Now I've heard it all.

I've seen people who want Souray over Lukowich. Ok, so they had one too many drinks. Understandable. Then there are people who would trade Gionta for Pyatt (did they remember to take their medication?). But the craziest I've seen is not Souray over Rafalski, but Oduya and Fraser over Raffy. Huh? Those two over our top scoring D man? Why not toss Elias or Langenbrunner to the curb for LaCouture or Ryznar? And we'll send Brodeur down to the AHL and make Parise our starting goalie, too. Nothing against those who would like Rafalski to leave, but it wouldn't work in our favor. Granted, not signing Raffs would leave room for Gomez, but the the chances of him staying, even if Lou does offer the most are very slim.

I think, the best line up would be (if we could get the players that are UFAs and what not):

Elias/Sykora or Briere/Gionta
Parise/Zajac/Clarkson
Pandolfo/Madden/Langenbrunner
Pelley/Dowd or Rupp, if Jimmy retires/Brylin
Rupp (if Dowd plays for another season) and Bergfors or Vrana (both if Dowd's gone)

Martin/White
Rafalski/Matvichuk
Greene/Lukowich
Fraser or Oduya. I'm not too fond of any UFA defense men, or any in Lowell.

Brodeur
Clemmensen or Parise

If the coach, whoever it may be, makes Parise play center and splits our little dynamic dou of him and Zajac up, the dude's got issues. Sykora had a..not good season, but maybe if we pair him with Captain Patrik, that will change. I think it's time for Dowd to retire. I like him, but he's the best, and he won't get better with age. With him gone, we could make room for some younger players (i.e.: Bergfors, Vrana and Pelley).

Ahoy, Captain!

How lame can you get? Before I get completely off topic, the Devil of the week is Captain Patrik. Isn't that fun? This season wasn't too good for him, but hey. Life isn't always fair. As for the whole moment thing, that's gonna wait till I feel like doing it.

Height: 6' 1"
Wight: 195
Position: Center/Left Wing
Birthday: April 13, 1976
Shoots: Left
From: Trebic, Czech Rebublic

2006/07 Season:
Team: Devils
Games played: 75
Goals: 21
Assists: 48
PIMs: 38
PPG: 8
SHG: 0
GWG: 5
+/-: +1

2006/07 Playoffs:
Team: Devils
Games played: 10
Goals: 1
Assists: 9
PIMs: 4
PPG: 1
SHG: 0
GWG: 0
+/-: +3

Maybe next season things will go his way. With Petr Sykora becoming a UFA after this season, maybe Lou will go after him and try to create line similar to the A line (only not as A-mazing) with the two Czechs and Gionta. Hey, it could happen.

15 To Remember

On Wednesdays, from June 20 to September 26, FSN NY will be airing "15 To Remember," a program reliving the Devils' Silver Season from 8-10 PM, and on Saturdays at noon. The program will feature rebroadcasts of several games. Details here.

The Worst Part of the Season

Any true hockey fan would agree that the off season is the worst part of the game, especially when it starts as early as the Devils' did. We were lucky to get that far, unlike some teams, like the Thrashers and the Flyers, but it would have been nice to go until June. The season was pretty good, undoubtedly- to any casual fan, or a fan of any other team. But to us die hard fans, the season isn't very good, if it doesn't end in June and result with us getting the cup.

Now that the bad part started, Lou is faced with many decisions: six players (Gomez, Dowd, Rasmussen, Rafalski, Lukowich, and Clemmensen) will be UFAs, six more (Parise, Rupp, Janssen, Martin, Greene and Oduya) will be RFAs, and we desperately need a coach. Dowd and Rafalski will be on the roster next season, if they get any offers from Lou. I think it's safe to say all of the RFAs, with the exception of maybe Janssen and Oduya, will be here. It's gonna suck to see Gomez go. He's a talented play maker, but, not only will we most likely not have the cap space for him, is he really worth the $6 million he'll be asking for? Rasmussen is good for the checking line, but we have Clarkson and Pelley to do that, for less. Lukowich is reliable, so I hope Lou can get him to sign, but if not, it's not that big of a loss. Clemmensen will have a hard time signing somewhere, not really because of his performance, but because he doesn't play too much. The guy isn't too bad, but some teams probably don't know he even exists, and they probably think there's a reason he doesn't play too much.

Defense UFAs (for the Devils):
Quite honestly, Lukowich and Rafalski are the only two UFAs I would like to see on the Devils. I'm very against us getting Souray, regardless of how good he is on the PP. I'd rather our PP still be...not good than have a player who was -28 this season, because it shows that he screwed the Habs over more than he helped them this season.

Forward UFAs (again, for the Devils):
One day, I hear Drury's with the Sabres again. The next, he's with the Rangers. The next, he didn't sign. I'm sticking with the third option in hopes of signing him or Briere, if Gomez moves on. We need a center for the first line, and our other natural centers aren't first line material, except maybe Parise, but I'm not too sure it would be good moving him to a position he hasn't played since college, and splitting him and Zajac, who were fantastic together. Shanahan, no matter how bad he was with the Rangers, wouldn't be a bad chioce either.

Goalies:
If we can't keep Clemmensen, it's wouldn't be the end of the world. Instead of signing another backup, Jordan Parise would be a good idea (I'd pick him over Doyle too). He had a better season than Doyle, and he probably wouldn't play too many games, so no there's no harm.

Now, for the biggest piece of the puzzle: a coach. Ex coach Pat Burns and assistant coach John MacLean have both made it clear to the public that they would like the job. Scott Stevens has also been rumored to be a candiadate, but, if he coaches, it'll most likely be as assistant to whoever gets the job. Ron Wilson, the Sharks' coach from this season, 's job has been said to be hanging by a thread, but Burns or MacLean are the most talked about choices. Personally, I want Burns back, with Stevens by his side.

This all will, hopefully, be resolved by June, so we'll have to wait and see.



-Ty

{Edit} I must be spending too much time around my blogging buddy, because I meant to put my idea of a good line up for next season (without Gomez). Better late then never, right?

Elias - Briere - Gionta
Parise - Zajac - Clarkson or Langenbrunner
Pandolfo - Madden - Pelley or Langenbrunner
Brylin - Dowd - Pelley or Clarkson

- OR -

Langenbrunner - Elias - Gionta
Parise - Zajac - Clarkson
Pandolfo- Madden - Pelley
Rupp - Vrana or Dowd - Bergfors or Brylin

Rafalski or - Greene
White - Martin
Matvichuk - Lukowich or Hannan
Fraser

Brodeur
Parise or Clemmensen

Coach: Burns

Clearly, I'm not a fan of signing new players. With a different coach, I think we would be the ones waiting to see who wins the Ducks and Red Wings series, not the Senators.

Just as a side note, I'm praying that we draft James Van Riemsdyk this season. Aside from him, I really don't care for any of the draftees.

Here we go

Monday is officially Memerable Moments Monday. Just, you know, by the way. So moment number five is up. Back in January, before the All Star break, the Devils went 1-3-1 in five games, and were last in the Atlantic Division. On the 26th, they can from behind (3-0) and won it, with goals from Ryan Murphy, Grant Marshall, Nicklas Bergfors, David Clarkson and Tuomas Pihlman. The next day, they blew and 2-0 lead, but won it with an OT goal from Barry Tallackson. Andy Greene and Chris Minard scored the regulation goals.

On a somewhat off topic note, I was thinking, for once. Why should Lowell get a memorable moments thingy, when the Devils had a very special season of their own? Their last season even in CAA, Marty breaking the wins record, the debuts of several great players, including Greene, Clarkson, and Travis Zajac, and all that jazz deserves some recognition. So I'm gonna pick awesome parts of their season (and some moments that were just plain awesome, like Stevens/Daneyko nights, the 3 Cups..) and they'll be posted on either Wednesdays or Fridays. Wheneven I feel like it. Some weeks might have 2. Who knows. So, good bye for now.

It's Monday!

Since when is that a good thing, right? Eh, Lowell hasn't updated the moment thing yet, so that's gotta wait. Of course, there's always other stuff to..blog about. Several sources have indicated that the Devils have signed Sergei Brylin for another season. I won't say anything else, until I see it on the NHL site, or the Devils site. My dreams of signing the Lightning's goalie Johan Holmqvist are now gone, being that he signed a one-year deal with the Bolts. That rumor about Drury's "contract" and Briere being as good as gone have been followed up with rumors of Drury signing with the Rangers. Again, no comments till I see it with my own eyes from a trustworthy source. With that, I move to my Lowell-er/rookie of the week. This week's victim, er, player? David Clarkson (ironic that I just mentioned him on Friday, right?) and his great season with both the Devils and Lowell Devils.

Height: 6' 1"
Wight: 205
Position: Right Wing
Birthday: March 31, 1984
Shoots: Right
From: Toronto, Ontaria, Canada

2006/07 Season:
Team: Lowell/Devils
Games played: 67/7
Goals: 20/3
Assists: 18/1
PIMs: 150/6
PPG: 4/2
SHG: 0/0
GWG: 3/1
+/-: +1/-1

2006/07 Playoffs:
Team: Devils
Games played: 3
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
PIMs: 2
PPG: 0
SHG: 0
GWG: 0
+/-: -1

Seriously, if he doesn't make the roster full time next season, I'm sending Lou for therapy. He almost ended up with a Gordie Howe hat trick in his second game (and would have had it, had the refs let him get into it. Too bad, since that would have made that game seem a little better), he can hit, he got time on the PP, what more can you ask for? Dude can do it all.

We Neid him!

That was pretty lame. But dude's not feeling too creative right now. Eh. I think you should have realized that this is about Mr. Gray Playoff Beard, aka Scott Neidermayer. Not that I have anything against gray playoff beards, unlike Stan Fischler, who is against playoff beards in general (do I agree with him on anything?). And I digress..

Three overtime winners so far, six assists and -1 (you can't have it all) in 14 playoff games this season. Nine points isn't exactly a lot, but hey. It's third with defensemen, and he lead defensemen in scoring in the regular season with 69 points. Ok, he has a lot of points. What's my point? That Lou should go to Anaheim and drag Neids back to Jersey by his rather unattractive beard. Get rid of Gomez and Rasmussen and Rupp if he has to. Even throw Janssen away, if necessary. And throw Martin in his jersey so they don't notice (he can tell 'em it was plastic surgery). Hey, you never know.

I blame his brother for all this. If it wasn't for him, Neidsy might have signed with us again, and we might have still been in the playoffs. Eh, what are you gonna do? No one ever said life was fair.. If it was, Stevens wouldn't have retired, and there wouldn't be a cap.

On a somewhat brighter note, apparently the Sabres (who were eliminated yesterday) are thinking about tossing Daniel Briere. Rumor has it that he and Chris Drury got into it in the locker room after yesterday's loss over a contract that Drury signed with the team, and it could be the end of Briere's career as a Sabre. Wouldn't it be exciting if Lou could get him to sign (if Gomez doesn't)? Let me have my moment, ok? It could happen. If Lou knocks him out and forges his signature on the contract..