NJ/OTT Game 5 Pregame: Elimination Beckons

Tonight’s Game 5 — oh wait, there’s a contractual obligation to include the word ‘pivotal’ in that phrase, let us start again. Tonight’s pivotal Game 5 could be the Devils’ last. In preparation for the big game, here’s our take on what’s been good, what’s been not-so-good and what’s been down-right awful in this round to date.

THE GOOD

1. Scott Gomez. This might be his last game as a Devil. And for all that we’ve been snarking that he’s only playing this way to make up for his catastrophic contract year, the fact remains that he’s been fantastic. Every time he hits the ice he changes the dynamic of the game with his unparalleled skill at skating with the puck; if only he and his linemates could parlay that into generating (and finishing) more scoring chances.

2. Paul Martin. As members of PaulieMartinNation, we are starry-eyed over his emergence as a top defensemen. Sure he has the occassional relapse into putridity, but for the most part, he’s putting up huge minutes of solid play. After losing Stevens, Neidermayer and, to a certain extent, Daneyko, we began to think the most would we could ask for from our d-corps was a minimum of mistakes. But in the last two series, Paulie has shown flashes of brilliance, making big blocks, key clears (we’ll ignore that Delay of Game penalty in OT in Tampa) and winning huge footraces after jumping into the play. The fact that he has been willing to take offensive chances is indicative of his comfort level with his role with the team, and the confidence the coaching staff has in him. If he can build on the improvements his made to his game, the Devils defense will be in good hands even if we lose Rafalski this summer.

3. Andy Greene. We thought the main reason we were going to be optimistic about the future of the Devils, regardless of what happens in this postseason, was the Zajac/Parise tandem. But after taking a gander at the poise, confidence and steadiness of Andy Greene’s game, we’ve got another reason to be looking forward to the future. And we don’t just say that because we think he looks like someone in a French rococo genre painting. (Furthermore, we’ve enjoyed, as our beloved Lou is taking a ton of well-deserved heat for how he’s coaching this series, that everyone has to pull up and at least admit he’s a great GM for finding, again, an undrafted player who makes everyone else wonder, “Why didn’t we pick that guy up?”)

4. The Real Martin Brodeur. In Games 2, 3 and the first period of Game 4, Marty was brilliant. Not only did he remind us to stop taking him for granted, he also reminded us how much fun it is that we get to watch a guy who could go down in history as the greatest goaltender ever night in and night out. He makes the jobs of the skaters in front of him a million times easier… when he’s on his game.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD

1. The Forwards’ Decision-Making. Marty got himself into a bit of hot water by pointing out what should have been obvious to any observer of this series: Ray Emery is not that good. But the Devils forwards are either playing like they think he is or that they want to make him look it. They pass when they should shoot, they try to carry pucks through crowds of Senators, they refuse to go hard to the net with any kind of effectiveness or put up screens in front. They have been astoundingly passive in trying to exploit the one chink in the Senators armor. Things were looking up a bit in Game 4, though, so we’re hopefully upgrading this point to “The Not-So-Good”.

2. Discipline. This team has prided itself on limiting the stupid penalties — so why is Langer taking that tripping call late in Game 3. Why is Gio taking a needless penalty going into overtime in Game 2? Why is Gomez spending so much time in the box? This trend needed to stop several games ago. This team is too veteran to try the Larry Robinson 2000 Special of sitting the next guy to take a penalty; it’s up to the players themselves to realize they need to play smart.

3. The Poppers. We love the motor on the Langenbrunner, Zajac and Parise line. Love it. These guys always, always, always give everything they’ve got on every shift. And that was one of the main reasons the Devils even got to the second round in the first place. But all the motor in the world doesn’t help if you can’t score. We feel like if one of these guys were even half as dynamic just skating as Gomez and Elias are, they’d have 15 goals in this series. But alas, they’re not. So they don’t.

DEAR GOD, MAKE IT STOP!

1. Faceoffs, or rather, Puck Pursuit. We hate it when the talking heads carp on faceoffs being so vital to winning hockey games. The Devils weren’t great on faceoffs when they won their last 2 Cups, but it didn’t matter because they made up for losing the draw by gaining possession through dogged puck pursuit. This year, they’re losing the draw and sitting back. Madden and Zajac aren’t going to magically become money on the face-offs between now and the end of the playoffs, so the boys are just going to have to remember how to move their feet off the draw.

2. Martin Brodeur’s Evil Twin. Who was that guy in the first 4 games against Tampa, then again in Games 1 and 4 in this series, and what did he do to our regular Marty? After years of watching Marty get hung out to dry by his team’s anemic offense, it’s heartbreaking to see a Devils team that is not given a chance to win because of shaky goaltending. And as the flag-bearers for PandoNation, we are especially stung that the much-vaunted checking line is getting brutalized by playoff observers despite the fact that their collective plus/minus is a train wreck in large part because Marty is giving up goals on shots that shouldn’t go in. But on that note…

3. The Checking Line. Yikes. These guys have been awful.

4. The Coaching. Now, we’re not really sure if we would do anything differently here — the Devils have never responded well to line shuffling, and we like that Lou clearly believes in sticking with what got the team to the playoffs. But, uh, he’s now sticking with what brought the team to the brink of elimination. So we’ll be the typical idiot fans here and say we’re fed up with how the Devils coaching staff is handling things, but we won’t offer any brilliant solutions. But the long and the short of it is that the Devils are underachieving and are maddeningly obtuse with their offensive gameplan, and at some point we have to lay that one on the coaches.