Devilish disgrace

March 30, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Normally when I come back from a game before I do my recap I’ll look at a box score, read a few posts on message boards, maybe watch some highlights of the game on tape before or while I’m writing.  Tonight I will do none of that for two reasons – first, Derek can take care of the nuts and bolts recap anyway but more importantly I’d just as soon screw the recap for this one.  This is a blog and by definition a blog is one’s personal thoughts as much as (if not more than) a recap.  And after that embarassment the Devils called a hockey game tonight I want to post an uncensored, unfiltered - well other than keeping my language clean anyways – and unedited rant in its purest form without any bias toward what may have been said in the postgame or shown in the highlights.

So where to begin?  Well, the first period is as good a place to start as any.  To come out the absolute emotionless, passionless, head up their rear end way the Devils did in the first period is flat-out inexcusable.  Doubly so considering the nature of the rivalry, not to mention the fact that this collection of skaters that calls itself a team had lost four straight coming into tonight looking progressively worse in the process.  Being outshot 20-10 doesn’t even begin to tell the story.  It took till more than twelve minutes had passed in the first period before the Devils had their first good shift by my count.  I don’t want to hear about three games in four nights, I don’t want to hear about the Rangers needing the game more than us.  I mean come on, at some point you have to at least match the other team’s intensity level.  

One favorite quote of coach Brent Sutter‘s - particularly last year - was that your best players need to be your best players.  That was anything but the case tonight.  Whether it was Zach Parise throwing a pass into the skate of a Ranger defenseman skating backwards on a three-on-two or Paul Martin having two horrific giveaways in the first period, basically you could pick out anyone on the ice and they did something either dumb or selfish.  More on the latter part of that sentence later.

Somewhat amazingly the Devils escaped the first period still in a scoreless tie.  It wouldn’t remain that way for long however, as the roof fell in on Martin Brodeur in the second period, allowing three goals on twelve shots while flopping around on the ice and leaving juicy rebounds on the first two goals by Brandon Dubinsky and Dan Girardi on the way to his thirteenth loss (including SO and OT) in fifteen starts against the Rangers dating back to last year.  Meanwhile Scott Clemmensen, who went 3-0 against the Rangers this year rides the buses in Lowell purgatory.  As great as Brodeur is, sometimes you just don’t have it against a particular team.  To do a cross-sport reference, Brodeur with the Rangers has become like Pedro Martinez used to be with the Yankees (at least while he was in Boston).  No matter what he does, it’s just enough to lose.

The irony of that second period is it was the only one in which the Devils competed all night, although I thought the 19 shots was a bit inflated by the MSG shot counter padding Henrik Lundqvist‘s stats.  We had some good chances but I didn’t think we really had that many shots on goal, oh well.  As much as I wished I could have stayed at home and turned off my TV to watch 24, I did want to see how the Devils would respond in the third period.

The response wasn’t what I was looking for.

Instead of actually, you know trying to score a goal or two and maybe even get back in the hockey game the Devils played like a team that already knew it lost and was merely intent on extracting their physical pound of flesh from this game.  First Mike Rupp basically cross-checked some Ranger (couldn’t see who) from behind into the boards early in the period.  It would be a harbinger of things to come.  Granted, Rupp was probably frustrated over the refs not calling a penalty when he was taken down seconds earlier, not to mention the fact that the Rangers somehow had zero penalties called on them through two periods until the game was over midway through the third period.  Still, it was a selfish move.  Of course Bobby Holik tried his darndest to get into the act later on but somehow he escaped costing the team a power play like he normally does every night.  Even ex-Ranger Brendan Shanahan got frustrated and wound up inducing matching minors, which could easily have been another power play against considering Shanny basically initiated that one all the way.

And after all that, David Clarkson managed to earn the dunce cap of the night.  Now obviously Clarkson has wanted to fight Sean Avery (the scorn of Brodeur and Devil fans everywhere) for months if not longer.  The first time he tried and wound up getting an instigator penalty last year I called Avery out for a bush move not dropping the gloves when he faked as if he was going to do that.  Then again either late last year or early this year Clarkson tried to fight Avery and wound up getting a second instigator when Avery refused to fight.  You would think…fool me once, shame on you fool me twice shame on me that Clarkson would have learned his lesson after striking out twice.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Like a dumbell, Clarkson tries to pick another fight with Avery in the third period, and Avery more or less just stood there like he was on meds (which he might actually be considering he’s on double secret probation from the NHL) until finally Clarkson threw him down as if he was auditioning for a role in SlapShot 4, getting a double minor that could easily have been a major or an ejection.  I was surprised Avery even got a penalty, which reduced Clarkson’s damage to a single minor in essence.  I was so teed off at that point I was actually hoping the Rangers scored on that lone power play, Clarkson deserved to be shown up both for being selfish and just for flat-out stupidity.  Like Archie Bunker with his son-in-law Mike on that 70′s sitcom All in the Family, I’m going to start calling Clarkson meathead until he goes through one Ranger-Devil game without trying to goad Avery into a fight he’s never going to take.  Just one. 

Still, the Rangers 3-0 win was a fitting result for a team that’s been anything but over the last couple of weeks.  Where did the scrappy Devils team that played for Clemmensen and Kevin Weekes go?  Or the red-and-white machine that got Brodeur’s win record out of the way asap.  Apparently this team thought the season ended after Brodeur’s celebration of #552.  I’d even settle for seeing last year’s team at this point, as god-awful as they were offensively at least they tried.  Whatever the problem is, the Devil team is damaged psychologically and on the ice.  Excepting the line of Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta and Danius Zubrus nobody else actually looked like they gave a darn tonight. 

Sutter swore he learned from last year’s late-season swoon and it wouldn’t happen again, well it’s happening again coach.  And he certainly didn’t help matters in the third period by switching up the lines, I understand wanting to put Patrik Elias with Parise, but geez the Elias-Zubrus-Gionta line was basically the only thing (and players) that worked tonight!  The new lines predictably generated zero offense.  I also thought Sutter should have called a timeout after the two quick Ranger goals early in the second, but maybe this rotting corpse wouldn’t have been saved tonight anyway.

Now that I’ve gotten my venting out of the way, I know the season’s not over.  But there are less than two weeks before the playoffs, if these problems aren’t fixed now it’ll be too late soon enough.  You would hope five straight losses (soon to be six after a likely spanking in Pittsburgh) would drum the message into these players’ heads.  And if you’re going to lose, at least do it with dignity.  The third period hijinxs were beneath this team.

Probably the true source of my frustration is I did believe this was a special team, with the way they fought to stay in first while Brodeur was on the shelf and all the comeback wins.  I guess I just don’t like being reminded there’s a difference between special games in January (say Doc Emrick night) and what happens when it really matters.  Anything less than at least an Eastern Conference Finals appearance this year would be an embarassment for this team.  Enough with these humdrum five-game early exits, I expected more from this year’s team.

After tonight however, I’m not sure I should.