. That act is old and tired in Western New York and that should be a thought from the past.

Remember Pegula’s “Our whole reason for existence is to win the Stanley Cup” mission statement? I do, and want that thought to stick for good.

At this point, I would support bottoming out the roster, selling at the deadline, playing some of the younger players on this roster, and analyze for 2012 and beyond. Why do I say that? When you lose to the lowly Carolina Hurricanes, give up a GWG to the likes of Johnny Oduya and the Winnipeg Jets at home, and have a lifeless performance at Toronto and get shutout by The Monster, that is a sign that this is just not the year.

I am sure this is not a popular thought amongst Sabres fans, but is this team really ready to compete with the likes of the Boston Bruins?

Not a chance.

Below we will start a series on How to Fix the Buffalo Sabres, here goes the maiden voyage:

How To Fix The Sabres Version 1.0:

Let’s analyze this from the top: Owner Terry Pegula has arrived on the scene with tremendous fan-fare and for good reason: He clearly wants to win, and appears to be ready to do whatever it takes. But this alone, is never enough. Was he too eager when dishing out huge contracts to Ville Leino (who had 1 good playoff run, notably against Buffalo which probably blinded Darcy Regier from reality when assessing Leino) and Christian Ehrhoff (the never ending 4 million dollar cap hit)? Perhaps he was. But trying is better then the alternative that was generally the norm in Buffalo for many of-seasons. Only fear I have ever had about Pegula is that he is too aggressive, look at owners like Jerry Jones in the NFL, sometimes caring too much as an owner can be an issue, a delicate balance must be found.

Looking over the Sabres roster, I see a lot of B+ to C players and not one ‘A’ type player. Tomas Vanek is a excellent sniper, capable of getting hot for stretches, and has become much more responsible defensively, but as the #1 go-to option? Yes he is the 19th leading scorer on NHL.com as of this article, but Vanek needs help, another star is needed on this roster.

Tyler Myers was expected to be the other star on this roster was out for a few weeks, but he needs to stay healthy and be more of a consistent force on the blue line. Can Myers, Ehrhoff and Jordan Leopold all exist together? Did Ehrhoff’s arrival upset the chemistry of the defensive pairings? More time to me is needed for this group to gel, but something needs to change, and fast, to turn around this dreadful season.

Looking at trade possibilities, the Anaheim Ducks are rumored to be making just about everyone available. If I am Darcy Regier, I am placing a call to the Ducks to inquire about Ryan Getzlaf. This team is in dire need of a #1 center, and while Getzlaf is not a elite center, he is absolutely a #1 center that would fit nicely with Vanek on the top line. In addition, his effect would trickle down to the 2nd and 3rd lines, take some pressure of Leino, Drew Stafford, and others who got big paydays and allow them to just be who Pegula is paying them to be.

Version 1.0 of How To Fix The Sabres is just the beginning, look for more thoughts/trade ideas going forward. And please feel free to fire back at me about my thoughts, offer other ideas, always love to hear back from you!