seeking 9W
Let us Herb.
because, fuck the devils.

NO LET UP.

Many necks will be throated on this day.

channel your inner giraffes, yo!
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this just in.


Marty is still fat.

and keeps it in the family.

THROATS ON THEIR NECKS

You know in recent years the Flyers and Pens surpassed the Devils in terms of teams I hate. The Caps were quickly catching up. Let this series serve as a reminder of why I hate this damn team so much!

By the way. Do the two teams calm down and just play hockey, or do we see a brawl filled first period where they all get it out of their system?

YAY!

All of the wieners with the creampuff job of getting to ask John Tortorella dumb questions and write about hockey for a living that are picking against the Rangers can conjure up is that the Rangers have played too much hockey.. "ground and pound hockey".. "0-38 when playing two 7 gamers.." blah blah blah.

This is a Ranger team of kids. A whopping 3 players over the age of 30 on the roster.. who between them have 5 rings, a Conn Smythe, and a Cup clinching goal. Suck it punks.

Cannot wait to be in my seat later. My first Conference Final game ever.

LETS GO RANGERS!!!!!!!!!

I'm by no means a team negative guy, but I really don't think the team being tired can be discounted. As well as they played Saturday (remember I was there) there was ALOT of standing around and they just looked exhausted at times. Henke admitted to being exhausted during the game when asked by the media about it.

If we played fewer games I'd feel a lot more confident about this series.

And btw, it's 10:45 and I'm already having a shitty ass morning so they better win.

Neck? THROATED.

This is all good points. A team like the Kings not only won in 9 combined games, but shoved people around. We were in 2 series where we were matched up hit for hit with the opposition. Also, we essentially played 8 games in the Caps series.

There's a reason teams are 0-38 when it takes 14 games to win the first 2 rounds.

For these reasons, I think one way or another this series ends in 5 games. I actually think this is our best match-up so far. This is by far the worst collection of defenseman and the Devils haven't faced a team with our type of forecheck. But stamina could be an issue to the point I would not be shocked to see the Rangers kind of fall on their face.

The good news? Absolutely no travel. That could hopefully help the fatigue issues.

I have the same feeling coming into this game.

I can see the Rangers falling flat and the Devils taking Game One 3-1 or 4-2 or something.

Prove me wrong Rangers! Please!

I'd like to see Torts punch out DeBoers.

LGR!

Btw, when people say Marty keeps it in the family, they mean he keeps IT in the family.

This is how I want to see Martang at the end of the game.








LGR

Andrew Gross: Torts on theory team can't win Cup after playing 14 games first two rounds. "It's a bunch of crap."

That's essentially his answer to every question.

STOP RAINING ON MY PARADE.

LOL, I actually agree with him, anything is possible in sports. I'm not worried about it because of statistical or past evidence. I'm worried about it because while watching Saturday's game the fatigue in their legs was apparent.

The Devils have, by far, the worst defense we have played so far. In round 1 we had to concentrate on shutting down Karlsson, and Gonchar had a good series. In round 2 Carlson was often the best player on the ice, Green made some big plays, and Alzner had a really good series.

The Rangers only gave up 2 goals in 6 games to Kovalchuk in the regular season. McDonagh/Girardi dominated that matchup at times. Parise only had 1 goal in the regular season. I trust the Rangers to keep the Devils top line in check, although Zajac has been a beast these playoffs.

With such a mediocre defense (Marek freakin Zidlicky leads them in TOI these playoffs) the Devils will need to beat Lundqvist early and often to win this series. I trust the Rangers to shut them down. Lundqvist is better than Brodeur right now. I think this series comes down to how well Elias, Henrique, Clarkson, and the Devils 4th line (probably the biggest mismatch in the series) play. If the Rangers can win the top line matchup (which I think they can) and limit the damage of the Devils superior offensive depth, this will be a short series. Either way, the Rangers win.


Disclaimer: I'm totally talking out of my ass.

it did sound a little farty...

Devils are 14-4 their last 18 games (Rangers are 9-9). You just watched the Rangers claw every inch of their way in their series to beat the 8th seed and the 7th seed ultimately by 1 goal in game 7s. Rangers and Devils split the season series 3-3 and they were all tough games, especially those after the all-star break. Every possible sign points to this being a long, tough, great series. Some of the prognostications I've been reading for this series here and in the NHL forum have been kind of insane.

• Here are the Devils' weak points.
• Here are the Rangers strong points.
• That's why the Rangers win in 5 games! Wooo! Suck on that Brodeur!

I think most people here understand this series won't be easy, but for our collective sanity we have been staying positive. I don't really believe everything I wrote, but if I think in the most optimistic terms possible, that's what I get.

Typical Torts answer. We're going to see some great Torts pressers this round for sure.

There's some record that says any team that's won in 7 games in the first two rounds haven't won the Cup. Adam Graves made a comment on Sports Nation that "records are meant to be broken." Optimism, yeah!

I think match-ups have something those records. You could EASILY argue the Sens or Caps could have clipped the Devils. And I have to say, I don't think we would have needed double overtime of game 7 to beat the Panthers.

Also, the Flyers would have been a better match-up for us than Washington.

Zidlicky is godawful on D. He makes Karlsson seem like Dan Girardi in comparison.

I completely agree with everything you just said.

Well, this is the first time in these playoffs where I feel the Rangers have a definite edge in goaltending. Marty is no slouch, but he is showing his age. Coupled with his arrogance playing the puck despite his reflexes being slower than ever (lots of giveaways to Flyers players in the last series) and I think the Rangers can find ways to get pucks past him. It won't be an easy series, but I think that scoring should be a little easier in this series than either of the previous ones.

The key is the Rangers' stamina. They clearly showed in the semis that they had better conditioning than the Capitals (as that triple OT went on, the Rangers stayed roughly the same while the Caps slowed way down), so I hope that holds true here. That said, Brodeur is 40. FORTY! He will be struggling to catch his wind as much or more than any of the Rangers if it ends up being a long series.

Pure speculation, all of it.

What we know is both teams did what they needed to do to get here, but the Devils got here more effortlessly than the Rangers did, which may or may not be an advantage. Maybe that means the Devils are playing truly great hockey right now. Maybe it means the Flyers were on a mental high after trashing the Pens and weren't much of a challenge for the Devils, and this in turn makes the Devils unprepared for the Rangers. Maybe the Penguins would've swept the Rangers. Maybe the Rangers would've swept the Flyers. Maybe the Devils and their better offense would have gotten by the Senators and Capitals more easily than the Rangers did. None of this is "easily" arguable, it's all speculation.

Both teams are in the East finals, they're good teams and they played each other tough as nails in the regular season. Saying the Rangers are going to put them away in 5 ignores every piece of concrete evidence out there. Of course, you never know. Maybe the Rangers sweep them. Maybe the Devils sweep the Rangers. There's nothing logical about those conclusions, though.

There were many times in the Flyers series where Brodeur was flopping around desperately and was lucky to stop the puck. He doesn't have the poise and athleticism he once had.

One thing the Rangers need to be mindful of is that Brodeur will not hesitate to dive if anyone gets close to him. It seems like he sells more GI penalties than any other goalie, largely because he is as big a faker as Crosby.

GIVE EM HELL BOYS!!!!

Not only Brodeur is old, but they have more 10 players over the age of 30, including Elias and Sykora who are 36 and 35 yrs old respectively.

You didn't think they had an advantage over Craig Anderson or Holtby, but you do think they have one over Brodeur?

I do agree that Brodeur is an obvious key to this series, though. It's not just this season, he's been showing his age for a few years now, especially in the playoffs. That nightmare loss to the Canes two or three years ago, where he gave up a terrible goal to Staal with under a minute left to lose the series, for example. I remember him giving up some really shaky goals in the 2007 series against the Lightning - the series where the first Larry Brooks-Torotrella altercation took place ("we know what we did"). The Devils won the series before getting stomped by Ottawa in the next round, but it was the first time he ever looked mortal in the postseason after playing his usual 70+ games during the season. And that was five years ago.

Well, based on how all three goalies have played recently, yes I think we have the greatest advantage over Brodeur. He is still a very talented goalie but talent is all he is relying on now. Leading into the playoffs and through Round 1, both Anderson and Holtby were playing very strong. I have not been impressed by Brodeur thus far in the playoffs.

so, do the devils have a K/Carls/son? If not, we got this.

Let's check if they have a guy named Qarlsson.

The Rangers biggest advantage is definitely in net this series, but the Rangers don't really play a game that exposes weak goalies. Craig Anderson looked like prime Hasek against the Rangers. He's .913, 2.79 in his career and not a very good goalie. They don't get a lot of breaks or odd man rushes, they dump and chase and grind and swarm the net, which is far easier for a potentially volatile goalie to deal with than lots of open ice chances.

As much as I like the Rangers edge in goalie and defense, I don't like it in forwards. The Devils forwards are really deep. Rangers have 10 goals from Richards and Gaborik and 11 from every other forward combined. The Devils in 2 fewer games, meanwhile, have 9 from their two stars, Kovalchuk and Parise, but 22 from the forwards beyond that! Rangers forwards on lines 2-4 need to pick up the slack big time.

Not arguing that the Devils are deeper, but again playing against a .750 goalie will inflate your team's stats.

Devils projected lines:

Ponikarovsky-Zajac-Kovalchuk
Parise-Elias-Clarkson
Sykora-Henrique-Zubrus
Carter-Gionta-Bernier.


Devils have a huge fourth and second line advantages. First line will probably be a game by game battle. Hopefully Anisimov Boyle and Feds/Prust/? will be able to be the better third line.

It's been easy to forget how much we hate Marty in the last few years, eh? I need to get into the mindset of 2000 or so, when he beat the Rangers like eight zillion times in a row.

So if the devils put out tough guys to start do Rupp-Prust-Bickel start the game again?
Will Torts play that game in the playoffs?

Yes, I do think Brodeur is/was the worst of the 3. Holtby was VERY solid last year when he was in Washington. It was pretty moronic to sign Vokoun and they did it just because the price was right.

Anderson when he's on is a top 10 goalie. When he's off he's WAY off.

Broduer has consistently been around the top 20-25 area to me in the past several years.

The Rangers played two more games this postseason. Devils went seven games against the worst team ever to make the postseason and then won in five against a goalie with a .887 save percentage. (In contrast to the Rangers playing the two best goalies in the Eastern Conference, back to back.) Devils have five more goals this postseason than the Rangers, again playing against lesser goalies. It's rhetorical nitpicking, but I don't think the Devils "effortless" postseason is an indication of their strength. They've played lesser teams, despite the rankings.

I agree with your points but I don't think you can discount the Devils not playing hockey since Thursday Night.

Yea, if anyone needs a lead early is it the Rangers!!

So the Devils have an advantage because of Stephen Gionta, Steve Bernier and Danius Zubrus? I'm not worried in the least about the Devils depth. Contain Parise and Kovalchuk and the Rangers will be fine.