He has been excellent. Loved his board work today, and he was good defensively too. DeBoer used him in mop up duty on the PK, and he blocked a couple shots in big situations.
Bernier did well too, those guys already have a very nice understanding together.
''The Devils still had to play final 25 minutes with only five defenseman because Bryce Salvador was unable to continue playing through a stomach bug.
“He wasn’t feeling well going in,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “We thought he could get through it, but it got worse as the game went on. He tried to play through it, but unless we had moved a Porta Potty near the bench on that side, he wouldn’t have got through the third.”
Pretty cool to see Kovy describe the atmosphere of the room like that. This is probably the closest knit team we've had in years, and it shows.
“We just enjoy being together. We’re a family and real close group.”
I look it at this way. When you have a guy with Kovy's talent, character and desire to win, there is no way this man is going to fail when you surround him with quality players and people.
I know people still have their doubts about this team, and that's fine, but it's really not a bad thing to allow yourself to believe a little bit. This is a special group. They're even telling us as much. They work extremely hard and they're very hungry to win. These are two major ingredients to success in the playoffs.
How far they will go is anyone's guess but you can take this to the bank: If they're going to get taken out, they'll go out kicking and screaming. This team has tons of character.
If we crack 100 I'll be very pleased. It won't actually mean much if we can't win a round in the playoffs, but bouncing back strong from the worst season in two decades is a great start.
Ponikarovsky looked SOO SO SO SO SOSOSOSOSO good tonight, at least defensively. He was really using his body to muscle guys off the puck, protect the puck, and he made some fantastic possession plays to either clear the zone or maintain pressure in the offensive zone.
Bernier, though I think he's looked alright, I'm not sure how much I like him. I'll like him lot more if/when he's on the fourth line.
I'd love a 100 points because my hope from October is make the playoffs with the team. Looking like we have a good chance of having that happen. Lots of games to go though.
A playoff round win would be wonderful as well. But I don't want to ask Santa for too much and get coal.
Ponikarovsky has been a fantastic pick up so far. He fits right in with this team, and has really added some depth to this line up. Still games to go, but so far this is looking like a steal.
I'm still a little worried about the 3rd periods. It's something that has happened a lot this year. It was MUCH worse earlier in the season, and has even gone away at times, but come back. Very scary 3rd period tonight. Could have been a blowout if Marty really was the mr softy people were calling him earlier in the year.
Other than that a lot of potential here.
Forget it's Marty though. How many other teams in the top 8 in either Conference have even a 35+ year old starting Goaltender? Tim Thomas? It's pretty incredible. He's a big part of this streak.
Ponikarovsky has been a fantastic pick up so far. He fits right in with this team, and has really added some depth to this line up. Still games to go, but so far this is looking like a steal.
He really meshes well with DeBoer's style, better than I thought he would. When DeBoer is talking about guys who bring grit, character, and depth scoring to the bottom 6, he is talking about guys like Poni and Bernier.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bleedred
I'm still a little worried about the 3rd periods. It's something that has happened a lot this year. It was MUCH worse earlier in the season, and has even gone away at times, but come back. Very scary 3rd period tonight. Could have been a blowout if Marty really was the mr softy people were calling him earlier in the year.
This one wasn't as bad as previous ones, and not just because they only scored one. We weren't outshot in the third by as much, and possession time was only slightly slanted toward them.
