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 love of hockey and his innate ability to share that love. The players he coached in their single-digit years invited him back to their club as adults, so they could coach with him. There is no better statement about the quality of a coach’s character on and off the ice.

Pierre was fair, he was right, he instructed solidly and he had standards. He showed up and expected his players to do the same, whether they were 8 or 18 years old. He was “old school” in the sense that he valued hard work and simple drills that reinforced that work ethic. During one practice with my son’s bantam team (Pierre wasn’t our regular coach, he was merely helping out when needed) he was working on a breakout drill that involved skating outside of the faceoff dots. Kids were cheating through the middle so he stopped the drill, conveyed some wisdom in that Swiss-infused English that gave him enormous gravitas, got a few laughs, and then had the drill run correctly. No screaming, no throwing sticks, no tests of mettle or attitude on either side. When he blew the whistle, I think most players were secretly happy – anticipating – to see what he would share.

I think about Pierre nearly every week that I play with my adult league team. Moving slowly, I have a few extra seconds to think about my positioning on the ice, and I hear him instructing (not shouting) “Triangle!! Triangle!! Tri-ang-u-lation!!” It was his most valuable lesson, taught to PeeWees learning puck control and cycling: keep your forwards in a triangle around the net, move the puck, and move the players to maintain the triangle. The first rule of hockey – create space without the puck, create time by moving with it – conveyed using the simplest geometric shape, in a voice and style that 12 year olds visualized and committed to memory (most of them, at least). Six years later, I still hear echos of that coaching session; following sing-songy words that keep me from over-skating and passing out from exhaustion. Good advice transcends space and a lot of time.

With all of the negative press and horrifying stories about amateur athletics and youth sports, it’s critical to have role models and men like Pierre Pellaton. We all wish we could skate with him another season.

Let’s just say that a guy who knows a guy yelled at me for this, and says Patty is here for 1,000 career points (or more). With 816 career points in the NHL, all with the Devils, and averaging roughly 70 points a year, that’s two-three more solidly productive years. I’ll sign up to watch and cheer for those career goals (and points). And implicit in that is the hope that the NHL suffers no further labor issues, and that players benefit from a CBA that respects seniority, loyalty and market dynamics.

What I find amusing is that Bubba and I were just talking about Elias’ career with the Devils, and how he’s not only the scoring leader but also the “freshman development” leader. This came after a hot day of summer football practice spent indoctrinating incoming (high school) freshman, and thinking about his role as a literal senior on the field. As I’ve written here before, if the lessons Bubba takes from Elias are about loyalty (think contract), friendship (think Sykora jersey in 2000), leadership on and off the ice, flexibility (played all three forward positions this year), and dealing with negativism (when asked what he did differently to pick up scoring in the 2003 Cup Finals, Elias said “Didn’t listen to you guys” to the press), then he’s chosen a hero wisely for solid points and career goals.

I just made the final payment for our 2011-2012 season ticket shares, knowing full well it’s the last year of Elias’ contract with the Devils and Bubba’s last year of high school. Six summers ago I was delighted that I didn’t have to rationalize market pricing, free agency and loyalty to my 11-year old when Elias signed a seven-year deal with the Devils, knowing that they’d reach the horizons of their current time perspectives in the same calendar month. They are exactly 18 years apart; this spring Ben will be in the position Elias was on the day Ben was born: 18 years old and ready to face the world.

The day you become a parent is the day you begin the voyage of 10,000 steps toward an empty nest when your kids are adults and living most of their lives somewhere else. I’ve certainly thought about it over the last few years, but I never expected that the first indicator would come with mascot NJ Devil’s picture on it. I’ve already told the group I don’t know what I’ll do past next season, when I lose my regular seat mate, my hockey expert and my Carvel confidante.

As the Stanley Cup Finals play out to conclude this season, and we look forward to the draft and free agency that officially mark the start of the NHL New Year’s celebration, I believe I’m entitled to a wish and a resolution. My resolution is to cheer loudly for the home team, for all definitions of “home,” through college applications and high school sports and minor automobile damage.

My wish is that the Devils carry our 2011-2012 season as far into June as possible, stretching out this next series of shared family moments, momentarily delaying my inevitable step into the next phase of free agency.

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 implications. The only things left to do are cheer against the Rangers and watch Zach Parise improve in his last four games before free agency.

As badly as the season started, there were so many things of which to be proud since mid-January. Patrik Elias was on fire, skating perhaps better than before the lockout season, and finishing in the slot as well as he did in 2001-2002. First hat trick in five years – against Philly, a team he just pwns – is evidence enough. Some real chemistry on the lines was a positive. Going 24-4-2 over a 30 game stretch; more than a third of a season of close to perfect hockey in every imaginable shape and form. And yet there were disasters as well: not correcting the trajectory before the season was out of hand (whether it was MacLean, Langenbrunner, or some combination of them and other factors we’ll never know, but I’m personally hoping Dallas goes deep so the Langebrunner trade yields a prospect). Injuries to the defense left us with three freshmen on the blueline nearly the whole season. Colin White’s play improved tremendously once Lemaire was back, and then he was repeatedly scratched with a nagging injury down the stretch. Salvador is gone. Taormina is recovering. There’s such potential there with Volchenkov, Tallinder, and Green all healthy at the same time.

With a long off-season, here’s hoping the Devils stay in shape and train through the warm months. That they come back in September hungry, wanting to never feel this way in early April again. That the echoes of Montreal’s fans signing “Hey Hey, Goodbye” resonate and reverberate, and remind them of what preparation and conditioning and team play can deliver or deny. It was a tough year to be a fan, and yet the last third of the season saw some of the best attendance at the Rock since the buiding opened.

Personally, I’ve yet to watch a baseball game or take out the golf clubs, subconsciously not wanting the miracle of the last two months to end, never wanting to see a wizardly Jacques Lemarie behind the curtain frantically telling us to pay attention to the flash and not the reality. But reality has set in, and for the first time in 15 years, I’m sorry to see the arrival of summer.

Three minutes in, we held a 1-0 lead. That held up through the first period, and into the early 2nd. We opened up leads of 3-1 and 4-2 into the third period, and could actually see a way to win the game. At that point – ten minutes left in the game, and one team’s season, holding on to a 2-goal lead against a team with three or four players who could rush the puck end to end, it would have been reasonable to change strategy. Shorten the bench, play a left wing lock, only skate the younger guys with better legs and effectively do the equivalent of a Dean Smith 4-corners offense to run the clock down.

Nobody made the suggestion. Everyone kept skating, on our three lines and two defensive pairings, even as our opponents tied the game and then took the lead with two minutes left. We played the last game the way we played the whole season – as a team. We lost, 5-4, but it was a team effort and the right way to lose.

A year from now, or three years from now, nobody will remember the name of the team we played, or who won the championship; even if we went on to win the playoffs we’d come home with a plastic medal and stories of temporary greatness that interested absolutely nobody. We play the game as adults because we like to play, and there is no game situation “important” enough to trump that. Makes me proud to be a member of this team.

But there’s good news, for the first time since the Kovulchuk signing: 9 points in 5 games, for a 90% points attainment. Goals by the handful. Production from all lines. Defense that plays to support the wings on the forecheck and move the puck out on the backcheck. A team that doesn’t fall apart in the 2nd period.

There was likely no single cause for the Devils’ first half collapse, nor a singularity pushing them forward with 40 games to go. Clearly, Langenbrunner wasn’t a great fit as captain – not that he’s a bad player, or the team was bad, but there was a mismatch (I quit two jobs for the same reasons; great outfits with smart people and good outputs, but not a good fit for me). Some of my root cause guesses (back in November) about training and conditioning weren’t that far off, according to Lemaire’s assessment of the team when he arrived. And maybe everyone had overly high expectatoins without any statistical evidence to support MacLean. It’s hard to assess his capabilties based on a short tenure in the AHL, especially when several players on that team were developed by his predecessors (Example: Kurt Kleinendorst. He has a great eye for talent and what to do with it, as a coach and a scout).

But I have hope. I’ve changed my deathwatch on the sidebar to an upwardly mobile ticker: points out of 8th place, and less snark in the stats below. With 36 games to go and 23 points, they’re looking at needing to go 28-9 or better down the stretch (figuring the #7-9 teams will play about 0.500 hockey, give or take a few games). In attainment terms, that’s 78% or more of the available points. It’s not impossible, but it’s far from likely. A 90% run rate in the last five games gives snowballs a brief chance in the Devil’s Den.

That makes the task at hand somewhat monumental: The Devils need to earn 70 points in 50 games, an average of 1.4 points game. It’s not impossible, but it’s a breakneck pace that they’ve sustained for only very short windows in seasons where they’ve won 40 or more games. More practically, that means their record for the rest of the season has be close to 32-12-6. That’s 20 games over 0.500 hockey, when they’re 12 games under right now. Again, the math says it’s possible, but the coaching, leadership and on-ice performance have to live up to what theory says. That’s what we’ve believed since the Kovulchuk signing, yet since then Devils goals have been harder to find than the Higgs boson.

Here’s the even more stark reality: If the Devils lose 17 more games in regulation they will assure themselves of watching the first round on TV. Seventeen regulation losses takes his team out of the realm of mathematics into the world of (possibly) admitting things are horribly wrong and there are absolutely no big men on Mulberry Street (apologies to Billy Joel, but the Devils are modeling their hockey organization after a Billy Joel marriage right now). Lose 17, and the best you can do is 86 points, which looks like 9th or 10th place. Not enough for a good draft pick, not enough for the playoffs, not enough for anything other than further aggravating the fans.

The Devils might be de facto eliminated by Valentine’s Day.

Will all those who believe that Lou is doing a great job as GM, and that MacLean is a great coach who isn’t getting help from his players, and Langenbrunner is a captain who is misunderstood please stand up? You’ll have your choice of seats at the Rock once the kids are back in school from President’s Week vacation.

An extension or enabler of this esprit de corps among and between hockey families is the billet system, where junior players live with designated host families during the course of their season away from home. We had an extraordinary opportunity this past weekend to billet players from a New Brunswick (Canada, not NJ) high school, visiting to play some hockey and take in the sights, sounds, and smells of New York and New Jersey. It was a delight getting to know the players and the parents who accompanied them; they were to a person gracious, funny, and equally interesting and interested. Their trip included a pair of 13-hour bus rides, a day in New York City, the Devils-Red Wings game, two closely played high school games, some home cooked meals, and in our case, the required taste of Jersey (Taylor ham, egg and cheese on a hard roll, eaten on the way to school and washed down with copious quantities of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee). They were wonderful guests, and I think all of the host families miss our slightly noisier houses.

Their coach concluded the trip by asking the players to attend a “hockey chapel” service prior to hopping back on the bus for home. Coach shared his thoughts about the Christmas season, and some of his experiences as a minister. Clearly religious, it was invitational without being evangelical. There were no rights or wrongs delineated, only an offer of time and space in which to develop faith. This is what hockey players do. We create time moving with the puck and space by moving without it and the metaphor translates nicely. It was fitting for the time of year as well, as so many images of hockey – frozen ponds, new equipment received as a gift, even Roch Carrier’s regretful sweater – conjoin with images of the deep winter, brightened by lights and maybe an extra dose of kindness for the season.

I attended the chapel, mostly because I’d been impressed by the coach’s style and openness, and wanted to hear him speak in broader terms. I got some stares from our players and parents who are clearly aware of my Jewish affiliation, but there’s no dichotomy here. I can be respectful of others’ beliefs, and enjoy some measure of insight from lay clergy of another faith, without feeling threatened or conflicted. I’ll admit to smiling a bit thinking that in New Jersey, it would be nigh impossible to do something similar, under the banner of separation of church and state as unfurled by those seeking political correctness. But underlying that concept is a fundamental right to religious freedom in belief and worship. There’s no harm in enjoying those rights with your temporary family members.

Ignore the opportunity and you miss the principal lesson of Hanukah – it was the first recorded fight for religious freedom. As Roch Carrier wrote, Canadians “live[d] in three places – the church, the school and the skating rink.” Through a wonderful weekend we had all three aspects shared personally with “our northern neighbors.” It was a gentle reminder to respect your friends no matter what sweater they’re wearing, shake hands at the end and give them a hug on the way home.

Exhibit A: Ilya Kovulchuk does not skate hard to the end boards with four minutes left in a one-goal game. He lets the defenseman beat him to the loose puck. Again. He should be skating as hard as he can, playing the body, and gaining control.

Exhibit B: Forty seconds left and Langenbrunner dumps the puck into the zone, while Elias is in full stride on his wing. “Keep your head on a swivel” is a mantra for youth and high school players, but when you wear the “C” on this team it’s no longer necessary.

Exhibit C: On the first Penguins goal, Colin White doesn’t fill the slot, and lets Kunitz take a one-timer uncontested. If Zubrus had skated hard back into the play he may have had a chance to break up the feed from Crosby. Zubrus glides over the blue line; his body is upright and relaxed as Kunitz releases the shot. On the game-winning goal, White doesn’t bother to notice that Crosby was behind him, untouched. The Devils seem to watch the puck movement more than the MSG cameraman, but hockey plays develop in the space away from the puck. What’s even sadder is that White is playing some of the best defense on the team.

There are very few cures for laziness, other than bringing in a coach that makes the players ride the bikes for an hour after an effort like the last few. Or who dumps a bench on the ice. Or who demands that his players play the game with a modicum of respect for their leaders, their staff, their fans and themselves. What the Devils are doing now is taking lazy to a level that induces nausea.

With 19 games down and a 5-12-2 record, the Devils carry 12 points to the quarter pole. Twelve. In the last few seasons they would have amassed 22-26 points by now. The season doesn’t get any easier, and the real battle for points within the Eastern Conference (to determine playoff spots) hasn’t started yet. The Devils have been giving up points to West Coast teams, which doesn’t necessarily hurt them head to head but isn’t going to be helpful when they need those last 4-6 points to sneak into the #8 berth.

Here’s the hard math: An Eastern Conference team is likely going to need 88-90 points to see the playoffs. That means in the remaining 73 games, the Devils need to average about 1.2 points a game. Simpler translation: going 6-4 or 5-3-2 in every — every — 10 game set for the rest of the season. You can’t do that scoring one goal a night. You can’t do that with a power play that is below 3% effective on the road (think about that: Devils opponents have a penalty kill rate of 97% at home. Ouch).

The Devils need a completely new plan on special teams. Their penalty kill is terrible (2 for 3 tonight versus the Leafs — and the 5-on-3 versus Boston closed that door early). Their power play is worse. Too many guys not pressuring on the kill, and even more guys standing around on the power play. If you’re not creating space or time, you’re not contributing. The prettiest power play goal this year – Kovulchuk’s OT winner versus the Oilers – came off of a smart move from the goal line to the hash mark, and a quick, one-timer off the pass. Move the feet, move the puck, and no more standing still.

Tallinder has to play like the guy he was in Buffalo or he should be in the press box until he remembers how to play defense. Ditto for White, who seems to knock more pucks into his own net than should be reasonable for a veteran defenseman.

Pick some lines and stick with them. Players need to know each other’s tendencies and preferences, and when you’re trying enough permutations to make Georg Cantor’s transfinite numbers seem small and logical, the problem isn’t with the players. Lemaire had the same issue. Pick some lines, and let them work as a team. I’d like to believe that professional hockey players can make clean passes, but those crisp Elias-to-Arnott feeds are the result of chemistry, not dumping things in the Cuisinart and hitting “puree”.

A local hockey coach said his job is to be a facilitator, not a director. It’s time for the Devils to start facilitating; they have the skills and talent and fans and support. What they lack is the networking between them that make 30 players and coaches a club rather than a spreadsheet.