Game 2 Preview: New Jersey Devils vs. Carolina Hurricanes
by John Fischer on Oct 10, 2011 2:00 AM EDT
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The Time: 1:00 PM EST
The Broadcast: TV - MSG; Radio - 970 AM WNYM
The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (0-1-0) vs. the Carolina Hurricanes (0-1-1)
The Last Devils Game: The Devils played bad up and down the lineup save for goaltender. The Flyers beat them on opening night 3-0. Here's my recap of the game.
The Last Canes Game: They visited DC to take on the Washington Capitals. While they got licked on opening night, they gave the Caps a fight all night long. They matched the Caps goal for goal, and forced the game to go to overtime. Mike Green got the game winner on a power play so the Canes lost 4-3. Here's a recap of that game by Bob Wage at Canes Country.
The Goal: Ramp up the shooting. The Devils got shut out in their first game of the season. In that game, the team's discipline was poor at best, the puck movement was atrocious, and the team was caught chasing the Flyers a lot. Those have to addressed as well. However, I think it's vital for the Devils to get some confidence in their offense. The team was lackluster at generating shots because of their puck movement problems in their first game, so the team really needs to pepper Cam Ward today with rubber. You can't score if you don't shoot, and the Devils have to do a lot better than the 20 they put on Ilya Bryzgalov on Saturday.
I have a few more thoughts on tonight's game after the jump. Please check out Canes Country for the Hurricanes' point of view.
There will be at least one significant lineup change for the Devils. As reported on Sunday by Rich Chere at NJ.com, Johan Hedberg will get his first start today. I think Hedberg will be fine, he has more than enough experience to come in and start off cold. He can't possibly be worse than his first start last season. Still, it seems a little odd to give him the start today since Brodeur played well against the Flyers. Peter DeBoer wants to give the Moose an early start I suppose.
That's exactly what the Canes did in their first two games, come to think of it. The Canes had Cam Ward start their first game and started Brian Boucher two days later against the Canes. According to this report by Chip Alexander at Canes Now, head coach Paul Maurice plans to start Ward today. Ward will be looking to bounce back from an opening night nightmare against Tampa Bay.
The Canes in general will be looking to get their first win this afternoon. They got pasted 5-1 by the Bolts and then lost in overtime to the Caps 4-3. The second game should be certainly be seen as a step forward, so I'm sure the Canes will be looking take it up another level today. Two Canes in particular will be particularly dangerous. Jeff Skinner already has a goal and three assists; and Eric Staal has two goals and an assist. Staal is a known quantity, a dynamic center who finds a way to produce regularly. Skinner was a rookie surprise last season and he's already off to a good start this season. His strong skating ability and excellent shot will give the Devils defense problems. Whoever draws these two - I believe they're on the same line - will have a handful. Beyond those two, I'd be concerned with the likes of Jussi Jokinen, Brandon Sutter and Tuomo Ruutu. They seemingly never stop on the ice and can cause further headaches. The Canes fans may want Ruutu to be more physical; but I've witnessed his skill and that's more concerning. I'm not fully discounting the rest of the Canes lineup, but those are the forwards of note from where I sit.
Going back to the Devils, as Chere noted in this post at NJ.com, DeBoer has shifted the forward lines in Sunday's practice. Let's go over that, as there's a lot to cover. Jacob Josefson is back to where he was in preseason, centering Ilya Kovalchuk and Nick Palmieri. I'm not sure this will help all that much. A different center is not going to make Nick Palmieri more visible; that's going to be up to Palmieri. In this post by Tom Gulitti at Fire & Ice, Kovalchuk says he wants to work harder. I'm fine with that, but I'd prefer if he works smarter by cutting down on the turnovers and situations where he has no options. On the flip side, I'm pleased to see Mattias Tedenby lined up in a unit with Dainius Zubrus and David Clarkson. Tedenby was shifted around the lines in Saturday's game and never really got going. He shouldn't be with the likes of Eric Boulton and Brad Mills anyway (sorry, Adam Henrique). He'll add some speed along side Zubrus, who is likely the most rusty since he had all of one preseason game, and Clarkson, who could stand to be more selfless with the puck and calmer with his temper. The top line remains, which I'm fine with - for now. I hope they don't have too much trouble with Joni Pitkanen, Carolina's big minute man on defense (think Andy Greene but bigger and with more offense).
On defense, there haven't been any changes. Perhaps that's for the best. Andy Greene and Adam Larsson weren't too miserable, so I can see them staying together. I'd have to hope Mark Fayne will be much better today, and if anyone's going to help him out the most, then it's likely going to be his most common partner, Henrik Tallinder. I expect the same blueline with the forwards used in practice will start for the Devils this afternoon.
In general, I do hope the Devils will put on better performance against Carolina. Now that they have one game under their collective belts and DeBoer made a point of it to stress down-low play and cutting down turnovers in general, I expect everything to be sharper. I expect the Devils to chase less and drive more plays. I certainly expect fewer penalties by New Jersey; as they really undercut them against Philadelphia. Should the puck movement improve with all of that, they'll have a shot at hitting the goal I have for them in this game - which will yield actual goals. The Canes won't make it easy, of course.
Those are my thoughts in advance of today's game. What are yours? What do you think will be the key for the Devils in order to get a win? Who on the Devils do you think will have a big game? Does anyone on the Hurricanes concern you outside of Staal and Skinner? Do you think the Devils will get their first win of the season today? Will you even go to today's game, even though it's not really a holiday for most people (thanks, NHL)? Please leave your answers and other thoughts in the comments. Thank you for reading.
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We need to keep the offense on the ice more by cutting down on the stupid penalties. We need Elias out of the box since he is our only play making center right now.
by DevilsDDS on Oct 10, 2011 7:47 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
It’s so cliche and it’s normally such BS at this time of the year, but a win today will be huge.
Please keep in mind that the Hurricanes have yet to win this year either. Like the Flyers, they’ve also have the advantage in the amount of regular season games played so far.
Furthermore, if we play reminiscent of our recent struggles in that we are slow, uncoordinated, and sloppy, then it’s very easy to see a young and hungry Carolina team embarrass us today.
What I’d love to see today is the Devils throw the body around. From watching other NHL games it has seemed for the past 3 years that we finish our checks less than any other team in the league. Aside from Salvador, we had no LEGAL physical presence during the first game. Mills board at the end of the game doesn’t count.
I want Parise to get on the scoreboard today (preferably with something flashy like his trademark backhand) and I want Kovy to play such sound defense that he is brimming with confidence when on the attack. I hope Fayne gets his confidence back, that Moose hears the love from fans, and that Larsson plays like it’s the preseason.
But most of all, I am hoping for the W.
I don’t think it is a cliche. For this team, an 0 for 2 start would be a major psychological problem. I reckon that hockey is 1 part skill, 1 part coaching and 2 parts mental/confidence. Lose your confidence and we know what happens from last season.
So for today – I want them to go out as if this is the start of the season. Put Saturday totally from their minds. Keep it sharp and simple to start with, making the passes into space, strong backcheck, etc. The chances will come as we start to exert some possession and frustrate Carolina.
I’m hoping for good things today for Pete. He deserves our full support right now, and I hope he gets them mentally set for today’s tilt.
Why are so many people’s default position on the Devils that they “need to throw the body around” when they’re in a funk?
If you go through the active roster, this isn’t really a physical team, and they shouldn’t get away from the things they do well (relatively speaking) to try and play physical. The Devils only have a few guys you’d describe as physical — Clarkson, Boulton, Volchenkov and Salvador are probably the only four who will be in the lineup (I don’t count Zubrus as physical for this particular discussion, because he doesn’t seem to look for hits but uses his body to help his offensive and cycling game) — but what they do have is a surplus (relatively speaking) of skill players.
Success comes from trying to maximize the places you are stronger and minimize the places you are weaker. For the Devils, that should be trying to make plays with the puck, to use their skill and youthful legs to drive the play, and to force the ’Canes to defend, react, and hopefully take some penalties trying to do the first two.
This is the sort of thing where Mattias Tedenby could really use a more prominent role. He’s among the fastest players on the team, and he has a knack for drawing calls with his offensive game.
Banging along the boards and finishing your checks is a key component to getting the team going. Everyone tends to play better when the players are doing that.
I disagree with the apparent idea that the Devils roster this year is not physical. Kovalchuck is 6’ 3" 230#, Palmieri 6’ 3" 220#, Parise is only 5’ 9" 195# but he’s always mucked around along the boards and in front of the net. Elias and Sykora aren’t great at hitting, but they still do when they’re game is on.
Banging along the boards and finishing your checks is a key component to getting the team going. Everyone tends to play better when the players are doing that.
So you keep saying but there’s no empirical evidence to support that stance.
Hockey is not baseball (or basketball, for that matter).
I’m a huge stat head, and a big baseball nut. I’ve had some good discussions with Tango Tiger on statistical methods. I’m a true believer in sabermetrics. There are plenty of things in hockey that you can analyze statistically, but this is one aspect of the game that just doesn’t show up on the score sheets. That’s actually part of the reason that I’m a Hockey fan.
Well… that’s only partially true. Hits as a stat is an OK attempt at capturing this aspect of the game. Unfortunately, it doesn’t completely reflect what’s what. There is some correlation between hits and game wins, though. The fit isn’t good, but it’s not completely irrelevant (r negative, for that matter).
There is some correlation between hits and game wins, though.
No, there isn’t. And even if there were, that isn’t what you said. You said, “everyone tends to play better when players are [hitting].”
Hits can lead to turnovers which can lead to possession which can lead to scoring chances which is all well and good, but throwing hits doesn’t somehow make a team more likely to win.
Then why do players hit at all? Are they just ignorant and think it helps them win?
And Kovalchuk speeds away, great moves, busting through, DID YOU SEE THAT?
Nice straw man. You’re misrepresenting what I said.
To be clear, I’m not against hitting. It has its place, but it correlates to winning like tying your skate laces correlates to winning.
If hitting leads to winning, it stands to reason that the teams that hit more win more and that just isn’t the case.
Of the players ranked in the top 40 in hits last year (ignoring the two that played for multiple teams), 20 played for teams that went to the playoffs and 21 did not. The teams with the most players on the list (4), Dallas and Carolina, did not make the playoffs. Neither of the two teams that played in the SCF had a single player on the list.
What elesias said.
Also, hits are not necessarily an objective statistic like goals scored or plus-minus. Being something of a subjective call, different arenas and different scorers will have their own opinions on what makes for a hit, with one obvious effect being that you’ll have a different hit total for the same body of work depending on which team employs you and which buildings you ply your trade in on a more regular basis. We’ve seen some similar bias in shot totals depending on locale…. and we’re seeing the same points being brought up in the discussion about scoring chances.
Trying to correlate a subjective statistic is difficult at best — if two people can’t even agree on whether or not something belongs as a data point, it can be hard to associate it with anything else…. such as a win, a goal scored, whatever.
yeah Salvador looked real solid Sat nite in my opinion. I though Sykora was our worst player out there with mishandles and turnovers so hopefully he has a nice bounce back effort as the team. Maybe they just need to relax and play instead worrying about last years start and expectations for this year.
Trying to get out of things I have scheduled so I can make the game. Last year’s Columbus Day, Kids Opening Day promotion drew 12,880. Hopefully the Devils get more than that. Still, no one really gets off today anymore and it’s a dumb idea.
Why didn’t the NHL and/or Versus have a “hockey on a holiday” type marathon of games like they plan on having the day after Thanksgiving (US). They have afternoon games at 1, 2, and 6 pm ETS. Show each game nationally and promote the season opening extended weekend. Nope – fail.
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by Matthew Ventolo on Oct 10, 2011 9:54 AM EDT reply actions
It’s not even just the Devils who are suffering here. The Islanders, Bruins, and Blues all have afternoon games. Technically the Stars too if you consider 5 PM an afternoon time.
Devils in my heart! Devils in my mind! Devils in my eyes! Devils until I die!
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by John Fischer on Oct 10, 2011 10:19 AM EDT up reply actions
I agree that both the NHL and the Devils don’t market as well as they could and they could have done more with it today.
To be fair, to get a true guage of the ‘success’ of playing an afternoon game today we would need to compare attendence to October games excluding the opener. That way you are comparing apples to apples. Does anyone know where to get game by game attendence numbers? It would be to much to ask for the TV numbers.
Anyway, an afternoon game when the schools are closed seams like a good idea. Also, it avoids going up against Monday Night Football. BTW, have you noticed that Devs play no games on Sunday until after the football is over? It’s smart to not go up against the NFL, which crushes the NHL.
I found partial info here.
The average October attendence in the 4 games other then the opener was 13,096. But again, the 2 games with better attendence were Saturday games so it’s not exactly apples to apples. We need weekday, October games for the last 3 years or more to make a good comparison but who has the time to look up that!!!
Last year the Kids opening day was a 4PM start. Let’s see if the 1PM start does them any good. If they draw 14,000+ it was a big success, under 13,000 not so much.
I want to see a few things out of this team.
1) I want to see Devils connect on the passes. The passing on Saturday was horrible.
2) I want to see more Devils finishing their checks and hitting people. Like my old hockey coach used to say, “If you can’t score, hit someone!” There was very little hitting done by the Devils on Saturday and it just sucked alot of the emotion out of a building that was waiting for something, anything, to cheer for.
3) Let’s cut out the stupid penalties. By this I mean the interference and high sticking calls that were made. I would also lump hooking, holding and tripping in this category. I can deal with boarding and roughing and the misconducts late in the game since they were penalties due to trying to do too much at the moment. The lazy/out of position penalties are the ones that kill you the most.
There is nothing quite as satisfying as out running security after you've punched out a Flyers fan!
"I was in the moment, and the moment said smack you." - Bruce Willis
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