Wednesday night the Devils had their second appearance of the pre-season with a match up against Atlantic Division opponent, the New York Islanders. The Devils pulled this one out much like they did against the Rangers a week ago, with pursuit to the puck and clogging up the neutral zone.
The final score was New Jersey 4 to the Islanders 2. Yann Danis was in net once again for the Devils as he faced his former team from a year ago. As Danis is competing for the backup position, he looks like he has secured that spot after two unyielding starts [...]

Tuesday’s practice/scrimmage was cut short after Coach Lemaire wanted to work more of defense. When I read about this, I got a little worried because it was my understanding that Lemaire was happy with how things were done with this team last year and he wasn’t going to change much about them offensively. But, when you stop a practice to work on nothing but defense, it looks like he is going down the road of a defensive minded team once more. Hopefully, all this amounts to will be to strengthen the defensive efforts and not hinder the teams output on [...]

Eastern Conference
1) Boston Bruins – They may have lost Kessel, but have plenty still there that are capable of being the best in the conference again. As long as they stay healthy, they should be just as good.
2) Washington Capitals – Questions at goaltending are there, but Ovie is the best player in the game and he has enough around him to get it done to win the Southeast again.
3) Pittsburgh Penguins – They finish third overall because of the battles that will ensue within the Atlantic Division.
4) Philadelphia Flyers – Yes, they have improved from the off-season moves, however, [...]

In some quick news and notes on Jersey’s Team, training camp continues to march on. On September, 21st, day 8 of camp, saw the Red team win 4-1 over the White team in scrimmage action. The Red team had the experienced goalies in net with Brodeur and Danis with the younger forwards in front of them. Goals were scored by Alexander Vasyunov, Niclas Bergfors, Andrew Peters and an empty netter from Matt Halischuk. Zach Parise lit the lamp for the White team with the side’s lone goal.
On Day 7 of camp, Lemaire whittled the roster down to 42 players, assigning [...]

Phil Kessel has officially signed a 5-year $27 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, puting an end to the drama that enveloped him and the Boston Bruins organization. This certainly improves the Leafs with the addition of Kessel after he put up career numbers last year and should only improve on those numbers with maturity.  GM Brian Burke has reportedly given up two first round draft picks. You can read the full article at TSN.ca.

On Day 6 of Training Camp, Jacques Lemaire spoke to the media on the issues at the center position after it was revealed that Patrik Elias will be missing 3-6 weeks, his defensive philosophies, and if any kids will be making the team. You can read it on the Devils official website here.

1)  Pittsburgh Penguins – The Stanley Cup champs have some of the best young talent in the league; it rivals what Chicago has going on. Tyler Kennedy, Jordan Staal, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski showed in the playoffs that they have matured and are ready to contribute full time to the Penguins quest to repeat.
2) Washington Capitals – The Caps proved in the playoffs that they have what it takes to get through a grinding series and they pushed the Pens to a game 7. If they had won that series it would have been them facing the Wings in [...]

The Devils returned to competitive play last night in an exhibition versus cross river rivals, the New York Rangers. As it is with any pre-season game, there was a lot of sloppy play as the guys were getting their legs used to the work load that comes with a full game. The Devils played potential back up Yann Danis, who looked sharp with 28 saves, which is a good showing as he vies for the back up spot to Marty. New Jersey ended up taking the contest in a 3-2 final shootout ,with David Clarkson netting two power play goals. [...]