Is there an unknown injury? Something else?
Posted 10:24 AM ET | Comments 0
This has been one Jekyll and Hyde post season for one Martin Pierre Brodeur. He has shown his usual brilliance but in spurts and splashes. One thing he has also shown is an unusual vulnerability to the sharp angle goal in the last series and to the high glove in this series, something that had been a strength of Brodeurs. Till this post-season i don't think ANY book on Brodeur had the words "aim high glove" in it. I suspect , and I have nothing to back it up that there is an undisclosed injury, I don't think fatigue would be a factor this early in the playoffs and i don't think he suddenly forgot to play goal.
Another option is that maybe this is the effect of the loss of Daneyko, Stevens, and Neidermayer. Not a dig on last years Rangers but with the walking wounded that they played with my beer league team may have had a shot at sweeping them and Marty did not look that great against the Canes last year. Is this the unforeseen cause of these problems? Could be, but then again I thought the largely no-name Devils defense did well all year, I am having a hard time believing that they all suddenly forgot how to play defence!
Oh and on a related note....the Devils made some AHL call ups and of the unusual variety is that TWO goaltenders were recalled, Frank Doyle ( an emergency call up in the past) and Jordan Parise (brother of Zach) two D-man in Mark Fraiser , an Ottawa native who had a cup of coffee this year and journeyman AHL'er Mike Mottau and salary cap casualty Grant Marshall who of course will always be remember for the key moments he provided in the 2003 Cup run, including scoring the triple OT series clincher against Tampa and the pass he made to spring Freisen for the series clinching game 7 goal in Ottawa.
Another option is that maybe this is the effect of the loss of Daneyko, Stevens, and Neidermayer. Not a dig on last years Rangers but with the walking wounded that they played with my beer league team may have had a shot at sweeping them and Marty did not look that great against the Canes last year. Is this the unforeseen cause of these problems? Could be, but then again I thought the largely no-name Devils defense did well all year, I am having a hard time believing that they all suddenly forgot how to play defence!
Oh and on a related note....the Devils made some AHL call ups and of the unusual variety is that TWO goaltenders were recalled, Frank Doyle ( an emergency call up in the past) and Jordan Parise (brother of Zach) two D-man in Mark Fraiser , an Ottawa native who had a cup of coffee this year and journeyman AHL'er Mike Mottau and salary cap casualty Grant Marshall who of course will always be remember for the key moments he provided in the 2003 Cup run, including scoring the triple OT series clincher against Tampa and the pass he made to spring Freisen for the series clinching game 7 goal in Ottawa.