What Excites You about Next Season?

[Comparison Ford]

Excited for Larsson's snarl, for Damon's full season, for Palmieri to be our right handed Henrique, for Zajac to actually score points, and for Schneider's Vezina nod.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Totally agree. In the NBA you can win with 1 or 2 superstars. You cannot do that in the NHL. If that was the case, the Penguins would have won multiple Cups and the Sabres and Oilers would be dominating the league. To be honest, I think the owners have done very well IMO. Pure speculation on my part but I think they came in, stabilized the financial situation in terms of business operations, then turned their primary focus to building a competitive team. Part of that was moving forward which is where Shero came in. He has made some very smart moves that in no way remind me of the Sixers franchise. He's not pulling a Buffalo from last season, he's making moves that demonstrate he's wanting to build a long term contender. He clearly could not do that without the support of ownership. That's one of the exciting things that I think gets overlooked a little. For the first time in a VERY long time, we have stable ownership with VERY deep pockets. One could point to the lack of that as being a key contributor to us being where we are now. Not the only reason but certainly a big factor. That excites me a lot that we don't have to worry about that happening again and that ownership is committed to getting us back to where we damn sure belong.

very well said.

people have to be patient. and with these owners, I think we can. that does NOT mean we are becoming the Sixers, people...

 

[Rob Nieds work ethic]

5. better locker room tunes to pump up the team

Hey, Eurodance is good stuff, Zubrus had it right.

 

[njdevils1982]

Hey, Eurodance is good stuff, Zubrus had it right.

eurotrash*

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Excited for Larsson's snarl, for Damon's full season, for Palmieri to be our right handed Henrique, for Zajac to actually score points, and for Schneider's Vezina nod.

All great things to look forward to.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

I'm excited to watch a team that isn't old, slow, lethargic, and just going through the motions.

That's interesting, because I feel like I saw the opposite. It was almost difficult for me to watch players like Jagr and Elias struggle to compete every night and still come up short.

I think that has something to do with how depressing it was to watch this team in recent years. There's been a lot of intensely competitive players on this team in recent years, and I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to feel that way and underachieve so spectacularly. So count that as another thing I'm excited about for next season.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

All of the same but I'll also include:

- The ability to have Zajac with two good goalscorers. Hopefully he can return to some form that resembles a 1C.

He had that last season with Cammalleri and Jagr.

You could argue that we have slightly downgraded going from Jagr to Palmieri

 

[Emperoreddy]

That's interesting, because I feel like I saw the opposite. It was almost difficult for me to watch players like Jagr and Elias struggle to compete every night and still come up short.

I think that has something to do with how depressing it was to watch this team in recent years. There's been a lot of intensely competitive players on this team in recent years, and I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to feel that way and underachieve so spectacularly. So count that as another thing I'm excited about for next season.

I don't know, last year was just so painful to watch. Part of it was definitely guys just hitting their walls (hopefully not Elias because I would like him to be the one old man to stick around for another couple of years to tutor Zacha.)

Last year ended up being J-Mac bad. It wasn't like the year before where you could at least point out the compete level and have stats to back it up that we were just coming up short (not to mention the bad shootout luck). Last year we just flat out sucked, and were so beyond boring to watch and I do wonder how invested some guys were every night when we seemingly had no system and no hope of winning outside of Cory stealing games after being shelled all night.

Anyway on to the future. As it has been said I agree that the bright side is that Shero, with ownership's backing, has the plan to build a long term winner.

To start building a young core at forward (since we had a good young core at the blueline) that can be turned into a long term contender that is in the hunt for a cup every year.

And this is how you do it in the NHL today. You need to find young, cheap talent you can control for a long time before the cap forces you to dismantle. Big contracts in free agency don't get it done, and you can go only so far with trades.

Every hole we can fill cheaply that can stay filled for years puts us one step closer, and that is what this year is about. Putting all these young guys in competition to see who rises to the top that we can potentially invest in and leave us with one less hole to fill via trade or potentially free agency.

 

[TaiMaiShu]

I have a hard time understanding why Zajac always needs catering too as far as linemates. As far as production, he is obviously limited and I can't see him being more than a 30-40pt center moving forward. He has other strengths and by the time this team is ready to compete, I think he is best served as a shutdown, 3rd line center.

Henrique is still on the upswing and only had one set of consistent linemates (Clowe and Ryder) for what, like a month in the past few years? Yet he still is able to produce points with a revolving door of linemates.

Shero says is Rico is a center, I say stick him with KP and let them develop some chemistry. Let Zajac and Camms stick as a pair too for sake of balance.

 

[Bleedred]

Did I mention no Foligno?


It's gonna be so nice to not have that LOSER on our coaching staff. **** that guy.

Has he gotten hired by anyone else yet? Shero and ownership should demand that he fulfill the rest of his contract (assuming that it hasn't expired after this past season) by cleaning the bathrooms and scrubbing toilets at the rock.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Just having a fresh perspective will be nice. I love Lou and will always love Lou, but it was pretty infuriating to see so many obvious things that needed to be done to this team that weren't done, and then when questioned about it having rhetoric thrown in our faces.

The fact Shero has a plan, has identified some major points of emphasis, and is seemingly not afraid of doing what needs to be done makes me hopeful. The fact he seems to have ownership on board is great as well.

 

[StvBroDan]

Getting it started. Thats what will excite me.

 

[Bleedred]

Getting it started. Thats what will excite me.

Yes please.

Like 45 days or so until training camp.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Zacha being signed would excite me. I really want to see what the kid can do in camp and some preseason games.

Same for some of the other kids from development camp, maybe even more so for guys like Blandasi that missed the final scrimmage. Want to see what they got.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Getting it started. Thats what will excite me.

I can't wait for hockey to come back either. It's been a long, though certainly eventful, off-season.

Zacha being signed would excite me. I really want to see what the kid can do in camp and some preseason games.

Same for some of the other kids from development camp, maybe even more so for guys like Blandasi that missed the final scrimmage. Want to see what they got.

Zacha signing would excite me. I know that it should happen relatively soon (since hopefully even Stefan won't miss that August 15th deadline) but it's hard to wait.

It will be awesome to see what guys like Zacha and Blandisi can do in camp.

 

[StvBroDan]

I can't wait for hockey to come back either. It's been a long, though certainly eventful, off-season.



Zacha signing would excite me. I know that it should happen relatively soon (since hopefully even Stefan won't miss that August 15th deadline) but it's hard to wait.

It will be awesome to see what guys like Zacha and Blandisi can do in camp.

Eventful to say it mildly. Please just let it all come together well.

 

[StvBroDan]

Yes please.

Like 45 days or so until training camp.

I have not been any of the meet and greet gatherings so I wonder how the general feel is about the new season. Many changes and most if not all of them were needed.

 

[glenwo2]

You and me both! But of course he now will haunt my second favorite team, since Doug Wilson had a nervous breakdown and decided to hire him.

I'm also excited for no Oates too!

And add no Mark Fraser and Dainius Zubrus to that as well.

Don't forget this clown :

 

[CerebralGenesis]

the draft

 

[Maine Fan]

I am excited to watch the growth of the young players

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Excited to finally see a commitment to young players (especially Larsson). Excited to be able to watch the team without the same old stiffs like Sestito and Harrold always coming back like an infection you can't get rid off.

 

[njdevils1982]

Don't forget this clown :

his helmet made him look like a ****in clown

 

[Billdo]

I like that, while we probably won't win much more than last year, we shouldn't be a boring team. It's been a solid 5 years of just boring, slow, uneventful hockey for the most part. If anything else we should at least be a better team from an entertainment stand point.

 

[Bleedred]

Don't forget this clown :

his helmet made him look like a ****in clown

He has an extremely punchable face.

Remember when he had to rent a car to drive back from Columbus to New Jersey during the snowstorm after the all star game?

Maybe he should go to work for a rental car agency. He looks like a real ******** artist. Any moron that couldn't fix a badly bleeding PK and played that HACK Mark Fraser on the PK as much as he did.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Eventful to say it mildly. Please just let it all come together well.

Everyone would love to see it come together well, that's for sure.