Devils Follow Example of Their Coaches’ Success

By JEFF Z. KLEIN

Published: June 2, 2012NEWARK — If there was one thing the Devils were sure about as they went into Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday night, it was the pedigree of the coaches behind their bench.There is their first-year head coach, Peter DeBoer, who won a Memorial Cup with the Kitchener Rangers in 2003 and is a two-time Ontario Hockey League coach of the year.

There is DeBoer’s assistant for the defense, Larry Robinson, a Hall of Fame defenseman, the N.H.L.’s career leader in plus-minus differential (plus 730) and a winner of six Stanley Cups as a player, all with Montreal, and one as a head coach, with the Devils.

And there is DeBoer’s assistant for the forwards, Adam Oates, a great playmaker of the 1990s. Only Wayne Gretzky had more assists during the decade than Oates. When Brett Hull scored 70 or more goals for three straight seasons in St. Louis, Oates was his setup man.

General Manager Lou Lamoriello said DeBoer was responsible for the Devils’ forechecking system, which knocked out the Rangers and Flyers in earlier playoff rounds and which they hoped to re-establish to even the championship series with the Los Angeles Kings.

“It’s the defensemen pinching in to keep the puck in the offensive zone,” Lamoriello said. “And it’s pressure, pressure, pressure.”

Lamoriello hired DeBoer last summer after Jacques Lemaire retired from his third stint as the Devils’ coach. DeBoer was fired from his first N.H.L. job, as coach of the Florida Panthers, in 2011.

At his interview with the Devils, DeBoer, who has a law degree from the University of Windsor, outlined the pressure system he wanted to bring to the team, something Lamoriello said he found impressive.

“He had a fundamental knowledge of the organization, and he knew the players because he did his homework,” Lamoriello said. “His intelligence certainly surfaced, and he had no ego. He wanted to become part of a team, which is very important in this organization.”

Lamoriello also said that DeBoer “uses his assistants as well as any head coach uses his assistants” — a good idea, considering whom his assistants are.

“What does he have, eight rings, nine rings?” defenseman Bryce Salvador said of Robinson. “He’s one of the most excited guys on the bench when we win, but just the character he has and the experience, he’s invaluable.

“He does a good job of helping everyone stay composed,” Salvador added. “When you make a mistake, pointing it out, but not yell about it.”

Robinson sends the defense pairings on and off the ice during games. Under league regulations, assistants do not speak to reporters for articles, but another defenseman, Andy Greene, praised Robinson’s communication skills.

“He’s got an easygoing personality,” Greene said. “You can tell he enjoys being here. He loves passing on knowledge, and he relays it very well.”

Forward Dainius Zubrus was similarly enthusiastic about Oates.

“He talks to a bunch of us after almost every game,” Zubrus said. “He comes out with his laptop and shows clips, teaching guys — little things. His hockey sense, his knowledge of the game, I feel like he’s helped me and a bunch of other guys as well.”

DeBoer handles the forward line changes. And despite his shouting match with John Tortorella in the Rangers series, DeBoer is generally a man of good humor and quick wit, as he demonstrated in the news conference before Game 1.

A reporter mentioned all the fans who were hoping for the glamour of a New York-Los Angeles championship series.

“The glamour of New York?” DeBoer said.

“What do you say to people who wanted that and now have this?” the reporter asked.

“Tough luck,” DeBoer said, smiling.

SLAP SHOTS

Henrik Tallinder, cleared for play after being sidelined since Jan. 19 with a blood clot in his leg, is available, and “you might see him as the series goes forward,” Peter DeBoer said Saturday morning. Tallinder, 33, was a top-pair defenseman for the Devils but was having a poor year before he developed the clot. In 39 games he had no goals, 6 assists and a minus-11 mark. While Tallinder will travel to Los Angeles, his clotting condition is “still an issue,” DeBoer said. “A lot of people point to airplane flight as the cause for that,” he said.

Devils Outlast Rangers, 5-3, Take 3-2 Series Lead

The Devils turned a stellar first nine minutes and an opportunistic final five into a stirring victory over the Rangers that moved New Jersey within one win of a trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

Suddenly, No. 1 seed New York is on the brink — again.

No one would have guessed when Travis Zajac scored 9:49 in to give the Devils a three-goal lead that they would be desperately looking for one more late in the third to hold off the favored Rangers, who had fought back to tie and appeared to have every bit of the momentum.

But the game, and perhaps the entire Eastern Conference finals, changed in the blink of an eye when Ryan Carter put the Devils in front to stay.

Carter snapped a tie with 4:24 left, and New Jersey survived en route to a 5-3 victory over New York after blowing a three-goal lead in Game 5 on Wednesday night. The rugged fourth-line forward, who had only four goals and four assists in 72 games, already has three goals in the playoffs, including two this round.

The Devils, who led 3-0 before the first period was half over, have a 3-2 edge in the series and can advance to face the Los Angeles Kings with a win at home Friday. If the Rangers can stay alive, Game 7 would be at Madison Square Garden Sunday.

"It's a good feeling," goalie Martin Brodeur said of the Devils' status. "We worked really hard to get in that position. (There's been) a lot of unsung heroes and guys producing at different times. Players are playing well. We've just got to keep going.

"Nothing is done yet."

The Devils seemed primed for an easy win when Stephen Gionta and Patrik Elias scored within the first 4:13. Travis Zajac made it 3-0 before the Rangers woke up and began chipping away.

Brandon Prust brought New York within 3-1 before the first period was over, and Ryan Callahan made it a one-goal game in the first minute of the second. The Garden really rocked when Marian Gaborik tied it at 3 just 17 seconds into the third.

But the comeback was for naught. Carter put the Devils back in front, and Zach Parise sealed it with an empty-net goal.

"I thought," Rangers coach John Tortorella said, "we probably played our best game of the series."

Once Gaborik tied it with an unassisted goal that ricocheted in off the skate of Brodeur, it appeared the Rangers would ride the comeback all the way to one of the most stirring wins in team history — one that would rival victories over New Jersey in the classic 1994 East finals when the Rangers erased a 3-2 series hole behind Mark Messier's guarantee.

Carter made sure it wouldn't happen. At least not on this night.

"You have to (keep it together) this time of year," Gionta said. "You have to have a short memory. Fortunately we did and came out with the victory."

Ilya Kovalchuk knocked Michael Del Zotto off the puck in the right corner, and Gionta sent a pass in front to Carter — who had just charged in front from the bench — for a quick shot that beat Henrik Lundqvist.

"A great play by Kovy to separate their (defensemen) from the puck," Carter said. "Gio scooped the puck up, took a look and made a fantastic pass to me. All I had to do was redirect it."

Devils Rally to Eliminate Flyers

PHILADELPHIA — Two lines formed on the ice for handshakes at 10:06 p.m. Tuesday, and the Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers wished each other well. A five-game series seemed like a smart prediction before it began — but there had been a stunning twist. The Devils won.

David Clarkson, the pugnacious forward, scored a fitting go-ahead goal in a 3-1 victory for the aggressive, opportunistic Devils by crashing the goal to deflect a clearing pass from Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov with his stick. The puck bounced past Bryzgalov into the net.

“I’ll take ’em any way I can get ’em,” Clarkson said.

The Flyers became Stanley Cup favorites almost immediately after polishing off the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in the first round, but the Devils won the teams’ Eastern Conference semifinal series, four games to one. Their only loss was in overtime in the opener.

The Devils wiped out a one-goal deficit on a shot by Bryce Salvador that was deflected past Bryzgalov only two minutes after the Flyers scored, and in the third period, Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk scored his fifth playoff goal on a searing slap shot four seconds into a power play.

The Devils, who will face either the Rangers or the Washington Capitals in the conference finals, have won eight of the 16 games needed to win the Cup, or more than they have since they won their third Cup in 2003. The Flyers have not won the Cup since 1975.

“I’ve never been this far,” said Zach Parise, the first-year captain. “It’s a good feeling. But we’re only halfway there. It’s only going to get harder.”

Martin Brodeur, who turned 40 Sunday, stopped 27 shots, including all 17 in the last two periods. Even before Kovalchuk scored five minutes into the third period, the Devils were content with continually chipping the puck out of their own zone.

Then Kovalchuk, who missed the second game of the series with a bad back, took a pass from hustling rookie center Adam Henrique off a face-off and blasted a shot that Bryzgalov had no chance to stop. Kovalchuk, the $100 million forward, scored two goals in three games since returning.

Asked if he was looking forward to resting for a few days as the Rangers-Capitals series was decided, Kovalchuk said, “I want to play as soon as I can.”

The Flyers were forced to play without their best forward, the 24-year-old center Claude Giroux, who was suspended for one game Monday by the N.H.L. for checking Dainius Zubrus in the head late in the second period of Game 4 on Sunday.

Giroux, who had eight playoff goals and nine assists, probably would have come in handy. The Flyers, thought before the series to be the aggressors, took a 1-0 lead on Max Talbot’s goal 7 minutes 18 seconds into the game — but quickly coughed up the lead. The Flyers scored first in all four of their losses in the series.

“It was just sticking with the game plan and doing what it takes to be successful,” said Peter DeBoer, the Devils’ first-year coach.

The Devils had the lead, and for good, only 5:27 after Talbot’s goal. Bryce Salvador took a cross-ice pass from Henrique — with his linemate Alexei Ponikarovsky barely staying on the blue line — and fired a shot that was tipped by Philadelphia forward Wayne Simmonds before it zipped past Bryzgalov.

“Got a good bounce there, and it went in,” Salvador said.

Clarkson then made the most memorable play of the night. As Bryzgalov prepared to clear the puck to defenseman Kimmo Timonen to his left, Clarkson charged the goal, getting into Bryzgalov’s path. Clarkson deflected the pass between Bryzgalov’s legs.

The puck slid back into the net at 12:45 for Clarkson’s second goal of the playoffs, and the crowd, most wearing orange T-shirts with “Rise to the Occasion” printed on them, were much quieter than they were after Talbot’s goal. Many of them left before the game ended.

“What a big break,” Parise said of Clarkson’s goal. “If we keep doing those things, we’re going to get rewarded for doing them.”

Kovalchuk’s goal was significant because a two-goal lead is a lot easier to protect than a one-goal lead. “After that goal, everything settled down,” Brodeur said. Kovalchuk’s last game here had been painful and forgettable; he had no shots, and the Devils lost in overtime, 4-3.

With four seconds left in a game the Devils were certain to win, Kovalchuk blocked a shot by Philadelphia defenseman Andrej Meszaros to preserve the two-goal victory, apparently with no ill effect. Kovalchuk said the victory was emotional. He has never been this far.

Patrik Elias, the 36-year-old forward with two Stanley Cups, smiled when he said: “We’re just in the third round. But we’re still there.”