A Fresh Start Could Be All The New Jersey Devils Need
Added by Macaulay Scott Renner on September 10, 2011.
With the 2012 hockey season just around the corner, the New Jersey Devils have one goal in mind. Not to repeat what happened to them last season. And that being said, I can’t see it happening to them again considering that John Maclean will be far, far away from the bench when the Devils open up their season against the Flyers on October 8th. The combination of the horrific start under Maclean and the loss of Zach Parise snowballed into the horrid start of 2011 were they went 9-22-2
Now, flash back to the last two months of the season and recall the torrid pace that the Devils went on almost climbing all the way back into playoff position. That is the team I expect to come out at the beginning of this season led by a healthy Zach Parise and rested Martin Brodeur who will look to regain his position atop the league as the elite goalie he knows he is. Unfortunately, Travis Zajac will be sidelined by injury for at least a month so that will be a person sorely missed at the start of the season.
Ilya Kovalchuk looks to take the reigns of the team along with Patrick Elias and set the pace for the month of October. Kovie is a pure goal scorer with a knack for finding the net from anywhere on the ice in the offensive zone and possesses one of the nastiest shots you will ever see. He is due for another 50 goal season and the first of any Devil. What he needs more than anything is to find that on-ice soul mate to click with and feed him the puck because from there he can do the rest.
Will he find that chemistry this year? We really haven’t seen Parise and him play a whole season so we don’t really know what’s in store for the two. We haven’t seen the two start fresh and healthy. Most importantly though, can the rest of the team fill in successfully behind the core players and succeed alongside them?
Can Tedenby, Jofeson, Mair, Clarkson, Palmieri, Pelley, and Janssen step up their game and take their game to a new level under the new coach? We know the top five can do the job but the ultimate question is how the new kids, the new school of Devils, are going to perform this year. I like to think that they will be able to play like they did under Lemaire and play cohesively like they did during that two month run at the end of the season.
Honestly, I think the most important intangible that they need to find again is the confidence that they had during those few months last season. When I would watch those games last year it looked as if they exuded an aurora that said ‘we can’t be beat’. To me it looked as if they believed that they could win every hockey game that they played, even when they were losing going into the third period by one or two goals. That to me was the most remarkable intangible that I noticed of all the players and the team last year.
Watching them during that time was so exciting and so amazing because their confidence oozed through the television and into the homes and hearts of all the Devils fans who believed that they could do it. That they could overcome that horrible start and bounce back into the playoff race. Realistically, it was just too huge of a hole to climb out of, to massive of a hill to climb. But regardless, I believed, and they believed and every fan believed that they could do it. So that’s where they need to start this season. Believing.
The entire roster needs to channel that mental confidence and find that mental state they occupied during those months. Every one of the young players was phenomenal and played 2 or 3 clicks above their head. And regardless of the last years ending, that memory will spill into this year and help them more than any thing else they could have done. I can’t wait to watch this Devils team start the new season with a fresh slate.
I am going on record now, that if this team gets off to a good start where they win 5 or 6 out of their first 7, I believe that they will find that groove again and will be one of the teams to beat in the East. I believe they can be, as long as they find the cohesiveness they had last year. That’s the thing with the Devils, they never have been that type of team with the lone superstar that carries the team but merely a team that plays together on every level and gets production from all three lines and contributions from every player when they need it. Sure, they have Brodeur and Kovalchuk these days but if you look at the scoring breakdown of the past ten years, you will see a balanced attack. I have always admired that about them. Especially as I cursed out Lamoriello every draft or trade deadline as he would make these lackluster or minor trades that would make me wonder why the hell he did what he did. But of course, every time he proved me wrong as the Devils manufactured the team into a winning combination of hard work, talent and systems.
Also new on the scene is the new Devils coach Pete DeBoer who comes in from Florida with a no-nonsense attitude that resembles a Mike Keenan like persona that instills a fear into his players and gets them to perform the way he expects them to play. Or else they ride the pine. We know that DeBoer is a good coach and has the talent to shape a young team as wee saw him become a two time coach of the year in the OHL.
Unfortunately, in Florida he didn’t have much talent to work with so with him coming to New Jersey and the deep young talent that they continually boast gives DeBoer a fresh palette to paint his picture with. And now becoming the 12th coach in the last eleven years, how DeBoer succeeds is most important from the start of the season.
The Devils need to win, and win now!
