Triangulation: In Memory of Pierre Pellaton
Pierre Pellaton, hockey coach for more than 30 years, died last night. He will be sorely missed. Pierre was the one coach that everybody loved. I really do mean everybody – players, parents, other coaches, the NJ Devils Youth Hockey board, refs, the Zamboni guy. It was impossible not to like him, with his outsized [...]
Career Goals and Points
I stand corrected – a few weeks ago I posted that 2011-2012 would be the last year in Patrik Elias’ contract with the Devils. It’s not; I was off by a year and inadvertently rushed him out the door. No, no, no, no didn’t want to do that. Let’s just say that a guy who [...]
Empty Ne(s)t
Bubba and I have been Devils season ticket holders since the summer of 1999, when I saw a classified ad in the town newspaper looking for someone to split a ticket package. We didn’t realize that we’d buy into a Stanley Cup run, Scott Gomez’ Calder-recognized rookie year, and Patrik Elias’ breakout season. Going to [...]
Not With A Bang But A Whimper
This is the way the 2010-2011 hockey world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper (and apologies to T S Eliot). For the first time since we began following our hometown hockey boys, there is no April joy, no second season, no reason to start watching out of market games because of their scheduling [...]
The Right Way To Lose
Sunday night, the Seven Seals played our first-round adult ice hockey league playoff game against the top-seeded team, who had previously beaten us by baseball and football scores (13-0, 12-2, 9-1 to provide some illustration). However, our last two games against the same team were both 1-goal losses, and we actually held them scoreless for [...]
Hope For The Devils
The bad news: Parise is likely done for the year, Taormina is probably also done after ankle surgery (12 week recovery from that one, been there, done that), Salvador may have suffered a Scott Stevens-like concussion, and the team is still dead last in the NHL. But there’s good news, for the first time since [...]
Devils and The Playoffs: A Numbers Game
The Devils have played 32 games, won 9 and lost 2 in overtime, good for 20 points. They are earning 0.625 points per game, or about 31% of the possible points. To put that in perspective, the last few playoff spots in the Eastern Conference go to teams with between 86-94 points. More specifically, to [...]
Hanukah and Christmas and Hockey
For as long as I’ve been around “hockey people”, I’ve known them to be the most passionate and most personable people. This is true at the youth level, in high school, and in the NHL. It’s why parents will drive two hours on a rainy Sunday morning to a rink with only two walls to [...]
Taking Lazy To A New Level
The Devils are not going to make the playoffs because they are a lazy team. Even if they get a few wins in a row, it’s not enough to offset the institutional laziness that has become acceptable on the ice. Exhibit A: Ilya Kovulchuk does not skate hard to the end boards with four minutes [...]
Saving The Devils Season
The Devils are an unmitigated disaster this year. What should have been an unreal season for the players and fans – Parise, Kovulchuck, new D, new coach, Jason Arnott back in red and black – has been a series of single limping wins followed by stretches of looking lost, hopeless and honestly, frightened. If they [...]