2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs 1st Round, Game 3 Preview: New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia Flyers
by John Fischer on Apr 18, 2010 12:00 AM EDT
in Devils Game Previews
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The Time: 6 PM EDT/3 PM PDT
The Broadcast: TV: MSG+(HD) & TSN(HD); Radio: 1130 AM Bloomberg
The Official Viewing Party: If you're over 21 and in the area, go the Squan Tavern in Manasquan, NJ and watch the game with your fellow fans.
The Positives to Take Forward: I came up a few results from the 5-3 win by the New Jersey Devils over the Philadelphia Flyers that I feel the Devils should build on going forward.
The Importance of this Game: It's 1-1 in the series and tonight's game will be important. The Devils have not won in Philadelphia all season long; winning Game 3 would not only give them the series lead but really strike a blow in the hearts and minds of the Flyers faithful. It'll put a ton of pressure on Philadelphia for the following Game 4. As for the Flyers, they'll want to establish their home ice. After all, it's now a best-of-5 with 3 of the games (including tonight) taking place at the Wachovia Center. Personally, should the Devils want to win this first round, they'll need a win in Philly. Why not tonight?
A few quick thoughts about the game after the jump. Please check out Broad Street Hockey for Flyers coverage should you want it.
What to be Concerned About: Discipline. The Devils took 9 penalties total and handed the Flyers 7 power plays where they scored twice on. If the Devils can't figure out how loose or tight the refs are going to call tonight's game, then they could be in trouble if their emotions run wild again. The PK got a ton of work in Game 2 and can really use the respite in Games 3 and 4. Yes, the Flyers like to play on the proverbial edge, but cooler heads tend to prevail in these situations. Let them run their mouths, but please try to respond with some goals instead of pointless slashes at their legs or early/late hits away from the play. The Devils cannot commit so many minors in another game and expect to come out winners.
Who Not to be Concerned About: Martin Brodeur. He stopped breakaways in Game 2. He robbed Ian Laperriere of a one-timer in the third period. He stood tall in his crease and was only beaten on his flank once and on deflections twice. Don't let the 5 goals in 2 games throw you off; Brodeur is more than fine for the playoffs.
Who to be Concerned About: Ian Laperriere. If you subscribe to theory that role players have to rise up to give their team a big lift, then Laperriere looks to be that man for Philly early in this series. The checking winger set up the game winner in Game 1 and nearly had the go-ahead goal in the third period in Game 2. He's playing well and the Devils matching up with him need to guard him closely.
What to Roll Your Eyes At: A large crowd of Flyers fans yelling "BOOOOOOOOOOSH" for everytime he makes a save, no matter how routine or simple the stop is. That's just how low the expectations are for Brian Boucher; he's being cheered for covering up a loose puck with nobody but his defense surrounding him. The Devils should keep attacking him like they did in Game 2 and they should be fine.
Who to be Provisionally Concerned About: Danny Briere. In the Game 2 Preview, I noted how quiet Jeff Carter was in Game 1. Well, in Game 2, he had 5 shots on net - he was considerably more noticeable in his 20:51 of ice time. Briere finished the night with a mere solitary shot on net in spite playing 21:25 (a big chunk on the power play, no less). Again, his talent and season production justifies caution by the Devils; thus, I am a little concerned he'll follow Carter's path and have a more constructive Game 3 for Philadelphia.
Who Not to be Concerned About: Paul Martin. I'm surprised his nickname isn't Teflon because he's just so smooth on the ice. In his own zone, through the neutral zone, and up top at the point. I am so happy that he got healthy in March and has carried over his excellent play into the post-season. No Devils fan should be concerned about whether he'll have a good game today because good games are just standard for Martin.
What to Keep an Eye On with Some Level of Concern: The Devils' power play. In Game 2, it was a big positive (that I stupidly forgot to bring up in the positives post). The New Jersey Devils went 1-for-3, put 7 shots on net, and scored a goal in Game 2. It's way too soon to say their struggles on the man advantage are over with, but I'd keep an eye on how the Devils perform. If they can have a similar or improved performance tonight, I feel it'll go a long way to winning Game 3.
A Guess at the Lines: I really, really, really liked how Jacques Lemaire rolled the lines in Game 2. I hope he keeps them together for Game 3. Maybe Rod Pelley switches back in for Matthew Corrente on the fourth line, but that's the only change I really can see at this juncture.
Zach Parise - Patrik Elias - Dainius Zubrus
Ilya Kovalchuk - Travis Zajac - Jamie Langenbrunner
Brian Rolston - Rob Niedermayer - David Clarkson
Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond - Dean McAmmond - Rod Pelley/Matthew CorrentePaul Martin - Andy Greene
Colin White - Mike Mottau
Martin Skoula - Bryce SalvadorMartin Brodeur
Yann Danis
Remember: the NHL playoffs, like any other playoffs, subscribe to only one main faith: Who Wins Moves On. We cannot afford to be picky in how they win. Let's hope the Devils can make it two straight playoff wins in Philadelphia tonight. Steve will have a GameThread up later; so please leave your thoughts, concerns, questions, complaints, news updates (with links), and other feelings in the comments. Go Devils!
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I still don’t understand Boosh chants. I guess it is Brian Boucher so maybe they are actually impressed when he makes a save.
Im actually not to worried about the Devils taking penalties. They’ve been disciplined all year I’m sure last game isn’t gonna start a new trend.
Its something the Flyers fans do every season. They basically (save for a few years) have a new goalie, he’s usually a journeyman so they get really excited when he actually makes a save. Before “Booosh” they chanted something for Biron. Ill never forget being at the 2004 playoffs when they were chanting “Esche Esche Esche” after every save Robert Esche made – my retort was simply “so thats your goalie this year” and it shut them up. So it goes beyond Bocuher, they really haven’t had a solid goalie since Hextall (although Id argue Pelle Lindbergh and that goes back to the 1980s) so they get excited whenever their goalie makes a stop.
If the Devils changed goalies like some people changed their underwear, we’d probably get pretty excited when he was capable of keeping us in a playoff game, too.
Also, consider the backup goalie (like a backup QB in football) is always a popular guy. Think about all the love Clemmensen got last year when Marty went down, and he’s not really anything special.
I feel good about the game, not concerned with penalties because a couple of them were questionable and two were by Kovy which never happnes. I do think we have to get a LOT of shots on Boucher to rattle him; shooting a lot is key; and I hope philly plays physical because when a team plays us physical we seem to wake up out of our offensive lull and put on the pressure. again, our D is always solid, marty will be solid; this series will be won or lost not by the Flyers, but by our offense. if we can muster enough offense we win.
Staying as positive as I can
But why am I, all of a sudden, starting to get a bad vibe about this?
I hope I am wrong when the Devils win the next three games,.
The 2010 New York Mets: Maybe it's the Phillies' turn to have 95% of its roster on the DL
The 2009 New England Patriots: At least we got our division title back
The 2009-10 New Jersey Devils: 15 games to go!
I wouldn’t be too worried about it.
Realistically, all they need is to win one of the two. It’d be nice to get the first one (and obviously the second too, but one game at a time), but if they don’t, it’s not the end of the world.
The media will trot out every stat they have about how the team that wins the third game in a tied series in an earlier game on the third Sunday of a month when the moon is in the constellation Virgo wins the series 476% of the time, but none of that will have any bearing on the outcome.
I’m optimistic because the Devils showed they were capable of absolutely dominating the Flyers when they wanted to. How much of that was line matching remains to be seen. I’d like to think that Lemaire’s constantly shifting the lines will pay some dividends now that he’ll be able to shift guys around to avoid certain match-ups and the guys won’t be coming in cold with their new line mates, but it may not work out that way.
Just like last year, I truly feel the Devils are the superior team and the series is theirs to lose. It’ll come down to whether they learned their lessons from last year or not.
Line matching
The GWG by Zubrus, even though I still think it should have been Parise’s was the only goal I really notice a line match. Lemaire had the big line out against the Flyers worst defensive pairing which got dominated constantly.
There worst pair, I don’t know their names, will probably play more today because they get last change but the way the devils play they will still probably change constantly to get their number one line against the Flyer’s worst d pair.
Lastly, that hit Parise did on Pronger in the Flyers end on the right side of Boucher was huge, was loving that. Hopefully it happens again today! Just thought I would throw that out there.
Joshd12 - Brock University - Sports Management, Recreation and Leisure Studies Student
Sure so long as Pronger gets called the next time for holding on Parise’s stick between his legs…
by Marty 4 Prez on Apr 18, 2010 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Or Richards gets called for shoving Parise’s face in the ice while beating him up
Cheers, Complaints, homerism and bashing of mediocre pop musicians in 140 Characters
"DO NOT get stuck behind Kyle Wellwood in the buffet line. This isn't really etiquette, but it will prevent you from starving to death"- Down Goes Brown on Etiquette for Jason Spezza's wedding
by Kevin Sellathamby on Apr 18, 2010 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions
To any Jersey bloggers attending this game in Philly
Be sure to insult Flyers fans on your blog before the game and then “forget” your camera at home, all of this while covering your eyes and ears and calling the fans “not into it.”
Lets Go Devils.
Boucher should not be a factor, keeping the Flyers off the PP needs to be.
by Randy McKay on Apr 18, 2010 9:02 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Devils road game has picked up lately.
I believe the Devils will win both games in Philly. They have been winning road games of late and also they are not playing a back to back game which always seems to be when they get most of there poor games or losses. It is very important for them to win game 3 though to accomplish this.
Donald Vasquez
Boucher
Boucher is playing pretty good hockey but I would like to see them shoot high on him. He is a butterfly goalie and isn’t the biggest. His glove is not that great either. Just something I saw in game two. Thought I would post it to see if anyone else has noticed it too.
Just like to also say… I hate the damn BOOSH chant and if I was him I would too. Like come on, we do the Marty chant occasionally but not I think he would hate it if we yelled BRO every save.
Joshd12 - Brock University - Sports Management, Recreation and Leisure Studies Student
It reminds me of Habs fans, honestly. It annoys me whenever the Devils go to Montreal because the entire arena goes crazy every time a Canadien performs even the most standard of hockey plays like it was the greatest play in the history of ever.
Really, I think it’s just the sound of the name; it lends itself to chants. The Canucks have their “LUUUU!”, and tons of sports teams have a “MOOOOOSE!” It’s more about the acoustic aesthetics than praise for his abilities, because, afterall, he’s Brian Freaking Boucher and doesn’t have a whole lot of ability.
Brian Freaking Boucher
I know who he is, but really he hasn’t been that bad. I am a Devils fan don’t get me wrong but he has been making that key save to keep his team in it. Game 1 Kovy from the slot, got robbed. Game 2 he kept it a lot closer than it could have been. Elias got robbed which would have given them the lead.
Joshd12 - Brock University - Sports Management, Recreation and Leisure Studies Student
Well, he’s an NHL goalie, so obviously he has some skill. He’s just not a top tier talent. He’s been playing above his level, perhaps due to the adrenaline or the revenge factor or his teammates protecting him well. Whatever it is, he’s already showing signs of resorting to form, or as the statheads would say, regressing to the mean.
He was 9-18 with a .899 save percentage and a 2.76 GAA during the regular season. Those aren’t the be all, end all numbers to judge a player on, of course, and any player can put a good run together and go against form for a while, but they’re actually pretty close to his career numbers (101-121-30-10 .900 S%, 2.72 GAA).
Considering he was playing behind the vaunted Flyers defense, those are pretty bad numbers.
the devils are gonna win i think,in 6.the sabers could be a problem.
by Imperator_Celtic on Apr 18, 2010 10:30 AM EDT reply actions
Cupcake only likes to play when he’s in the Top 6. Otherwise he plays like a lil softie.
by Marty 4 Prez on Apr 18, 2010 1:51 PM EDT up reply actions
In other news
For the first time in my life, I have cable. So I can watch this like normal people on TV instead of on my laptop. Hooray!
Never assume skill at bouncing a ball makes you smarter than the guy who built the court.
When there's a WILL there's a WAY
Lineup Changes
There’s supposedly reports in the Philly papers (the Inquirer, to be specific…. I get my info from TSN’s hockey page, their “Ice Chips” section) that Lukas Krajicek is going to be inserted back into the lineup for Oskars Bartulis. Still means the Flyers’ third pair would be the one to attack, but I suppose we can’t count on Bartulis to help hand us a game tonight.
Which team as performed better and which team has the potential to get better?
I feel the Devils played two very good games, but easily a lot of room to improve. I really don’t know if the Flyers can play better than they did in the spurts they looked good in both of the game. They have scored goals on Devil mistakes (missed-assignments, bad penalties even, “bang, bang” plays if you will). Whereas the Devils actually constructed a goal (the cycling for Zajac’s goal; Zubrus out-muscling a defender (Parent or Bartulis) due to cycling; Elias and Kovie passing to get Greene an open shot; White shot with a Jamie screen; Parise’s god-given talent to rip Boucher a new one.
Now Philly capitalizes on mistakes, that’s their gameplan so far. What if the Devils fail to make a mistake? Whereas what does the Philly defense adjust to on the Devils goals so far? It seems the Devils have found that physicality we thought would be a problem and a big advantage for the Flyers. I think the Flyers adjustments are a lot more than the Devils, which is good.
On the other hand, special teams is the next huge part in this series. We all thought whoever stays out of the box more would win, but the team with more PP’s has lost. Go figure? I feel without those penalties in the last game, the Devils would have been able to take complete control of the game. I’m confident they will take the next 2 (this one very decisively) games and really improve in the areas Lemaire sees fit.
by Matthew Ventolo on Apr 18, 2010 3:22 PM EDT reply actions
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