It needs to be a blue bus. I worked on a bus for the "neurologically impaired" some of the smartest mother ****ers I've ever met.. never play chess with a retard.
Oh I have a friend like that. He's absolutely the dumbest dude I know, like once when we were out and he asked what was falling from the sky ("That's snow, Phil."), but he was brilliant at chess and anything dealing with math. Incredible.
Trots...Let's just wait until April. Is that fair? I know there is no way you would disagree on this.
Then we can discusss the finer point until July 1.
That cool?
That's my point; let's wait and see....and enjoy the ride. I know I've been enjoying this season, bumps and all.
And if NJD doesn't make the playoffs or fizzles rapidly once there, so it goes. I will have been proven incorrect, as I am daily five times before breakfast.
If Zach departs in the summer, so it goes. I believe he will stay, but unlike others, I claim knowledge of nothing regarding his fate.
Regardless, I will always be optimistic. That's not changing. And no apologies for it.
And, likewise, will leave the multitude of Debbie Downer, Rebels without a Clue to continue to do their thing. Free expression.
That's my point; let's wait and see....and enjoy the ride.
And if NJD doesn't make the playoffs or fizzles rapidly once there, so it goes. I will have been proven incorrect, as I am daily five times before breakfast.
But I will always be optimistic. That's not changing. And no apologies for it.
And, likewise, will leave the multitude of Debbie Downer, Rebels without a Clue to continue to do their thing. Free expression.
Fair enough.
But please, please, please be here in April to counter the, "oh, we lost to Carolina because Suter lost his balls and played scared and tried to hold onto a lead, instead of forchecking"
Is that cool?
and I just burned microwave popcorn, if I continue to post here, the fire alarm is going to go off.
No. Not at all. There is some stupid hate for Kovalchuk that will never happen to Parise.
I don't really understand why people do have that hate, but I guess I can reason it out. It really just comes from a lack of understanding hockey or never really playing it. I think seeing a star player who is so talented actually repels some people due to some weird jealousy along with being a Russian which immediately brings up stereotypes and old Cold War era feelings.
I think the best way to go around it is just to understand that these people are ignorant and really just don't understand the game. I remember having the debates early on in the season and there was no statistical proof of anything that they would say. Thus, their arguments are baseless and just stem from stupidity and a lack of knowledge about the sport.
It really isn't that deep. Yes, people love Zach in part cause he's the All-American hero, but people aren't holding Kovy being Russian against him. Sergei Brylin was a total fan favorite and he was a Russian.
Kovy's got the $100 million tag...that's twice as much money as any Devil has ever been given in a total contract. And not only that, but it took two months to get him that contract, and a first/third round pick plus a fine. And he's never had playoff success, and he started his Devils career (his real one, not the rental stint) ridiculously bad so his A is in fact, a scarlet A. And rightly or wrongly, people see him and his contract as the reason Zach is headed out the door.
And yes some fans are dumb as ****, but I don't recall them 'ever' actively booing a home player before, even a guy who was a dog for us for three years like Rolston.
That's my point; let's wait and see....and enjoy the ride. I know I've been enjoying this season, bumps and all.
And if NJD doesn't make the playoffs or fizzles rapidly once there, so it goes. I will have been proven incorrect, as I am daily five times before breakfast.
If Zach departs in the summer, so it goes. I believe he will stay, but unlike others, I claim knowledge of nothing regarding his fate.
Regardless, I will always be optimistic. That's not changing. And no apologies for it.
And, likewise, will leave the multitude of Debbie Downer, Rebels without a Clue to continue to do their thing. Free expression.
And it's not about "proving" anything. I'm really surprised you posted that.
Unlike many around here, having the NJD be a winning team is important to me, especially the Stanley Cup Championships.
I WANT TO KISS ZACH'S A$$! I want to to have all 3 of my children witness the Championship of my favorite team.
I've said it a billion times: I'll be the first here to prove how I was wrong about Parise and how he came through and really showed that he is a worthy leader.
But please, please, please be here in April to counter the, "oh, we lost to Carolina because Suter lost his balls and played scared and tried to hold onto a lead, instead of forchecking"
Is that cool?
You win in the playoffs because you deserve to win; you've earned it. You lose because you deserve to lose.
The rest is excuses and BS. Which constitutes 95% of the content on HF.
I want this team to win the Cup, this spring. I do not believe they will. I do think they have in them the potential to make a nice, exciting run. And, unlike 2010-11, I'm enjoying "the show" this season, regardless of how the final act plays out.
***
I have no horse in this silly make believe Zach v. Kovy race. And I'm not here to change anyone's opinion about the respective players; I like both of them, and frankly, don't give it much thought beyond that. What I find mind-numbing is when we criticize a player - ANY player - for mundane things like...missing a shot on net...missing a pass in the offensive zone...not scoring. I mean, really? Really?
You win in the playoffs because you deserve to win; you've eanred it. You lose because you deserve to lose.
The rest is excuses and BS. Which constitutes 95% of the content on HF.
I want this team to win the Cup, this spring. I do not believe they will. I do think they have a nice run in them. That is all. And, unlike 2010-11, I'm enjoying the show this season, regardless of how the final act plays out.
I'm enjoying every season, because I see the growth of our younger players/draft picks and the passion brought in from the outside (Kovalchuk) to a wimpy, passionless team that is in transition due to player attrition, the aging of key player & our horrible draft/1st round draft positioning every year and our horrible pre-lockout out drafting.
Last year I said 3 years from now I hope we can contend. And I don't mean "contend" like this year where we hope to make the playoffs and not matchup against half the competition because we'll get whitewashed out within 2 weeks.
Like contend contend. Hopefully 2 more season on this one will give Larsson more time, maybe get a real PMD through a trade or UFA, emergence of another rookie or two for depth on D, and our offense continuing to find it's identity. The beauty of sports is that it can always be your year albeit unlikely or not.
Some seriously valid contributions and discussions going on this thread.
Squabbling about Parise v. Kovalchuk is akin to13 year old girls arguing over Team Edward v. Team Jacob.
Bottom line is we have people that are still butthurt about Parise not "coming up big" in PO's over the last several years, and others who are still butthurt that Kovie got a $100 million dollar contract that will "cripple the franchise". Both viewpoints are somewhat ridiculous.
Both players still have a lot to prove, and luckily, they are still relatively young and certainly have the potential to prove the naysayers wrong. But in seemingly typical NJD fanbase fashion, rather than lend support to these franchise players, they get bashed at every opportunity by those of each respective camp. This despite the fact that their presence on this team is probably the main reason the Devils are even competitive.
The Kovie haters (a small but apparently very vocal minority) are particularly grating. They will continue to openly insist that he is a burden to this franchise that can never live up to his contract, despite evidence of brilliant offensive play and improved defensive/team play that will most likely only get better. The man is clearly capable of becoming a "true devil" (which is why Lou signed him) yet they continue to perpetuate the negative stereotypes. Like I have said in past posts, do we not have enough people from outside this organization/fanbase who bash our team and players? Why does our own fanbase need to get in on the act?
And yes some fans are dumb as ****, but I don't recall them 'ever' actively booing a home player before, even a guy who was a dog for us for three years like Rolston.
They booood Sean Burke, towards the end of the 1988-1989 season, when the team looked like it was going to fail at it post-Cinderella season follow up (and Tererri was beginning to grab the reigns)
When asked about the booos, Burke said, "they can go to hell."
So the chant in the late late season after that wasm "go to hell Burke....go to hell Burke." Along with the booos.
Interesting enough, that was the 1st season we didn't qualify for the post-season under Lamoriello.
Only happened twice since then and that was 23 years ago.
Oh nay sir, I am no grammar Nazi, I literally just saw "Jofferson" and started laughing. I'm going to start calling him Jofferson.
I was at a game once and these crazy old guys were yelling at Brodeur, but calling him Norm and Norman, like "Get back in the paint Norman!", "Great save Norm!", and "How'd you let that **** in Norman????", so to this day my friend and I call Marty Norm.
Can we go back to this? Holy ****, I can't even explain how hard this is making me laugh.
It needs to be a blue bus. I worked on a bus for the "neurologically impaired" some of the smartest mother ****ers I've ever met.. never play chess with a retard.
You are going to move a 20+ goal scorer to your 10-12 minutes a night, 4th line?
Or are you suggesting democratically dividing up icetime equally between all four lines, intramural like?
I'm not trying to be sarcastic, I'm just wondering what the **** I'm reading.
When I wrote that I was working on 3 hours sleep. Maybe in retrospect the 4th line isn't the best fit for him considering the minutes drop. That said, he does not seem to fit with Elias and Sykora at all. You can't really break up the 3rd line ATM and he shouldn't be on the top line. So the two options seem to be put him on the 4th line or put Sykora on the 4th line. Sykie seems lost without Elias so I'm hesitant to do that. Maybe drop Bernier down to the 4th and Slot Clarkson in there? I dunno. I'm sure there will be injuries between now and then that do the deciding for Pete. It's just interesting to think what the lines would look like with a fully healthy group of forwards.
IF Elias's shot vs. Vancouver hadn't gone a ft wide on the gaping top left corner,
IF Schneider didn't play like it was game 7 of the SCF,
IF Parise's rebound backhand had just been lifted up 6 inches,
IF Kovalchuk's wrap around went 5 hole rather than post,
IF Henrique's SH deke & drop pass had been on Kovy's forehand rather than backhand,
IF St. Louis' shot hit Salvador (twice) when he was right there in perfect position to block it,
We'd be talking about how great the team looks heading into tonight's game.
lIFe is so fickle. It's not like a few lucky bounces would have turned both games around completely, because it would have. No reason to think the players and coach don't know that either. The puck luck will change - I'd rather have it going against us now than in the playoffs.
I have to disagree there a bit RG. I was fine with the VAN loss. A damn good effort against arguably the best team in the league. A game where they carried much of the play and looked like they really wanted it.
However, this game was only about one if IMO. What if they gave an honest effort? If they played a similar game to the one against the Canucks; hell if they played a game at half the intensity we saw against the Canucks, they win this. It's certainly not the end of the world. I'm over the fact that they lost already. It's just tough to get over the mediocre, lax, uninspired effort. It seems to be a trend with this team against teams below them in the standings.
IF Elias's shot vs. Vancouver hadn't gone a ft wide on the gaping top left corner,
IF Schneider didn't play like it was game 7 of the SCF,
IF Parise's rebound backhand had just been lifted up 6 inches,
IF Kovalchuk's wrap around went 5 hole rather than post,
IF Henrique's SH deke & drop pass had been on Kovy's forehand rather than backhand,
IF St. Louis' shot hit Salvador (twice) when he was right there in perfect position to block it,
We'd be talking about how great the team looks heading into tonight's game.
lIFe is so fickle. It's not like a few lucky bounces would have turned both games around completely, because it would have. No reason to think the players and coach don't know that either. The puck luck will change - I'd rather have it going against us now than in the playoffs.
This.
Devils were the beneficiaries of a lot of bounces in the past couple weeks. Won't always be that way.
As long as we're playing good hockey (and I believe we are despite the losses), at this point I'm okay. You're not going to win every game, and if they beat the Rangers tonight, I won't even remember this game.
