Battle of Hudson preview from the Rock

April 6, 2008   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

 

Since Derek knows his team better I’ll let him handle the Ranger nuts-and-bolts and give a Devils overview: 

Offense: The less said the better.  The only good news is there are still some clutch players on the forward line in Patrik Elias, Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Gionta that are capable of getting hot.  But Zach Parise’s the only Devil with over 25 goals and 60 points, not exactly Alex Ovechkin territory.  Teamwise, only four clubs have scored fewer goals – noted powerhouses Columbus, St. Louis, the Isles and (surprisingly) defending champion Anaheim and the Devils have particularly sputtered down the stretch with 34 goals in their last 20 games.  Depressed enough yet Devils fans?  Ooookay, let’s move on here.  Grade: D 

Defense: Let’s see there’s Paul Martin, who’s turned into an upper-echelon NHL defenseman.  Colin White‘s had an inspirational return from a serious eye injury.  Mike Mottau‘s been surprisingly steady – most of the time - and Johnny Oduya‘s improved by leaps and bounds since being paired with Martin a few months ago.  But overall this group can be quite scary at times.  Sheldon Brookbank and Andy Greene have been so bad they have me screaming for the return of Karel Rachunek, which I didn’t think was possible.  Vitaly Vishnevski can hit like crazy but do little else.  The expected return of deadline acquisition Bryce Salvador should help in the playoffs, as far as his injury isn’t worse than what’s being reported – who knows with this organ-eye-zation sometimes though.  Grade: C+

Goaltending: As usual, the NHL’s robogoalie played 75+ games (77 to be exact), and put up sensational numbers.  It was arguably the best season in the already legendary career of Martin Brodeur, with 44 wins, a 2.17 GAA and .920 save percentage.  The only black mark on Brodeur’s season has been the 1-4-3 against the Rangers, but it is hard to win when your team barely averages over a goal per game.  Classy Kevin Weekes will again have the best seat in the house for the playoffs, and hopefully one next to Doc Emrick when Chico is finished eating all 5247 foods at the Rock.  Grade: A 

Coaching: While Brent Sutter‘s done a fine job - especially for a rookie NHL coach, the Jack Adams hype in February was a bit premature.  After all the talk of change early on, Sutter’s largely gone back to the same Devils system of seasons past, and at least tried to hold the players accountable (nothing wrong with either).  Some line and d-combinations seem as if they were pulled out of a hat, but Sutter is very liberal with his timeouts, and will not hesitate to call one when the team needs a wake-up call.  He won’t be intimidated by the NHL playoffs.  Grade: B- 

X-factor: Or maybe I should call him the Z-factor.  Yes, Danius Zubrus has been a huge dissapointment in the first year of a long-term contract, but he has shown signs of a pulse lately and the Devils need scoring to come from another line besides the Parise line.  John Madden‘s line should be able to score the occasional goal but the Devils need to have at least the hope of a threat on another line and Zubrus is the most likely candidate of the other two lines to break out, especially if he uses his big body and keeps remembering where the front of the net is.

Outlook: Cloudy – my brain says Rangers in 6, they’re more talented and have confidence that they can beat the Devils in regulation and OT.  I’ll give the Devils a couple of wins on pride and because they at least have relieved the pressure of the 0-for-the season with the skills competition win today but it’ll be very hard for them to beat the Rangers 5 out of 8 after not having won in the first seven tries.