Billy Martin, the late manager of various 1970s Yankees teams, whose career arc had more loops, detours, and sideways movement than the emotional rollercoaster it described, once said: “When you’re running horseshit, you’re horseshit.” Those are true Billy clubs of words, captured with the eloquence I’d expect out of baseball’s disco era. Like a good Zen koan, there’s both meaning in what it says and what it doesn’t say – when things are bad (economy or the Islanders’ goaltending, for example), no amount of well-wishing can make them better; similarly when things are running well nothing (2-goal deficits, 2-goal leads blown, empty net situations) can make them turn toward the southern end of the horse. The Devils are Billy Martin inverted right now, and that is a good thing.
Just to put this back into my favorite 10-game chunking: since their 11-7-2 mark at game 20 the team has gone 21-8-1 without Brodeur in net. That’s 43 out of 60 possible points, or about 1.3 points a game. The games give us something to cheer about, and are full of moments to cheer, even if they come late in the game (great for those of us who have missed the first periods of the last three games anyway).
