This is what happens when one writes before a game ends

Note: This is what happens when a journalist writes his story before a game ends. See below for full details. Needless to say, I’ll do a re-write of this.

The Devils traveled to Boston this weekend looking for their first road win of the year against the defending Eastern Conference Champion Boston Bruins. No shock — they didn’t get it.

Here are the five things we learned from the game.

n  Despite Game 3 of the World Series being tonight between the Red Sox and Cards, the Bruins sold out again tonight — and there weren’t too many empty seats. A lot of hockey fans mustn’t be baseball fans.

n  Despite losing the game, Martin Brodeur played his best game of the year — hands down.

n  Damien Brunner scored his fourth goal of the season. So far, acquiring Brunner was Lou Lamoriello’s best move of the off-season.

n  Throw away the stupid OT loss part of the win-loss column, and the New Jersey Devils are 1-10. The 1982-83 Devils had a better start than this team has. And folks, I see no sense of urgency on Lamoriello’s or Peter DeBoer’s part at this point. At first, it didn’t worry me one bit.


But think of this folks — this team is playing worse than the original New Jersey Devils did — and it’s exponentially worse than the team that John MacLean coached.

I hate to admit this — I love the man and genuinely think he’s a great guy — but the time has come for a change. And unfortunately, Lamoriello can’t trade the team.

It’s time for DeBoer to go. I am still not sure who the next coach should be — but I know it’s got to be someone with fire …

I hate to admit this — I love the man and genuinely think he’s a great guy — but the time has come for a change. And unfortunately, Lamoriello can’t trade the team.

It’s time for DeBoer to go. I am still not sure who the next coach should be — but I know it’s got to be someone with fire … ala John Tortarella or Mike Keenan. More on this to come.

But this team looks content losing. And watching it is, quite frankly, extremely painful. Just 11 games into this season, there is no reason to believe they’ll improve. And until some sort of move is made — and I know it’s early — it’s fair to say this season is a write-off.

But this team looks content losing. And watching it is, quite frankly, extremely painful. Just 11 games into this season, there is no reason to believe they’ll improve. And until some sort of move is made — and I know it’s early — it’s fair to say this season is a write-off.

n  It’s been painfully difficult for me to watch this team. There have been bad Devils teams — the 1988-89 team comes to mind — that were pretty bad, but were still fun to watch because there was spark, fire, drive, a desire to win.