Devil’s Season in Review

It’s a little delayed but here it is…I figure a season review is appropriate for this team as that’s when they only seem to be good for as indicated this year and the past few. It was another season of ups and downs, where hopes were driven high, only to come crashing down as any momentum the team generated throughout the regular season was wasted on a third consecutive first round exit. How to fix this team is a whole other story so before I get into that, I’ll evaluate the Devil’s 2009-2010 regular season and try to assess what went right and wrong.

So, the Devils were surrounded with a lot of question marks going into the regular season. They lost some long time franchise faces in Brian Gionta and John Madden and filled their voids with rookie additions such as Niclas Bergfors and Matt Halischuk, along with Lou’s under the radar and last minute signings such as Rob Niedermayer, Cory Murphy, and Ilkka Pikkarainen. In addition, Jacques Lemaire was set to debut his second stint with the Devils after coaching for nine years in Minnesota. The Devils stumbled into the regular season, going 0-2 against two division rivals, which was followed by their annual surge that propelled them to the top of the conference. Despite a flurry of injuries to the likes of Paul Martin, Rob Niedermayer, Johnny Oduya, and David Clarkson, not to mention the belated return of Patrik Elias, the Devils found themselves on top of the standings. It was a time when everything was going right and everyone seemed to be playing at the top of their game, even the youngsters that were primarily occupying the roles made vacant due to the team’s second consecutive injury bug outbreak (although this year’s case was arguably less severe than last year’s).

Then…January came. From then on, things clearly fell apart in Devil Land as their record in the stretch remained slightly above the .500 mark, despite the return of injured veterans and what should have been a beneficial Olympic break at the end of February. In the midst of the team’s struggles, Lou even made what could have been the biggest trade of his career and franchise history when he sent Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, prospect Patrice Cormier, and a first round pick to the Atlanta Thrashers for superstar Ilya Kovalchuk and defenseman Anssi Salmela (both teams also swapped second round picks). While Kovalchuk maintained a point per game in the twenty-seven regular season games he played for New Jersey (10G, 17A), not even he, or trade deadline pickup Martin Skoula, were able to lift the Devils out of their funk that had a parasitic hold on them until the regular season concluded. Although they somehow won their ninth division title, it bore little meaning as the Devils fate was sealed when the finalized seedings revealed they would face the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening round, a team they went 1-5 against in the regular season.

The Flyers made short work of the Devils, who lasted just five games. Goaltending legend Martin Brodeur, who claimed records this year such as most career shutouts, games and minutes played by a goaltender, and becoming the first goaltender to reach six hundred wins was outplayed by interim replacement Brian Boucher. An amateur hockey fan would have been stunned if he looked at the playoff numbers of the two goalies, and would have perceived Boucher to be the superstar and Brodeur the replacement, whose superiors were plagued with injury. It’s evident it was the other way around. While some fanatics insist this year’s demise wasn’t Brodeur’s fault, I ultimately think these are fans drunk off the kool-aid with the pink glasses strapped to their heads, convinced Marty is still the best in the game…discussion of that topic is best reserved for another time though.

Offense…One of the big questions surrounding the offense was how it would perform under the defensive mind set of head coach Jacques Lemaire. Until January arrived, the Devils were scoring goals, making good use of the special teams, while improving their defensive game compared to how it was enforced under the two seasons Brent Sutter was head coach. January seemed to be the turning point of the Devils season, who were averaged 2.7 goals per game in the 2009 portion of the season, while averaging 2.4 goals since January. Although the Devils had a considerably productive season offensively, some of last year’s contributors saw a decrease in this year’s numbers compared to last year’s output. Just to mention a few, Zach Parise totaled thirty-eight goals and eighty-two points this year, still having a stellar season, which was a significant drop from the forty-five goals and ninety-four points he put up last year. Jamie Langenbrunner’s nineteen goals and sixty-one points was a slight drop off from the sixty-nine points he totaled last year, although he achieved a career-high twenty-nine goals in the 2008-2009 season. Although his season was riddled with injuries, Patrik Elias was on pace for twenty-seen goals and sixty-eight points, which would have been a decline from the thirty-one goals and seventy-eight points he accumulated last year.

For the second consecutive year, the Devils also failed to see any of their youth crop establish a full time role in the lineup. While Niclas Bergfors had a solid first half of the season, Lemaire seemed to lose confidence in his play, and he was eventually dealt to the Thrashers, where he seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch and is undoubtidely on the path to becoming a solid twenty-five, thirty goal scorer and power play specialist. Matt Halischuk started the season with the big team, but only lasted twenty games, during which he had a goal and assist each, while averaging third and fourth line minutes. After maintaining stellar play in Lowell, Vladimir Zharkov was called up in the midst of the Devil’s injury bug outbreak and stuck with the team, having played forty games, during which he accumulated ten assists and no goals, a likely factor that may have attributed to his limited ice time and games played down the stretch. Zharkov looks to be a promising player that needs a lesson or two on shooting and finishing, but could be deserving of a full time role next season, unless Lou has other plans for him in the off-season.

Overall, I felt the Devil’s offense managed to get the job done on most nights. I think the major issue up front was how the majority of the offensive output came from a small focus of players, while the rest of the offense gave streaky, yet sparing contributions. Of the two hundred twenty-two goals the Devils scored, fifty-nine percent came from six players. When all said said and done, only five players on the Devils scored more than fifteen goals this year (Kovalchuk scored ten goals in twenty-seven games), after which there was a steep drop-off. While the offensive numbers could have been different hadn’t the roster gotten riddled with injuries, I think one of the factors that hurt the Devils this year was how their offensive production wasn’t as spread out in the lineup, which arguably made their offensive threats easy to target and shut down.

Defense…The biggest story on the Devil’s blue line this year was Andy Greene, who finally got his chance to prove his worth and enjoyed a modest breakout season totaling six goals and thirty-seven points. Like I’ve said in previous write-ups, Greene had a great season, but his point contributions came in streaks, followed by lengthy periods during which he was arguably invisible, but did those little things that aren’t appreciated and don’t show up on the score sheet. After missing almost sixty games due to injury, Paul Martin returned and made his presence known, getting two goals and nine points in thirteen games, going plus nine. Had he started the season like that, Martin would have been on pace for a career year, but it’s uncertain if his performance may have been a delayed breakout or motivation from being in a contract year.

Now, Paul Martin and Andy Greene had respectable seasons and played huge roles on the blue line this year, but neither of them filled the team’s need or role of being that identifyable anchor man the defense has lacked since Brian Rafalski was on the team. As a result, it seemed Lemaire had to work with what he had and would take contributions from his defensemen wherever he could get them. The defense’s trend of sparing offensive contribution continues, as the defense only amounted twenty-four goals, nineteen amongst six defensemen that remained with the team and played twenty or more games. When the injury bug dropped Oduya and Martin out of the lineup, it gave rookie Mark Fraser an opportunity to prove his worth, which he did in the sixty-one games he played. While he made the occasional rookie mistakes here and there, which Lemaire would have overlooked had one of his veteran defensemen committed them, most Devils fans including myself were outraged when Fraser was the odd man out of the lineup after everyone became healthy. The majority of Devils fans preached to see Mike Mottau take a seat in the press box, myself included, until I noticed a disturbing factor Mottau had on the defense…he finished the season second amongst defensemen in points with two goals and eighteen points.

At the start of the season, I felt the Devils had a balance of puck moving and stay at home defensemen, however I thought each one was of mediocre quality and nobody truly excelled at playing the game of their player type. I believed this showed and was exploited throughout the season, especially when they faced teams that featured quality defensemen the Devils needed such as Philadelphia and Toronto (who the Devils struggled against this year). I think I can say in confidence the blue line’s absence of an established anchorman could have been the biggest factor that led to their early demise.

Goaltending…As usual, it was the Martin Brodeur show, a year in which he expanded his dominance of the history books, and finished atop in the categories of wins, and the major goaltending statistics. Marty got his seventy-five plus games and forty plus wins in, with nothing to show for it in the playoffs. Lou Lamoriello was quoted saying that they didn’t mean to play Brodeur as much as they did this year (but how many times have we heard that?). While I’d like to say Brodeur has been one of the game’s elite goaltenders up to this point, he had a perfectly capable backup in Yann Danis that only got the nod to start six times, going 3-2-1 and was pulled in one game. He also relieved Brodeur another five times throughout the season and played to the best of his capability whenever he was called upon, at least I thought so.

Martin Brodeur will be thirty-eight years old when the 2010-2011 season commences. With two years remaining on his contract and considering his questionable performance during the second half of the season, and the playoffs, there’s an abundance of question marks surrounding his status and current reputation, while the more avid critics have already written him off as being over the hill and set for a steep decline next season. I won’t even get into how Marty should have or needs to play less because it seems to be a concern that continues to be overlooked.