As you embark on this blogging adventure with me, you will soon come to discover that I have one true passion in this life: The New Jersey Devils. To briefly sum it up they have been an outstanding franchise, and have given me much joy in my existence, which coincides with theirs in this great garden state. Where they are now, in the Stanley Cup finals, where not one expert predicted them to be, feels nothing short of amazing for us fans. Of course by now, we all know how they got here; OT in game 7 to beat the Panthers, steamrolling the mighty Flyers, and another OT in game 6 against their cross Hudson rivals, the Rangers. It all came down to last night. This is it. This is what you play for. 4 wins away from raising Lord Stanley above your head. But 4 wins in the Stanley Cup finals can be the longest, most grueling task in the world of sports.
I went to game 1 last night against the Los Angeles Kings, and without watching every angle of every play, it’s a bit harder to give an in depth analysis, so this part I will keep pretty simple. The Devils came out incredibly weak, which several players cited nerves as the reason for doing so, and in my eyes that is completely understandable. There are a lot of guys here who have never played on a stage this big, and you have to step back for one second and imagine what that feels like. They looked slow, they weren’t hitting anyone, they weren’t getting to the pucks they dumped in, and their passing was straight up atrocious. It was the longest 20 minutes of hockey I’ve watched them play so far this playoff season. Somewhere around the middle of the second period it looked like the Devils were beginning to play their game. This being said, it was definitely not to the highest level which they could perform, but they did look much better than the first period. In the third, and even in OT, that’s when the Devils played their best, but with the Kings’ Kopitar getting the game winning goal, it proved it wasn’t good enough.
Peter DeBoer (who has seriously won me over as the season and playoffs progressed) stated that the Devils didn’t deserve to win this game, and he’s completely accurate. Although there were several missed opportunities to sneak away with the win (oh Mark Fayne, how did you miss that open net?), the Devils did not play a good game. This was also the general consensus of the players and the media. So for the Devils to come out and play probably their worst game of the playoffs against the incredibly hot Kings, and push them into 9 minutes of overtime is a fantastic sign in my eyes! Of course now I forget who said it because I have been watching hockey analysis programing almost every free hour I have, but someone once said that the Devils’ biggest strength is their ability to adapt to the style of play of their opponents. And just by looking at the three teams they beat so far this year in the Panthers, Flyers, and Rangers, that statement couldn’t be any truer. So in my eyes the Devils went from a solid defensive series against New York, and they needed this game 1 to feel out LA. I’m sure now they know what they need to work on, what adjustments need to be made, and what to do to get back to how they want to play. I have every confidence that they will turn this around and come out mighty strong in game 2. It’s a 7 game series, it’s not over. Also note that the Devils did lose game 1 to both the Flyers and Rangers.
I want to take a brief moment and expose my hockey Tourette’s here with several quick statements that I want to point out but don’t necessarily want to go in depth with right now: 1. Everyone needs to can the Zach Parise/free agency talk. He’s not free yet, and besides that I believe he’s not going anywhere, especially to the Rangers. 2. Jonathan Quick is great right now, sure, but wasn’t Henrik, too? And the Devils beat him. They can beat anyone. 3. To all the bandwagon Kings fans formerly known as Flyer and Rangers fans– please stop. Enjoy the playoffs, but remember who your real team is, if you can. Don’t pretend you followed the Kings all season and are passionate about them winning this year.