Gotta see more of this and less of Ottawa’s O to have a shot.
Though I will never give up on my team…..I swear the Devils gave up last night against the Sens. When I saw shots on goal were 11-3 Sens midway thru the third, I turned the tv off in disgust…yes Pandolfo scored seconds later but I knew the inevitable result. This series has come down to the first goal and timely goal scoring….something the Devils have seen rarely. Yes, there are many fingers to point the blame on….but one duo has particularly just gone south for the winter.
Where have Madden and Pandolfo been? Yes I know they did finally get on the board last night….but you know what….our Selke candidate Pandolfo is a -7 in the playoffs…yes…that’s right…a -7. I also understand how overrated the +/- stat can be….however, they have both played badly in this series and there is no denying it. Now they did get it together for Game 5 and 6 against Tampa more or less…but really that has been it. It is ironic that our offense has been pretty good, aside from the last couple games in the playoffs. Our defense, particularly our defensive minded forwards have seemingly become fatigued by the rigors of the regular season.
Now it is unfair to blame just Madden and Pandolfo….but the defensive abilities of most of our forwards has really been subpar all season. The Devils have an adequate defense and teams know this. However, the forwards usually step up and too often in this postseason that hasn’t happened. Our best defensive forward really has been Zach Parise. He has had a breakout postseason and even though he hasn’t scored much against Ottawa, Parise has been gritty, edgy, and able to play with Ottawa on both ends of the ice. Parise is more than likely the future offensive face of this team.
That leads to the Gomez decision. This is not an easy one and quite a few fans will disagree with me on this…but its time to let him go. He is not worth the 6-7 mill he will command on the free agent market. That money could be used elsewhere to either bring in a 30 goal scorer or a solid defenseman…maybe both. A reader might think I already have given the team up for dead this postseason. Actually I haven’t….but it is always good to think long term as well as short term. The Devils can indeed climb out of this dark hole…they just have to remember what they did against Philly in 2000…the problem is…can they in time??
