It was another disappointing end to another great season as the Devils failed to advance out of Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a 3rd straight year. This time it was in the hands of their fiercest division rival Philadelphia Flyers. This meant that major changes needed to be made to improve the Devils to avoid a disastrous 4th consecutive 1st round ouster.
The 2009-2010 Devils had little to no expectations after losing Brian Gionta and John Madden to the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks respectively. However, in New Jersey expectations are always high mainly due to the greatest goaltender of all time Marty Brodeur. The team started the year strong, but started to falter down the stretch. The Devils acquired atar sniper Ilya Kovalchuk due to their late season offensive struggles but still were unable to advance. The Canadiens and Blackhawks did very well in the playoffs as Montreal went all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals only to fall to the Flyers and the Blackhawks defeated the Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals to win the title. So it was very unpleasant for the Devils to watch their former players like Scott Niedermayer in 2007 with Anaheim, Brian Rafalski in 2008 with Detroit and now John Madden with Chicago win the Stanley Cup and players like Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta come close with other teams.
So What was wrong with the Devils all these years? Well the Devils have started out every season since the lockout ended pretty strong with the exception of the 2005-2006 campaign where it was a disastrous start, but the Devils rallied to win the Atlantic Division with 11 straight wins to end the season followed by a 4 game sweep in the playoffs of division rival Rangers. However, in 2007, the Devils underwent a face-lift as core players like Soctt Gomez and Brian Rafalski chose to leave the Devils one summer after future Hall of Famer Scott Niedermayer left via Free Agency. GM Lou Lamoriello decided it was best to continue to develop from within thus staying the course and continuing the teams tradition of standing pat on the Free Agency front.
However, this year will be different as the Devils decided to shore up its defensive corps by bringing in the NHL's leading shot blocker in Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder as well as a more experienced backup goaltender in Johan Hedberg. The Devils also brought back 2000 cup hero Jason Arnott. Now all that remains to answer is what will happen with Ilya Kovalchuk, which looks like a soap opera. However, with or without Kovalchuk the Devils are an improved team with more size on defense despite losing another core defenseman in Paul Martin to division rival Pittsburgh. The Devils have to learn how to manage wins and loses and the timing that comes with them. Maybe its best if they get of to a neutral start and finish strong at the time it counts most. Then I think they can make a long cup run.
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