Devils News

"It's almost time to close the 27-year-old Izod Center, according to a majority of 600 likely voters from New Jersey who participated in a poll commissioned by The Record. By a 55 percent to 37 percent margin, the respondents — three-quarters of whom were from the northern half of the state — said the Meadowlands arena should be shut down now that Newark's Prudential Center has been open for six months."

"John Madden, the Devils' best all-around forward this season, yesterday became a fourth-time finalist for the NHL's Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward."

"Surprisingly, Brodeur yesterday said he's turning down the chance to play for Team Canada in the World Championship in Quebec next month. He indicated that the five-game, first-round playoff loss to the Rangers sapped his desire to play right now."

"Zach Parise, the Devils’ 23-year-old left wing, frowned at the black equipment bags scattered on the red carpet inside the Devils’ dressing room. The players were not packing for a road trip, but for separate trips home."

"For Martin Brodeur, it was a matter of respect. The Devils' goaltender told The Record on Monday that he does not respect Sean Avery because of the personal insults the Rangers' trash-talking pest bombarded him with throughout this season and the first-round playoff series between the rival teams. That is why Brodeur refused to shake Avery's hand following the Rangers' 5-3 series-clinching victory Friday night at Prudential Center."

"Jay Pandolfo and Sergei Brylin have played their entire careers with the Devils, but this summer they will have to decide whether they want to stay in New Jersey or seek employment elsewhere. None of the Devils' potential unrestricted free agents is expected to break the bank on the open market this summer, but Pandolfo and Brylin are their most significant because of their tenures."

"After falling to the rival Rangers in five games in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, there will be a lot of disappointment and some bitterness to get over before the many questions facing this team can be answered. For the first time since they won their last Stanley Cup in 2003, none of those questions concerns the head coach. Brent Sutter is firmly entrenched behind the bench. But Sutter and general manager Lou Lamoriello will have to put their heads together to figure out how to retool after a collapse that started with the five-game losing streak from March 19 to March 27."

"Lamoriello will have to go great lengths to convince the top unrestricted free agents that Newark is a destination of choice, particularly with a team that has won only two playoff rounds since its 2003 Stanley Cup. A team whose franchise player, Martin Brodeur, turns 36 next month and looked "tired mentally," according to his coach."

"John Madden: Signed through 2008-09. Because of his value as a two-way player, he needs to be locked up long term."

"The worst playoff series of Martin Brodeur's career generated the most humiliating 10 days in the Devils' 26-year franchise history."

"Martin Brodeur glided past Sean Avery like a man preoccupied with what he was going to do with himself for the next two months until he could open up hockey’s proverbial postseason cottage on the lake. Brodeur did not have time for frivolities, like shaking Avery’s prehensile paw, which had clearly thrown Brodeur and the Devils out of sync — in fact, out of the playoffs."

"The Rangers’ 5-3 victory in Game 5 of their Stanley Cup playoff series Friday night at Prudential Center did not come easily, but it vaulted the Rangers into the second round for the second straight year."

"It's not 54 years, yet. Still, the Rangersare off to bigger things and better teams. The Devils are just off. The MegaMillionaires have already come through for the Rangers, who avenged being swept by the 2006 Devils with the five-game manhandling they completed with last night's 5-3 triumph in Newark. "

"Friday night at the Rock in Newark, the Rangers completed that first satisfying step. In a wild and woolly capper to a series most expected to last longer, the Rangers beat back the Devils, 5-3, to take their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series in five games."

"Apparently having seen enough of Sean Avery's face during Game 3's infamous, rule-changing 5-on-3, Martin Brodeur turned away from the Ranger left wing in the handshake line following New Jersey's 5-3 Game 5 elimination last night."

"The bitter feud between Rangers instigator Sean Avery and Devils goalie Martin Brodeur continued to the bitter end of their teams' playoff series. The two skated by each other in the post-series handshake line without shaking hands after the Rangers ousted the Devils, 5-3, at the Rock Friday night."

"Martin Brodeur ended the game, and his season, on the bench, facing the three white Stanley Cup banners that hang from the rafters at Prudential Center. Without Brodeur, the Devils might not have those banners or a new arena."

"Scott Gomez hovered near Martin Brodeur's left goal post, watching the thick scrum of skaters in front of him. He eyed the puck as it slid backward from teammate Sean Avery, and with a flick, put it past Brodeur."

"When the Rangers were pinned, as they were for shifts at a time last night and in the series, Gomez invariably was able to skate it out. Gomez was able to gain the zone. Meanwhile, the Devils lacked the ingredient they'd owned since Gomez's 1999-2000 rookie season."

"The prospect of seeing Martin Brodeur have to shake Sean Avery's hand sometime after 10 o'clock Friday might prove too tantalizing for most Rangers fans to concentrate on their day jobs Friday. The Rangers themselves insist they won't have the same problem. Tonight, the Rangers get their first of three chances to eliminate the Devils and advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup tournament when they take their 3-1 series lead into Game 5 at the Rock in Newark. The trick is to make that handshake line happen by not focusing on it until a series-ending buzzer sounds. "

"The Devils are feeling more than a bit battered in falling behind the Rangers, 3-1, in their-first round playoff series. After Wednesday night’s loss at Madison Square Garden they accused the Rangers of trying to knock their goalie, Martin Brodeur, off his game by literally knocking him around."

"When the Madison Square Garden crowd erupted around him, the rookie defenseman Marc Staal could not believe his turn of fortune. He had launched a slap shot that slid beneath Devils goalie Martin Brodeur with 3 minutes 13 seconds left for the decisive goal in a series-swinging 5-3 victory in Game 4 Wednesday night."

" Still one win away. And they know it. They know that while last night's 5-3 Game 4 victory gives the team a 3-1 lead heading into tomorrow's potential clincher in Newark, no team has ever been awarded a best-of-seven by virtue of leading through the first four. "

"Taking a Martin Straka pass with 3:13 left in regulation, Staal blasted home the goal that broke a spine-tingling tie, and the Rangers held on for a 5-3 victory Wednesday night and a 3-1 series lead at the ear-splitting Garden."

"Despair and desperation dog the Devils, who now have tried nearly everything. Survival demands they now win three straight from the team they haven't beaten three times in 12 this season. The Devils pulled out the stops, hoping in very un-Devil-like fashion to outscore Jaromir Jagr's line with their own top offensive threesome. They even managed three goals, but in that desperate bid for goals, their defensive strengths crumbled. It may be their epitaph - just not enough. "

"Martin Brodeur smiled wearily. After losing to the Rangers Wednesday night to fall behind three games to one in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, Brodeur took little comfort in the Devils' ability to play under pressure. The Devils bounced back from a slow start this season to go on a nine-game winning streak. After a late-season five-game losing streak, they won four of the last five to earn the fourth seed and home-ice advantage against the Rangers. "How many times can we keep doing that?" Brodeur asked. "We don't have any more times to make mistakes." "

"But that was only until Marc Staal, wrongly convicted of being used as a pinball bumper on Madden's bank-in overtime goal in Game 3, tunneled out of Shawshank Prison. The 21-year-old rookie defenseman beat Martin Brodeur through traffic for the winner with 3:13 left after Dubinsky's quick stick had kept Elias from clearing a rebound."

"He is still very young, just old enough now to go out and celebrate at the establishment of his choice. When Marc Staal slapped the winning goal Wednesday night in Game 4 to bury the Devils, 5-3, his teammates figured he was so wide-eyed and flighty that he hardly noticed at all. "Probably doesn't even know he scored," Jaromir Jagr said, only half joking. "

" Brodeur has three Vezina Trophies on his shelf, three Stanley Cups on his resume, and more inside him, obviously, than he has shown so far in this series or last spring's two series. Or against Carolina in 2006, or in the first-round loss to the Flyers before the lockout. "

"From his third-period nap that allowed Ryan Callahan to score what turned out to be the winning goal in the series opener, to Colin White using him as a crutch while Jaromir Jagr scored in Game 2, to Callahan's helmet-shedding crash into him in Game 3, to whatever Sean Avery has been doing, Martin Brodeur's goal crease has so far been the epicenter of the first-round playoff series between the Rangers and Devils."

"Rangers left wing Sean Avery, a notorious agitator, did something Sunday that one of his old nemeses, Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, had never seen before — and probably never will again."

"Martin Brodeur still wasn't happy about Sean Avery's antics in the Devils' Game 3 win at the Garden on Sunday, but he refused to blast the pesky Blueshirt over it."

"Devils goalie Martin Brodeur laughed off Sean Avery's unusual attempt to distract him during Sunday night's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference first-round series at the Garden, but the NHL certainly did not."

"Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur already had his own rule. Now, Rangers' super-pest Sean Avery has one, too — sort of. The NHL called it an "interpretation" of the existing Rule 75 for unsportsmanlike conduct, but they might as well call it "The Sean Avery rule.""

"With no Devils in front to help it, the puck ricocheted off the skate of Rangers defenseman Marc Staal and eluded goalie Henrik Lundqvist for the series-saving goal in the Devils’ 4-3 victory."

"Three games into the Eastern quarters, the battle has been joined. Three games in, the Battle of the Hudson has become exactly that in the wake of last night's contentious 4-3 Devils' victory at the Garden on John Madden's left wing ricochet goal off Marc Staal's right skate at 6:01 of overtime."

"There will be no payback sweep for the Rangers now - John Madden's good-fortune goal guaranteed that. When it pinballed home off the skate of Rangers defenseman Marc Staal 6:01 into overtime, it lifted the Devils to a 4-3 victory in Game 3 of the teams' crackling Eastern Conference quarterfinal."

"John Madden has done everything else for the Devils this season. Last night, he saved that season, too."

"Martin Brodeur has seen a lot of things in his 14 years in the NHL, but last night was a first. As the Devils tried to kill off a 5-on-3, Rangers winger Sean Avery planted himself of the Devils' goalie - facing Brodeur and with his back to the puck - and waved his hands and stick in his face."

"You were expecting, maybe, the Devils to go easily? Thinking, that as Sean Avery turned completely away from the puck during a second period Rangers 5-on-3 and waved his stick incessantly in Marty Brodeur's face, that the Devils goalie would respond in any other way but with a jab of his stick right between Avery's legs? "

"The Beast returned to the Garden last night, a crowd so loud and insistent it would not be denied a human sacrifice. And its primary target, from the start, was the suddenly vulnerable Martin Brodeur."

"After two games of feeling like every break went against them, the Devils finally got a few to go their way Sunday night. The biggest one might have saved their season. It came 6:01 into overtime when John Madden banked a shot in off the right skate of Rangers defenseman Marc Staal to give the Devils a 4-3 overtime victory over the Rangers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden."

"Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur remained down for more than a minute and appeared dazed when he got up after a goalmouth collision with the Rangers' Ryan Callahan with 2:36 remaining in regulation. Callahan had to turn around for a pass from Chris Drury and skated backward into Brodeur, knocking off his mask."

"Coach Tom Renney and his team feared serendipity would eventually rear its ugly head, and it did in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils in Game 3. John Madden scored the winner when he centered a puck to no one in particular and it ricocheted off the skate of Marc Staal and beneath the legs of goalie Henrik Lundqvist."

"The derisive chants from the Rangers fans tucked among the sea of Devils jerseys rang out at the Rock in the third period of Game 2 on Friday night - "Mar-ty, Mar-ty ..." As in Brodeur."

"Better players make coaches better. So far, the Rangers have given Tom Renney the first-round edge over Brent Sutter. With the MegaMillions horses Renney has, his team has to produce, and it is doing just that now, coming home to the Garden for Game 3 tonight leading the Devils 2-0 in their first-round series. "

" If home is where the heart is, if the Garden is going to be rocking and rolling tonight when the Rangers take their 2-0 first-round lead over the Devils onto the Broadway ice, then the Blueshirts had better use their heads, and not lose them. "We have to be very smart and play with even more discipline than we did in the first two games over there," Jaromir Jagr said. "

"The Eastern Conference playoff series between the Rangers and the Devils has been littered with its first broken teeth, courtesy of a collision between Rangers defenseman Christian Backman’s stick and Devils forward Zach Parise’s mouth. The incident helped turn an intense series into a nasty one."

"With its heroes on a roll, the Garden will be rocking Sunday, making a sound it never got to make two springs ago, when the Rangers returned home from two games in New Jersey battered and, for all intents, already beaten. The roles - and the rolls - are reversed now."

"From such small miracles, the Rangers’ 2-0 lead in the first-round playoff series against the Devils was born. Jagr’s goal broke a tense, scoreless tie and was followed 23 seconds later by a goal from forward Sean Avery, and the Rangers held on for a 2-1 victory at the Prudential Center."