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.
Here, here. Since '03, it's always been watch with foreboding sense of dread. Even against Florida, I felt like we would still pull it off whereas against Carolina a few seasons ago, I was just waiting for something to go wrong. Watching this series against Philadelphia, I'm just enjoying our game, the way we are putting the pressure on the opponent and make them the hunted. It's just been enjoyable. My pride in being a Devil fan was more about our past accomplishments and what we stood for as an organization. Now I'm proud of this team for the product on the ice as presently constituted. It's a great time to be a fan of this team, and I can't wait to see them swarm it up tomorrow.
I was watching the video highlights on the Devils website of many of our first half games last season. Remember how bad they were? I do, but until you watch them again you can't realize the suck or appreciate it.
I remember the first game of the season against Dallas wasn't bad. An OT loss. The team actually looked good though. Then the Washington blowout which to me just looked like an off night. A decent game on Columbus Day afternoon against Pittsburgh which wasn't too bad. We didn't get completely dominated. Finally an OT win against Buffalo. From there it was just suck after suck after suck after suck with usually a very dominant game once a week or every other week like against Washington, Chicago, and Phoenix.
It was real ugly. Marty, and Moose both letting in some weak goals, and most of their goals weren't the goaltenders fault, but a bunch of idiots standing around in the crease like Fayne, and Greene every game, and just watching goals go in. Kovalchuk looking dead. Langenbrunner forgot how incredibly BAD he was last season. You can't appreciate it until you relive it. Without a doubt our Worst player who wasn't a rookie or AHLer. Wow he was bad. Tedenby was like our best player.
Going down by 2 goals in the first few minutes of the games all the time. Ew just real filth. One of my favorites I forgot about was the NYI game on the Island Thanksgiving Weekend. I was there. The Isles on a 14 game losing streak, and we don't get beat too bad. Just 2-0, but we get shutout by Rick Dipietro? WTF! Can't score one goal on Rick Dipietro? Not even on 5 on 3 PP's? UGH! This wasn't so bad in 06 when we got shutout by him, but 2010? GTFO! After them losing 14 games in a row that was worse than getting shutout by Anders Nilsson this year in his first ever start.
The Flyers are gonna throw everything they have at the Devils tomorrow. It will not be an easy game.
The fourth one is always the toughest, especially when you have 2 games in hand. I know the Devils are capable of taking this game completely off but I don't think they will. Giroux being out will be rallying cry for the Flyers but it should be one for the Devils as well, they're down one of their best guys - time to go for the kill.
The fourth one is always the toughest, especially when you have 2 games in hand. I know the Devils are capable of taking this game completely off but I don't think they will. Giroux being out will be rallying cry for the Flyers but it should be one for the Devils as well, they're down one of their best guys - time to go for the kill.
The Devils will show up. The Zerg Swarm smells the blood.
it's amazing how much calmer i am for these games compared to the florida series. that really doesn't even make sense
Same here. When they went down 2-0 last night, I looked at my GF and said,"good, watch them still win". In the FLA series, a PP was a guaranteed goal
Quote:
Originally Posted by Classic Devil
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.
I think the game plan and the mind set was there since game one, they just ran out of juice by the 2nd period. The plan was there, but you can see they were a step behind once they started running on empty and yet still had a chance to win. And that's where I think the confidence came from. Even on their worst, tired night, against a well rested team, they were in the game and only lost on a possibly questionable goal.
Same here. When they went down 2-0 last night, I looked at my GF and said,"good, watch them still win". In the FLA series, a PP was a guaranteed goal
At the game last night I said the same thing to my wife, 'Okay that's 2 goofy goals, they still have zero attack, we got this ****' No more than 30 seconds later we get the PP goal, and then we tie it up, rest is history. When they put a full 60 minutes in like they've been it's such a different result and feeling from watching them play.
