2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs 1st Round, Game 2: New Jersey Devils vs. Philadelphia Flyers

I agree this is not the time to be picky about how we win—-we just need the W and thats all that matters. The win friday night probably can and should be ugly. What I mean by that is simply that we need much more traffic in front of the flyers net and more shots. In this one sense, then, I disagree with the “be more patient” corrective, though I can see that interpretation. They certainly do need to be smoother with the puck, with passing and shooting, but I dont know I would call it patient. I was screaming “shoot the puck!!!” a lot in the upper tank of the arena on Wednesday—-put simply, 24 shots (in a game with over 10 minutes of power play!) is not going to get the job done. The law of averages is not on your side. 24 shots should be our minimum through two periods, not for an entire game.

Now I hope we are all, and espesially the managers, past the “warnings” that went out on sunday to those of us who thought, with their own fate in their hands, the Devils should have picked a different first round foe than philly. The warnings were truly a low and pathetic moment at inlouwetrust, but I hope its out of your system now. In any case, those who didnt buy our argument may after game 1 have a better perspective on why we thought the way we did. This Flyer teams plays very scrappy and very choppy hockey. I do not believe they have the talent to beat us. But precisely because they know they dont have the raw skill is why they are so frustrating and dangerous to play. The tempo and style of play in game 1 was exactly what they wanted—-a slow passed, along the boards, low shot totals, lot of neutral zone kind of game. The knew from the flow the game even in the first period that we were headed in the wrong direction in game 1. The devils i thought challenged and abruptly altered the flyers tempo only twice (once in the last few minutes of the first period, and once in the last few minutes of the game). But what we need to do is establish the tempo and flow we want, not let them dicatate it. What that means practically in my view is that we need to open the ice up and not let them close it off. Our talent, our top two lines, needs open ice, needs room. And our 3rd and fourth lines have been sucesful when they skate hard. I think our strength is we are faster and more skilled. We need to outskate them, and that will alter the tempo in our favor. They cannot keep up with us, what they can do is cruch, play choppy, play nuetral zone, play along the boards and then get a couple ugly goals to win out of the few shots they can muster. So im not sure its patience, hopefully the first game jitters are out of everyones system. I think its shooting much much more and skating. And that comes from the heart or what we today call “compete level.”

Forcing more shots that miss the net and continuing to shoot into fallen Flyers isn’t going to solve the problem. The problem? Not enough goals to win. Playoff series are not won by scoring 1 or 2 goals a game, I don’t care how good your D or goalkeeper are.

Sharpen up the passing. Delay a moment to wait for help or a trailer. Shot pass. Fake a slapper. Get the D going down to block and shoot mid net and higher. It was pretty evident that the Flyers are going to continually use their bulk to block shots. They clearly dont trust the Bouch in net. Get them to go down, pass around them and shoot. Shoot over them.

I’m excited for the game tongiht. This may as well be the series. Going to Philly down 2 is is not an option.

Devils win 3-1. 1 ppg, 1 en.

from Fire and Ice:
“Lemaire said the players who did not participate in today’s optional morning skate—Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias, Jamie Langenbrunner, Dean McAmmond and Colin White—all did so "on their own" and were not told to stay off the ice.”

that makes me sad on so many levels…

guess they thought they played fine in game 1 and didn’t need the skate? who needs a C to get the guys up for it? new grips for their clubs maybe?

I sure as hell hope Zach addressed it. I’m sorry but stuff like this really bothers me. It’s not about needing the practice, it’s about getting together as a team and getting your head right.

any good sports bars in manhattan to watch with fellow devils fans? i can’t make the game but want to watch the games with other fellow devils fans in the city and i’m not sure which bars are good for that. thanks

and after watching the 1st game, i’m confident the devils will play much better and get the W.

During game one I noticed one glaring problem that this team has had over the years. Paying attention during line changes. Often times they are in a hurry to skate off for a line change they don’t notice a puck off the boards coming behind them. If they only looked behind and grabbed that puck, they would have had open ice. This would have kept possession of the puck at least and prevented a turnover where they would have to get the puck again. Simply hold on to the puck, pass it to the next line and get your change.