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Martin Brodeur didn’t have much to say. Aside from the predictable handshake snub of Sean Avery, the normally unflappable Devil franchise netminder handled questions in odd fashion after the Rangers had eliminated his team with a 5-3 Game Five win at The Prudential Center Friday night. 

To say it was awkward would be an understatement. Or maybe as he’d term it, ”Weird.” 

Aside from the unusually brief Brodeur postgame reaction, several other teammates took it in better stride analyzing what went wrong. I watched a vast majority of both sides of the Battle of Hudson MSG postgame coverage and came away impressed with how other Devs handled the crushing defeat. Particularly John Madden, who almost was the hero.

It was a rough night for Brodeur, who didn’t have a good showing allowing another questionable goal in what amounted to another high scoring game. If there was a turning point in this game, it had to be after the Devils got on the board first courtesy of a Brian Gionta goal from Travis Zajac and Dainius Zubrus. Wonder where that line combo came from?

Oddly enough, all four of Brent Sutter’s lines were exactly what was written here. Did someone spread the word to the first-year coach? I just found it totally amusing. 

Anyway, Gionta finally solved Henrik Lundqvist and it came early. You had to figure that boded well for the Devs as the team who scored first had won the past four games. Plus the percentage had been fairly high thus far in these playoffs.

Instead of keeping momentum, the Devs allowed the Rangers to come right back 18 seconds later when the series’ best player Jaromir Jagr got to a loose puck behind the net and centered for teammate Michal Rozsival, who beat Brodeur upstairs for his first of the series. Not long after, Jagr notched his second of the series while on the power play when for some reason the Devils backed off allowing him enough time to setup and wrist one five-hole on Marty.

MSG-Plus (that’s the best name they come up with? Geez.) Devil analyst Ken Daneyko had it right when he said that the Devs’ PK needed to be more aggressive there against Jagr. You don’t let a skilled player like that get so much space. It was just way too much time for what was a stoppable shot.

The turnaround continued thanks to a great shift by Avery. With a target on his back all period where Devils hit him often including a few illegally, the Ranger pest took the abuse during one shift coming out with the puck forcing Brodeur to make a save. Instead of taking their former teammate, the Madden line was preoccupied with Avery allowing Scott Gomez an early Christmas present which made it 3-1 Blueshirts with 1:59 left in the first.

That goal really categorized why the Devils came out on the wrong side in this series. There were just too many instances during this heated series where they were going for the big hit and forgot about their defensive assignments. Not the kind of disciplined hockey one would expect from New Jersey.

Another glaring example of this was Chris Drury’s series clincher. The Devils had a solid shift in the Ranger end but couldn’t make a dent on the scoreboard. Somehow, Nigel Dawes came out with the puck during a two-on-three and made a perfect cross feed between Mike Mottau’s legs to a cutting Drury, who buried it for his second in two contests at 5:35.

At the time, it looked like a knockout blow because the Devs didn’t have much life. However, hockey’s a weird game. Sometimes, you’ll get a couple of bounces to get back in it which was precisely what happened when a Bryce Salvador dump-in from his bench deflected off Brandon Dubinsky’s back past a stunned Lundqvist which suddenly cut it to 4-2 with over 30 minutes still left in regulation. Maybe one of the oddest goals I’ve ever seen.

A few minutes later, a loss of discipline from Dubinsky (offensive zone- interference) and Marc Staal (slash) led to a Patrik Elias five-on-three tally at 13:50 making it a one-goal contest. During a siege in front, Elias threw a puck which caromed off a Ranger past Lundqvist. Suddenly, it was the Devils with all the momentum and plenty of time on their side.

Ultimately, the game came down to Madden, who was pulled down by Ranger defenseman Dan Girardi leading to the first ever penalty shot in Stanley Cup playoff history in the third period. He made a strong move opting to go to the backhand but Lundqvist got just enough of a pad on Madden’s five-hole stuff attempt to keep it out with 7:08 remaining.

With the Rangers playing more conservatively (more on this in another column) trapping, the Devs only got one more quality chance to tie it but a wide open Gionta one-timer similar to the one he scored on was foiled by Lundqvist, who got enough of his goalstick to push the puck over the net.

An inspired shift by Ryan Callahan where he controlled the puck deep in Devil territory for roughly 40 seconds seemed to take the wind out of Sutter’s club as they never threatened again.

A Dubinsky empty netter was the final nail in the coffin with exactly a minute to go, allowing the Rangers to become the second team to advance to the Eastern Conference Semis- joining possibly future opponent and division rival Pittsburgh.

That all depends on what happens with the two remaining series. The Flyers will try to wrap up a spot in D.C. later today while the top seeded Canadiens look to do the same tonight in Boston. If the Habs prevail, they’ll get either the Rangers or Flyers. That’s if the Caps don’t mount a 3-1 comeback. There are other scenarios. So we’ll just have to wait and see how it all shakes out.

In the other two Western Conference series, the Red Wings got a Johan Franzen OT goal at 1:48 to edge the Predators 2-1, taking a 3-2 series lead back to Nashville. Meanwhile, the Ducks responded to adversity getting a goal and helper from veteran Teemu Selanne and 42 saves from Jean-Sebastien Giguere while getting the better of the Stars 5-2 to force a Game Six back in Big D.