Posts Tagged ‘Andy Greene’

New Jersey Devils Playoff Report Card

24, May 2010

Friend of The Hockey Guys, Chris Wassel of The Program, breaks down the Devils playoff performances.

Another Devils Off-Season Arrives Too Early: What Went Wrong

20, May 2010

The New Jersey Devils had high hopes heading into 2010 NHL Playoffs. 

After finishing second in the Eastern Conference and adding star LW Ilya Kovalchuk to the roster, the sky was the limit for the hopes of what this team was thought to be capable of doing in the playoffs. 

Unfortunately, for the third straight year, the Devils are forced to reflect and take a long hard look at themselves and try to figure out what went wrong.  Not only did the team lose in five games to the seventh seeded Philadelphia Flyers in the first round, they seemingly at times didn’t put up much of a fight either, almost giving a November-like effort, rather then one needed in the second season. 

They never showed the hunger and resolve that Devils teams have been known for in the past, and that is what is the most disturbing of all.

With that, let’s take a quick look back at the season that was and list out the big problems I see as the biggest reasons for the downfall of the Devils in the 2009-2010 season:

  1. The coach and players were not on the same page.  Clearly, there was some amount of tension between the coach and the players.  It was  documented in the Newark Star-Ledger that Captain Jamie Langenbrunner had issues with the way things were handled at different times by Head Coach Jacques Lemaire.  Some of these gripes seem legit, but aren’t the players all professionals?  Shouldn’t they be able to get past these events and prepare themselves as much as needed so they can perform to their maximum ability in the playoffs?  You would think so, but unfortunately it was apparent this wasn’t the case.  In the end, the team ultimately gave up to some extent on its coach and Jacques Lemaire took the high road and retired because of it.
  2. Ilya Kovalchuk and the team did not mesh well.  This isn’t necessarily a reflection on Kovalchuk directly, but it seemed all too often like the Devils were trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.  Add to that, constant line juggling, and Ilya receiving preferential treatment (also referred to in the Star-Ledger link above), and it adds to the troubles in the locker room.  It appears Kovalchuk was a good fit as a player in the locker room, but on the ice it didn’t mesh well at all.  They never seemed to find the right combination of players to play with Kovalchuk, and the constant line juggling certainly didn’t help.  That isn’t to say it couldn’t happen if he were to re-sign, but for the 2010 playoffs, the acquisition of Kovalchuk did not live up to expectations.
  3. The team didn’t have a strong will to bounce back.  Probably greatly in part because of what is referred to above, this team wasn’t able to overcome adversity when it absolutely needed to.  Take a look at some of the recent playoff series as an example.  The Devils scored the first goal in the middle three games of the series, only to lose two of them.  Specifically, in game Four, they scored first and were starting to feel good about themselves.  The Flyers came back and scored twice, and the Devils then basically gave up for most of the last 90 minutes of the series.  Regardless of any in-house disputes, how a team with the players it had on its roster, could basically gave up in the middle of Game Four of a playoff series against a hated rival is simply mind boggling and hard to take.  Jelly jar throwing incident aside, I hope GM Lou Lamoriello realizes this and is able to look long and hard at the roster to see where it can be changed to correct this major issue.
  4. Defensive breakdowns.  The Devils have taken a hit to their legendary defensive corps over the years.  Gone are the likes of Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Daneyko and Brian Rafalski.  In their place, the talent has had a major drop-off in guys like Bryce Salvador, Mike Mottau and Colin White.  Because of this, the Devils often struggle in their own zone, leaving goalie Martin Brodeur out to dry at times.  There is no better example then this then the OT goal by the Flyers’ Daniel Carcillo in Game Three of the series.  There was a breakdown/miscoumminication between Travis Zajac and Mike Mottau that had both guys cover Simon Gagne, but neither covered Carcillo, and when Richards was able to chip the puck past Colin White, a wide open Carcillo had an empty net to tap in the game winning goal.  All too often, there were similar breakdowns that led to great offensive chances for their opponents.  Sometimes Brodeur was able to bail the Devils out, but eventually, even he couldn’t save the Devils.
  5. Guys were not put in the best position to succeed.  Guys like Patrik Elias, a career winger, who was playing center, Dainius Zubrus was bounced back and forth between wing and center and even guys who had worked well together in the past like Travis Zajac, Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner weren’t put back together.  Defensemen like Andy Greene and Paul Martin were paired together when in the past they were used to being paired with a more stay-at-home guy.  D Matthew Corrente was played at fourth-line RW, rather then being used at his natural defense position, not to mention passing over seasoned vets like Jay Pandolfo, who was scratched.  D Mark Fraser was inserted into the linup for his first career playoff game in a hostile environment in Philadelphia.  Individually, these may not be a big deal, but when you add them all up, you can easily make the argument that the players as a whole weren’t put in their best position to succeed, and it certainly did not help matters at all.
  6. Poor transitional play.  The Devils played way too often in their own zone and couldn’t get the puck not only out of their defensive zone, but into the offensive zone either.  The defense was the big culprit for this, as the needed effective breakout passes didn’t happen on a regular basis, leading all to often to soft little clearing attempts and essentially giving the puck back to the Flyers either still in the zone, or in the neutral zone, with the ability to bring the puck right back into the Devils zone.  Other then Andy Greene, Ilya Kovalchuk and sometimes Paul Martin, there was no one who was effective at making sure the puck left the Devils’ defensive zone and made its way safely into the offensive zone.
  7. Patrik Elias didn’t stir the drink.  As I’ve often pointed out, the Devils seem to go as Patrik Elias goes.  Maybe it was because of the concussion he suffered in Colorado on January 16th, or maybe a lack of a full training camp or maybe even a lack of chemistry with Ilya Kovalchuk and his other linemates, but whatever the reason was, you didn’t get the normal Patrik Elias producution in the playoff series.  He never seemed to feel comfortable, and it was not hard to see when the Devils were on the power play.  How many times did he lose control of the puck almost uncontested?  Don’t think this didn’t take its toll on a team that often feeds off his production.

Here’s a look at what went wrong for the Devils this past year.  Is this everything?  Not by a long shot, if you wanted to break down each game, you could find many other things that went wrong.  

In my opinion, these were the major issues the team encountered that helped lead to the great disappointment of the 5-game series loss to the Flyers.

Coming soon…..What should the Devils do to regroup in the off-season and prepare for 2010-11

Read more NHL news on BleacherReport.com

High School Hockey Replay: “One Last Chance” To Play Motivates Michigan Rivals

1, May 2010

No one will ever know if the members of the Trenton Trojans boys hockey team would have completed the comeback that night. But momentum was on their side.

A three-goal deficit had been erased. Their building was thumping with noise.

Then, just like that, it became eerily quiet.

“I knew I was in pain, like full body pain,” Kurt LaTarte said as he recalled the moment. “But no one knew how bad it was until I went back to the bench and the trainer looked under my chin.

“His eyes got real wide, and the last thing I remember was seeing a lot of blood.”

LaTarte, a member of Trenton High’s Class of 1999, gazed out onto the ice at the Kennedy Center in Trenton as he told the story. We sat in a tiny set of bleachers in the frigidness of the rink, the temperature matching his tenuous relationship with what happened there.

LaTarte knew it would be this way. He knew he’d have trouble opening up about the night an errant skate slashed his throat, leading to his collapse at the bench moments later. Hence the eerie silence.

It’s obvious that LaTarte still isn’t quite ready, even 11 years later, to embrace talking about the incident that, for all its horror, has now become the source of a unique reunion of two storied high school hockey programs.

His voice trailed off several times as he took me through that night in Trenton, in 1999, when a fierce rivalry turned into a makeshift mass prayer circle in a heartbeat.

Trenton and Detroit Catholic Central owned Class A high school hockey in the 1990s. They were the Lakers and Celtics of their sport. One school would win the state title, then the other would win it the next year. Their games were intense, exciting, dramatic.

Then one night it got way too dramatic for anyone’s liking.

Earlier in 1999, Trenton beat CC, 1-0, in Redford. Andy Greene, who now plays for the New Jersey Devils, scored the game’s only goal.

Later, the teams met again, in Trenton. Their records were both 11-1 in the conference. The CC Shamrocks got off to a great start in the game, racing to a 4-1 lead.

Then the Trojans scored—and scored again. The building got louder. The tradition of Trenton hockey isn’t like it is in most cities. They are the Detroit Red Wings of high school hockey. As LaTarte told me, “The whole city gets behind you when you play for Trenton.”

The city was behind them that night, as usual. Especially when the Trojans finally tied the score, 4-4.

LaTarte went chasing for a puck in the noisy din of the Trenton arena. His teammate laid a terrific body check on a CC player who went after LaTarte.

“It was a textbook check,” LaTarte said.

And almost deadly.

The CC player’s skate was suddenly where it wasn’t designed to be—off the ice, dangerously high in the air.

The out-of-control blade caught LaTarte as he skated by, the “wrong way,” he said.

LaTarte’s throat got it. Good.

He managed to skate off the ice on his own power, in terrific pain.

His coach, Mike Turner—who’s still the coach today—didn’t think LaTarte was the worse for wear.

“The action moved to the other end of the ice,” Turner told me. “The next thing I know, the CC principal, who was also a priest, was leading both teams in prayer at center ice.”

LaTarte was wheeled away on a stretcher, his jugular cut.

In a building in which moments earlier you couldn’t hear yourself think, you could now hear a pin drop.

LaTarte, in his semi-consciousness, urged the game to continue. His first question upon awakening in the hospital was “What was the score?”

They told him the game had been suspended. The players didn’t feel like continuing.

“I know players get hurt all the time, and games continue,” LaTarte said. “But at the same time, I understand why it didn’t continue. Everyone was pretty shaken up.”

That year’s Trenton squad, in a program traditionally competing for state titles, didn’t even make it out of regionals. And that 4-4 suspended tie with their archrival Catholic Central hung in the air like a bad odor.

That odor is about to waft away.

Thanks to a TV series sponsored by Gatorade called Replay, in which high school teams get the opportunity to replay rivalry games, those 1999 Trenton and Catholic Central squads will get it on next week, some 11 years later, to replay their game, from scratch.

Ironically, LaTarte, who still wrestles with the memories of that horrific accident, was the one who got the ball rolling for the reunion game.

“I saw the commercial (for the series) on TV, and I was near my computer and brought up the Web site,” he said after practice last week. “I just started filling it out. I knew sooner or later I’d have to open up about [the injury]. But I knew my teammates would love the opportunity. When I weighed the pros and cons, it became a no-brainer.”

Over 2,000 applicants submitted their stories to Gatorade. The human drama of what happened to LaTarte, combined with the Trenton-CC rivalry of the time, proved too much for the show’s producers to resist.

The game will be played on Sunday, May 9, at the Compuware Arena in Plymouth.

And as if the game needed any more pomp and circumstance, the Gatorade folks, who routinely bring honorary coaches into their series, are placing ex-NHLer Brendan Shanahan (Trenton) and legendary coach Scotty Bowman (CC) behind the benches to assist the team’s regular coaching staffs.

Shanahan was present the night at Joe Louis Arena when Red Wings teammate Jiri Fischer had his career ended thanks to a scary heart-related collapse on the bench in 2005.

“When I saw the video of what happened [to LaTarte] in 1999, I thought of Jiri,” Shanahan told me. “I know what it’s like when a teammate is in a situation like that, when the game becomes secondary for that moment.”

For LaTarte, he has no doubt both teams will be ready to play on May 9.

“In 1999, we didn’t think it was going to be our last game,” he explained. “But now, we know that this is the last full-contact, competitive game of hockey that we’re ever going to play. I have no doubt that it will be extremely intense.

“Everybody better be ready to play, or it won’t be good.”

The Trenton-CC replay game will air on Fox Sports Detroit later in May.

“It’s great to reunite,” Turner said, “and get one more chance.”

No one would second that more than LaTarte, whose life hung in the balance that night in 1999.

Read more NHL news on BleacherReport.com

Jacque Lemaire Retires; New Jersey Devils Enter Offseason

27, Apr 2010

The New Jersey Devils once again proved their superiority and consistency by putting together another tremendous regular season. But unfortunately for them they once again couldn’t continue their success into the postseason. And with this disappointing postseason the offseason dominoes have begun to fall.

 

It has started with the retirement of head coach Jacques Lemaire. The 64-year-old coach has stated that he doesn’t have the energy to coach in the NHL any more. Lemaire won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 1995. He has also admitted to thinking about retirement throughout the 2009-2010 season, claiming to be worn down.

 

The Devils have made the playoffs in 13 consecutive years, but in the past three postseasons the Devils have been eliminated in premature fashion exiting in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

 

This is unacceptable for a prestigious and successful franchise like the New Jersey Devils. General Manager Lou Lamoriello won’t accept such displays to continue year in and year out due to his competitive nature and history of success.

 

The New Jersey Devils clearly didn’t bring the intensity and fire that it takes to make the long journey and to win Lord Stanley’s Cup and there is plenty of blame to go around.

 

The blame could start with the retiring coach Jacques Lemaire. He was out-coached all series. After every period and break in play the Devils seemed to always come out of the intermission the slower less motivated side. Lemaire failed to make adjustments to fix the Devils struggles on both ends of the ice and they paid the price for it. Another mistake by Lemaire was his constant line switching in the regular season that clearly disrupted the players in their comfort zones and chemistry building with their linemates.

 

Philadelphia was the absolute worst matchup the Devils could have asked for as they were the only playoff team in the Eastern Conference they had a losing record against in the regular season and it wasn’t even close, as the Devils only managed to win one of the six games they played.

 

The Devils played it off that the meaning of the regular season matchups was minimal, but after watching their performance it clearly was in the back of their minds from the get-go.

 

The most common misconception that was stated after this series is that the reason the Flyers took down the Devils was because Brian Boucher outdueled the great Martin Brodeur between the pipes. Not taking anything away from the Flyers goalie, who had a tremendous series, but this was in no way true and just a simple generalization for the so-called experts on TV.

 

Not saying Martin Brodeur was immaculate in anyway or that he lived up to his normal expectations but the Devils didn’t provide much, if any, help for Brodeur.

 

Jaime Langenbrunner was far from his normal self this postseason. The captain barely had any positive influence on the Devils on and off the ice in this series. He committed two bad-timed penalties and only mustered one point in the five games.

 

Ilya Kovalchuk may have brought some flair to the New Jersey roster, but the bottom line is he didn’t hit the back of the net enough to live up to his reputation. When Kovalchuk’s name is heard one immediately thinks of a top-five goal scorer in the league and he was far from that in his brief time with the Devils.

 

Yes, patience is required to allow this superstar to develop chemistry, but the chemistry never came. Many are going to claim to be correct in predicting that he wouldn’t fit into New Jersey’s system and there is much ammo to oppose that argument. He tried to one-man team it way too many times for someone who couldn’t hit the net for the most part. He still managed to lead the team in points in the series with six (two goals and four assists). But four of his six points came on the power play and another came on an empty net goal, so his five on five production barely stood out.

 

Now a big decision lies ahead with Kovalchuk being an unrestricted free agent. Does Lamoriello break the bank to keep the winger and hope a new season sparks him back to the top of the NHL scoring list or does Lamoriello let the superstar go and choose to spread the money out wisely to improve the overall team?

 

Patrik Elias has been the consistent reliable producer for the Devils throughout the decade, but even he seemed to lack the initiative and aggression needed to be the normal scoring threat he has grown accustomed to being. Elias seemed way too passive in the series.

 

Zach Parise hasn’t given New Jersey fans many reasons to complain, as he has quickly become the face of the franchise and maybe even is soon to be the captain, but even he lacked in scoring production as the lackadaisical Devils behavior obviously became contagious throughout the locker room. Parise missed the opportunity to come in and save the Devils from this series’ struggles. He could have took lead of this team and grabbed command of his future captaincy, but instead he got mixed in with the Devils’ dismal offensive performance.

 

Rob Niedermayer and David Clarkson became absolute playoff busts. They were basically terrible in everyway for the Devils in the playoffs. Complete ghosts on the offensive end and a bulk of bad penalties in addition. They combined for 28 penalty minutes and zero points.

 

Brian Rolston really didn’t perform well at all, as the only thing holding back a ton of critics on his play was his two goal performance in game two on the power play during the Devils only win in the series.

 

Dainius Zubrus impressed many spectators in the series despite the fact he only produced one point, a game-winner in game two. He may have saved himself a roster spot for next season because he was one of the few Devils that stood out.

 

Andy Greene is one of the very few Devils that may have actually came out of the playoffs looking better than he did going in. Greene proved that he is a tremendous talent in the making and sure to be a dependable New Jersey Devil for years to come.

 

Paul Martin spent the majority of the season on the shelf with a broken left forearm, but a big decision lies ahead with him becoming an unrestricted free agent in the summer. Lamoriello is likely to re-sign the talented defenseman. Martin also didn’t perform up to standards in the series as he was a –2 and was held pointless.

 

Colin White didn’t really impress in this series against the Flyers, but he did show New Jersey what they lacked against Philadelphia and that is the physicality on the defensive end. Despite a collection of some fine names and talents in New Jersey’s defensive pairings, not many of them are known for physical play. And this was exposed in the series.

 

Young defenseman Mark Fraser only played in one game, but he made a critical mistake in Game 3 that led to a huge goal for the Flyers and that really swung the momentum back into Phily’s favor.

 

The New Jersey Devils just didn’t bring the fire and desire it takes to survive and advance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They didn’t play with the intensity or aggression to overcome the tough physical Flyers.

 

The Devils couldn’t provide a consistent offensive flow and they were a disaster on defense in front of the crease. New Jersey had a rough time getting shots to the net, as the Flyers did well to block shot after shot.

 

It didn’t help the Devils at all that the officials were extremely inconsistent with their penalty calls. Nobody wants to hear the blame-the-official reasoning, but every bad call they made torched the Devils on a vital goal. The Devils obviously didn’t play well enough to win this series and they probably didn’t deserve to win, but it is unfortunate that they paid the price on such key moments in the series on what were some very soft and questionable calls.

 

So some big decisions lay ahead for the New Jersey Devils. Who will be the new coach? Will Kovalchuk be re-signed? Will the Devils make a blockbuster deal? Will there be a new captain next season?

 

The morale may be low due to the playoff disappointments, but in the end having a general manager like Lou Lamoriello is a luxury and he can be depended on to make the right decisions to guarantee success in the present and future years for the New Jersey Devils.

 

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