Philadelphia Flyers (0-2-0) @ New Jersey Devils (1-0-0)

The Devils return home tonight for the first time this season. There will be a new banner in the ceiling (although it’s not the banner 99.999% of us REALLY wanted but it did come at the expense of the Rangers so if you are bummed it’s not a Stanley Cup banner, at least find comfort in knowing that it isn’t hanging in Madison Square Garden).    

Puck Drop: 7:30pm EST

The Broadcast: TV - NBC Sports Network; Radio - 660 AM WFAN

Season Series: 0-0

The Last Time We Saw Philadelphia:  That was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals where the Devils sent the Claude Giroux-less Flyers home for what would turn out to be a VERY LOOOOONG summer.

The Last Devils Game: The Devils opened up the season on Saturday night against the Islanders in Long Island. The final result would suggest a close game but that doesn’t paint a clear picture. The Devils outshot, outhit and outworked the Islanders for most of the evening. The Devils defense, under the direction of rookie coach Scott Stevens was SOLID. Should we expect anything different from something Scott Stevens puts his name on? Zajac got the Devils on the board first and then after watching the Islanders eventually tie the game, David Clarkson picked up right where he left off last season and put home a clutch, game winner.

The Last Flyers Game: The Flyers traveled to Buffalo on Sunday, a day after losing at home to the Penguins. The Flyers found themselves up 2-1 in the second period before the wheels came off. With the scored tied at 2 after 2, there was still a chance for the Flyers to get a point or two. Unfortunately for the Flyers, that chance never left the locker room between the second and third periods. Buffalo took control of the game in the third by scoring 3 goals within 5 minutes, sending Philly back home to start the season 0-2.

Thoughts on Tonight’s Game: I am sure that Philly is going to come out tonight with a little extra “giddy up and go” because of their disappointing start. I didn’t really consider the Islanders a great test the other night but a team like Philly, who is pretty deep offensively, will be a good test for our team.

Philly does look to be a little weak defensively so far this season so if NJ can put forth another solid effort on defense, we should have enough offense to send Philly home with another loss. Philadelphia has taken a lot of penalties so far this season and given up quite a few power play goals. They been shorthanded 9 times and given up 5 goals. To be fair, one of those 5 came with the net empty but there is definitely a weakness to exploit there. This is a rivalry game so I would expect a number of calls on both sides of the puck.

Philadelphia Flyers Notes:                                                           

-          Danny Briere will be out tonight.                                      
-          Zac Rinaldo will also miss tonight’s game.                  
-          Cosmonaut Ilya Bryzgalov will man the pipes.               

New Jersey Devils Notes:

-  Looks like Adam Larsson will be sitting again.
- Stephan Matteau will make his home debut.
- Brodeur gets the call tonight, which he should.

Players To Watch:

When it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers, you always have to keep your eye on Claude Giroux. Given the opportunity, he can score some clutch goals for his club. I’m also keeping my eye on Sean Couturier because I believe that he could have a breakout season this year.

As for NJ, I want to see how Stephan Matteau does tonight. He had a lot of energy the other night in Long Island and seem to be places where the pucked ended up but this is a rival game and he has a pretty well know issue with taking a good amount of penalties at the junior level this season. Will the extra adrenalin of a rival game and home opener push him over the edge?

Final Thoughts: 

It should be a great game. Philly hasn't started like they had hoped and I am sure will be eager to try and get their first win against the team that sent them home last summer. I'm a little bummed that it looks like Larsson is sitting again. I know he's an NHL calibre defenseman, I just don't get why we keep scratching him.

We wanted to send out a little reminder to Brayden Schenn. There's a lot of hockey left to play this season. Try not to let the Devils use you as their own personal punching bag.

As always, check us out on our Twitter accounts during the game and then come back for our recap after.

New Jersey Devils (0-0-0) @ New York Islanders (0-0-0)

In a few years we will stop having to visit that place they call an arena on Long Island and head to Brooklyn to play the Islanders but for now, we will continue to play in them in the Nassau Coliseum.

Here we go… CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? Finally, after months and months of fighting over money and more money and contract terms and a whole bunch of stuff the average fan could care less about, it is time to drop the puck!!

This is the first preview so it will be kind of light because we really don’t know what to preview for tonight’s game but thank god there is finally a game.
 

Last Meeting

It was very late in the 2011/2012 season where we last saw the Islanders. Their season was over, ours of course was not  as the Devils just clinched a playoff spot a few days before. Travis Zajac playing in just his 5^th game since returning from a very long injury put home the game winner. A lot had been made about this goal at the time because many felt it helped Zajac’s confidence level which was going to be needed for the upcoming playoffs.

Players To Watch

Well as Devils fans we are going to be watching everyone I am sure but the big news going into this season was the lack of replacements added for the departures of Parise, Sykora and Ponikarovsky. Together, those three put 59 pucks in the net last season. Where will the scoring come from? Without Parise on the team and without Henrique in the lineup, EVERYONE is probably going to focus on Ilya Kovalchuk. That is why I will be watching him tonight. How does he respond?

I’ll be keeping my eyes on two Islanders tonight. Matt Moulson led the team with 36 goals last season and John Tavres led the team with 81 points. The Islanders are still the 5^th best team in the Atlantic division but these two guys certainly have the ability to win a few games on their own for the Islanders. They proved that last season.

What To Expect

To be honest, I am not quite sure. Some of our guys have been playing in the AHL during the lockout, others went to Europe but a large number didn't do either. So that is going to be my main focus tonight, to see if the coaches worked them hard enough this week and got them ready...game ready.

The Islanders always play us tough and being that this is a short season and points are going to be critical in all 48 games, I would expect a battle tonight. Let's just hope after months of waiting, our guys are ready!!

As always, check us out on Twitter during the game and then come back for our recap after.

Game 6 and I can promise you that I am EXTREMELY nervous about this game. When the Devils went down 3-0 to the Kings, I pretty much got to the point where I was becoming OK with losing but now that the Devils have staved off elimination twice, I am now at the point where I am not ok with losing this series. We’ve been able to win 2 straight games to make this a series and the Kings HAVE to be going into this game tonight looking at it as a must win. The last thing the Kings want to do is lose tonight and board a plane for NJ so you have to imagine that the Kings are going to come out flying.

When it comes to facing the most pressure heading into game 6, you can make an argument for both teams and I am not sure which would win the argument. LA can lose tonight but that means a cross country trip and a Game 7 on Wednesday where anything can happen and a little more doubt planted in their heads . NJ can’t lose or it’s over. So which team is facing the most pressure?

NJ did a great job at surviving on Saturday night and did a great job at capitalizing on the opportunities that LA is handing them, which are few. Parise scores on a mishandle by Quick and Salvador puts a puck in the net after patiently waiting for an opening, something he has mastered this postseason. Now they head to LA and will have to survive again. Expect a rocking house, a desperate Kings team and a team that is probably going to kick up the physicality a notch or two.

LA hasn’t faced much adversity in these playoffs this season so it will be interesting to see how they respond tonight. In my opinion, the Kings haven’t played the hardest of teams (maybe Vancouver is the exception) to get to the finals where NJ knocked off Philly and NY who were both very high on the list of contenders.

The goal is simple to understand… Get this series back to NJ but like I said, I am nervous!! We’ve watched enough hockey, we know what we need to do tonight in order to win. I don’t need to spell it out here but the one thing we absolutely must not do is take 20 minutes off to start the game like we did on Saturday. Not showing up to begin the game is just playing with fire.

CBC Hockey Night in Canada Game 5 Opening..

And finally….

I hope the players have their heads screwed on right. The media, who handed LA the cup after a 3-0 start seems to have switched sides and look to be handing the cup to the Devils. It’s not that simple and hopefully we are focused on tonight and tonight only, not what winning tonight would mean.

Going into game 4, the Devils faced a monumental task, or more accurately, a number of tasks. They had to solve Jonathon Quick, find a way to stop the Kings momentum and extend the series to game 5. There was no tomorrow. It was lose or go home. Thankfully Adam Henrique came through in yet another huge moment for the Devils and here we are, preparing for Game 5.

 

The tasks aren’t any smaller and in fact, they might be larger heading into game 5. The series shifts back to NJ and now the Devils are faced with having to beat a 10-0 road team in order to survive another day. The Devils played well enough to win in game 4 but I thought the Kings had a lot of missed opportunities. One could question if those missed opportunities were a result of thinking not about the game but rather what would happen if the won the game. I can’t imagine the Kings are going to play another game where they let opportunities get away. The Kings have been in this situation before  as they are 3-3 in games where they can close out the series. The fact the neither the Vancouver Canucks (owners of the best record in hockey), the St. Louis Blues nor the Phoenix Coyotes could extend their series with the Kings to six games is a little intimidating.

What did NJ do well in Game 4 that will need to be duplicated in Game 5?

• Peter Deboer has made lineup changes throughout these playoffs and every time he does this, it seems that everyone treats him like he’s crazy. Well you know what, it worked yet again. I’m not saying change the lineups for Game 5 but certainly don’t go backwards.
• The Devils seem to succeed when Bryce Salvador finds the score sheet. He’s probably the most important d-man this team has.
• They shot the puck, from everywhere.
• The Devils didn’t allow frustration to get in the way. It’s no secret that Quick has been lights out most of the series and to enter period 3 of an elimination game with nothing in goal department could have really hurt this team but they battled, even through a horrible call on the ice that led to a game tying LA goal.
• Marty, he was big, no make that huge. He will need to be the rest of the way.

So how does NJ win Game 5?

• Stick to the game plan, which hasn’t changed since Game 1. Honestly, this series has been much closer than a 3-1 series lead would indicate. I would argue the third period of Game 3 is the one exception in this series.
• Continue to get the puck in the zone and rip it on net. Just like my  golf game, they need to grip it and rip it. The more pucks on net, the more likely one is going in. They do need to do a better job at minimizing those lengthy stretches where they get 0 shots on net.
• Get Quick moving. They Devils had a number of chances once they got Quick going side to side. He’s not the type of goalie you are going to beat if you let him stand in one spot.
• Shoot high. You haven’t been doing it although everyone and their mother is telling you to shoot high. Finally Henrique shoots high and look what happens…GOAL!!!
• The crowd HAS to be energized. Go back to Game 4 vs Philly and that crowd was the loudest I’ve even seen in my life. It brought an extra step to our team. We need that desperately in Game 5.

The Devils can do this if they just continue to attack this as one game at a time. If NJ can win Game 5, that certainly starts to plant a few seeds of doubt into the Kings players and fans. Just get to Game 6, that’s the only goal right now. The Devils fired off 6 in a row to end the season, there is no reason that NJ can’t win 4 in a row.

CBC Hockey Night in Canada opening video for Game 4.

I knew they were going to use this song. Any guesses what some might show up for the opening to Game 5? Does Bruce or Bon Jovi have a peppy song about believing?? Oh wait, Bruce has a song called No Surrender.

Here we are, Game 4 and looking at elimination. What can you say? It’s been hard to watch this team struggle against a bigger, stronger and faster team that hasn’t allowed the Devils to get their game going. Florida, Philly and New York didn’t have an answer to our constant fore-checking but the Kings have some really big guys who respond positively to a strong fore-check.

I don’t want it to seem like I am writing the Devils eulogy because I honestly believe there is still fight left in this team. We can’t go into tonight focused on the fact that we need 4 straight wins in order to win this series. Instead, we need to focus on winning each period. Win period one, then period two, then period three and you win the game. Lather, rinse, repeat. We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. Winning 4 straight is a huge task but if you take it a game at a time, it gets easier. Tonight’s goal, just get a win and then game 5 would be get another win, create doubt in their minds, win game 6 and anything can happen in a game 7 but it all has to start tonight.

The Devils haven’t been able to score but they haven’t exactly made it difficult for Quick. They haven’t gotten traffic in front of him and continue to shoot low or to the midsection. On top of that, we’ve continue to pass up shots in order to look for that perfect set up. Wayne Gretzky once said “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  Don’t get cute NJ, just put the puck on net. I can live with Quick making 40+ saves in a night and getting the win, at least you made him work for it. Having only 2 goals so far in this series doesn’t win you much but again, it goes back to shooting the puck.

The Devils were handed 6 power plays the other night (most of them as a way to make up for a bad first goal that was allowed) and failed on each of them. Surprise, surprise, NJ didn’t shoot that much. You have to take advantage of the opportunities handed to you.

LA has gotten out to the lead in all 3 games so far. I’d give anything to see what NJ could do if they got a lead. Would the Kings change their style? Would the Devils skate with more confidence?

I was hard on Clarkson in the beginning of the year but then he won me over. Sorry David, you are back on my list, well kind of, because I’m getting tired of watching you miss opportunities.

Rumor is that Sykora is back in tonight. Good!! Never really made sense to me why a 20+ goal scorer got scratched. On top of that, why keep a 20+ goal scorer scratched in a series where goal scoring is a serious problem?

Like I said, not ready to bury this team yet. Take it shift by shift and period by period but each guy on the bench has to know their role and trust that the guy sitting next to him knows his role and will play his role.

Game 3 CBC Video

They really do a great job with these. Makes me want to dust off my editing skills!!

And finally…

I have to ask…..

 

Being down 0-2 in this series is kind of deflating. The Devils didn’t really show up for game 1 and did a much better job in game 2 but got the same result, a 2-1 OT loss to the Kings. However, there is a bright spot in all of this. This series could easily be tied at 1-1 if the Devils could have done a better job at getting to Jonathan Quick.

The frustrating part is that Kovalchuk, Elias, Parise, Clarkson and Sykora (who isn’t even playing) all had 20 or 30 goal seasons but aren’t scoring in this series. One goal per game isn’t going to win you anything.

So what do we do tonight?

• We are being kept in the dark about the Devils lineup. There is a rumored “no change” to the lineups but we will see what tonight brings. I for one would be in favor of sitting Zidlicky because he’s been so horrible at times. It was said on a radio hockey show I was listening to that the Devils don’t have anyone on their roster that can do what Doughty did on his goal the other night but I throw Adam Larsson’s name out there and say he certainly could but he’s a healthy scratch so they are right, he can’t.
• Get traffic in front of Quick. I’ve seen the guy make way too many easy saves because he has a clear look at the puck. The two goals he has given up this series, came with guys in front of the net, either screening him while looking for a deflection or crashing the net looking for that rebound.
• Stay aggressive and stay on the fore-check. Make LA cough up the puck and make mistakes.
• If I see one more long pass out of the LA zone I think I am going to puke. Do a better job at keeping LA from sending out these deep passes. They do it so well and make it look so easy.
• Help Marty out!! How the hell did we allow Doughty to just take the puck up the ice, bob and weave through our entire team and score the first goal of the night? Surely someone could have put the body on him.

Bottom line, a win tonight breathes life back into our team but a 3-0 hole is pretty much game, set and match. Remember Devils, the 2011 Champion Boston Bruins were down 2-0 at this point last year. Yes, they were going home for game 3 but the Kings are 4-2 at home this season and 10-0 on the road. Let’s start tonight and make them 4-3 at home and we will work on making them .500 on Wednesday. However you want to look at it, tonight is a MUST WIN.

 

And Finally….

As promised, here is the opening to Game 2 from the CBC Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. I’m guessing that miss by Fayne in Game 1 is something that is going to haunt him. This video is spot on when it says “giving up is not option, gotta get it in” while showing him miss a wide open net.

 

Game 1 ended up being a much different game than I was expecting and no I am not talking about the ending. In the end it came down to a mistake that cost us the game but don’t think that was the only mistake because it wasn’t. It was just the mistake that overshadowed all the other mistakes because it ended the game.

The Kings played typical road hockey where it seemed like they would just sit back, wait for the home team to make a mistake and capitalize on that mistake. The first goal was text book fore-checking and the OT winner was the classic “you just made a huge mistake and I am not going to let that opportunity slip away.”

The Devils have a lot of room for improvement in Game 2 and let’s hope we see that improvement. Things that need to be addressed:

• Puck movement – When is the last time we saw NJ struggle with moving the puck, especially through the neutral zone?
• Stop being cute with the puck – These aren’t the shot blocking Rangers we faced in the last round so there is no need to try and get cute with the puck. Put the puck on net, the more Quick faces, the more likely one is going to find the back of the net. We put up 15 shots in regulation including a whopping 3 in the second period. Remember when Philly couldn’t beat us because we didn’t allow them to get shots on net?
• I’ve watched the Kopitar goal over and over and I still can’t understand what Zidlicky was even doing on the play, besides taking himself out of the play. Defensive breakdowns like that can’t happen in the Stanley Cup Finals.

I would expect New Jersey to come out much better in Game 2 and I can honestly say I don’t know what to expect of LA. Was the game they played in Game 1 a clear picture of how they play hockey? If it is, I wasn’t that impressed. Like I said, it was mostly sitting back waiting for NJ to make a mistake. If this wasn’t their normal kind of game, should we expect that to show up in Game 2?

I wouldn’t say that Game 1 was the worst performance we’ve seen out of the Devils this post-season but it is certainly close. Give Marty credit, he kept us in the game. When you have a guy like Kopitar skating in all alone with so time and space that he can make 3 different deke moves, there really is no chance to stop him.

Back to Zidlicky for a moment – I’m not really sure what’s wrong with this guy. He was lights out in the first two series and then looked shakey against NY. I think I would take the games he had against NY over what I saw on Wednesday night. His heavy point shot is the only thing keeping me from calling for Larsson over him in the lineup at the moment.

Do me a favor, if you are going to the game… YELL!!!! I’ve seen more noise and commotion at a funeral. There weren’t a lot of chants going on and the crowd was a non-factor. It can’t be, it has to pump energy into the team when they need it. Take a cue from the Rangers fans.. BE OBNOXIOUS otherwise, LA is just going to continue their road streak.

And finally…

CBC is at it again with their openings before each game of the Finals. This was the opening to Game 1 and while last year’s opening was much better in my opinion but it’s hard to criticize anything with the Devils in it…

And then one more thing... Scott Burnside, the ultimate Devils hater can't even do his homework and find out how to pronounce Adam Henrique's last name before interviewing him prior to Game 1. Tell me again why ESPN even tries when it comes to Hockey? Burnside sucks and is like the biggest douchebag in hockey (expect maybe for Ecklund) and you got this other Katie Strang who supposed to write for all NY area hockey teams but never really covered NJ all season until they knocked off her precious Rangers.

Game 1 – Stanley Cup Finals!! A quick show of hands, who predicted this at the beginning of the season? Anyone!!?? Actually, I went back and looked at the season preview that Debra and I did in the beginning of the year and I predicted the Devils to make the playoffs but I didn’t put any predictions down beyond that. At that time, Debra was writing for this blog and she made this bold prediction…

If the Devils can make it past the first round of playoffs, thereby shaking that monkey off their backs, they will play in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Wow!! Way to go Deb!!!

So Game 1 and this series is certainly going to feature two teams that are very similar. Both have great offensive power and are huge scoring threats. Both have a decent defense that can control a game. Both have significant depth in their lineups. Both fore-check very well which opens the game for their offense and both have amazing men in between the pipes.

If you are looking for an edge on either side, it is going to be hard to point one out. The one thing I can say about NJ is that our 4^th line has done a better job of putting up points than the King’s fourth line but then I would have to point out that the Kings are an amazing road team.

This series is going to be VERY tight and of course stressful and probably have you on the edge of your seat every night.

The Devils get home ice advantage in this series which means in Game 1 and Game 2, the Devils get the benefit of the last line change. The bad thing is, the Kings are 8-0 on the road this postseason so that last line change hasn’t hurt them at all. That means if the Devils plan A doesn’t work, they have to be ready to go with plan B, place C, etc. In fact, this is a good word of advice going into the series against the Kings.

 

Keys To Winning

• Out work the Kings. They are a hard working team but the Devils need to be that much better. Stay with the fore-check and don’t EVER sit back. Leave everything on the ice every night. You need just 4 wins and you get the cup and a summer of relaxation and partying with the cup.

• That thing I just said about the cup, forget it. Don’t get ahead of ourselves. Take this shift by shift and game by game. Stick to the basics and the things that got you this far.
  
  
• Be disciplined and stay out of the box. Don’t give the Kings any easy opportunities by taking dumb penalties. If you get a chance on the power play, make it count. The Kings have the best PK in the playoffs so doing that is going to be tough. Move the puck around and make Quick work the entire net.
  
  
• The one thing to remember is that the Kings haven’t faced a lot of adversity in the post season. They’ve controlled most of the games and the series they have played. Make them work. Hopefullywhen things start getting tough for them, the entire thing will just cave in on them.

And Finally…

What scares me most about the Kings is that they have a few players on their roster that have lost in the Finals. I’m nervous that their appetite for getting that cup is going to be huge. I’m sure we all know Jeff Carter and Mike Richards are on the Kings now and they used to cause so much damage to NJ when they played in Philly. This is a tough, tough team, much tougher than the Rangers in my opinion but we can beat them if we do the little things. We faced them twice this season and beat them both times. Hopefully that trend continues.

If you are looking for some insight into the Kings, I suggest you head over to our Bloguin counterpart, The Royal Half and take a look at what they are saying about us. While you are there, really let them know who’s going home with the cup this year!!

 

A lot has been written of 1994 over the course of these playoffs and especially over the last 5 games. Here we are, in an Eastern Conference Final between NJ and NY with the series heading to NJ with the Devils leading 3-2 and looking for a chance to close it out. How can you NOT mention 1994 when talking about this series? Let’s hope it ends tonight. Truth… there will be nothing more agenizing this summer if we let this series get away from us again. The way I see it, if the Devils play like they did in Game 4, there is no way this series doesn’t end tonight.

Game 5 was a crazy game where we shot out to a quick 3-0 lead, let the Rangers come ALL THE WAY back and then we stabbed them in the heart with a huge dagger.  I’m begging NJ not to play a game like that again because you can only play with fire so many times before you get burned.

Despite the lead we gave up the other night, I thought NJ played well and I thought there were things we did well. Yes, they got away from their fore-check for a bit and allowed NY to get a fore-check of their own going but we eventually got back to it and it proved to be a factor in winning the game. As a side note, has Kovalchuk not become a complete player? I think the best thing to happen to his career was having Lemaire come in mid-season last year because he bought into playing defense and was responsible for a big part of that goal. He took out Del Zoto which allowed Gionta to whip the puck in front of the net, which Carter buried. Even with Kovalchuk laboring through these games with his injury, I am so impressed at his game.

Keys To Tonight:

• As always, STAY OUT OF THE BOX!!! Cut down on the opportunities that you give the Rangers to find the back of the net. They have the best PP left in the playoffs, don’t let them use it.

• Stick to the game plan and try hard to not get away from it. It happened in Game 5 and it allowed NY to fight their way back into the game. Lundqvist has given up 4 goals in each of the last two games and he’s not going to give up 4 more tonight very easily.

• Marty, be on!!! I know 1994 is a distant memory and we’ve accomplished so much since then but wouldn’t it feel good to knock these guys out of the playoffs at home in Game 6 like you should have back in 1994? I never thought I would say this but I cringe every time you go play the puck now. Sit tight unless there is a lot of open space. That Gaborik goal was just awful. It was like we were at a party in college, had a little too much to drink and knew we had to puke and then had to make a decision of whether to puke in the bushes or in the garbage can but then didn’t make either in time.

• And above all else …. WIN!!!!!

And Finally.....

All that needs to be said is...

Go join Seth on Spreecast talking about tonight's game....