FanPost

The Devils and Accountability - A Rant

Recently, I've been going to bed each night not by praying for my friends and family, but by praying that Adam Oates would be fired and held accountable for the complete lack of success and utter failures of the unit he's responsible for. Time's running out, and friends/family will have to wait if we still want to have any hope of a successful season.

But this isn't an article about Adam Oates. He doesn't deserve the time involved in that. Instead, this FanPost is about the recent history and overall accountability of the Devils players and team in general. I believe that evidence has shown this team responds best to a coach who demands consistent effort. A coach who isn't afraid to make the hard and unpopular decisions that are sometimes necessary in the name of equal accountability.

I believe that both John MacLean and Pete DeBoer have failed to adhere to the concept of equal accountability, and I'm disturbed to think that unlike DeBoer, even a young MacLean may have had the foresight to actually attempt it, but soon backed off in the face of widespread pressure and overreaction following his benching of Kovalchuk for being late to a team meeting. It's not time to blame or give up on Pete DeBoer, but Jacques Lemaire has beautifully demonstrated multiple times that he knows how to get the most out of this team.

Below I will outline my thought process for why I feel DeBoer should learn from his predecessor and put his foot down, or else risk dooming our Devils to yet another pitiful season.

In the Devils organization, "A" is for accountability. Not only because it happens to be the first letter of the word, but also since "A" is the first letter in Albany. The Albany Devils is the place where players are sent after showing they aren't ready or compatible with the big league. In any NHL team, if you continually make mistakes or fail to perform as expected, it's likely you’ll be demoted to the minors, and this is especially the case if you’re a younger, budding player. But sending someone to the minors is not the only way to hold someone accountable, and if you’re searching for proof then look no further than the wild success which occurred shortly after Lemaire took over last season.

So, what am I getting at? In the essence of overcoming our major woes thus far, I think it’s time for Pete DeBoer to start making smarter decisions, and to start holding players, regardless of their reputation, stature, or age, 100% accountable for their actions on the ice. Below are the changes I would make to accomplish this.

#1) Forwards

Question: Our forwards have failed just as much as our D to play a full 60 minutes. How can we get more energy out of them?

Accountability: How about we reduce the double shifting of our best players?

Our top players are off to terrible starts, and the whole team looks slow in the 3rd period as it is, so why do we think double shifting our struggling stars will them score? Have they scored a single time this season while doubling on the fourth line? Kovy is Russian and insanely skilled, just like Pavel Datsyuk, but despite this you have to call him the Anti-Datsyuk because of the amount of turnovers he commits rather than forces. Parise is in his first year following a major knee injury and plays an incredibly fast-paced, up-tempo style of game. Yet in addition to playing him on the PP and the top line at even strength, we also throw him on the PK. All while knowing that he’s averaging more minutes this year than he’s used to, has been struggling in the third, and is off to a bad scoring pace. So why do we keep giving them more time? Who knows, but it’s at least partly because we have still have Boulton and Janssen on the roster.

Accountability: How about we stop rolling lines that are obviously incompatible in terms of their offensive chemistry?

The number one reason you’ll hear for why we continue to accept watching Kovy and Parise waste away their talents on the same line is because we think "man, that Sykora Elias Zubrus line is really better than expected." That's great, but what have you done for us lately, and is this line really as good as we all think it is? Is keeping this line together a justifiable reason for forcing the failing first line to stay intact? I think the answer is that this line is not as good as we give it credit for. We want to win a cup, right? Well then it's pretty sad, and overall is indicative of our chances, that we refuse to separate a line that is scoring at a pace near that, barely better than, or worse than that of the third line of other teams. Have they been good, yes, but are they playing well enough to be considered untouchable? Not even close. Maybe you still feel that Parise, Henrique, Kovy can work together and that Kovy can be successful at RW. That's fine by me, keep holding your breath waiting for that to happen. I'll go ahead and call the paramedics.

Accountability: How about we stop rewarding $100 million superstars with oodles of powerplay time when he isn’t scoring powerplay goals and the entire unit is dreadful as a whole?

Is Kovy the only problem on the PP? No, certainly not, but maybe when a guy is having a hard time scoring PP goals and is under performing in all facets of the game, we should stop guaranteeing him a full 2 minutes of PP time. Kovy can't buy a goal, and watching him turnover the puck relentlessly makes me so ill that I wonder if Devils TV broadcasts should come with a surgeon general's warning. I was livid when I heard other fans boo him at the Rock last Saturday, but what kind of message does it send to the player, his teammates, and the fans that you're not going to never hold someone accountable because of who they are or how much they make? Well, I'm a fan, and personally the message being sent to me is that the decision maker is an idiot who's afraid to make tough decisions.

#2) Fourth Line:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this year we inexplicably have two fighters on the active roster, both of whom seem to have been given the impression from management that they should really try to avoid fighting. Boulton has seemed OK (at best) in the short time we’ve seen him play uninjured, but Janssen must be one of the worst NHL fighters at playing actual hockey in the game. Even more disturbing is that he’s actually an even worse skater.

Accountability: Stupidity: Consider this: We’re paying and wasting active roster spots for two players who are only here to fight and "deter" opponents, and then we’re asking them to shy away from fighting as much as possible, even though they are abysmal at everything else.

All of this is going on while the rest of the team plays slow, uncoordinated, sloppy, lazy, out of shape, and whatever other type of adjectives you can think of to describe a club that has loads of talent yet still can’t consistently compete at the NHL level for a 60 full minutes. Yeah, it’s time to cut down on double shifting our stars, and time to stop using Parise on the PK. So then what; play Janssen and Boulton for more minutes? No.

Having a guy on the active roster who can stick up for their teammates with their fists is fine, and I love the fighting aspect of hockey. But the first choice is always to have it be a guy who can also play the sport. Unfortunately we don’t have that luxury, except to a certain degree in David Clarkson. But having a fighter is not necessary, and this fact has never been truer than in today’s "Shannaban" NHL.

It’s time to recall people from Albany who can give this team actual depth and won’t require the constant double shifting and overuse of our best players. It’s time to demote Janssen, Boulton, or both.

Want to demote just one? Great, because there’s no reason why Zharkov shouldn’t have been on this team for every game so far this year. At the very minimum he can play effective, responsible hockey on the fourth line and can even relieve PK duties from Parise. And although this would be a sign of Armageddon, maybe they'll consider giving Zharkov and his potential talents the respect they deserve, and will at least allow for him to experiment playing with actual hockey players throughout a few straight NHL games.

Want to demote both?!? Fantastic, then let’s continue our trend of employing actual hockey players for this hockey team by supplementing Zharkov and rounding out the first line with ANYONE else. How about a Zharkov Mills Palmieri fourth line? Sounds pretty bad, but still lightyears ahead in giving us a chance to put pressure on opponents and actually provide offense.

Still want a semi-fighter who is OK at hockey and isn’t slow as molasses? Then bring up Mills, Pelley, or keep Sestito. Let Janssen and Boulton skate and condition in Albany. If we have a game against the Rangers, Flyers, Boston, whatever, then bring one of them up if you want a heavyweight "deterrent". Being in Albany won’t diminish their "NHL speed" or ability to keep up with the game. They can’t do that anyway. They’re only going to be here, and should only ever be here, if they need to step out on the ice for 30 seconds and hold an opponent accountable for taking liberties or runs at our other players.

#3) Defense

The team, including the D, is consistency being outplayed throughout a full 60 minutes.

Accountability: From now on, this team should roll with 7 defensemen on the active roster. I don't care who composes the seven, but the start of this process includes having a different, rotating member of defense given the night off with each game. Am I obsessed with Fraser or Urbom? Nope, but at this point we would benefit by motivating through competition. Enough with always benching the same person.

Why? Because the amount of errors and laziness every D has shown so far is beyond ugly. How about some accountability?

  • Is anyone here going to honestly argue that they’ve been overjoyed with the play of any single one of our D so far? None of them have played exceptionally to start the season, and it’s time we add another one to the mix to see if we can find an outlier. Will we find a "Henrique" in our system on D? Probably not, but at this point having seven D in the mix is necessary.
  • Missing one out of every 7 games is not going to hurt their endurance any further. This will also allow us an opportunity to see Urbom, Fraser, or someone else more regularly.
  • The D will have to "look over their shoulders". Having 7 who are actively playing, (not being scratched every night) creates competition, which should inspire more motivation than there is now.

Accountability: Under this policy, players will very soon be held more accountable for their mistakes than they had been previously this season. Sitting out once every 7 nights will start as the norm, but shortly after may appear to be unnecessary for everyone. If you prove that you can contribute without inconsistently lazy play and major gaffes on a nightly basis, then you should be rewarded. Conversely, you should be punished. If it ends up being that 3 guys are doing great each night and 4 are only so-so then that's OK, and those 4 will rotate out once every 4 games.

Conclusion

So then what do you recommend, send the whole team to the minors? No, I don't want Kovy, Larsson, or any other of our players in Albany. But I want other repercussions which still attempt to get the message across and the situation turned around. Less playing time for mistakes, more time for being consistently stable. PP time should be rewarded based on current effort, results, and accountability, not on past successes or accomplishments. In the event of all other forms of accountability failing to work, motivate through competition.

Well, that's the rant, and I'm glad that I got it off my shoulders. Only time will tell what fate is in store for us this season, and as always I hope that it is something great. But overall I think DeBoer could really benefit his job status and this team by implementing a much stricter policy of accountability. Thanks for reading, and please let me know your thoughts and opinions below.

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