The 2011-2012 New Jersey Devils Supporters Section

i’m pumped to be in the supporters section

Awesome idea. Glad to see it come to fruition.

This is great. I did get season tickets this year, but not in the supporter’s section. I thought about it, but I’m the quiet type during a game (unless the Devils score).

I can’t wait to see this group in action for every game. It was awesome the few times that it was done last year, and I think this is going to grow into something big!

Looking forward to this season, and 122 is going to have a great time no matter how it turns out. Good article, I think you pretty much covered everything. Let’s just hope our enthusiasm is contagious and brings more energy to an arena not really known for it.

This is somewhat relevant .. and I figure this is a decent forum to ask this question.

In regards to:

Wear red and/or be in Devils gear.

What’s the plan for “Opening Night White”?

I’m trying to decide whether I should just wear my red Brodeur jersey, and wave the free shirt around, or wear my old blank white jersey (which is too small for me now).

Great post Matt! I’m so happy to be a part of the supporter section. I’m tired of having a quiet arena for the best team in the NHL. I’m one of the captains and my main job is to organize the facebook/twitter. We have pages set up for both, but cannot launch them until opening night when the name and logo are revealed.

Judging on our three preseason games, I’m incredibly happy/surprised by how well it has turned out. In just three preseason games, we have a standard chant order down and have had people come into our section as far as section 12 and the goal bar just to be a part of the “fun” section. There is no doubt that we will have a blast at every game and I hope it spreads through the entire arena.

In regards to the opening night white, I also dislike this idea. I will be wearing my Red jersey since I doubt the free white shirt will fit me (i’m 6’7’’).

Non supporters will be able to submit suggestions once the public facebook page is launched after the opening game. That will be the best place to reach us. It is slightly difficult to understand chants through text so maybe a quick video on facebook or youtube to explain exactly how it’s said would be awesome.

i’m really excited that this has come together this year. i thought the fact that they were only letting season ticket holders into the section would really screw things up, but i’ve heard the section during the penalty kill in preseason. hopefully it goes well during the season.

as far as i know single game tickets are NOT available right now. This is to avoid opposing fans from sitting in the section. We’ve already had issues with rangers fans. I assume partial plans may be available. But the supporter section is only from row 8 back. so there may be single tickets available in rows 1-7. Also check ticket exchange because someone may sell their tickets for a game.

86 the Rangers Suck, you’re a Devils Supporters group, not haters (unless they are the opponent that night)

I see tix in your Section available for sale on StubHub, find out who’s tix they are and have a talk with them.

Pass-shoot-score seems distracting to the Devils while on the PP?

Who about heckling the opposing goalie?
Ex: Lunnnnnnnnd-Quessst

Best of luck of being loud and getting noise going in a positive manner, and most importanly have FUN

I am not a member of the group but I am a supporter. I feel though that when buying tickets it needs to be specified what to expect when sitting in this section now that ticketmaster allows you to select your actually individual seat, row, and section. I am sure that there are a lot of people who would not want to be sitting near these people, specifically below row 8 of this section and in order to enhance their experience at the game they should be warned of what to expect.

This would also help make it possible to allow those of us who want to be a part of the section for a game but are not season ticket holders to do so.

The countdown from the nordiques game last year was awesome. And the ‘30 seconds of insanity’ is great too. I really hope this catches on. I’m going to do my best to get it going up in 212

The ‘rangers suck’ cheer is part of our legacy. Like poopydoopie said, like it or not, it already happens and its gonna continue..might as well make it louder ! Besides , that’s kind of our thing lol.. the rangers suck, the team score on sucks, the opposing starters and scratches all suck….

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=z1reyw0pv34

Please can we do something like this? Their fans will straight up belt out the song for the entire game after their boys score. Maybe we can change the “reds” to “devs”? If we can get our 17000 to belt “oh when the devs go marching in” for half the game it would make the rock a tough place to play.

I’ve been to a couple NY Red Bulls games and their supporters section is crazy, the Empire Supporters Club or something like that. Surprised it is yet to catch on in other sports, but I’m glad the Devils are innovating. Please keep me in mind if anyone who has the season tickets cannot make a game, I would gladly (and proudly) stand in their place.

damn…I’m in 124 for my first year as a season ticket holder. The sales agent told me that’s where the cool kids would be. I guess he was wrong.

Goblechuk, you are right on man, this is devils future tradition in the making. This is a lot of fun.

I may be in the minority, but I think (along with every family member or friend I’ve taken to a game) the suck chants should get tossed (maybe aside from the Ranger chant when we are actually playing them). I understand it has become tradition but anything can become a tradition and any tradition can change. I’ve been a fan since 87-88 so please don’t doubt my enthusiasm for the team, but the suck chants come across as ignorant and is a bad model for the kids. I’m sure we can come up with better kick-ass chants than those. Just my opinion, attack me if you will, you can look me up on twitter with the same username as well. Let’s Go Devils!!!!!!!!!

i have season tickets as does a close friend….4 right behind you guys in the supporter section….he didnt realize that he was buying them and now he’s stuck with the chants lol

chant that Utah State does is nothing short of epic. If there is one chant to add to the arsenal soon, it’s that one. If the whole arena began to pick up on it, it would be like nothing else. Of course, it would need to be reserved for the Devils being up at least 2 with probably no more than 45 or 30 seconds left. Giving up a tying goal with the extra attacker would deflate that a bit.

Regardless of what myself or anyone else thinks about it, the “Hey You Suck” goal score chant is one of the few moments in the game when most of the crowd gets up and yells and supports the team. Is it my favorite? No, its not my favorite. But my reasons are not because its “offensive”. Cmon guys lets be honest, “suck” stopped being a bad word when you get to be about 6 or 7 years old.. And unless your children are 3 years old, they hear many worse words than “suck” at school from their friends every day, I can guarantee you that. Personally, I wish we had a slightly cooler goal song. But, it is what it is. My point is, I think the purpose here is to grow the fan culture and raise the noise level in the stadium. The way we will do this RIGHT NOW is NOT by changing one of the few loud moments of cheering we have every game (the goal score chant). Also, I ont believe anyone here has the power/ influence AT THIS TIME to change something like that anyway. Lets first get the stadium rocking for 60 minutes – yelling, singing , cheering. Maybe some of you who have a problem with the goal score chant can take my approach – make it your goal right now to bring the noise and the positive cheeers to your section and make it AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE. I don’t mean to sound like I’m speaking for or on behalf of the supporters group or anything like that, because I am certainly not. I am just a diehard fan who wants to help spread the energy and noise this great group is creating to my section of the arena as best I can, for the purpose of creating a loud , fun , environment.

I still maintain that even within the context ‘you suck’ , it is not that offensive. I guess what is ‘offensive’ and what is not is a subjective and personal scale. To me its not, to others it is. Whether you want to limit your childrens exposure to that word is your personal choice, just like the the movies and tv shows you allow your children to watch. My larger and more important point is , like it or not, the chant is not going anywhere right now, but if we all as fans do what we can to focus our energies on increasing the support and noise level throughout the arena with more positive cheers and noise, maybe this can be addressed in the future.

It’s about there being a right time and place for the inevitable questions from a child, and a hockey game not being the preferable choice, nor should it be.

Absolutely , couldn’t agree more , and there is no reason to make it as such. Easily handled.

Kid: “Dad, what does ‘you suck’ mean?”
Dad: “It means they stink, son. It means they’re not good.”

On a side note, hockey games feature grown men punching each other in the face at times, not the best example for our children either, and surely something that would beg the question “Why are they hitting each other?”

It’s not going to change if it’s accepted because "hey, who am I to change it?"

That’s not entirely my attitude, although I can see how it could be perceived as such as I re-read my previous posts. If enough people feel this is doable and the group laid out plans to go forward with an alternative I felt was better, I would support it 100 % and take a leadership role in trying to get fans in my section to do the same.

Right now , Devils games pretty much involve about a total of 5 minutes of loud fan noise /cheering/ chanting and about 55 minutes of silence. I just thought it makes more sense to first focus on the other 55 minutes of silence. Once that is addressed, lets improve / tweak the other 5 minutes if necessary, and clearly there are arguments to do so.

I completely agree with the ranger suck chat. I think it’s stupid. I actually typed up this list that was published in the article and I didn’t have that there so I don’t know at what stage it was added. No one in the supporter section has initiated that whistle.

I also think that the YOU SUCK in the song is dumb, but that will only change if the song itself changes which I think they should do anyway because that song is so overused across various NHL teams. I think at least 8-10 teams use that song. At least we added something to it, but I personally want the devils to be unique and have their own song.

Unfortunately these things are not going to change. People will keep doing it. I also found it pretty stupid how at the rangers game no one did it, but isles and flyers it was done.

Point is The supporters do not start that rangers suck whistle. Will some join in, probably, but our goal is to be a presence in the arena, but a classy one. Our rangers and Flyers fans are some of the worst around and we all know that. There was a big altercation with some rangers fans during a PRESEASON game because we were cheering while down by a goal. Point is, we know how these fans are. We’re better than that and the “suck” chants are more on their level of fandom and support.

the idea of a sold out crowd singing ‘When the devs skate on in…’

When goals are scored, the announcer won’t say players’ last names. The fans are expected to shout them. like:

announcer: New Jersey goal, scored by number 17, ILYA….
crowd: KOVALCHUCK!!
announcer: assisted by number 9, ZACH
crowd: PARISE!!

They’ve tried this before without telling anyone they were doing it which just lead to awkward silence… “DAAVIIIIIIIID……. clarkson.”

Now that there’s a way to get these ideas out, it looks like they’re trying it again. Not sure if they’re starting it off immediately with the game tomorrow or not. I guess we’ll see.