THE coach rescued the season in the nick of time by getting the Devils to sniff the roses. But the bloom is off, along with the paint from the locker room walls. Larry Robinson’s shaken troops, blistered by their leader after the Flyers went up 3-1
Saturday night, no longer are having fun.
Hard as it is to play against the bigger and dramatically more confident Flyers, hard as it is to accept that a series under control late in the second period of Game 2 has all but gotten away, the Devils also were subjected to this hard appraisal from their leader: It’s not my fault boys, all yours.
It was Robinson’s read that his favored team, which played the entire Game 4 in the tentative state of semi-shock, needed intense jolts of electrical brain stimulation to gird for a fight to the death tonight in Philadelphia. “I don’t regret doing it or anything I said,” insisted Robinson yesterday. “I had those feelings inside me and felt it was the right place at the right time.”
But he also lost it on the bench after the Flyers broke the 1-1 third-period tie, when the Devils still had seven minutes left for their coach to think of something that might get them a goal and new life. Indeed, there is a time and a place, and our experience is that on the bench nearing the end of a one-goal game is not it. That’s not to say that Robinson should have been able to scheme the tying goal, because obviously it was a myth that the Devils are the superior team, just as it was a premature conclusion that their ability to stay the course against Toronto after falling behind in Game 5 of a tied series meant they were over their playoff heebie-jeebies.
Obviously, they aren’t, if a 3-goal Flyer burst that wiped out a 3-1 lead in Game 2 could dramatically change the mind set of both teams. The Devils still are a fragile group. And even if they weren’t, we’ve never seen a coach demonstratively angry on the bench or screaming loud enough to pierce walls turn around a series. The players are already under searing pressure to win, and hardly need additional stress.
Carelessness was probably a factor in Game 2, but the Devils have not lost the last two games because of any abject defiance of the game plan. Getting outplayed in every area of the rink, they look bewildered by what has happened to them. Panic causes players to play too individually, a reason why they need calm support, not the abandonment implied when a coach says: “For some reason, they feel they know more than the coaches. If the game was that easy, they wouldn’t need coaches.”
Players don’t need coaches who distance themselves in times of trauma or who aren’t seeing the same game as everybody else in the building. It was Robinson’s point that the Devils had followed the game plan for two periods to earn a chance to win in the third. But even at 1-1 there wasn’t good reason to believe it was working.
The Devils’ only goal was off an unforced giveaway. They were only able to make their speed work for them during a second period four-on-four. Sure, a blown coverage allowed Craig Berube a free swipe at Dan McGillis’ point drive on the winning goal. But two forced giveaways along the wall preceded the puck coming to the slot. When one team is dominating the boards and front of the net, defensive zone breakdowns are inevitable.
A coach can’t will his players to get bigger and at this stage, it’s hard to make them bolder. And it’s not even necessarily Robinson’s fault that it has gotten to this point, because timing and conversion of opportunities usually change series beyond bench control.
The options have dwindled for Robinson, clearly, but he must reach for whatever he has now. If Randy McKay, a zero in these playoffs, can’t get it done anymore, then he has to come off the Bobby Holik line in favor of a still-effective Claude Lemieux. If putting more speed with Scott Gomez and Alexander Mogilny might back off the Flyer defense, then maybe Sergei Brylin should be moved there.
Every change has a potential down side, but the Devils are going nowhere other than in that direction if their coach, who promises quick hooks if necessary tonight, doesn’t try something more constructive than primal scream therapy.
During a long year, selected and calculated eruptions can keep a team awake. But if the coach can’t control his disappointment with the season on the line, he should warm up what’s left of his voice, go to a small rubber room filled to capacity with five big Flyers, and fully understand his players’ angst.