Marc-Andrew Bergeron - On Someone's Christmas Wish List this year

12/9/2010

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Marc-Andrew Bergeron would fill a second pairing role on many clubs in the league right now. At 30, the guy is right in his prime and already has a few years of NHL play under his belt (7 seasons to be exact). When you look at the teams he's played for in the past - Edmonton, NYI, Anaheim, Minnesota and Montreal, neither have been an exact power house or offensive haven outside of arguably last years Montreal team. However in 60 games last year, he was able to grab 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points. Not too bad for a number 2 pairing. Given that if he played a full season he could potentially have hit the 40 mark for the first time in his career. His career line of 75g and 119a for 194pts in 399gp is very solid and averages to 0.5 pt/g. Again, not bad for a second line pairing or even a third line depth role/insurance for a contender. While he's averaging about even points per period for his career, he has a slightly higher chunk of the pie for the third where he's had 69pts compared to 51pts in the 2nd and 59pts in the 1st. So he can reasonably be put out at any time and find the net for you. Further, he can also perform when the game is on the line.

Now his defensive play is merely average, but his value is strictly tied to his hard shot and offensive abilities to move the puck up the ice. Pair him with a solid stay at home defender and he fits the role perfectly. His only other issue will be how he performs coming off a bad knee injury from last season which will spook teams into offering him a 1 year deal to see how he does before possibly offering something longer. Teams like Dallas, NYI, Toronto, NJ and St. Louis could all use his skills to help better the club for this season. For Dallas (especially need his skills), St. Louis, Ottawa, etc. he could be a great addition to help them get into the playoffs and perform. It won't be too surprising to see him get signed before the Christmas freeze in the next week and a half given that he'll come cheap and be effective.
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Should 1st year coach John MacLean be fired by the Devils?

12/8/2010

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In most cases I would agree with this as the devils are clearly not performing or finding any success and the players are not buying into the coaches system. However here, everything seems different. When you look at the Devils as they currently made up, there are several veterans who have been in the rumour mill constantly since the summer about being dealt or demoted in order to open up cap space. There is little doubt that if demoted, for several of these guys, it would effectively finish their NHL careers prematurely due to age, higher salary and declining skills. Zubrus comes to mind the most here. So we can assume that naturally, these guys felt threatened and a riff was created in the dressing room with much disgust and anger towards the new guy coming in who, with his high salary, is changing the atmosphere and threatening their jobs. This was only further reinforced when the Devils could not even ice a full roster to start the season. This does a couple things. First, when this happened, as the season drags on, players get fatigued and are unable to sit out a game here or there to rest up because there is no fallback. So this is where you see guys slacking off at times in order to conserve energy or avoid getting hurt. Secondly, while it shows management will do whatever is possible to keep things together, it also shows they'll do whatever it takes to stay cap compliant - including demotions and everyone is fair game. This was shown a few years back during the mid season where the team's leading scorer Alex Mogilny's NHL career came to an abrupt end when he was demoted to the minors to clear cap space. It doesn't matter where you work or what you do, but the constant stress and worry about being canned or demoted in your job would be enough for anyone to feel unhappy and unmotivated. It may not be professional, but it happens, even to NHL players. This of course causes the atmosphere to be less fun and would further push any riff or division amongst the team.

Looking on the ice, there is no chemistry with this team either and its pretty obvious when you watch the Devils play anyone. Chemistry is something you can't teach and is truly beyond the coach's ability. It's also not helping internally as it is another reason the Devil's players are not buying into any coaching strategy. This is not the team that can fall back on its strong defense and goaltending like in the past and they will have no success if they don't start playing like a team. That's something that can't be coached by John MacLean or forced, it has to come from within the players themselves. When looking at Kovalchuk himself, he has clearly done very little this season, especially points wise. Top level players are expected to lead the team through strong play and while he's being paid like a top level player, he has not performed accordingly. He often seems greedy and uninterested on the ice. I've seen him give up goals by being taken off the puck after circling around in the neutral zone instead of passing it and moving it forward. For example the Goglioski goal in the first match up against the Penguins this season (Oct 11th). That about sums his season up.
John MacLean is a young coach relatively speaking, but the players like him from all accounts. He is knowledgeable and knows his stuff. Its clear he inherited a mess and shouldn't be held responsible for his inability to clean up up when not given the tools. The devil's to me are a GM's mess/problem and if anyone should put their head in the noose it should be Lou himself.
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