How can Martin Brodeur, the NHL's all-time winningest goalie, give up 2 goals in the final 80 seconds of play to send the Devils home in the first round of the playoffs in a year where they win a franchise record 51 games?
This was the question dominating the thoughts of Devils fans as they saw a season of Stanley Cup aspirations go up in smoke...
Shortly after the season, Devils coach Brent Sutter resigned only to reappear in Calgary...In doing so, it opened the door for former Devils coach Jacques Lemaire to make his return to Jersey's team...
The Devils are going under a bit of a youth movement as veterans such as John Madden, Brian Gionta and Mike Rupp find themselves playing elsewhere this season...Bobby Holik and Kevin Weekes decided to call it a career and Brendan Shannahan decided to step away from the team...With the exception of Rob Neidermayer, no major deals were made showing me that Jersey is hoping that the abundance of youth will spark this team to play intense hockey...Not to mention keeping their salary cap down for next season...
Fortunately for the Devils...the core of the team remains Johnny Oduya and Travis Zajac were signed long-term in the offseason and Brian Rolston is hoping to bounce back from a season from which he played through an ankle injury....It should be worth nothing that Rolston's 3 best offensive seasons were churned out in Minnesota...with Lemaire as his coach...
After a breakout season of 45 goals and 94 total points, Zach Parise is looking for his fourth straight season of 30 or more goals...With Patrik Elias out for the first couple weeks with a groin injury, more pressure will surely be thrown on the assistant captain's shoulders..but Zach proved to me last year that this kid is here to stay and will undoubtedly become one of the NHL's premier players...
I'm also looking for David Clarkson to become the biggest reaper of the benefits in this youth movement..with Gionta and Madden out of the picture..more of the focus will be shifted his way and he has the tenacity to come through...
On the defensive side of things, I feel more confident about this defense than I have in a few years...Paul Martin will once again lead the brigade and Oduya is due to come out of his shell this season...I would like to see more out of Colin White this year because last year he played with the agressiveness of a pussy cat and rightfully lost his "A"...
What more can you say about the Goaltending? You're always in it when you goalie is among the best of all-time....Although the Devs won 51 games last year without him, one would prefer a full season from #30...At age 37 and 2 wins away from the shutout record, one needs to wonder how Marty will play as many games as were used to seeing him play...is this the year he begins to get his rest? My answer is that in order to get him out from between the pipes...they would need to physically drag him off with the zamboni...
Although several people are saying the Devils are not as good as they were last year..I disagree...the return of Lemaire's "neutral zone trap" will have this team playing fundamental hockey and the young guys with much to prove are sure to give them a spark...The Devils have made the playoffs in each of the last 12 seasons and I don't see a reason why they wouldn't make it this year....They won't win 51 games again this year, but they should go into this year's playoffs with more intensity...they'll make it out of the first round..but unfortunately i'm not so sure they will make it past the second
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