Snowman On Fire

Normally I love everything about the number 8 — except when our Devils are tied for the 8th playoff spot. Nothing like giving up points to the teams below you while facing all of the teams ahead of you in the last 11 contests of the season.

The Devils have made the playoffs for 8 consecutive seasons. A first-round bounce-out by Ottawa or Carolina would be ugly, but would at least show that the team could finish down the stretch. Missing the playoffs is even uglier. Lou can’t fire himself as coach; what else is there to do? Even with a one-round playoff run, this year’s post-strike Devils would establish themselves as a team, rather than a similarly dressed dysfunctional family. Going into the post-season, beyond the Stanley Cup finals, it’s free agency, trades and draft picks that shape the family tree.

There are some big unrestricted free agents that need love and care, like Elias, who turns 30 on April 13th and is therefore free to go where the salary cap gap is largest. It’s somehow less productive negotiating a contract when there’s acrimony over missed opportunities — on the ice or elsewhere — at the outset.

Fifteen hours from now, I’ll be driving a car loaded with one smelly hockey bag, two well-worn sticks, two boxes of girl scout cookies, three suitcases, camera bag, case of trophies, box of NJ Devils Youth Hockey club pins, a cowbell, two parents (mine) and one son (also mine). 290 miles from here we’ll pass the Prague Motor Lodge as we enter the town of Lake Placid. Friday morning we start our annual end of season tournament.

I love Lake Placid, possibly because it reminds me of the timelessness one of my other favorite haunts, Princeton University. Standing there puts you in a river of tradition. It’s never the same, but it’s the same landmarks and waysigns and visual clues that you’re somewhere special.

It’s 1932 and 1980 and 2006 all rolled into one. It’s a Main Street so quiet that if you stand outside on a cold night, you swear you hear “U-S-A!” being chanted. It’s where our hockey season, like that of Mike Eruzione, comes to an end this year.

We face some tough teams in our division. We have four games in a 38-hour stretch over two days. I believe in the 17 young men who will be playing on that fabled rink, where, we are told by banners at every corner, “Miracles Happen Here.” I’ve waited 51 weeks to find out if it’s true — again.

One of my favorite scenes in The Blues Brothers is where Jake and Elwood are riding in their recently acquired police car, and Belushi increduously asks, “You traded the Bluesmobile for this?” “No,” replies Akroyd, “I traded the Bluesmobile for a microphone.”

So far I’ve watched Lukowich take his eyes off of Peter Forsberg while shorthanded, saw Klee watch pucks skip over his stick on the power play, seen the Devils squander a week’s worth of power play opportunities, and observed the Canadiens, Lightning and Thrashers crawling up the Devils playoff tailpipe.

Lou is rolling his lines, trying to find a combination who can score. Yo, Lou, how about a combination who can control the puck at the blueline at even strength?

We traded the Suglo-mobile for this?

A microphone, a la Jake Blues, I could understand. Too bad the microphone isn’t announcing Devils goals.

I follow number 8s. It’s my number, it’s my son’s number, it’s fun to look for the little snowmen in all their shapes and sizes in the wild. I have pictures of seat number 8 from the 1980 Olympic Rink, and a ticket for seat number 8 at that rink on February 22, 1980, and a collection of jerseys bearing the twin circles.

Vadim Sharifijanov. Igor Larionov. Sean Brown. And with Brown’s trade, number 8 on the Devils’ roster opened up for new blueliner Ken Klee.

Klee and Lukowich, the two defenseman acquired by the Devils at the trade deadline, will prove their worth down the stretch. They both have looked a bit out of place in the early going, but the Devils play a tough defensive system and they’re the new guys in Jersey. Give them both another week (there are four consecutive days of practices scheduled over the St. Patrick’s Day stretch), and they’ll be clicking while giving Rafalski, White and the other D-men some needed rest.

The Devils have 16 games in the next 32 days: Starting Sunday, they play effectively every other day until April 18th. Big guys with big sticks will matter.

Our coach’s son sometimes attends our Pee Wee level practices. He’s a goalie, 15 years old, and he’ll get on the ice with our two 12-year old goalies and work on controlling rebounds and deflecting pucks that would otherwise tip in off of a glove or pad. He does it because he’s a good kid, because he can spend an extra hour on the ice with his father, and because he loves hockey.

One day the kids on our team will talk about those practices.

They’ll remember seeing this goalie, knit cap pulled low over his curly hair, firing pucks at them wearing his goalie waffle and glove. They’ll remember the encouragement and whatever small tricks they learned on the ice. They’ll remember when this goalie makes the big time, because he gave his own big time to them without being asked or paid.

I joked with Coach’s Kid a few weeks ago that I wanted to break his story, but this week USA Hockey beat me to the scoop on their web site: Garrett Beckwith made the splash page, talking about tryouts for the National Development Team and playing for the National Championship with the NJ Devils Youth Hockey Club U16 Team.

Before he becomes a big player, Garrett has shown what it means to be a big person. We wish him, his teammates, and his teams, all of the luck they richly deserve.

Nice day for Devils hockey fans.

Our little Devils wound up their season with a 6-1 win, with six different players putting the puck in the net. What they worked on all year — passing, skating, controlling the flow, taking away passing lanes, clearing rebounds — all came together. Great way to enter the last two weeks of skating before we’re off to Lake Placid for the year-end tournament.

The big Devils had the (practice) ice before us. No Elias — still hurting. Not good. Langdon and Krisjanis Redlihs got an extra skating session in after the rest of the team was in the showers. Both were scratches tonight, but it was the first time Redlihs was on the Devils’ roster (he was called up from Albany). With Matvichuk hurting, maybe we’ll see the Riga rook soon (he’s Latvian, not Swedish).

Highlight of the morning skate: the players all stopped to sign autographs on their way off of the ice. Marty must have signed a dozen, and Zach Parise autographed a wide variety of sticks, hats, and one person’s year-old copy of USA Hockey magazine with Parise’s 20-year old mug gracing the cover (that would have been me). David Hale got some major props from the Mite squads waiting for him.

Both Hale and Parise had assists tonight as the Devils knocked down the blueshirts, 2-1. You can be nice and good at the same time.

But highlight of the highlight was Jason Ryznar. Despite the fact that he was sweating like a marathon runner in July, and that half of the kids gave the cocked-head “Who are you?” at his Hancock, he was good-natured, stopped to talk to the adults and the kids, and gave an honest answer when I asked him “What’s the best thing you can do in Albany?”. “Sleeping” was Ryznar’s reply.

Fair enough. For Parise, Ryznar, Hale and Redlihs, I’d have wagered on “leaving” as the best part of Albany, but that would be a complete and total ken a hora. I’m glad to see the four of them skating around on our rink.