The Devils have exorcised their own demons. It will require greater supernatural force to purge the Flyers of their orange goblins.
The Devils were hooting and hollering in their locker room in Florida after eliminating the Panthers on rookie Adam Henrique’s double-overtime goal in their 3-2 Game 7 victory over the Panthers Thursday.
“If feels good for a day. Then you have to face the Flyers,” Martin Brodeur said afterward, his smile turning into a feigned grimace.
New Jersey goes to the second round for the 10th time when it visits Philadelphia Sunday afternoon. The Devils are 6-3 in those second rounds, but have lost both trips since winning their last Stanley Cup in 2003. They have gone to the finals four times among those six second-round triumphs, losing in the third round only in 1988, and you know when and to whom.
In beating Florida, the Devils knocked off a team that hasn’t won a series since 1996, and hadn’t been to the playoffs in an NHL-record 10 seasons.
But it counts in erasing their own 0-fers, dispelling those ghosts. They won their first series in five years and first since moving to Newark. Ilya Kovalchuk was on the winning side for the first time in his 10-year career.
Coach Pete DeBoer won his first playoff series, against the team that fired him last spring for not making the playoffs in his three years there.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit [satisfying],” DeBoer said. “But I’m just happy to be able to move on.”
Kovalchuk, who had two goals, three assists in the series but was less than masterful in Game 7, said he was glad to have that monkey of never advancing to the second round off his back.
“It feels good. That first one is always the toughest,” he said. “Now, it’s routine, although it’s never going to be easy.”
Kovalchuk will find that out against the Flyers, who finished one point ahead of New Jersey, 103-102, but brought back memories of the bad old days by beating up and beating out the Cup favorite Penguins.
Against the Flyers, DeBoer eventually — like in Game 2 — may have to turn to either Eric Boulton or Eric Janssen, and that would break up his fourth line, which scored five of the Devils’ 13 even-strength goals (18 total) in the first round. David Clarkson will be a busier boy than he was against Florida.
Brodeur was clearly overjoyed to be back on the winning playoff side, but now must reverse recent history. He is 2-8 in his last 10 playoff games against the Flyers, and 1-3 this regular season.
And he will turn 40 on the day of Game 4 in Newark.
The Flyers will be certain to attack the Devils’ defense. Andy Greene was superb, especially in Game 7, but he will be black and blue soon. That the Devils were woefully thin was demonstrated by their plight before Bryce Salvador returned from Kris Versteeg’s dirty wrist slash in Game 7.
Brodeur claimed the Devils could grow off their triumph.
“Winning a playoff series goes a long way,” Brodeur said. “From ’95 to 2000 [except 1997], we weren’t able to get out of the first round, either. Then we did in 2000 and we did a lot of good [a second Stanley Cup].”
It may be making a mountain of a moderate accomplishment, but it’s all the Devils have, and they have their big guns that have not exploded yet.
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The Devils beat the Flyers in 1995 in six, their last losses before winning their first Cup. They also beat them in 2000, their comeback from a 3-1` on their path to their second Stanley Cup. They lost to the Flyers in five in 2004, Pat Burns’ last games as coach, and against in 2010, their last previous playoff appearance. … Johan Hedberg went 2-0 against the Flyers. Brodeur is 1-3. … Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov was 3-0 against New Jersey with two shutouts, Sergei Bobrovsky 0-2-1. … The Devils were 3-3 against the Flyers this season.