Devils Mid-season Report

[SSiG]

NEWARK, NJ --- The hapless New Jersey Devils continue to prove that they're the most inept squad in GDL history with their latest debacle, a 11-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues in front of a crowd of more than 14,000 at the Prudential Center. The lone bright spot was the gutsy play of backup Arturs Irbe, who came in during garbage time and made several nice saves. He showed the effort of a champion, but we can't really say the same for the rest of the team. We can say this though: Here's the Devils Mid-Season report card.

Offense: F-

Reason: Need we say more? They are averaging a league-worst 1.96 goals per game. They cannot score on the breakaway, going just 1 for 42 on breakaway situations. Their passing has consistently been horrendous, as they average a passing percentage of 44.97%, good for 22nd out of 24 teams. They also take a 3rd-worst 804 body checks, as their offense has suffered due to the fact that their offensive players cannot stay on their feet. Leading the way for the Devils on offense has been Cam Neely, who has seen his draft stock plummet. Even in this horrible season, Neely has managed to score 24 goals as the team center, as well as 8 assists. He's tied with Sergei Fedorov (14 G, 18 A) for the team lead in points with 32. Not even Neely's solid efforts can hide the fact that the Devils average a 3rd-worst 9.86 shots per game. If you don't shoot, you can't win...but even that is awful. New Jersey prides itself on taking shots that matter...but if they cannot find the shots, then saying that they don't take bad shots is moot.

Defense: F-

Reason: Despite the improvement in their approach to defense, the Devils still give up a ton of goals, a 2nd-worst 6.18 GAA. New Jersey also takes a lot of penalties, about 3 per game. At 78 penalty minutes, they are 8th in that area. James Patrick and Zarley Zalapski have not been able to contribute anything of note to the defensive side, as they are constantly taking bad angles to the puck-carrier, and are too late to make the stop, leaving the goalies hung out to dry.

Goaltending: C

Reason: Felix Potvin and Arturs Irbe have single-handedly kept the Devils in games that they have not deserved to stay in. When Potvin has gotten an early pull, Irbe has come in and done some very solid mopup duty. Potvin has recently voiced his displeasure about getting pulled, but how can he justify that displeasure when he is constantly putting the Devils in holes that they cannot get out of? Nonetheless, this is still a very reasonable tandem when one of them is on their A-game.

Coaching: F

Reason: You have to give coach Tom Delgado credit for not walking away during this mess. He has said he wants to leave, but he has not pulled the trigger, and apparently does not plan to until season's end. However, despite this, Delgado still harbors about 90% of the blame for this team's struggles. "I'm coaching my rear end off to get that elusive W, but nothing I'm preaching seems to be working. I just don't get it." Delgado told reporters after their 11-0 loss tonight to St. Louis. How long can he possibly tolerate such awful play?

Outlook: Things look VERY grim indeed. The only seemingly winable games on the road to 0-56 appear to be against underachievers Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Other than that, there may be 56 new reasons to cry if you're a New Jersey Devils fan. This outlook is rather bleak. One can only hope they break through to get that first win. More than that, let's just hope they don't throw in the towel.

Tom Delgado Looks for Pity After Latest Debacle

[Carse]

im still bitter he stacked the pads on fogarty a number of times