The Fifth Liners

This week it was out with the old and in with the new this week in the state of Springsteen as New Jersey Devils sacked head coach Peter DeBoer and swiftly replaced with him former Capitals coach Adam Oates and former captain Scott Stevens . A storm of controversy soon followed as the Caps protested that NJ should have asked permission first, but the matter was quickly settled with the minimum of fuss. After leading the Devils to an unlikely Stanley Cup final appearence in 2012, DeBoer has struggled to bring consistency to his aging side and has left his side seventh overall in the Eastern Conference and over nine points adrift from the wild card slot! In his four years as coach, De Boer only registered a solitary playoff appearance. But his sacking doesn't appear to be been solely based on results. Since the departure of stars Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk , New Jersey has failed to replacement them with a consistent goal scorer. This season in particular has been a pretty...

Florida Panthers   fans beware:  Scott Gomez   is coming to a town near you!! Today it was announced that the flagging 33 year old center has joined the Panthers on a one year deal. A Calder Trophy winner after his impressive rookie season in 1999 with the New Jersey Devils , his initial career was successful and he won the 2003 Stanley Cup with the Devils. But after a disasterous spell with the Montreal Canadiens , he failed to live up his big bucks contract and was frequently criticised by the media and the Habs fans for lack of effort and goal scoring and posted only 108 points in his three year spell (including a career low 11 points in 2011-12) which also included a year long goal drought from February 2011 to February 2012. Annoyed by his low progress, he was promptly waived by the Canadiens in January this year and spent last season at the San Jose Sharks where he has faired little better posting only 2 goals and 15 points! Will this team bring about a redemp...