IIRC, Zubrus and Marty were pretty much the only guys who showed up for that 2010 series (it feels like that was forever ago already).
IIRC, Zubrus and Marty were pretty much the only guys who showed up for that 2010 series (it feels like that was forever ago already).
IIRC, Zubrus and Marty were pretty much the only guys who showed up for that 2010 series (it feels like that was forever ago already).
I think this was the series that Jacques tried Colin White as the screen on the power play. Not that I blame him for shaking things up and trying something new, wasn't one of his finer decisions though.
See... I feel like that was one of the series where Zubrus kinda faded to the background a bit. Marty and Kovalchuk are the two I think of when I think of that series.
My god...I had forgotten about that. Colin White was Lemaire's answer to Pronger being the screen on Philly's powerplay.
We should start a pool on which player ends up on Bleed's **** list this season.
Marty had one of the worst save percentages of any playoff series in his career that 2010 Flyers series, the 99 Penguins series was the only one worse. But every goaltender has went through a 5 game stretch of bad statistical play, where there actual play wasn't as bad as the numbers looked. Puck just might not have been hitting them and it's just a 5 game sample size, which isn't large enough.
It should be noted though that out of the 15 goals that Marty allowed in that series, 8 of them were PP goals against. Over half of the goals he allowed during that series were on the PK, which to me is more of an indictment on penalty killing than the goaltender's play. While I don't remember him being really strong that series, he was let down by some very poor penalty killing. That's close to 2 PP goals against per game. And I'm sure we were playing plenty of the twinkie and donut eating remains of Colin White on that PK, and I bet even the world renowned and legendary Mark Fraser saw some PK time in that series. I bet Mike Mottau did too. I forget if he even played a lot of PK back then? I'm sure he did after Oduya was sent off. Martin Skoula's ashes were probably used on that PK too. I think Pandolfo's frozen corpse was locked in a freezer for the entirety of that playoff series, so I can't blame him.
If I had it my way, I would have colon cleansed White and Pandolfo off to Antarctica after that 09 Carolina series.
I need to stop before this turns into a White bashfest. At least it's kept me saying positive things about Zubrus though!
Hah, I was already looking for the ES/PK splits as soon as you brought up Brodeur's sv%. Brodeur was .915 at EVS that series and .800 on the PK.
This save from that series is one of my faves of all time, shame it couldn't have been put towards a better outcome.
There was also the Colon's amazing work in that 09 Carolina series, including his very memorable sequence of events late in game 7.
See... I feel like that was one of the series where Zubrus kinda faded to the background a bit. Marty and Kovalchuk are the two I think of when I think of that series.
And unfortunately because his career started all the way back in 1996, it probably led to him becoming cooked by 35. He was a very high mileage 1978 model, that's for sure. Same thing happened to Olli Jokinen the last couple years, though I believe he was drafted and came in the year after Zubrus in 1997?
Brendan Morrow was a little more of a lower mileage guy from that year (or 1979 actually), he didn't even make it to 1000 NHL career games and he was on par with Zubrus last season.
Kovalchuk was great during the 2012 playoffs (and one of the better players along with Zubrus in the 2010 abomination of a series against the Flyers), he only played 2 playoff years with us though.
Zubrus only had 1 point in that series, though his play particularly stands out to me as something positive that I remember from that year.
Kovy was good, Zach and Patty were okay, Rolston wasn't bad either that series. Langenbrunner had already turned into a gutless puke by that point, didn't he completely stop for like a whole shift just standing on the ice at one point? Colin White probably should have retired after that series, but hey! He did have one of his two playoff goals as a Devil that series! And Marty was already fried way back before the Olympics that year, due to being played in almost all of the games up to that point.
Up until the 2011-2012 playoffs, Zubrus did only have 3 points in 17 playoff games as a Devil. I remember the 2010 series he did some good things that didn't show up on the score sheet. I don't remember much from him good or bad in the 08 or 09 series though.
To be fair though, the 08 and 10 series were arguably two of the most embarrassing and pathetic playoff series in the last 20 years for the Devils. Of course the 09 series had the most horrible ending, the 01 SCF didn't have too much better of an ending. And the 02 loss to Weekes and the Canes and the 99 loss to Jagr (98 to Ottawa was bad too) you could make fair points that they were almost as bad. The 2010 series was some of the most uninspired play I've ever seen from a Devils team in the playoffs.