“When you don’t hear Backman’s name during the course of a game THAT is a good thing.”

“I’ve seen him screw up so many times I am mind-boggled.”

“I call him Swiss cheese because is a very soft player and has a lot of holes in his overall game.”

“A strange sidenote to my theory of ‘St Louis fans love our own drafted players more than others’, we don’t feel that way at all about Sister Christian Backman. Is that because he’s just never done anything good.”

“The most frustrating evidence came when Dan Cleary tried to put a rebound past Legace. After the whistle was blown, Cleary poked at Legace a few times while Christian Backman pretty much just stood there and watched. Keith Tkachuk eventually came up and pushed Cleary out of the way.”

“He is very easy to knock off the puck when behind our net. He is below average in knocking the puck off of an opponent’s stick. He may be one of our one to two worst d-men in making the simple play and quickly shooting the puck out of our zone when he briefly has puck possession. He’s OK .. but his level of play drops when playing versus physical players.”

FAN ONE: Christian Freaking Backman alone in the slot and put it wide
FAN TWO Sister Christian Backman almost redeemed himself
FAN THREE: I once almost won the lottery. That’s how close we’ll be to both those particular things again…me the lottery and Backman-redeeming himself.”

AFTER THE TRADE—
“I watched that 4th round pick play this year. He’s easily knocked off that puck turnover sissy Backman. Oh wait….they haven’t drafted him yet and its not a first round pick.”

RANGERS FAN: “Christian Backman is the worst hockey player I have ever seen.”
BLUES FAN: “I agree on Backman, as do most Blues fans on here. I just wonder if they actually sent a scout to watch him, or if JD was on the phone with Sather saying “he’s a great prospect…OHHHH BABY!!”

Let’s just keep the debate revolving around the Devils, for a minute. Sutter didn’t appreciate the way Elias came to camp and didn’t play well, so he stripped him of the C (not saying we SHOULD do that, just using it as an example). Renney would never do that type of thing. There are no consequences for veterans on this team.

I can name at least 5 vets who, over the course of this season and last, should have either lost a shift or 2, lost PP time, or sat out altogether. There are no consequences at all for poor play, mistakes, laziness, etc.

Renney didn’t want to tinker with the lineup because the team was winning…Well, the team’s not winning anymore, guy. Be a man, pull the trigger, and show the team that ice time is to be earned.

If my memory is correct, and it may not be, the last time we had a coach with that type of mindset, it was Roger Neilson. That’s a long time to go in between and lots of players to come through. Hard to develop a defensive team when you have different direction every year.

I have absolutely no details to draw from for the weekend games. The only thing I saw that I could even try to draw from was Gomer’s statement: “We just didn’t come prepared like we should have. That’s just the players, the coaches get us ready and we don’t respond to it.”
And from Renney: “Trying to play safe, maybe not spending what exactly what needs to be spent to win. Even ego to a point.”

That sounds like calling out the players to an extent. And I’ll admit that we haven’t seen that much at all from Renney.

But I don’t think I could ever ‘blame’ one person for a loss. Even back to back vs non-playoff teams. Just doesn’t make sense. It’s a cop-out, and nothing more.

As far as the goalie/coaching contradiction… I see it but the fact of the matter is that Brodeur has not been that “winningest” goalie by chance, I’d have to say that alot of that has of course come from the “defense first” system/coaching around him.

Beer Me I understand supporting the coach an dall but it comes to a point I really wonder if you even believe in it anymore. How can you NOT blame Renney and a pretty high level for what went on this weekend? He was just as absent as anyone else…it’s absurd.

Look across the river…thats an ORGANIZATION. I am truly jealous of what those fans are given year in, year out.