Sami Vatanen Led The Charge In Helping The Devils End Their Losing Streak...By Beating Themselves1/5/2018 Oddly enough, as Sami Vatanen all-but-wiped his ass with the final page of his Defense 4 Dummiez book by blasting a slap shot directly into an oncoming opponent as the last man back, I couldn't help but feel a new found sense of closeness to him. Sure, it resulted in a half-assed hustle that was only helpful in giving him the closest of looks at the third - and eventual game winning - goal he was responsible for, but it instilled in me the comfortability to casually curse his name like I had been doing it for years. Maybe my prolonged bachelorhood has me prone to believing in the saying "if you can't handle someone at their worst, you don't deserve them at their best", or maybe the last few years of defenseless Devils' hockey have turned a well deserved run through the ringer into an initiation process of sorts. Whatever the case may be, reading through overreactive tweets that were one step away from suggesting that Peter Harrold got reconstructive surgery and changed his name to Sami Vatanen was what it took to finally smooth the edges on his fit in New Jersey. This might be a bit belated, but welcome home Sami! Belittling you so much as a player that you begin to wonder if we truly think of you as a person is how we show love 'round these parts, and I'll be damned if the last two games haven't given us a reason to pour our hearts out. On the bright side, if accountability truly is the guiding principle of the Devils' turnaround then I guess we can all stop bitching about getting Damon Severson back in the lineup! With Andy Greene somehow mistaking a Russian ogre in an emerald green jersey as a member of his own team and Sami Vatanen using his time (after time) in the penalty box to plot new and creative ways to sabotage his way into the suite life, there's now almost too many openings on the blue line! I personally would have preferred the defense march into John Hynes' office one-by-one and lay their jerseys on his desk - a la Rudy - if they cared that much about Damon Severson playing, but them looking as though they chose to throw the goddamn game on his behalf is exactly why they tell you to be careful what you wish for. In all seriousness, the game last night was a reminder that the Devils' margin for error falls somewhere short of the mistakes that you'd expect from a nervous 9 year old with a full bladder. You can probably say the same for every team in the league, but when they start turning the puck over in high danger areas on plays that are obnoxiously avoidable they are going to lose almost every time. Luckily that's an issue that's only popped up sporadically (most notably, the weekend from hell against the Blue Jackets and Rangers), but - with the officiating sneaking in the backdoor and stealing points as of late - the last thing they can afford to do is go doorstep-to-doorstep giving them away. As we come up on the midway point go the season, I'm still not sure we know exactly how good this Devils' team is/can be, but they have definitely proven they are better than an effort that saw that them actively piss away a great first period.
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