Angry? Yep.
Embarrassed? You betcha.
Scared? Try friggin’ petrified.
Thanks, Devils. Just thanks.
I’d love to give some sort of insight, but I’ve missed the last few games (night classes – a curse and a blessing, apparently). I’m kind of happy I didn’t see anything but the last three minutes of tonight’s game.
Scratch that, I’m kind of mad I subjected myself to the last three minutes, knowing full well what the score was.
Sigh.
This team was supposed to be too good for the annual March swoon. Too many veterans, too many guys who know how to win, all of that. What the hell is happening, then?
The part that annoys/frustrates/scares me the most is the clear parallel between last year’s late-season falter and this year’s. See: Big losing streak, lack of goal scoring, disappearance of defense, big ass-whuppin’ from the Penguins. My poor heart won’t be able to take losing to the Rangers in round one of the playoffs again.
Speaking of the playoffs, you realize they haven’t won a single game since clinching a playoff spot, right? A playoff spot that was clinched on a day off, with another team losing, rather than on the ice with the Devils winning.
This is no way to go into the playoffs. Things have to be turned around, and it rests on two men: Brent Sutter and Jamie Langenbrunner.
Brent Sutter is at least making the appearance of trying. Being pissy about the Rangers loss, being pissy about Patrik Elias not playing tonight, freaking out at the end of the second period tonight (or so I’m told). The man’s showing more pulse than he has in two years with this team. But you do have to wonder if he knows what to do to get this team in playoff mode. Once is an abberation, twice is the beginning of a pattern. In this case, a very frightening pattern.
But what of Captainbrunner? Now’s his chance to really make his salt as a captain, to really show what he’s made of. You hear me, Jamie? TAKE CONTROL. Jamie Langenbrunner is not Scott Stevens, nor should he try to be – however, it’s time for the current captain to truly and finally make this team his, the way the teams of the 90s and early 2000s were truly Scotty’s.
After all, if the captain can’t step it up in a time of crisis, how can we expect anyone else to?
man did we break down in the second period…2 weeks ago i was screaming WE WANT THE CUP and now this mess.
ultimately, this is all in our heads. we had a few injuries and took some loses against desperate teams, which i’m fine with. the problem is losing got in our heads and we can’t break out. our team is twice as good as last years, i still don’t know how we did as well as we did in 07-08. the playoff bust against a better rangers team was expected. this year we have the players to go all the way, but our heads are simply gone. we need to dominate friday’s game, which i bet my life we do, and then take the next game after that. we just need a few wins to get our heads straight and we will cruise again. i’m trying to stay cool through all of this even though i had broken several household items….if we lose friday i go from not hitting the panic button to declaring a nuclear holocaust on our team and the season. so much so that i would expect lou to trade half the team in the offseason. our defense should be embarrassed and we need to break up sal and havlid immediately. when i watch these recent games, i feel as if clarkie is demonstrating the best effort and i am damn proud of him. as far as i’m concerned, he is playing his role the best out of the entire team…oh, and i thought madden and pando played great tonight. johnny o and martin should be embarrassed.
i’m also in a wed night bowling league and one guy on the team just chokes every single week but is a good player. he’s a NY’er and is a huge astros fan. several weeks back he was telling me how jealous he is that the devils are always so good. i broke it down for him that the devils have all the tools but lost it in their heads, and that he needs to calm down and just do his thing…next thing you know he bowls a 4bagger and single handedly won our last game……DEVILS, WAKE THE F U C K UP
Langs was great when Marty went down. This is his second big test as captain. He can’t hit like Stevens, but if he can win every loose puck and establish the forecheck when he’s on the ice, that can make a difference.