6th for the 666 and 8th place predictions

The Devils are in a dead lock of sixth place for quite some time now. Although I haven't posted in the past two weeks or so a lot has happened in the NHL. The Devils are 5-3-0 since my last post. But we all know what Devils' fans truly care about don't we: Sidney Crosby is back! Yes, because apparently Glenn Resch doesn't know which team he does commentary for. We get to hear the name Crosby at least once a broadcast minimally whether they are playing against the Pens or not. It seems to coincide with that overused outdated "Rangers Suck" chant we have done for so many years. Real fans are tiring of hearing it, just as we are tired of hearing about Crosby and how "wonderful it is to have him back" and what an "all-star player he is".

Aside from that it's been a pretty plateaued hockey week for the Devils. We pretty much hit the scoring wall not getting more than two GPG wince March 7th.

On a broader NHL note: PF&HS is going to take a quick look at bubble teams and who I think will get in and who will need to wax up the ole 9-iron.

Eastern Conference

Washington Capitals: Honestly the East I feel is a no-brainer. These guys are in, and will stay in. In fact, I think they will overcome Ottawa for 7th place in the East. Ovechkin finally is showing why he is 8 the Great after (honestly by his standards) a pretty average season with 5 goals in the past week or so including two against the Red Wings in just one game.

The only downside is Mike Green has been out since January and is doubtful for the playoffs. Final Verdict: Caps and their #8 will stay in 8th

Buffalo Sabres: Talk about coming out the woodwork. These guys were beyond the cellar. They were in the Earth's crust of the standings just a couple of months ago. After a disappointing loss against NJ where Kovalchuk got a hat trick on Valentine's Day it seemed to be the final nail in the coffin. But they have battled back into contention and although I don't think they will squeeze in, I think they will come in 9th and only be eliminated on the final day of the regular season. Final Verdict: The Sabres will be sheathed!

Winnipeg Jets: Even if these guys did get in they would drop the first two games to their first round opponents for sure. Most likely win game three, only to be beaten barely in game 4. Then dominated in game 5 on the road. Case in point, HORRID road record. 11-20-4 away from Manitoba. So even if somehow the Caps AND the Sabres fall apart, these guys would be an easy sweep or 5-game series win for the winner of the Atlantic Division. But, they won't make it in. They are nothing more than the Atlanta Thrashers with a price tag after all. Final Verdict: Jets will make an emergency landing at Pebble Beach, CA

Carolina Hurricanes: one word: no. Final Verdict: The Hurricanes will turn at the last moment and miss land completely without scaring anyone into evacuating



Next conference!..

Western Conference

Colorado Avalanche: Honestly a name that sends shivers down my spine. Between losing Lemieux to those clowns in 96, losing in 2001 in the finals to them, and even now Landeskog being the front-runner for the Calder over Henrique: I loathe this team. BUT that being said, they have a solid tam who fought so hard to make it into 7th place where I feel they will either stay or go down to 8th and stay. But the Avs WILL make the playoffs this season.

Final Verdict: An Avalanche will whiteout the Arizona Whiteout

Los Angeles Kings: Among the glitz and glammer of Hollywood lies a hockey team on the rise. Never have they won a Stanley Cup and haven't been to the Finals since 1993 when they lost to the Canadiens. But truthfully, I do think these guys are going to sqeeze in on the final day of the season. And why do I think that? The answer is simple:.....

Phoenix Coyotes: ...... Shane Doan is about to be suspended. Without Shane Doan, this team has no chance. And in this post-lockout era every game this time of year counts bigger than ever. Even with the stellar play of old-timer Ray Whitney, this team will NOT make the playoffs UNLESS Doan remains in the lineup. So basically the fate of the Coyotes possible final season in Arizona lies in the hands of Brendan Shanahan. Ohhhh joy! Final Verdict: The Monarchy of the Kings will overthrow an win after an amazing Coyote "dog"fight

San Jose Sharks: Possibly more than anyone this team needs a Cup. They have only been around since the early 90's but since being the joke of the NHL for most of the 90's they have become an elite team with some of the most passionate fans in American hockey. They are also my second favorite team and always have been. But much like the Jets, the fans can only do so much but yell. They don't have the paychecks. The players do. But the Sharks are in trouble this year if they don't start stringing some wins together. Do I think hey will make it in? Let me put it to you this way: if the Sharks were inching closer to a playoff spot, the Coyotes and Kings will have a scuba tank and rifle on hand to say "Smile you son of a -----!" and deny that chance. Thumbs up for a forced Jaws reference! Final Verdict: uhhh, I already made a Jaws reference so what the hell more do you want from me!?

Calgary Flames: People forget this but Calgary is actually still in this thing. The West is so much tighter than the East. The East it seems teams are fighting for mostly playoff POSITION as opposed to playoff spots. The West is a dead sprint for 8th place. And honestly whoever comes in 8th has a small advantage because the Blues are not and never were a playoff team. The Flames are only 2 points out but the tiebreakers are what is going to kill them in the long run. Final Verdict: Extinguished!

There you have it. Pitchforks and Hockey Sticks' predictions of the final 18 days of NHL hockey before it's playoff time!

Marty's Better

Or at least he was last night. The Devils' 4-1 victory over the Rangers certainly sent a strong message to the best team this year in the East. The Devils played a damn near perfect game.

One key component that separated the Devils of last night to the Devils of the past 6 games or so was the offensive play of the blue-liners. In the last game against the Islanders the puck was blocked constantly and never made it through. Kovalchuk scored in the first minute of the game which stunned the Rags and their fans. Stepan scored in the second to tie it up. After the Stepan goal the Rags kept firing for a few minutes but Brodeur never faltered. A power play for the Devils finished out the tied 2nd period. Once the teams hit the ice for the 3rd it was all Devils. Sykora took a blind pass from Clarkson and wristed it against (what I thought was his leg) his "butt" (as Sykes put it in the postgame show) which found its way past Henrik for a 2-1 lead. Then just a couple moments later Dan Girardi passed the puck right to Kovy as his team was changing lines. This allowed the Devils to get an odd-man rush with Jacob Josefson and Ryan Carter. Carter shot it past Lundqvist for a 3-1 lead which by Devil/Ranger game standards is a huge lead. Elias added an empty netter that officially thinned out the blue from the stands. The buzzer sounded as the chant "Marty's better!" filled the Prudential Center.

Two things stood out for me in this one. 1. Bryce Salvador, welcome to the NHL. Sal was never on my favorite player list, but he's stepped it up this year especially with the absence of Tallinder. and 2. The sloppy play of the Ranger defense. This is supposed to be the best team in the NHL this year playing against their biggest rival. Girardi made two mistakes in the course of seven seconds that costed his team a goal. He passed it right to Kovy. Then, didn't take the pass on the Josefson/Carter 2 on 1. Torts benched him for the rest of the game which I assume is because of this.

NHL.com comments have been fired up with Devil fans and MOST Ranger fans staying humble. A few "you have no fan-base" sore loser comments popped in here and there. For a team with "no fan-base" the rock was rocking pretty loud last night it seemed. Little Ranger side note: no more Sean Avery! It's official! He is G-O-N-E GONE! The Rangers have officially cut ties with him today. He was a healthy scratch for the Connecticut Whale since January 27th. There's only one thing I have to say to you Sean: До свидания, удачи в России (Goodbye, good luck in Russia). Enjoy all the vodka you can drink while punching cops and talking about Roshkenkovadoyalov's sloppy seconds! (That is best, fake Russian name you'll ever see!)

Waste Of 2 Points

That's the only way to describe that game this afternoon against the Icelanders. The Devils should have won this game 5-1. But due to some great shot blocking a no-name goalie received a free pass for his first win of his career against the best goalie ever. Seems once again the only red jersey who showed up today was in fact Brodeur. Only letting up a single goal on a screened shot from the slot by Kyle Okposo.

Speaking of "jerseys" what the hell is up with those horrible jerseys they are wearing on Long Island. I posed a question to everyone on Twitter. What is worse? These jerseys or the ones from the 90s with the fisherman on it? Reminds me of the Stars jerseys, but even uglier. If you want a 3rd jersey, put a new logo or just change the colors. This isn't basketball. A team name and jersey number on the front are ugly and should be banned! Case closed!

Where was I? Oh yea, there was a hockey game today. Devils should have ran away with this one but great defense kept the Devs off the scoreboard. Towards the end the Devils continued that dump and chase play that costed them the game in Tampa. It worked a little more, but not by much. Nilsson gets his first career win and shutout without doing much of anything. He made a couple decent saves but never was fully challeneged. Most shots went right into his chest protector, went wide, or right into his glove. Zubrus had possibly the biggest chance of the game when he took the puck from behind the net and took a nice shot that Nilsson deflected into the mesh.

Defensively the Devils played ok. Volchenkov made a few mistakes including a close call for an almost penalty shot when he caught the puck with his hand in the crease. Marek Zidlicky made a tremendous defensive play to stop a breakaway. He slid a knocked the puck away.

But probably the biggest dissapointment of the day is Ilya Kovalchuk who hasn't produced a single goal since that hat trick he had up in Buffalo. He led the team in shots in the first period but the Islanders kept on him all night without letting him break free. And when Kovy gets frustrated, he makes dumb puck movements. This costed NJ a few turnovers.

The last thing Devils' fans want to hear now is next game is the Rangers. But it's true. The Rangers are next up for the Devils on Tuesday. Hopefully Marty will stay strong, Poni and Greene will be back, and the Henrique line will produce more offense.

Thoroughbred Poni

Alexei Ponikarovsky was traded to the Devils on January 20th. I found out about the trade via Twitter on line for Splash Mountain in Disney World. You ever think to yourself "hm, that guy would be a good Devil"? Well that's what I felt about Alex Ponikarovsky for the past seven years or so. So needless to say I was excited. But I noticed people saying "eh, dumb, pointless move" on the internet. He shut them up quickly scoring in his first game as a Devil against the Flyers. Since coming the NJ he has been a force on the third line adding the depth the Devils may just need to make a cup push this year. Our third line has been just as productive as our top two lines.

The Devils traded away for Alex a 4th round pick and Joe Sova. Sova will be a restricted free agent this year for the Hurricanes but is still yet to make him NHL debut. In 25 games with Albany he mustered three goals and five assists. Why am I telling you all about Joe Sova? Well, no one knows about him. Most likely, they never will either. He's a healthy scratch in Charlotte most nights for the Checkers, and it seems will be a career AHLer.

Alex underwent an MRI today but results seem optimistic. He will miss the game tomorrow against the Icelanders however but hopefully will be back soon.

So once again, Lou makes a trade that seems minor but changed our team for the better in the long run, and hopefully this is a Poni that stays ahead of the race for a long time! No jockey is required!

You lose some, you win one... a big one!

The four game losing streak got us in Devs Nation scratching our heads. Zach Parise said something along the lines of: "We're not playing badly". Truthfully, he was right. The Vancouver game was a great hockey game with a fight all the way to the final horn.

The Tampa game was decent, but St. Louis kept being captain (or alt. captain) buzz kill and scoring right when we started to get some life. After you lose a game 8-1 and have to play the following day shoving your backup in against the likes of Kovalchuk and Parise and win, you either did something right or the opponent did something wrong. In this case it was a little of both. NJ never looked in control of that game even when they did have a lead. Ponikarovsky has been ridiculous for us on that 3rd line and that Tampa game was probably his best one yet. When he got traded to NJ for basically nothing it was the best easy pickup in a very long time. Carolina fans are probably shaking their heads at that trade. My biggest problem with that game was: why did Zidlicky dump it in at the end? That entire final few minutes when they were trying to tie it up, all they did was dump and chase. Guess DeBoer thought if we do it enough times the Lightning will not expect it. DERP! It wasn't working but they kept it up literally until the final horn. Every time it was dumped in a Bolt was there to intercept and bring it right back past the blue line. Hey, Pete, you ever think of maybe I don't know, a BREAKOUT might split the defense and force turnovers in the offensive zone? You know that basic form of offense your players learned when they were playing peewees?

Then we come to the WONDERFUL warm welcome of New York City. Where was I that night? New York City. At the game? No. I almost went too, but decided to save myself the money and potential embarrassment. Didn't even watch the game either (sue me, I have a life). But Twitter and my fellow Devil Tweeps kept me updated by text what was going on, and apparently not too much in terms of happy Devil moments. Getting shut out by the Rangers if you're a Devils fan is like losing a video game with your brother. You lost, and you know you're going to hear about it all day. Let's face it, we all have that one Dirt Rag fan in our friendly inner circle. And they WILL rub it in, but cry when they lose on a clear... clear... CLEAR AS GLASS... goalie interference call.

When you play a team four times and lose all four games (three of which were decisive), something is wrong with your planning. But when it comes to Boston, I feel it comes down to a guy by the name of Timmy Thomas. However, the other night in Beantown, the Devils played great. Yet another hat trick against however costed them the game. But what a game it was. If I wasn't a Devils fan I would've been so excited how that game turned out because it really was a fun game to watch. But since I am a Devils fan I am going to try to think of ways to forget that game.

Last night the Devils were in our nation's capital. I was at the Stone Pony for a concert, but luckily the game was on the TV and could see the game as well as the concert. A huge improvement from the previous four games. When I saw Moose make that save on the two-on-one I knew then NJ had this one. And after all those hat tricks against us, we finally got one of our own once more. Parise dished out some capital punishment last night (see what I did there?). One last thing. I can't go without mentioning that Zubey flip. Put him in the breakaway competition and he'll win. All in all a great game for New Jersey and their fans including myself. Hopefully it continues on Sunday as we take on the New York Icelanders.