Trash cans were not threatened. The Devils’ survival — and future — is.
Coach Pete DeBoer usually doesn’t say much to his team after losses, but he says he made an exception after the Devils fell to the brink of elimination, shut out 3-0 Saturday by the Panthers in Florida.
“I did address them at the airport before we got on the plane,” DeBoer said before refusing to divulge the tone or content of his remarks to his 102-pointers who trail their first-round best-of-7 series 3-2.
The word is that DeBoer was civil, told the team to rest up with a day off yesterday and get ready to win two games, starting with Game 6 tomorrow at Prudential Center.
It was not a Larry Robinson trash-can throwing tirade that sparked the 2000 Devils to a comeback from a 3-1 deficit to the Flyers.
Instead, DeBoer said he’ll be relying on the Devils to rediscover the game they showed in Newark in Game 4, when they shut out the Panthers.
“We’re 60 minutes removed from one of our best games of the season, Game 4,” DeBoer said. “We’re not changing anything. All we have to do is raise our level.”
DeBoer said adversity has brought out the best in his team.
“Whenever we’ve been in a tough spot this year, we’ve come out swinging,” DeBoer said.
This spot qualifies. They’ve gone straight to summer the last four times they’ve faced elimination, including three exits in Newark. The only time they’ve staved off elimination since their last Cup in 2003, they went out in the next game.
The Devils will need consecutive victories, which they haven’t accumplished in 28 consecutive playoffs game. They stand 2-5 all time in series they trailed 3-2, coming back to win against those 2000 Flyers and 2001 Leafs.
They’re home, but they’re only 4-8 in the playoffs in Newark.
Martin Brodeur and Zach Parise could be playing their final games as Devils. Brodeur wants to return next season at age 40. Parise also would like to stay as an unrestricted free agent, but the reality is that he may find greener pastures and wallets elsewhere.
“Career-wise, I don’t feel like it’s going to be the last of it. Opportunity-wise, you never know,” Brodeur said. “Even [if] I do decide to come back, who knows what kind of position we’re going to be in at this time next year? I am in the position where we’re able to stay alive in the playoffs, and want to do as much as I can.
“It’s in the back of my head because of the chance with a team I’ve really enjoyed all year. I just want to keep this going. Regardless of what the future will bring me, that’s irrelevant, now.”
Parise’s situation is different than Brodeur’s. Parise is likely to be among the most-sought unrestricteds of July. He says that’s not in his head.
“It’s blocked out. I don’t think about it,” Parise said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
They can postpone that decision tomorrow.
* Turns out, The Post was right all along. Using their stars to kill penalties is killing the Devils now. Even the coach says so. In the final weeks of the season, as the Devils were setting the record for most-effective penalty-killing in NHL history, DeBoer admitted he was talked into using his top forwards for that most-exhausting job in hockey. They hoped they’d benefit more from their first extra day between games in this series than their opponents.
The Devils have to do something about the Panthers’ attack on Jersey’s right defense, a tactic that Florida is finally taking to heart. In Game 5, the one Ilya Kovalchuk said would probably decide the series, the Devils opened well, but saw the Panthers grab the momentum by regular and threatening pressure deep on their left wing, where the Devils’ righties work.