John Tortorella

Chris Drury

Henrik Lundqvist

Jason Arnott

Dan Ellis

Notes:

POST-GAME QUOTES

John Tortorella on the team…

“When you are trying to crawl out of a hole and trying to gain some consistency in your game, your structure of your team concept and your discipline, at all times, at this time of year, is so important.  We are not good enough not to be dead on with that stuff there.”

Henrik Lundqvist on his play…

“I felt good.  There were a lot of breakaways tonight.  They created a lot around the net.  I knew, going into the game, I can’t afford any mistakes.  I think the D played really well around the net.  It is really tough.  We play as good as we can in our end, still let up a couple of breakaways, but I still think we played pretty good in our end.  It comes down to scoring.  You can see how you feed off of a goal.  As you score we get energy and some speed but then they score and we lose that energy a little bit.”

Chris Drury on the team…

“We have just been trying to play the right way. We have been playing the right way for the most part. It’s just such a fine line in this League, the smallest little mistake, whether it’s a penalty or just not finishing a great chance, or just the bounce of the puck can cost you the game and can get you spinning in the wrong direction.”

For more information contact Bob Trainor at trainorcomm@gmail.com.

In related news, Islander fans declared they want the Cup after seeing John Tavares at rookie camp while Ranger fans took to the streets demanding Glen Sather be fired. Hey. One can dream.

So, is bringing back Lemaire the right move for the Devils? That depends on how much he learned from his Minnesota experience along with final days from the previous New Jersey stint. He gets to coach another talented player in Zach Parise, whose fresh off a 45-goal, 94-point season. What does this mean for Parise along with ZZ Popp linemates Travis Zajac and Jamie Langenbrunner?

Knowing that writing off the Devils is like killing Michael Myers, I’m not about to jump the gun. If being a Ranger fan has taught me anything, it’s that you just can’t count out the Devils. They had plenty of success under Lemaire the first time and one Brian Rolston should be quite familiar with what to expect. He played his best hockey under the defensive mind in St. Paul.

I’m more curious to see how Patrik Elias performs. He was a rookie the last time Jacques was there and the subject of controversy in a first round upset loss to immortal Damian Rhodes and the Sens. A lot’s changed since with Elias now the all-time Devils leading scorer supplanting former assistant  turned Lowell coach John MacLean. He also has won two Stanley Cups including the memorable set up of Jason Arnott’s sudden death clincher.

Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski accurately points out that Lemaire’s return pits him against former pupil Marian Gaborik, who signed with the Hudson rival Rangers. That should give a little extra juice to the rivalry. Why am I not the least excited?

Lemaire is bringing Wild assistant/former Habs coach Mario Tremblay and Tommy Albelin will be his other assistant with Hall of Famer Scott Stevens expected to play a bigger role as a special advisor. What that means exactly who knows. I’ll leave that to our resident NJD blogger Hasan.

There’s really not much else to say. This was expected once  Brent Sutter predictably quit to be with older brother Darryl in Calgary. At least the Devils brought in a coach who is passionate about the job and knows what to expect. Say what you will about Lemaire’s system but you’ll at least see more grins on that bench and a little more persona during the postgame.

Maybe it’s not all that bad a move. The Devil D didn’t exactly get the job done against Carolina. I guess we’ll leave the final verdict to Hasan.