Also...
Look at this way - when the Devils lost Kovy, they were playing well but hindered by his ailments. All they needed to do was make some minor tweaks and get to rolling.
The Flyers are losing Giroux at a point where they can't gather their collective **** together for more than a handful of seconds at a time. It's a lot harder to adjust from that point.
They also unravel very easily, moreso now that Rinaldo will be in the lineup.
The Eastern Conference Finals are well within the Devils' grasp. And I like this feeling, even despite what this post season is doing to my heart.
Same plan. Pucks deep, hammer them with your relentless forecheck, test bryz early and often, get traffic, quick intelligent passes out of our own zone. And cooler heads must continue to prevail. As PD has said, play between the whistles.
Finish them and move on to the ****ing conference finals!
I have literally had a bad feeling about every game since puck drop in Sunrise a month ago. And it gets worse before every game. I forgot what a deep playoff run feels like.
The only truly bad feeling I have is about Rinaldo. I cringe everytime he gets close to one of our players.
Finish tomorrow, hope rangers/cap have a game 7 on saturday, and then rest Kovy until game 1 mon/tues. Hopefully get Yayo back in time to have a fully healthy team for the first time this playoff.
it's amazing how much calmer i am for these games compared to the florida series. that really doesn't even make sense
cuz' the Devils are still hungry, and the Flyers are full. Hunger and skill is a great combination. I usually have a sense of dread going into games come postseason, but after game 2, I've been chomping at the bit to see the boys get back out there.
it's amazing how much calmer i am for these games compared to the florida series. that really doesn't even make sense
It does. Florida came to play every night. Every guy gave everything they had. And Florida knew how to play team defense and had a ferocious forecheck.
Philadelphia does none of those things.
But, really, far more important than any difference between Florida and Philadelphia is the Devils. This team went through a metamorphosis sometime between Games 1 and 2 of this series. I don't know what triggered it. Maybe it was playing the Flyers and realizing that yes, they could compete with them. Maybe it was just one of those things where a team gets hot. But the Devils right now are playing hockey that is as good as they were playing in the second half last year during that unbelievable run.
The Devils habitually go on long, twenty to thirty game stretches of playing fabulously awesome hockey. We do it once a season, generally speaking. We're doing it right now. I don't know why it starts, and I don't know why it stops, but I know I haven't been this confident watching Devils playoff hockey since 2003.
