A Devil of a Defense: The Break Down of a Defensive Team

You know there are a lot of people who like to say that New Jersey has an underrated defense. In my opinion they are one of the worst defenses in the NHL amongst the elite teams. Brodeur is the teams entire defense; he makes saves that no goaltender should be exposed to and does it on a regular basis in just about every game.

My criticism isn't for the forwards though or the coach it is for the GM who has failed to provide his team with an adequate core of defensemen.

How many times do their defensemen get beat? Brodeur just bails them out time and time again. In game three of the Philly vs. New Jersey series if you look at the final play in OT there are three Philly forwards crowded right in front of Brodeur. Where were the defensemen you say? Well they’re standing right behind the Philly forwards in a position that is basically impossible to defend from.

Just look at the forwards that New Jersey has. They should be scoring lots more goals but they are always stuck having to help out the defensemen. Not that I'm saying it's a bad system but if they had better defensemen the forwards would be playing a lot more in the offensive zone even with their defensive style.

If the Devils could get three strong defensive defensemen or even one franchise defenseman you would see a huge shift in New Jersey.Brodeur's numbers would get even better and their forwards would have record years which would probably lead to them being in contention for the presidents trophy and Lord Stanley’s cup.