NEWARK, N.J. _ Twice during the morning skates presser w/Devils coach Jacques Lemaire (Peter Laviolette didn't use the press conference stage), there was such tremendous electrical interference, there was a big bang that caused Lemaire to dart some angry glances toward my direction.
Seems I had the hand held mike and it was too close to the speaker - about 6 feet. I gave it back to Devils PR guy Mike Levine and the same thing happened and Levine was 6 feet farther away than me. Must be a Lou Lamoriello electrical force field here at Prudential Center before Game 1.
We went without the mikes ...
I asked Lemaire if he felt Chris Pronger had shown any signs of age in terms of being the same defensive player as he was a few years ago.
“Maybe his speed dropped a little bit, but it doesn’t affect him because he is so smart,’ Lemaire said. “When you get older, you get smarter as a player. It’s automatic. This guy that is what he has. He got even smarter and now he doesn’t need the speed he did before.”
Honest answer and Pronger didn't argue that when I spoke to him later this morning. Pronger did a lot of interviews. The hype has arrived and he seems up for it.
This is his first playoff series against the East in his career. I asked him whether he did any video homework of some of the Devils since he hasn't seen them as often as he saw Western Conference opponents all those years in St. Louis, Edmonton, Anaheim. He said he didn't.
But Zach Parise and Travis Zajac, guys Pronger will face if/when the Kimmo Timonen pairing aren't out there, both told me they watched some playoff video of Pronger out in Anaheim to get a taste of how he ramps his game up.
Pronger knows what he has to do in this series.
“Not a whole lot changes, but obviously, the playoffs are more physical, you need to be more physical, you grind and wear down the other team and play hard on their top players and wear on them,” Pronger told me this week.
“You may not get them in Game 1 or 2, but hopefully, by Game 5 or 6 the price they got to pay to go to those tough areas has taken its toll. The way we play our aggressive, physical style should be conducive to that.”
Here's my story on CSNPhilly.com:
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