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

[MadDevil]

I wouldn't read too much into it. It's just kind of how the pairings worked out. If Merrill had been paired with Severson (which I thought was the plan through the preseason) he would have probably gotten 18+ minutes. But he was paired with Moore, and only had one less shift than him, plus he took a penalty in the first.

 

[John Pedro]

I wouldn't read too much into it. It's just kind of how the pairings worked out. If Merrill had been paired with Severson (which I thought was the plan through the preseason) he would have probably gotten 18+ minutes. But he was paired with Moore, and only had one less shift than him, plus he took a penalty in the first.

I don't get why Hynes broke up that pair. Merrill-Severson looked good in preseason and Schlemko is not better than Merrill.

 

[MadDevil]

I don't get why Hynes broke up that pair. Merrill-Severson looked good in preseason and Schlemko is not better than Merrill.

I'm thinking it might have been to not have two kids on the same pairing. They might feel Schlemko is a "safer" partner for Severson. It'll be interesting to see how long they stick with combinations/pairings.

 

[John Pedro]

I'm thinking it might have been to not have two kids on the same pairing. They might feel Schlemko is a "safer" partner for Severson. It'll be interesting to see how long they stick with combinations/pairings.

That was my first thought as well. Not wanting to have two kids playing together. It makes sense when the veteran is a good player like Greene.

 

[Maine Fan]

I am surprised with the attendance discussion, I expect that to be an issue all season . It was first game at home with many new faces on and off the ice. For me I enjoy that hockey is back.I never expected them to beat the Jets. For a first game it wasn't a blow out.

 

[Bleedred]

Surprised to see Taran Singleton the video coach is still with the Devils.

I thought for sure that he would have went out the door with Conte, Dr. Fisher, Mike Vasalani and Mike Levine in the Lou purge.

Dude has been there for like 20 years, I'm surprised he survived.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

I understand everyone is upset, I did think the effort was there and we're playing learning a new system. It takes more than opening camp and a few preseason games to learn it. Let's be honest with ourselves, we aren't a playoff and played in my opinion a top five team from the west. It doesn't get any easier tonight playing a top 5 team from the east. Two pretty tough games to start the season, however, let's give this team sometime to mesh. I was happy with the way Hynes wants us to play and I thought the team gave a decent effort. They just got out worked by a bigger, stronger, skilled and better team.

 

[captainscott]

I understand everyone is upset, I did think the effort was there and we're playing learning annew system. It takes more than opening camp and a few preseason games to learn it. Let's be honest with ourselves, we aren't a playoff and played in my opinion a top five team from the west. It doesn't get any easier tonight playing a top 5 team from the east. To pretty tough games to start the season, however, let's give this team sometime to mesh. I was happy with the way Hynes wants us to play and I thought the team gave a decent effort. They just got out worked by a bigger, stronger, skilled and better team.

not much to be happy about in last nights game. but to your point which is one i made last night i think winniepeg is gonna be a tough game for lots of teams this year,, they are the biggest team i have ever seen

 

[captainscott]

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.

yeah i tried and couldn't say anyone really shined a couple defensman were steady i guess i though merrill was bad, wouldn't be surprised to see him scratched tonight although not sure if that is th right message to him... other than that nobody stood out....good or bad to me

 

[captainscott]

Johnny Mac was speculating in the post game that we might actually see Gelly and one of the scratched forwards in tomorrow, or that Hynes will at least rotate guys in and out with the options that he has.

Only speculation though. Not sure who Gelly would come in for, god forbid it's one of Severson or Merrill. I'm not saying that would happen, but I don't think it would shock me as much as it would shock most of you.

O'Neill you could put in for any number of guys, same with Matteau. The forwards stunk tonight, aside from Tlusty and Stempniak particularly. Then there were a bunch of guys who weren't really good or bad tonight.

Gio, Josefson, Tootoo, Boucher, Ruutu, all meh or invisible. Zajac and Cammy were alright, nothing worth bragging about. Henrique was okay. Kalinin was meh as well. Not that he was bad, just wasn't very noticeable.

merrill being scratched tonight would not shock me at all..

 

[captainscott]

How about you wait until he proves he can produce some offense before calling me wrong?

Not saying you should be calling me right either, but that's my opinion as of now and I'm sticking to it until he can finish some scoring chances.

Tonight he really didn't have any anyway.

meant to had a i my opinion or whatever of course you could be right or wrong as could i ....my opinion is that he creates out there more so than i expected.. i like him we'll see

 

[captainscott]

They looked pretty decent during the first 10 minutes of the game and then were a mess for the final 50. Probably going to be a ton of games like that. The lack of skill up front is appalling but we already knew that. Ruutu needs to go away pretty soon and Matteau and Blandisi need to be playing every game, at some point. We need to see what we have in them. Boucher isn't an NHL player, at all. Hopefully Stempniak and Tlusty keep playing well so Shero pawns them off for second or third rounders later in the year.

boucher lost his confidence after the penalty he actually had one of the few legit scoring chances of the night.. but overall had a rough game gotta let him gain confidence.... i would get matteau into the lineup as well for some sheer size at this point, didn't realize how small our forwards are.

 

[captainscott]

I expected a little more effort in the first two periods of a home season opener. Even Cory looked like he was asleep when two straight goals beat him in the ONLY spot the shooter could shoot at. Yeah Winnipeg is good but god if those first two periods are the best effort they can give then they really are going to finish with the worst record in the league, or second worst ahead of Arizona. So much for being #relentless

yeah i was hoping for a more competitive game... the win or loss would have mattered less if i thought the this team even belonged out there with winnepeg . but from what i saw this devils team wasn't the same caliber as their opponent. it is one game but as pointed out the home opener usually some extra juice in the legs etc..... on the contrary could have been nerves from some of the new guys too that worked against them...... maybe they can impress tonight and shut us all up

 

[Devil X]

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

I gotta admit, i found it very funny that they somehow fit in a "You Suck" in Howl and the funny part was that it was the first goal of the season and it was loud. Its like these guys have a memo they send out because they sure seemed to have it planned. They will always find a way. Not to mention the fact that the R&R Pt2 freestyle is louder then ever and clear.

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.

OMG!!! This was so damn annoying! I had a bunch of people doing it around me in the 3rd period. Normally things like that go on for a few mins but these people just did it for the entire 3rd period, add to the fact that we were losing and it just made it worse. Yes the PA announcer added to.


Beside that i thought JJ didnt look good compared to his preseason games, Severson made some dumb mistakes. So did Moore and Schlemko. Kalinin was good, very physical hitting everything he could. He better be careful because his shoulders were getting a little high towards heads.

Im not an X's and O's guy but the Devils need to do something different on the break out. Each and every time they went behind the net and set up the same time the Jets figured it out and trapped us in the offensive zone, this happened way more then it should have i felt.

 

[indfin]

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.

How many Club seats are there? They are now (apparently) selling those ONLY on a st basis (not sure about mini plans or flex membership, so (virtually) anyone who wants to spurge for a game or two in the Clubs can ONLY go to the secondary market (although, to be fair, you can get a better deal for most games there, anyway). My guess is that is a few hundred seats that will virtually NEVER be sold.

Under 15k isn't good ... but also not surprising. Marketing aside, you have: a) a team that most expect to be lousy; b) an opponent that no one cares about; c) the Mets in the playoffs, with the NY/NJ sports market being notorious front-runners/bandwagoners.

No idea (given the # of advanced ticket sales for this game) why they didn't include this game in the Marty packages. Probably could have sold out (and they would have time to come up with other gimmicks to sell those other games if necessary ... although since those packages included games against the Red Wings, Flyers, Bruins, Lightning, and Ducks, they should do ok, anyway).

 

[Jesus Christ Horburn]

Stempniak was a monster for you guys. I'm bummed we let him go (Tlusty not so much) when he really wanted to re-sign in Winnipeg. But truthfully, he'd probably be playing on our 4th line with Petan and Copp, so I'm happy he's getting an opportunity in your top six.

 

[Maine Fan]

I think everyone needs to reset their expectations regarding this team's effectiveness.

It's going to be a long season. Many players will have bad nights.

We can't be expected to win against good teams. Jets beat Boston 6-2 then us 3-1.

 

[Rhodes 81]

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.

He was playing between kovalchuk and praise, two of the best wingers in the game. Two perennial all-stars. Henrique is the definition of a decent player that had a huge year playing with all-stars. It's like the Sedins and Anson Carter.

Anyway, Winnipeg is the youngest, biggest, and one of the fastest and most skilled teams in the league. Going back to their last year in Atlanta, they have made a concerted effort to draft big and fast players and up until last year barely made a move besides drafting during that span. This is the year where they start to reap the fruits of those labors. They're the exact model we need to follow.

 

[DevilsFanInFla]

About what I expected from the team last night. I had hoped for a better result but realistically I did not expect much. The first quarter of this season will be the roughest IMO as the team learns the new system and feels each other out and develops chemistry. It will take time for things to gel but I do think we will be better than last year but the first quarter of this season will certainly look rough. Still, I remain optimistic about the long term prospects of the team and at least this season will be about watching them grow, not watching them get worse and older.

 

[NJDevs26]

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.

Special teams was the main difference between Schlemko/Severson and Merrill last night as far as TOI. They both had the most PP time on D by far.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I like Josefson, but good lord it felt like he never came off the ice all game. Only Cammalleri, Zajac, and Stempniak had more ice time among forwards. He was on the PP and PK. I advocated him getting an increased role but I feel like Hynes went a bit overboard.

I'm happy he's got confidence and the coaching staff likes him, but if this keeps going he's going to be in over his head very quickly.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Boucher had a bad and untimely delay of game but he looked decent prior.

He was clearly hooked in the 1st and the ref did not call a penalty.


I'd like to see Stef in tonight and Gelly in for Merrill or schlemko.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

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.

For sure, when the product is a good one (winning consistently), and it's not selling, you want to look at marketing and see how you can improve that, and, on the flip side, when the marketing is good and the product isn't selling, you have to consider that perhaps it is the product itself that is undesirable. It's two sides of the same coin. Hopefully, one day NJ will be at the middle of the coin with good marketing and good product, which would be ideal.

 

[EliasFTW]

People need to calm down. Yes we will be bad this year bottom 5 bad. Matt and Shirley said it last night The Devils are now 2-5-2 in openers at the rock.

 

[MichaelJ]

He was playing between kovalchuk and praise, two of the best wingers in the game. Two perennial all-stars. Henrique is the definition of a decent player that had a huge year playing with all-stars. It's like the Sedins and Anson Carter.

Anyway, Winnipeg is the youngest, biggest, and one of the fastest and most skilled teams in the league. Going back to their last year in Atlanta, they have made a concerted effort to draft big and fast players and up until last year barely made a move besides drafting during that span. This is the year where they start to reap the fruits of those labors. They're the exact model we need to follow.

I really liked the Zacha pick, I'm warming to Blackwood, and I think White could be a steal. But, I was VERY envious of Winnipeg's 2015 haul - Connor, Roslovic, and Harkins all out of the same draft. I hope Shero took notice.