Devils Team Discussion (current team/player news and notes) ‎PART XIII

[Bleedred]

I like the Lemaire answer.

Although Pat Burns was a great coach for us, I really don't understand the love-in fest. He inherited a juggernaut and his coaching didn't really stand out above even guys like Schoenfeld.

btw - props for using the umlaut with Jagr - although he's Czech, not German - so I think you have to go with an accent grave there... little apostrophe thing.

Well Burns did get a team with some new pieces. We had just added Friesen, Tverdovsky, and lost Holik and Sykora. It was also the first full season without Arnott. I believe Burns would have been out head coach for a very long time if not for cancer. We also had our only full season of Nieuwendyk that year. By the way, I couldn't stand Nieuwendyk as a Devil. Went too invisible at times. Would have a 15 game goal drought, then two multi goal games in the same week. Brunner reminded me of that last year. That was also our first full year of Langenbrunner. We also had an extended stretch of the nightmare pairing of Dano and Albelin that year. Not as bad as Salvador and Volchenkov as a pairing, but a pretty scary pairing for a team that would wind up winning the cup. They weren't paired together in the playoffs though. This is the 38-39 year old Dano and Albelin versions.

As far as the umlaut for Jägr, iPhone automatically adds that for me. I never realized how smart these phones really were until I started using one.

 

[NC107*]

Lemaire is just a god.

I've got to be honest, hearing people sing his praises today is almost funny... there was a large portion of time when most devils fans hated him... but we've never seen a more brilliant hockey mind in the organization and we never will.

Amen, one of the best.

 

[Bleedred]

A lot of fans hated Jacques in 09-10, I wasn't one of them though.

He did do a few annoying things like the bingo ball lines and White on the PP.

He also wasn't afraid to bench vets, like when he made the skeleton of Pandolfo dress in the practice room and informed him by text that he was a healthy scratch.

 

[schoenfeld]

He also wasn't afraid to bench vets, like when he made the skeleton of Pandolfo dress in the practice room and informed him by text that he was a healthy scratch.

scratching pando was the right thing to do, but the way it was gone about really did bother me. the veterans in that lockerroom must have became a real problem for something like that to happen.

 

[Bleedred]

scratching pando was the right thing to do, but the way it was gone about really did bother me. the veterans in that lockerroom must have became a real problem for something like that to happen.

Perhaps banishing him to the practice locker room was a bit over the top.

He should have been benched by Sutter the year before. I think he was a healthy scratch under Sutter a few times actually.

Once he got that stupid contract in 08, he became useless. I really had wished at the time that we had kept Madden the next year. He had a similar cap hit to Pandolfo on his contracts with Chicago and Minnesota. He was also pretty decent in his last two seasons, as well as his last season with us. The season when Pandolfo took a deep plunge.

 

[JimEIV]

Nevermind.

 

[Bleedred]

Two players that I wished left sooner, were Pandolfo and White. I threw a party when each of them were bought out. Although White was good for the first few years of his last contract. Pandolfo's expiration date was right when he signed that final deal with us.

I hated Colin White in 10-11 more than almost any player I could think of. I've also heard a couple horror stories out of San Jose from a friend who works in the organization. White was extremely out of shape and just in outrageously poor conditioning. That's why he didn't even see 35 years old in this league. Also reports of him being a dick in the Devils locker room. **** that washed up, out of shape phony.

 

[schoenfeld]

If i remember correctly, pando was never the same after that shoulder/upper body (lol) injury he got from crashing into the end boards in 07 or 08, he was on a bit of a goal scoring tear that year before the injury too.

 

[Bleedred]

If i remember correctly, pando was never the same after that shoulder/upper body (lol) injury he got from crashing into the end boards in 07 or 08, he was on a bit of a goal scoring tear that year before the injury too.

He was still decent in 07-08 after the injury. In 08-09 he was absolutely horrific. By 09-10 he was finished.

I'm hysterically shocked that he played for two more teams after us.

 

[DevilsJunkie]

Man, Claude in '95 was a treat. What a magic carpet ride that was. Just a fantastic playoff run.

 

[jkrdevil]

My favorite Mogilny fact is they year he scored 40+ for us he played only about 15 minutes a night. Elias had 96 points and he averaged under 20 minutes that year.

That 2001 team should have won it all.

 

[frozenrubber]

It's not too important to the discussion, but Versteeg has fallen out of favor a bit. He put up less than 40 points and he makes $4.4 million. I'm sure Chicago would love to unload him.

Versteeg only costs Chicago 2.2 million (Florida picked up half). Versteeg is well worth 2.2 million as he shouldn't of even been playing last year, but rehabbed and came back from knee surgery in ridiculous time.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Well Burns did get a team with some new pieces. We had just added Friesen, Tverdovsky, and lost Holik and Sykora. It was also the first full season without Arnott. I believe Burns would have been out head coach for a very long time if not for cancer. We also had our only full season of Nieuwendyk that year. By the way, I couldn't stand Nieuwendyk as a Devil. Went too invisible at times. Would have a 15 game goal drought, then two multi goal games in the same week. Brunner reminded me of that last year. That was also our first full year of Langenbrunner. We also had an extended stretch of the nightmare pairing of Dano and Albelin that year. Not as bad as Salvador and Volchenkov as a pairing, but a pretty scary pairing for a team that would wind up winning the cup. They weren't paired together in the playoffs though. This is the 38-39 year old Dano and Albelin versions.

As far as the umlaut for Jägr, iPhone automatically adds that for me. I never realized how smart these phones really were until I started using one.

I think you're right about him being our coach for a very long time... and yeah, I agree with the Nieuwendyk, and I'd see you an Andreychuk and raise you a Gilmore. Three guys I absolutely adored at their peaks (in Calgary, Buffalo and Calgary/Toronto) but who were shades of themselves by the time we got to see them for a string of games.

Hilarious about the umlaut.

 

[Bleedred]

I think you're right about him being our coach for a very long time... and yeah, I agree with the Nieuwendyk, and I'd see you an Andreychuk and raise you a Gilmore. Three guys I absolutely adored at their peaks (in Calgary, Buffalo and Calgary/Toronto) but who were shades of themselves by the time we got to see them for a string of games.

Hilarious about the umlaut.

The biggest shade of himself was Steve Thomas. No wonder he was on Anaheim when they lost to us in the SCF. ALWAYS a LOSER that guy was. A sore loser who never won a damn thing in this league. That Claude trade sucked. **** Steve Thomas. He's working upstairs with the Lightning now (I think) and they'll likely never win anything as long as he's there, cause everything he touches turns to ****.

Would have rather have kept Claude than acquire the dead stump of Steve Thomas.

He can take his game 4 OT winner and shove it up his ass. I would have rather have seen him cry himself off the Meadowlands ice that night, instead of Giguere. The Devils were the ultimate underachievers when he was with the team. Nothing but exits to lower seeded teams. And that one year we missed the playoffs too. Probably could have done more damage if we never traded Claude away, and definitely not for that sack of ****.

 

[glenwo2]

My favorite Mogilny fact is they year he scored 40+ for us he played only about 15 minutes a night. Elias had 96 points and he averaged under 20 minutes that year.

That 2001 team should have won it all.

Roy just flat-out robbed us in what should've been the Devils cup-deciding game(Game 6, I think). Oh the pain....

 

[JimEIV]

People hated Lemaire in the late 90's also. A lot of people around the league straight up blamed him for the "dead puck era" - never once mentioning that he coached some very high scoring teams like the 94 team.

But I personally think it all stemmed from the 95 Cup - a lot of pundits, writers and hockey insiders were appalled by the darlings in Detroit being dispatched so easily. A lot of people had egg on their face after the 95 finals and instead of looking a little deeper and seeing NJ really was a very talented team with multiple future Hall of Famers, everyone created a false narrative that a system was able to stifle talent....what made it worse the Florida Panthers reaching the finals the very next season and the false narrative had some validity.

And many of our own fans bought into this.

 

[NJDevs26]

I don't think one Devil fan hated Lemaire for being 'boring' in the late '90's, certainly not the ones that were fans before '94/95. I think there was some backlash when the playoff results weren't there his last three years and Elias/Sykora were being scratched for the Scott Daniels of the world. The backlash against his style came in his second tenure here when pre-lockout trap masters like him and Hitch weren't (and still haven't) doing much in April in the post-lockout NHL.

Plus there were locker room issues the second time around which he was blamed for to a degree, though the locker room issues clearly dissapeared the minute Langenbrunner was traded.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

With the current state of the team, I'm not sure how anyone could pick anything but a forward.

 

[JimEIV]

I don't think one Devil fan hated Lemaire for being 'boring' in the late '90's, certainly not the ones that were fans before '94/95. I think there was some backlash when the playoff results weren't there his last three years and Elias/Sykora were being scratched for the Scott Daniels of the world. The backlash against his style came in his second tenure here when pre-lockout trap masters like him and Hitch weren't (and still haven't) doing much in April in the post-lockout NHL.

Plus there were locker room issues the second time around which he was blamed for to a degree, though the locker room issues clearly dissapeared the minute Langenbrunner was traded.

I don't recall any devil fan blaming him for being boring, but without a doubt for stifling offense...

And Devils fans then often cited John Maclean's departing quotes to evidence that Lemaire was ruining the offense, ruining Niedermayer, ruining Guerin and some of the same nonsense you read today.

 

[schoenfeld]

With the current state of the team, I'm not sure how anyone could pick anything but a forward.

yeah i wouldnt want to see 94 stevens take ice time away from eric gelinas

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

yeah i wouldnt want to see 94 stevens take ice time away from eric gelinas

the team has one of the best team defenses in the league along with a very good goalie. the team lacks offense. I picked arguably the most gifted offensive player to ever play for the Devils (in his prime) in Mogilny.

not a hard concept. or so I thought.

 

[BrodeursCups]

Lemaire is just a god.

I've got to be honest, hearing people sing his praises today is almost funny... there was a large portion of time when most devils fans hated him... but we've never seen a more brilliant hockey mind in the organization and we never will.

Nope, and the disrespect Lemaire received from the kiddies on this board was embarrassing. It was basically just a bunch of children posting dinosaur pictures whenever referring to Lemaire...

 

[BrodeursCups]

A lot of fans hated Jacques in 09-10, I wasn't one of them though.

He did do a few annoying things like the bingo ball lines and White on the PP.

He also wasn't afraid to bench vets, like when he made the skeleton of Pandolfo dress in the practice room and informed him by text that he was a healthy scratch.

He only threw White out in front of the net on the PP after the flyers did it with Pronger and it worked. It didn't matter who was behind the bench, we would've been slaughtered in that series regardless...

The only memory I have from that series is Parise's SHG on a beautiful saucer from Elias where he out ran Pronger. I wiped out the rest...

 

[rrekaj13]

the team has one of the best team defenses in the league along with a very good goalie. the team lacks offense. I picked arguably the most gifted offensive player to ever play for the Devils (in his prime) in Mogilny.

not a hard concept. or so I thought.

In a practical sense, I agree with picking a forward.

In a nostalgic sense, adding Stevens to our D corp would make me giddy. The style of play plus the leadership is something that doesn't exist in today's defensemen.

 

[JimEIV]

the team has one of the best team defenses in the league along with a very good goalie. the team lacks offense. I picked arguably the most gifted offensive player to ever play for the Devils (in his prime) in Mogilny.

not a hard concept. or so I thought.

A good on ice mentor for a young D would be extremely beneficial... but I hear what you are saying.

But let's be honest...we really don't have one of the best defences in the league...I know what the numbers say, but that is a byproduct of the team much more so than the defensive unit.