Holy crap the Devils are awful...

...but all storm clouds can hide a sliver lining. Allow me to bore you for a while.

I think that I'm not too surprised at the Devils’ abysmal performance this season, largely due to their recent playoff failures. They are the damned weiner devils, so what can I really expect? As a Devils fan, actually, I’ve come to expect a certain degree of success, and for that it is both fortunate and unfortunate. Everything short of raising the Stanley Cup is a failure, but at least I root for a team that has all the pieces to make a strong run for it EVERY year. Of course they crap out by mid-April and the whole thing reverts very quickly to failure, but still… I don’t feel like researching it now, but Parise was the highest draft pick of theirs that I can remember at 17 (2003 – who was a steal and in hindsight would have gone top 3) since becoming a fan of the team in high school. Success runs deep in this organization. I’ve been to 2 parking lot celebrations and know where I was for 2 Cup-clinching goals in the 13 or so years I’ve been a fan. Many people can’t say that.

The team has been a mess since April (early playoff exit, Lemaire "resigning," after the team quit on him, the whole Kovalchuk saga, playing shorthanded earlier in the season due to capfuckupery) so it's not hard to see the mess that things are now. I didn't expect things to be this bad, though.

And it’s also important to understand now that while we’re bad, currently as bad as the Islanders (whom we battle tonight on the NHL Game of the Weak), we’re not really as bad as the Islanders. I tried to stay positive about this season, but that just ain’t happening anymore. This season is done. D-U-N done. The team, as currently constructed, sucks. But while the Islanders, like the Royals in baseball or the Clippers in basketball, are in a constant scheme of rebuilding, the Devils are not. This debacle of a season is what they need to get back on track (he says with his fingers crossed).

I was at the Devils’ game vs. the Predators of Nashville last week and the one word that I can use to describe the team is Uninspired. The only player on the ice that night that seemed to give a crap was Matthias Tedenby (the real Matty Ice). This team has clearly given up on the season. And I can’t say it’s a bad thing.

Let’s start with the obvious: we have the potential right now to wind up with a top 5 draft pick, which would get us one of 2 things: a stud center to play with Kovy or, [fingers crossed for] one of the 2 seemingly awesome puck-moving defensemen currently ranked in the top 6 by the scouting people. I don’t think you have franchise-changing talent in this draft. No Crosby or Ovechkin or Miller. But they don’t need that. They have Parise and Kovy, and to a far lesser extent, Adam Mair. What more could you ask for than those 3?

So let’s say they get that Swedish defenseman Larsson. In 3 years the team should have Parise, Zajac, Kovalchuk, Tedenby, Josefson, Larsson, Urbom, Volchenkov (I don’t understand why he’s so great, but his contract probably ensures he stays with the Devs for a time), Taormina and some others (like Adam Henrique who was tearing it up in the OHL, possibly due to centering Taylor Hall, but nonetheless).

I’m worried about the goaltending situation. Not that Brodeur will have retired, rather that he will still be here. His is the face of our franchise and I will always support him because he is the greatest goalie of all time. All I’m saying is that you don’t need to build around a stud goalie to find success anymore and if it were his decision to hang up his skates, then I would support that as well. You can build an awesome team from a good goaltender (I really like Cam Ward and Pekka Rinne - neither great but both really good. Rinne would also be cheaper than Brodeur by at least 1.5 million).

Side note, I know a Rangers fan that thinks the same way about Queen Henrik; he thinks they should have traded him 2 years ago rather than being stuck with his ridiculous cap hit (7 million) because they’re just not contenders with that on the roster. In fact, they’re good enough to play themselves out of a high draft pick, which is my biggest concern for the Devils. I would absolutely support them tanking the rest of the season (except against the phags and homos) for that pick. This isn’t about rebuilding, it’s about a brief restructuring.

They will trade Langenbrunner in a month or 2 (he’s worth a 2nd round pick to a younger team lacking a veteran leader – St. Louis? Colorado? LA?). While I would like to keep Clarkson, he would fetch a 2nd rounder. Maybe they can convince someone to take Salvador (not nearly as bad a player or cap hit as everyone else seems to think but could possibly garner a 3rd rounder) or Zubrus (worse of a player and cap hit as everyone else seems to think and isn’t worth a tray of sandwiches for the locker room). They will recoup some picks this way. I really think that Rolston will get picked up on re-entry waivers and half his hit will go away (I just hope Lemaire doesn’t block that from happening due to his man-crush on Brian). Cap space will exist to resign Parise. We will jettison some older players/contracts. And most importantly, and completely forgotten in all of this, is that we will regain some measure of health. A lot of young guys have made nhl debuts this season because of injuries.

So again, we’re not the Isles. There is a lot of room for hope and this kind of disaster could be just what the franchise needs to get really good for another 15 years. Again.

A few final thoughts:

I hate Henrik Tallinder. As in I get angry every time I see him on the ice. He’s just terrible. I thought he was good with Buffalo and my only concern in signing him was injuries, but after watching him… wow he’s just fucking bad. That said, I still don't miss Paul Martin. I still think he should have been traded for Kovalchuk instead of Oduya. Loved that guy.

Now that Bill Guerin is officially retired, I’m not sure which I’m more worried about: LL drawing him out of retirement with a 3 year/$11 million contract or using him as John Maclean’s replacement behind the bench. Wait, they rehired a coach that the team gave up on as recently as April (lemaire)? Ok, well I guess now I only have to worry about Guerin returning to play.

Ok, time to go home and enjoy the Game of the Weak tonight. Philly can blow me. That is all.