GAME THREE BREAKDOWN (the grave is at 3 feet!)

By Joe Bechtel
for 2ManAdvantage.com

Published: April 16, 2007

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The New Jersey Devils have been shoved half-way into their playoff graves. The sad part is, the ground shouldn’t even have been broken yet. The Devils let Game 3 slip away with perhaps one of their worst playoff performances since Game 6 of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals.

I could go on forever about what went wrong tonight, but I’ll follow suit and put it into our customary playoff breakdown: The Awesome, The Not So Awesome, and The Downright Ridiculous

Ouch, my pride. THE AWESOME: Tampa’s offense. And by ‘offense’ I mean St. Louis and Lecavalier. It really should be under the ridiculous category, as in: it’s ridiculous that the Devils are losing a playoff series because of two – yes, two – players. Without either one of those two, Tampa doesn’t even have a goal to be proud of in the series. Madden and Pandolfo, and moreso Brylin, need to do a better job of shutting these two down! It’s sickening, really.

THE NOT SO AWESOME: Martin Brodeur. I know, its borderline heresy to be belittle King Devil, but c’mon, Marty. Save some Christmas presents for December, will ya?! It’s great that you openly stated that you need to be the difference for our team tonight – and I really expected you to come out and downright steal this game. Instead, Tampa pulled the carpet right out from under you. No offense, pal, but none of the 3 goals were credible tonight. The rest of the series, and more importantly the Devils playoff lives, rest in your big ol’ sweaty pads. From here on out, it’s a series of Game 7’s for you and the boys in front of you.

THE DOWNRIGHT RIDICULOUS: Officiating. Now, if you are going to roll your eyes and think I’m a neanderthal for ripping the refs, then stop reading this post right now because you are obviously not paying attention. Apparently, one of the new rules buried deep within the NHL’s rulebook is that Scalping is perfectly legal during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Three times in three games the Devils should have had 4-minute powerplays due to errant sticks from Tampa Bay. None were called, and the Devils have suffered their 2nd straight one-goal loss. If you don’t think New Jersey would have at least tied the game had even one of those double-minors been called, I would love to see your SAT scores.

JOE’S 2 CENTS: If the Devils are going to kick out of the Stone-Cold-StunnerÂ® slapped upon them from Tampa, they need to start with an absolute man-handling in Game 4. It might as well be a Game 4 with New Jersey trailing the series 3-0. That’s exactly the way they need to play. No questions asked. A true gut check is in store for Wednesday night, and I’m not talking about how much beer and pizza I can handle at once. The Devils are going to need to come out and take communist control of everything in Game 4 if they want to live past Friday. Yes, boys, I’m afraid that means you’ll have to shoot the puck. A lot.

Marty, this is your series to lose. Not that I don’t have confidence right now, but please forgive me if it’s a little shaken.

4 Comments on "GAME THREE BREAKDOWN (the grave is at 3 feet!)"

Chris on Mon, 16th Apr 2007 11:06 pm

The profound thing to do would be to take a shot on Clarkson and banish Gomez to some distant 3rd line or benched….it is not all Gomez’s fault…but Clarkson is a power forward that can create nitemares for a goalie. I say give it a shot. As for Brodeur, he needs to just play and not talk.

Hopefully they get better…otherwise the grave will be 6 feet.

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Joe Bechtel on Tue, 17th Apr 2007 9:24 am

I’ve been rallying for Clarkson since the playoffs began. I understand he’s a rookie and all but he showed amazing composure and some great skill during his stint. He would only do good should he get the call. I don’t know why I get so much backlash whenever I mention he should come up.

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Shari on Tue, 17th Apr 2007 6:02 pm

I’ve also been rooting for Clarkson to come back since He went down, what is there to lose at this point. I hate to say this but maybe it’s time to dress Cam,because the Dev’s were getting Man handeled from the drop of the puck and by the time they started to strike back Tampa was already in their heads. Out of the 8 man pile up why was Gio the only penalty? and what’s up with the Dev’s eating all of those sticks and NOTHING is called. The Media keeps saying that the Dev’s aren’t getting the bounces and breaks and Tampa is. Well You’re not kidding. Ps. Who is the New Guy that has been wearing the number 30?

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beej on Wed, 18th Apr 2007 11:59 am

I think Clarkson should be called up and be put on the checking line. Like, they’re getting 20something minutes a game, but they seem to have trouble scoring and hitting. Clarkson can hit and score, so why not?

As for the refs, they need to get their eyes checked.

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GAME THREE BREAKDOWN (the grave is at 3 feet!)

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