I’ve Got 99 Problems (And NJ is One…)

Dean McAmmond before last week's 5-3 loss to the Calgary Flames.

It’s become obvious now to even non-Devils fans: The Devils have some problems. After losing to the Flames last Friday 5-3, the Devils got blanked by the league-worst Oilers, 2-0. The Devils are 3-6-1 in their last 10 games. If, in the first three months of the season, you had told me that the Devils would acquire Ilya Kovalchuk and that by March 7^th they would only have 10 wins out of 25 games, I’d say you were crazy. But that’s how it stands.

First of all, non-Devils fans will probably be quick to make a couple of judgments. First they’ll say that it must be Martin Brodeur’s fault. He had bad games before the Olympics break, sure, but the losses since then are definitely not his fault. The defense has been really struggling, and they can’t afford to wait for Paul Martin to return to start doing well. A 6-week healing time has lasted almost five months, and the Devils need a good defensemen. Martin Skoula just ain’t gonna cut it.

Secondly, Kovalchuk is doing fine as a Devil. He’s made a few mistakes, but overall he’s been fine. I can tell that he’s trying really hard to fit in on his new team, and for the most part he’s done so spectacularly.

The Devils have a team worthy of a great Stanley Cup run, but if they keep playing like they have been lately, they won’t make it very far. Zach Parise is the best American player, Jamie Langenbrunner is a great leader, Kovalchuk is great on the power play, Patrik Elias is Patrik Elias, and even Dainius Zubrus has been playing well since coming back from his injury. And that’s just a few of the big players. There are two whole offensive lines that should scare the crap out of any competitor!

So then what’s the problem? It really seems to go game-by-game. Some games the defense is terrible. Other games the offense is lacking. And some games both the offense and defense are barely there. The problem is that I haven’t seen them play a full 60-minute game in a long time. They either start slow and get better in the 2^nd or 3^rd period, start well but lose momentum, or don’t show up at all. It’s really hard to blame any one or two players (although a couple of names stick out pretty consistently). And the Devils have some pretty tough teams to play before the end of the season.

Jacques Lemaire held a team meeting today to hopefully address the problems the team has had. The reaction from the players coming out of the meeting is that the meeting was necessary and helpful. Let’s hope so. The Devils face the Rangers on Wednesday and I can’t think of a better time for the Devils to announce “We’re Back.”