Patrik Elias Nets Game Winner in Overtime; New Jersey Devils Shut Down New York Rangers 2-1

Larsson had a good first game, though the Rangers put out a bunch of players trying to get a spot on their bottom 6. I am hoping they bring out some bigger guns on Friday then we can see how Larsson handles playing against their top 6. Kid has some real promise I was impressed by him.

Petr Sykora was one of the best players for the Devils, cool that he has his shot but he wasnt very mobile I am a little upset that he had one of the better showings. Dont know what that kid was trying to do with Avery in the first period was just stupid, good thing the Rangers didnt have any offense in the first and had their poor assistant coach on the bench giving the Devils free power plays.

I wish Kinkaid got tested more the shots he stopped were not all that challenging, Talbot was very impressive but he was given the opportunity to be great, even though he doesnt have a shot at cracking the Rangers Lineup baring injury.

Rangers Depth at D with their prospects is pretty impressive I will say. Those were not all of their higher rated D prospects either. Girardi looked pretty solid without Mark Staal, and the Erixon kid handled himself well enough for the third line role that is open in that team. They had some fast little bastards to with Borque’s kid and Haglin. Del-Zotto sucked, I think the Rangers might have damaged the kids development, good news for rivals that kid had a ton of potential.

I really want to see how the Devils play against the lines of Wolski-Richards-Gaborik, Dubinsky-Anisomov-Callahan, It would be a better gauge at if this team is a playoff team this year.

Again Chico made the announcing worst even though it is pretty bad as is. Sam Rosin doesnt really bother me but the other guys do, Chico is still the worst announcer I have heard. Curious to hear how the Devils commentators are going to be Friday.

My excitement for the season is through the roof!

Really liked the tempo the Devils played with, and the aggressiveness of the forecheck. I don’t at all think it’ll cost the team defensively – there’s a certain flow to the system where a forward or two are already headed back to their own zone even as the defenseman is pinching.

I was impressed with most of the new Dmen – it’s REALLY nice having some righties for a change. Larsson was easily the most impressive. With the puck, he saw the ice well and got his shot through to the net. Defensively, he looked incredibly comfortable. The play Matt mentioned against Dubinsky one-on-one, especially – good position, held his ground, showed his strength and reach. Stralman showed good offensive instincts and wasn’t a defensive liability. Harrold was OK – he seems to have a decent hockey IQ but a little lacking in strength, got knocked around a bit.

Tallinder and Volchenkov had some rust to shake off but both were skating well. Fraser – I agree. I was surprised by his steady play. If he keeps it up, he may make an argument to not only be kept with the big club as a 7th defenseman, but to earn the right to rotate into the 6th spot on occasion.

Josefson showed flashes of tremendous intelligence, but he hasn’t taken that next step yet. He needs to get a little stronger – once he can better stay on his feet and protect the puck, I’m a big believer that he’ll be able to slice and dice defenses with smart passing. Still, I’m tempering my expectations for him this season – I’m thinking 15g and 25a if he plays the full season, but only part with Kovalchuk.

Clarkson showed nothing to suggest he’s going to break out as half this site’s readers believe. I didn’t see much out of Bernier and I think Veilleux pretty much killed his chances with that stupid crap with Avery in the first period. I don’t think Sykora will drive the play forward, but the dude can put the biscuit in the basket, and on a team looking for secondary scoring…I wouldn’t have said it a week ago but I think he’ll actually make the team, shockingly. Palmieri needs to have Sykora breathing down his neck, because he didn’t do much.

Oh, and it was awesome to see zach back and playing his usual aggressive style. The man clearly has no reservations about his knee. He and elias are going to have a fantastic year if they stay healthy – Elias’ puckhandling looked like it was in midseason form already, bad ice and all. The OT goal was reminiscent of when they played together at 4-on-4. Isn’t Elias still sitting in a 4-way tie for the regular season OT goal record since the last time he hooked up with Parise?

 I liked the way the Team passed the puck on the power play and the forechecking. For the first game and with limited practice, it was a pretty good performance. Parise was all over the ice and Mills, Fraser and Kincaid played very well for the second tier.

Larsson was great for a 1st preseason game. The thing that impressed me and there was a lot, but his positioning is stellar and the 2 or 3 plays that pointed it out was his gap seemed wider to the boards than most defenders would play almost inviting the onrusher to only have 1 avenue which was wide and deep and because of his skating and physical stature was able to close that gap and still pinch off the boards. very subtle and I don’t know if hes going to be coached differnetly when guys w/ great shots will try to get them off if this gap is there but he looked like a total vet out there.

Fraser to me was hideous as he is probably a very good athlete and has a big heart to make up for what I see is a total lack of NHL skating ability. The kid #45 Stahlman? looked very good and this kid Villieux showed me some desire and ability where he should make the coaches think about him as a 4th liner over Janseen and Bernier, zharkov, Pelly. At least I want to see more of him.

As far as the 2 enforcers Boulton and Cam. big disappointment in what they showed. Again Clarkson has to play the role of enforcer and these 2 are pretty much ineffective out there. I love Cam’s heart but my god he looks like his skating has regressed if anything and unless that was a bad game for him I would say he should be Albany bound.

Last night was a good first step forward for this team and let’s see on if we can continue to improve the offense on Friday night.

I was surprised how seriously some players took the preseason game. I expected less physical game, and certainly didn’t expect any fighting yesterday.

The game looked very chaotic at times. I hope with time there will be a bit more structure. I see what DeBoer meant by “uptempo”, but some players obviously couldn’t handle the speed. I liked it nevertheless.

Indeed Parise was all over the ice, but he was also out of breath for the entire interview after the 2nd period. Obviously he needs more conditioning.

Larsson was obviously the most impressive player – curious to see what he does against real NHLers. The squad the Rangers ran out there wasn’t exactly their A team.

Let’s never speak of the Boulton-X-Janssen line again. I know they got a goal but they were awful otherwise.

Clarkson had an okay game. He and Kovalchuk combined on at least one decent give and go.

The Harrold-Fraser pairing was… not good.

Palmieri was invisible, but that’s Palmieri’s game – he’s going to have games where he simply doesn’t make an impact at all.

I am with most people here, Larsson impressed me A LOT! I, too, was on the fence about him playing with the big squad this year. But, if he puts out another performance like the one he gave us last night, I don’t think there is any doubt about him making the team. He shows poise, smarts and incredible instincts for an 18 year old kid. I forgot how young he was at some points during the game.

Stralman also really impressed me. His ability to jump in on the rush is remarkable. He gives our defense something it hasn’t had in a long time. He also didn’t seem out of place defensively.

Harrold was kinda blah to me. He brought nothing to the table that we don’t already have a ton of, somewhat sound defense with no apparent offensive ability. We already have that in guys like Mark Fraser and Matt Corrente.

After the game last night, I would be comfortable with line combos of Volchenkov – Greene, Tallinder – Larsson, Fayne – Salvador/Stralman and Fraser as an alternate.

As for the forwards, Sykora shocked me. He played as well as I remember him playing. That is still one hell of a shot he has. Yeah, his skating is not as good as it once was. But, he didn’t look out of place in either end. Another showing like this, and I could easily see him in the starting lineup. I actually think he would be a good RW for the Kovy/Josefson line instead of Clarkson (who just shouldn’t be anywhere other than the fourth line, regardless of how much money he is making). Zach – Elias – Palmeri, Kovy – Josefson – Sykora, Tedenby – Zubrus – Zharkov, Boulton – Steckel – Clarkson would be a nice group I think.

Finally, we really didn’t get to see a lot out of Kinkaid. Frazee looked about average. Not really enough from either to make a decision, one way or another.

As a team, as a whole, I really like what DeBoer is preaching. They played exactly the way he said he wanted them to play, uptempo and agressive while not sacrificing defense.

I realize it is only one game (and a preseason game against a lot of “AHLers”), but I am excited about the possibilities of this team for the upcoming season.