GDT: #1 - The New Jersey Devils v.s. Winnipeg Jets in Miracle at the Rock

[Deleted member 28548]

I didn't notice Henrique much at all in this game.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Do I dare sat that our 4th line was our best tonight overall?

I also liked Stempniak's hustle.

The bar ls set low but I know they can play better and with more gusto and confidence.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

You know I'm used to fans making excuses for the poor attendance year in and year out, but this team went way out of its way to market the players to its fans in ways they've never done before. I hate hearing that bad weather had an effect on the final turnout, because the game is played indoors as its always been and we're not talking hurricane or ice storm winter conditions at this point. I expected a lot better even considering they aren't supposed to be a great team this season. It was game one for crying out loud. New season, new everything. If you can't get excited for a new era and embrace the team now, its a bad omen for things to come.

All the new marketing is nice, but the fact of the matter is, it's marketing a product, and that product happens to be pretty poor right now. Going to NHL games is fairly expensive. Not everybody has the disposable income to spend on going to NHL games. That doesn't make them bad fans. If the Devils want more people to go to games, they need to offer a better product or lower prices so that they are more in keeping with the quality of the product offered. I consider myself a good fan just for watching the whole game on TV at this point, and I'm grateful I didn't pay to watch the Devils look dead half the game.

 

[Devils Dominion]

I actually disagree with the second part. I felt JJ, Larsson and Severson were among the bright spots and I liked what Kalinin brought to the table The team got soundly handled at times, no doubt, but from these specifically lacked consistency at times against a much more physical and better team. Its to be expected from all of them. JJ has more on his shoulders than he's ever had and Larsson and Severson espc are still young, but these 3 had more moments amongst them than most did tonight where they looked like they gave a **** and actually belonged in an NHL rink. They're the least of my worries. Zajac, the majority of the rest of the defense, and even guys like Henrique and Boucher just did not seem to belong at times. Merrill also had a pretty dire game.

JJ had way too many unforced turnovers.

Severson was a few gears low tonight than what I've seen out if him.

Really nothing to take away from tonight, start fresh in wash later tonight.

 

[Deleted member 28548]

Who cares about attendance? They probably made more with the higher ticket prices for this game than any game in, say, 2009. Going by Forbes' numbers, we had the same revenues after an abysmal year last season as the Minnesota Wild, a playoff team in "the state of hockey". The people who did go paid a lot for those tickets, and revenues are all that matter.

Not sure if you mean today was a bad omen for attendance this season, but I certainly hope you didn't mean it's a bad omen for the franchise. We have one of the wealthiest owners in pro sports investing millions in this organization, and finally allowing it to just start marketing itself like a normal team. Hell, the main board just had a thread where 98% of people said our market can more than support 3 franchises. And we know they're not an optimistic bunch.

If I'm working for the Devils in the marketing department and I see the final attendance numbers posted for the night after all the work done to turn things around in the offseason, I'm really disappointed with the poor turnout all things considered. As a fan, you should want to have a building full of yelling, screaming, rabid fans to cheer the team on with sell out after sell out imo. I think reaching a point where you've sold out every game for x number of years in a row is a nice goal to have personally. I realize this isn't Pittsburgh or Toronto we're talking about, but things could be so much better then they are numbers wise. When I said bad omen, I meant bad omen for attendance this season.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Pricing overall is kind of rough right now and ya the whole fanbase just emptied their pockets for Marty night.

I'm not that shocked honestly.

Yep. Fans who just spent a ton of money to attend Marty's jersey retirement aren't going to want to fork over another big pile of cash to see opening night. People only have so much money they are willing or able to spend on entertainment--nonetheless one form of entertainment.

 

[StnTwnDevil]

Pretty much a team loss, some played worse than others but not a well played game by NJD.

Disappointed in the guys that took steps forward in the preseason like JJ and also our golden children on defense who were not impressive at all tonight.

The team game just made everyone look worse. They were not giving each other good passing options. They turned the puck over way too much in the few times they gained the zone. They just didn't make it easy on each other. This team, if it wants to surprise in any way, needs to play a solid team game.

 

[njdevils1982]

trivia crew really started out the season with a tough one tonight……had the game on in background at a neighbours place ….

……i think it was something like/close to: "who is the other active player who has also captained university of ohio miami" (along with greene)

im guessing nobody got this one including me.

 

[Colin226]

If I'm working for the Devils in the marketing department and I see the final attendance numbers posted for the night after all the work done to turn things around in the offseason, I'm really disappointed with the poor turnout all things considered. As a fan, you should want to have a full building full of yelling, screaming, rabid fans to cheer the team on with sell out after sell out imo. I think reaching a point where you've sold out every game for x number of years in a row is a nice goal to have personally. When I said bad omen, I meant bad omen for attendance this season.

Ah thanks for clarifying on the omen thing.

See, I think having years of consistent sellouts means you're leaving money on the table. Sure you don't want to alienate all the STH, but if you're selling out that much, I think it makes sense to up prices and get more revenues. Besides, I went to 2 farce sellouts last season, one at the Flyers and one at Washington. Somehow having consecutive sellouts came to be cool, and teams just buy up the extra seats to call them sellouts. Who cares? All about revenues!

Like I mentioned, we are at the tip of the good-marketing iceberg and it'll take time. But not only that, it takes a team people can actually get excited about.

Call it an excuse, but it's the reality. We sold out like 22 consecutive games from the end of 2012 to 2013, when the team was exciting and coming off the Finals. We sold out like 13 of the final 16 home games in 2010 after our division leading team acquired Kovalchuk and looked poised to make a run. Also keep in mind that for the 2010 season, we had a crazy-high TV rating (more viewers than Buffalo, Minnesota, LA, and Washington to name a few). The fans are there and the marketing has been great, but engaging fans doesn't always lead to a ticket sale and especially when the team is admittedly mediocre.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Ah thanks for clarifying on the omen thing.

See, I think having years of consistent sellouts means you're leaving money on the table. Sure you don't want to alienate all the STH, but if you're selling out that much, I think it makes sense to up prices and get more revenues.

Like I mentioned, we are at the tip of the good-marketing iceberg and it'll take time. But not only that, it takes a team people can actually get excited about.

Call it an excuse, but it's the reality. We sold out like 22 consecutive games from the end of 2012 to 2013, when the team was exciting and coming off the Finals. We sold out like 13 of the final 16 home games in 2010 after our division leading team acquired Kovalchuk and looked poised to make a run. Also keep in mind that for the 2010 season, we had a crazy-high TV rating (more viewers than Buffalo, Minnesota, LA, and Washington to name a few). The fans are there and the marketing has been great, but engaging fans doesn't always lead to a ticket sale and especially when the team is admittedly mediocre.

Clubs and 200s were spotty but other areas were quite crowded tonight.

Mets game had some impact and there were not the usual last minute ticket promo dumps by the team just to fill up the building and I'm glad they stop doing that.
It had conditioned fans to just wait for them and expect it.

The team simply has to play better at home win or lose to engage the fanbase.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

There seems to be a lot of criticizing fans on both ends here. First fans are criticized for daring to hope the team might put together a decent season (or home opener), but then they are also supposed to fork over tons of money to attend an opening night that they aren't even supposed to hope will be good. I mean, if we're shelling over a lot of cash, the expectation should be that the product is going to be at least decent, or else that we are made of money and can spend it willy-nilly on substandard products. The team is to blame for low attendance, because they are selling a poor product that is only going to sell in limited amounts no matter how well it is marketed. I'm not buying something that doesn't work even if the box it comes in is really shiny, and I think a lot of fans feel the same way.

 

[NJDevs26]

There seems to be a lot of criticizing fans on both ends here. First fans are criticized for daring to hope the team might put together a decent season (or home opener), but then they are also supposed to fork over tons of money to attend an opening night that they aren't even supposed to hope will be good. I mean, if we're shelling over a lot of cash, the expectation should be that the product is going to be at least decent, or else that we are made of money and can spend it willy-nilly on substandard products. The team is to blame for low attendance, because they are selling a poor product that is only going to sell in limited amounts no matter how well it is marketed. I'm not buying something that doesn't work even if the box it comes in is really shiny, and I think a lot of fans feel the same way.

All fair...if tonight proves anything it's that the bells and whistles don't really sell on their own. The hope is the bells and whistles combined with an entertaining product can spur a new generation of fans we're currently losing to the other area teams.

 

[Deleted member 28548]

All fair...if tonight proves anything it's that the bells and whistles don't really sell on their own. The hope is the bells and whistles combined with an entertaining product can spur a new generation of fans we're currently losing to the other area teams.

Speaking of bells and whistles, I've noticed Devils fans on other sites commenting on how much they hate the "Wooooo" chants being done at the arena. I guess the PA person was egging fans on to do this more and more with clips of Ric Flair on the big screen from what I read elsewhere. As someone who is really annoyed with the same chant done all the time at Pittsburgh Pirate home games, I have to say it sucks that its spreading to other arenas like a plague.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

All fair...if tonight proves anything it's that the bells and whistles don't really sell on their own. The hope is the bells and whistles combined with an entertaining product can spur a new generation of fans we're currently losing to the other area teams.

The bells and whistles might be especially appealing to young fans (particularly children) and even people who won't pay to attend a game at the arena might still tune in to watch on TV. There are probably a lot of fans with children who just watch the games on TV, but if the product were better might fork over the cash to actually attend games.

The bells and whistles aren't bad; they just don't entirely compensate for a poor product especially when the product being sold is expensive. When it's just watching on TV, then the bells and whistles probably do make that more appealing.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Arlette and Earl got resounding applause.

So did the hero of the game.

I thought to myself during the player introductions, wilm this be Pattys last and once he leaves all of the old guards will be gone.

 

[NJDevs26]

Speaking of bells and whistles, I've noticed Devils fans on other sites commenting on how much they hate the "Wooooo" chants being done at the arena. I guess the PA person was egging fans on to do this more and more with clips of Ric Flair on the big screen from what I read elsewhere. As someone who is really annoyed with the same chant done all the time at Pittsburgh Pirate home games, I have to say it sucks that its spreading to other arenas like a plague.

God don't get me started. I hated that more than vuvuzela guy. More than anything I hated the timing. At least do it after we score or save it for when we have the lead. Doing woo when we're getting our **** handed to us is just as bad as anything the 'immature' fans do (and that I entirely blame on the arena ops), if not worse cause it's team-sanctioned.

 

[NJDevs26]

The bells and whistles might be especially appealing to young fans (particularly children) and even people who won't pay to attend a game at the arena might still tune in to watch on TV. There are probably a lot of fans with children who just watch the games on TV, but if the product were better might fork over the cash to actually attend games.

The bells and whistles aren't bad; they just don't entirely compensate for a poor product especially when the product being sold is expensive. When it's just watching on TV, then the bells and whistles probably do make that more appealing.

And to be fair just the product itself didn't fill the CAA in the late '90's. There has to be some balance of marketing along with winning. Winning without marketing will have a fair amount of attendance but not really spur new fans. Marketing without winning might help keep casual fans engaged but not really do much for the hardcore fans.

 

[Devils Dominion]

God don't get me started. I hated that more than vuvuzela guy. More than anything I hated the timing. At least do it after we score or save it for when we have the lead. Doing woo when we're getting our **** handed to us is just as bad as anything the 'immature' fans do.

I didn't like the wooos either.

Vuvuzela guy has grown n popularity.
His chant just keeps getting louder.

 

[Devils Dominion]

How sharp was the angle when Camm missed in the first?

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

I didn't notice Henrique much at all in this game.

One of his biggest problems is disappearing for long periods of time. He's done that quite a bit over the last few years.

 

[Chessarmy]

I have no problem with the fans doing the "you suck" deal - it's their own way of protesting the needless "lets pander to the PC crowd" goal song change

 

[Chessarmy]

One of his biggest problems is disappearing for long periods of time. He's done that quite a bit over the last few years.

He's been underwhelming since 2012. I'm not sure what happened, but the dynamic player we saw then just isn't the same now. It's like he went backwards.

This whole go invisible for 5-10 games at a time thing is really worrying.

 

[MadDevil]

Rico has always been a streaky player. I'm not too worried about him.

 

[Bleedred]

Skimmed over the gamelog and ice times on the game center app a little while ago. Greene and Larsson got the most minutes on defense, I believe it was 22 and 23 minutes plus for them. Then Severson at what I believe was 18:37? Then Schlemko at 18:02, Moore at 17:40 and what I was really surprised by was Merrill at 15:51.

Obviously someone was gonna have to only play 15 or 16 minutes on D, and it's only one game as well. But I wonder if Hynes and Nesreddine aren't as big on Merrill as DeBoer and Stevens were.

He usually got PP time under them, and I don't believe got any tonight. I don't think that would account for that much of a decrease in minutes. I think he was averaging around 19 or so, maybe more minutes the last two seasons.

Kind of makes me wonder if Merrill is in line for a scratch whenever Gelly is to get back in the lineup.

 

[Bleedred]

I did like that Hynes seemed to not overplay the forwards at all, maybe there should be a forward that forces him to play them for 20+ minutes. Maybe that speaks more about how weak the forwards are.

Zajac I believe was the only forward coming in at over 20 minutes tonight. Think he had 21+ minutes ice time, Cammalleri was behind him at 19+

And while we might not like the 4th line, at least he gave them a decent amount of minutes. I think only one forward got fewer than 10 minutes. Maybe it was Ruutu? I forget. One forward got only 9 and change.

Boucher came in at just over 10 minutes, unfortunately Gionta was clocking in at a little over 11 minutes. But it's better than some AWFUL goon being in that we can only play for 4 or 5 minutes per game.