Devils in the Details

For the first time since the 1993-94 season. Martin Brodeur will not see an overwhelming majority of the starts in the New Jersey Devils net, as the legendary goaltender will be out three-to-four months, as he will undergo surgery to repair torn bicep tendons in his left arm. That leaves the duties up to Kevin Weekes to carry the Devils to the playoffs. In the words of Gregg "Opie" Hughes....good luck, bro.

To say this hurts the Devils is like saying the Atlantic Ocean is merely a puddle. This is a monumental loss and very well could not only effect the Devils in the future....but Brodeur's career as well. We'll get to that in a second.

But, for the Devils, they will need to hope that their young squad of unknowns on the blue line can really step it up and that the forwards can actually post up some amazing numbers to give some support to Weekes or whoever may end up in goal. While one player does not a team make, you can argue that a majority of the success over the years was due to Brodeur.

Let's be honest, Kevin Weekes will not be the savior of this team....or any team. He only has two winning seasons in his entire career, none in the NHL. In fact, his best winning percentage in the NHL is .500. For a career, Weekes has .397 winning percentage, which would be great if he was hitting clean-up for the Mets, but he's in net for the Devils. If his performance isn't up to par...Lou Lamoriello may want to start looking at some options out there.

As far a Brodeur is concerned, the big issue is how he will recover from this injury. Marty isn't a spring chicken anymore and it could take time to heal for the old veteran. Especially, considering that it's his catching arm, how well is he going to utilize that glove hand and will it effect his stick-handling ability that makes him a transitional threat when behind his net.

As of right now, I'm sure Devils fans are just shaking their heads and wondering if this is all a dream and when they wake up-- it'll all be okay. Sadly Devils fans, it's not going to be that easy and you may want to see if Chris Terreri, the goalie coach of the Lowell Devils, wants to take one more kick in the can. I mean, he's only 43 and really, probably a better option than Kevin Weekes at this point.