The Devils made their fans proud this afternoon as they ended a roller-coaster 2010-2011 Season on a high note. Patrik Elias, Vladimir Zharkov and Alexander Urbom scored for the Devils in a 3-2 win over Boston. It was Urbom's first NHL goal and Zharkov's second. Peverley and Kelly scored for Boston. Johan Hedberg made 24 saves in what could be his last start for the Devils as he might sign with a Southeast Division team for next season or a team that gives him a 2 year deal to give his family stability.
But, now for the sad and fun part of the Devils season. Here is the Post-Mortem:
It was a season which started out with expectations of a run for the Stanley Cup due to Ilya Kovalchuk staying and with Zach Parise as well. However, the summer-long saga of the Kovalchuk contract ended up backfiring on a disappointing start to the season. The Devils went 9-22-2 under new rookie coach John MacLean with absolutely no hope of rebounding. A team which was expected to be explosive offensively ended up being the opposite and that is struggling to score or go to the net or deflect bad angle shots. Kovalchuk struggled badly and really never found a common language with MacLean. Most nights the Devils just did not show up and when they did, the oppositions goaltending stood strong. Even Jason Arnott, who was brought back to the Devils from Nashville struggled under MacLean and was traded to Washington for David Steckel on deadline day. Lou Lamoriello was too patient and was hopeful of a turnaround, but MacLean was fired on December 23rd, 2010 and replaced by Jacques Lemaire, who came in for a 3rd stint with the Devils.
However, the biggest blow to the Devils was the injury to star forward Zach Parise, who tore his meniscus originally in August, but opted to play through it. His struggles were shown as a result of the injury and there-fore in early November opted for surgery and played one game last Saturday before being shut-down for the season. Bryce Salvador not playing at all also affected the Devils defense. Also, lack of puck moving defenseman affected the Devils break-out in their own end. Henrik Tallinder struggled mightily under John MacLean, but became one of the Devils best under Lemaire. Anton Volchenkov was injured for most of the short MacLean era, but was very consistent under Lemaire. However, the largest beneficiary under Lemaire was Ilya Kovalchuk, yes the 15 year $100 million dollar man. His improved defensive play translated into his surging offense. He was able to earn back the fans respect under Lemaire. Young players like Josefson, Tedenby, Zharkov also benefited under Lemaire. The Devils went 29-17-3 under Lemaire as coach and at one point came to within 6 points of the 8th seed in the East after being 27-28 points out. The Devils rose from being the worst defensive team to 9th best in the league. Martin Brodeur and Johan Hedberg turned their games around after having tough times under MacLean.
Here are some of the questions the Devils will face, all of them undoubtedly will be answered depending on how the team performs next year:
Will the Devils sign Parise to a new long-term contract?
-Zach Parise, not Ilya Kovalchuk is the face of the Devils, so I think Lou Lamoriello will waste no time in trying to sign him to a long-term deal and prevent him from entering unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2012. He is priority 1 and 1A and is likely to be named the new Devils captain. However, Lamoriello and the Devils have to be very careful with Parise after what happened with the Kovalchuk saga. It will definitely not be a 15 year deal, but likely a 7-10 year deal with a $6.5-7 million dollar cap hit.
Who will coach the team in 2011-2012?
-Jacques Lemaire made it official after the game as he announced he will not return and go back into retirement. So, once again Lamoriello will have to look carefully in finding a new coach and hopefully this one will be a long-term stay. Brent Sutter has been the longest tenured coach for the Devils since the lockout. As I have stated before the search will be a long one, but the five favorites in no order are Ken Hitchcock, Andy Murray, Kirk Muller, Mike Haviland and Michel Therrien. I do not expect a coach before the Draft, likely in mid-July is when a coach will be named.
Who will back-up Brodeur next season?
-Marty Brodeur made it know he would love to have Hedberg back next season as the fans fell in love with him. But, he also indicated that the Devils should think about the future after Brodeur. But that will be up to Lamoriello and the organization to address that.
Who will the Devils sign in the off-season?
-Parise will be priority 1 and 1A. But, the rest will be based on the amount of cap space the Devils will have left. The Devils biggest need is offensive defensemen, who can help in their struggling transition game and prevent the Devils from spending way too much time in their own end. Also, the Devils can use some size in the front especially on the power play. Expect Lou to address some of these issues in the summer.
Who will make the team next year?
Mattias Tedenby, Jacob Josefson, Adam Henrique, Vladimir Zharkov, Mark Fayne. Other than that its up in the air.
Will the Devils make it back to the playoffs?
-I cannot answer that question, but reverse the win/loss columns under MacLean and things will be much better.
No comments:
Post a Comment