Post-Game Talk: Devils vs. Isles. Still winless but Brunner rules. Now hit the road Jack!

[ThePSEGPowerPoster]

He separates them because they are the few on this team that create offense. He's trying to get the other guys going.

Yup. Seems like it. Though I wish he would have gone back to them after it clearly didn't work.

 

[Holtz My Bahls]

I think....and I'm just playing Devils Advocate here......that Pete is EXPERIMENTING with lineups and whom plays well with whom(and who sucks) early on.


That's the only thing that can explain Pete's rationale.....

Isn't that what the second half of preseason is for?

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

I really couldn't care less if their selling out or not.

 

[Garbage Goal]

How's Elias performing thus far? He's one of my favorite all-time players and it would have fantasy ramifications for me as well. I always get concerned how age affects players and while I know he's not that old quite yet (like Jagr or Brodeur old) I still get wary.

 

[kiwidevil]

So it bothers you then?

 

[manilaNJ]

Isn't that what the second half of preseason is for?

At that point there were ~30 guys on the roster, still a few rookies to take a look at and 5 new faces to try and get comfortable within the system.
Unfortunately, line combinations/shoot out specialists fell down the bottom of the priority list.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

I really didn't think they were THAT bad tonight considering how many kinks they have to work out. The road trip is probably going to tell us a lot about this team.

 

[BrodeursCups]

I think attendance was similar to the "sell-outs" from last year.

We already know what the problem has always been - club seats are priced way too high.

That's where the Devils get hurt the most. Uppers and Balconies were nearly 100% full. I want to say just random seats were empty. Mezz was full too.

It was the club seats and the "sides" in the lower bowl.

I was in the fire and ice lounge tonight and the black seats definitely weren't close to full. Then I run up to get a drink and you have people sitting at the tables conversing and eating the free food while watching the game on the TVs. Kinda disappointing to see really.

 

[Garbage Goal]

For what it's worth, I think Brunner was an excellent signing. Confuses me why you guys were the only team to really give him a good look.

 

[Bleedred]

Would be awesome if we can score 3 goals a game all the time. I can get comfortable with that. Just tighten up a little defensively.

 

[NJDevs26]

I think attendance was similar to the "sell-outs" from last year.

We already know what the problem has always been - club seats are priced way too high.

That's where the Devils get hurt the most. Uppers and Balconies were nearly 100% full. I want to say just random seats were empty. Mezz was full too.

It was the club seats and the "sides" in the lower bowl.

Well considering we're supposed to have 2000 new sth's every year it shows single-game sales are horrifyingly bad if they can't even sell out a Friday opener against a local team. It's probably for the best it wasn't a sellout though, 1000 less boos for the goal song

 

[R8Devs]

the defense is too slowwww


I swear the only reason Pete and Lou keep Volch on the ice is that they can't justify 4 million sitting in the pressbox.


It's ok though marathon not a sprint. Still plenty of time left.

Hopefully they don't **** it up in Western Canada like they usually do. They need wins.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

So it bothers you then?

No not really. 16,000 from 17,825 isn't that big of a deal to me. There still going to get 14,000-16,000 on weeknights especially once teams like Columbus and Carolina come in here more regularly as well as the West teams that people don't have much interest in seeing. I don't think the attendance will be much different than it usually is unless they continue to get empty rows on weekend games which then I would start to wonder whats going on.

 

[R8Devs]

I really didn't think they were THAT bad tonight considering how many kinks they have to work out. The road trip is probably going to tell us a lot about this team.

I don't think the road trip will really define the team or how they play because they usually don't do well out there but they have to win majority of the games on the road or they are going to put themselves into a bad situation.

 

[NJDevs26]

Come on Bleed you can't hang this all on Marty. Especially when Cory gave up softies yesterday too. Ya it needs to be cleaned up and he should make those stops.

Still it's game 2 and it was just one of those games.

I'm more pissed about the goal song honestly.

Neither guy won round one of the goaltending duel...they both had pretty much the same game (one bad goal, one eh goal, three goals total), only Marty got to make more highlight-reel stops because for some reason Grabner is five times faster than anyone we put on the ice and ten times faster than Larsson.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Loktionov was great when he played. Not sure what he has to do to earn some ice time.

 

[Bleedred]

For what it's worth, I think Brunner was an excellent signing. Confuses me why you guys were the only team to really give him a good look.

He's been very good. Easily our best player both nights so far. I'm not sure, I think maybe he wanted too much money and he just wasn't very proven in the NHL yet. I'm still surprised no one bit a little on him.

I thought Clowe was good too. He's looked pretty good in both of the games.

 

[Uli Hiemer]

ugh just got back:

where to begin

i thought the new intro was corny as ****. So Lame. Maybe it's because I'm not a native of Nj, but it seemed really cheap looking.
The defense was disgusting, but that's been covered.
The goal song outrage was hilarious. People were more pissed off about that than the multiple Grabner breakways and odd man rushes.

 

[Garbage Goal]

Volchenkov just doesn't fit this team and he's slowed down from the wear-and-tear of his style of play which I'm sure you all know. With that salary and with the lack of upper-echelon D on the team (granted, you have great depth and Volchenkov isn't currently an upper-echelon D yet he was at one point not long ago) management probably feels obligated to play him till it's painfully clear there's no other choice but to drop him.

 

[Bleedred]

Neither guy won round one of the goaltending duel...they both had pretty much the same game (one bad goal, one eh goal, three goals total), only Marty got to make more highlight-reel stops because for some reason Grabner is five times faster than anyone we put on the ice and ten times faster than Larsson.

IMO the goals Marty let in tonight were worse. Goals 2 and 3 were pretty bad. A lot of people thought goal 1 was bad too, but I didn't have an issue with that one. I guess goal 3 wasn't as bad as I originally though. Marty just kinda missed the poke check. I thought goal 2 was very bad.

Having Volchenkov on the ice just makes the goaltending even worse than it has to be. He's not an NHL player anymore, PERIOD.

He's probably number 9 or 10 on our organizational defense chart.

 

[Garbage Goal]

He's been very good. Easily our best player both nights so far. I'm not sure, I think maybe he wanted too much money and he just wasn't very proven in the NHL yet. I'm still surprised no one bit a little on him.

I thought Clowe was good too. He's looked pretty good in both of the games.

I'm used to GM's doing stupid stuff (Bryzgalov signing with an ECHL team, my own team employing the entirety of Newbury, Rosehill, Laviolette, Holmgren, and Gill currently, etc.) but it's weird that a skill player with potential out of Detroit wasn't given a chance anywhere else. Granted, NJ could use him more then anyone else but nevertheless there's always room for players like that (cheap, skilled, with potential).

I mean, even if he doesn't work out, which I think is the less likely route of how things go, it's a very low-risk signing.

 

[ThePSEGPowerPoster]

Maybe we can put Marty and Cory in the net together.

 

[Garbage Goal]

IMO the goals Marty let in tonight were worse. Goals 2 and 3 were pretty bad. A lot of people thought goal 1 was bad too, but I didn't have an issue with that one. I guess goal 3 wasn't as bad as I originally though. Marty just kinda missed the poke check. I thought goal 2 was very bad.

The obvious difference though is that any given game Marty plays that's poor has the age/regression/decline factor in play that's likely to happen (even if you don't believe he's currently at that point, it literally has to happen eventually as long as he keeps playing) whereas with Schneider he hasn't really been tested outside of Vancouver yet and one or two bad games is more likely to be chalked up to just, well, a bad game.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm used to GM's doing stupid stuff (Bryzgalov signing with an ECHL team, my own team employing the entirety of Newbury, Rosehill, Laviolette, Holmgren, and Gill currently, etc.) but it's weird that a skill player with potential out of Detroit wasn't given a chance anywhere else. Granted, NJ could use him more then anyone else but nevertheless there's always room for players like that (cheap, skilled, with potential).

I mean, even if he doesn't work out, which I think is the less likely route of how things go, it's a very low-risk signing.

I'm very happy with the signing. In fact I thought our overflow on forward might have caused us to cut him after training camp, but we wound up signing him after just 2 preseason games.

As far as Volchenkov goes, I'm sure Lou would trade him to you guys for nothing. Even despite the divisional factor. He'd probably look at it as a way of making a rival bad.

 

[Benedict Parisechuk]

I don't think the road trip will really define the team or how they play because they usually don't do well out there but they have to win majority of the games on the road or they are going to put themselves into a bad situation.

Well their schedule for the rest of this month is not fun so their going to have to come together at some point or else they'll be putting themselves out of it by Thanksgiving. These next couple are extremely winnable but I haven't seen anything yet to think wins are a slam dunk with this group.