Is Brodeur out of gas or is his knee injured again????
Every team has their bout of injuries. Problem is when it happens right at the stretch run to the playoffs. With only five games left, the Devils find themselves in a considerable quandry. They play the Flyers tonight with their game in hand and basically now every game is a must win in their quest to hold on to the number two seed in the East.
At the beginning of the month….the Devils had an eleven point lead…granted the Pens had two games in hand but still. The Penguins have reeled off an 11-2-1 mark over their last 14 games to end up with 100 points. The Devils have only 98 entering tonight. To top it off, the Devils have lost five of their last eight games. They also had five starters injured at one time or another during this rough stretch. The key guys….Elias, Gionta, and Madden all out with groin injuries. Yes the Devils have clinched a playoff berth but with only Elias back so far…the Devils showed some mild improvement…till their third period meltdown in Buffalo.
Madden and Gionta appear to be coming back sometime before the playoffs but no Devils official has given a clear timetable yet. Speculation from WFAN and MSG say that it could be another week for the both of them. Prodding the internet for anything positive, even the bloggers from The Sporting News had little positive other than the same news and something possibly even worse…if you can imagine that. Some columnists and even Doc Emrick has gone as far to say that even Martin Brodeur has a tweaked knee that he is playing on. If the games didn’t mean anything…I think you would be seeing a lot more of Clemmensen right now.
The last five games boil down to the Devils getting healthy at this point. At least if they can manage that….does it really matter if they play Ottawa or whoever is the seventh seed?? To me, it doesn’t. Health is essential at this time of year…and the Devils are far from healthy.
