White, Colin Freaking White!

Many moons ago, Todd McFarlane brought his famous comic book, Spawn, to life in an HBO animated series. McFarlane is a huge hockey fan and as such named some of his characters after hockey players. One of those characters was a mob boss named Tony Twist. While it may have brought Todd a little bit of trouble, it helped create one my favorite scenes in the animated series. Our "hero", Spawn, is trying to find out who kidnapped his wife's daughter. He find a snitch, known only as "The Mouth" and hangs him over the edge of a tall building. The Mouth exclaims, "It was Twist! Tony [expletive] Twist!". Since then, every time I see a Devils #5 sweater going to the penalty box, miss a defensive assignment, or not keep the puck in the offensive zone , I have to exclaim, "White, Colin [expletive] White!". For some reason, he's one of the very few Devils that I haven't warmed up to. I may have even smiled a couple of years ago when I posted the following statistic: New Jerseys record when he (Colin White) is out of the lineup, 10-2-1 with 4 shutouts.

A few days ago, Tom Gulitti posted the same kind of statistic for this year's version of the Devils: The Devils are 3-4 this season in games that White has missed. Add the three games since then and the Devils are 4-6. What a difference a couple of years make, eh? I may have to start showing him some more respect.

As of this posting, there is still no timetable for White's return. The Devils have lost two in a row for the first time since January and the penalty kill has sucked BIG TIME (understatement of the season)! Well if Bat Boy is as important to the Devils success as that 4-6 record shows, then the Devils should not rush him back any time soon. The playoffs are too close to be rushing anybody back and risking a setback. As far as I'm concerned, that includes Elias too. If it means I have to watch a couple of more losses this week, so be it. I would much rather watch the Devils make it past the second round of the playoffs.