Hit The Road, Zach, And Don’t You Come Back…
October 29th, 2009 | by Carlos Figueiredo |by Carlos Figueiredo
The Devils played at home last night against the Buffalo Sabres. In case you missed it, the home team lost 4-1 and were never really in the game. They gave up an early goal, just over a minute into the game, and it never looked like they recovered from that.
The Devils are now 1-4 at home and have not looked comfortable on their home ice. Their one win was a 2-0 shutout of Carolina, but you never got the sense that they had that game won until the final horn.
The Devils have now played 10 games on the season, playing five at home and five on the road. Let’s take a look at their home / road splits so far:
HOME:
Record: 1-4 GF: 9 GA: 16 PPG: 3 PPGA: 5
ROAD:
Record: 5-0 GF: 16 GA: 10 PPG: 4 PPGA: 3
Yeah, ugly. It’s a small sample size, but it isone-eigth of the season. Coaches usually break down seasons into eight or ten game stretches, and while a 6-4 record every 10 games isn’t necessarily bad, you want to win your games at home. This isn’t really new for the Devils, as they’ve always been a great team on the road. But to be 5-0 on the road, yet only one game over .500 overall is not a trend you want to continue.
The good news is that the Devils play their next two games on the road. They travel to Boston to take on the Bruins tonight and play in Tampa Bay on Halloween afternoon.
The bad news? Well, as far as I can tell, the Devils still have to play another 36 games at home.
Maybe we, as fans, can help out the club in our own way. Perhaps we can all chant “MAAAR-TYYYY” every time Brodeur gives up a goal. Maybe start up a “Go Habs Go” chant when the Canadians are in town. Fight with each other when the Flyers come in to Newark. We can try to do everything we can to make the team feel at homethink they’re on the road. I think this might work. Or…we could just petition the league to have the team play the rest of the games away from The Rock. That might be the easiest thing to do.
So I think I speak for most Devils fans when I say: Hit the road, Zach (and all the rest of your teammates), and don’t you come back….until you have a nice shiny Cup to show off.
LET’S GO DEVILS!
By Eric L. on Oct 30, 2009
It is weird that they’re playing this badly at home and that well on the road.
I’m anxious to see how the Devils do in the home stand in early December, where they play 8 out of 9 games at home.