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 13 players to Lowell (AHL)
Assigned to Lowell:
Assigned to Lowell were: goaltenders Dave Caruso and Mike McKenna; defensemen Matt Cohen and Matt Taormina; and forwards Eric Castonguay, Kevin Cormier, Stephen Gionta, Brad Mills, Kory Nagy, Nathan Perkovich, Louis Robitaille, Brad Snetsinger, and Myles Stoesz. Returned to their junior teams were: defensemenMatt Delahey (Regina, WHL) and Harry Young (Windsor, OHL); and forwards Ashton Bernard (Cape Breton, QMJHL), Jean-Sebastien Berube (Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL), and Adam Henrique (Windsor, OHL).
The final adjustments are likely not to occur until before or after the last pre-season game. Right now it is looking very good for Niclas Bergfors to make the team for the start of the season and will most likely be placed on the third line. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond also has a good chance of remaining with the team because David Clarkson is looking to be used in a more offensive role and with that will likely cut down on his physical altercations; this is where Pierre-Luc would come in nicely. Lastly, Michael Swift centered a line with Jay Pandolfo and David Clarkson, which is a very good indication that Coach Lemaire has been impressed with Swift thus far to have him center with those two.
In other news, ESPN.com’s Scott Burnside has made his annual “bold” prediction for New Jersey this year by predicting that this will be the year the Devils miss the playoffs. For those of you who don’t know, ESPN is notorious for predicting that the Devils will miss the playoffs. I believe they have made the prediction the past four seasons in a row now. Scott Burnside in particular is especially biased and never gives the Devils organization the proper respect they command. You can read the article here. To prove how much this guy really knows, he thinks Patrick Elias is still the captain and called Brian Gionta a “staple” on the power play, when in fact, Gionta had 11 points on the PP last year. He also seems to think Parise’s personal stats may take a hit simply because Lemaire is back as coach. Does this guy even take time to think about what he’s talking about? The whole reason Lemaire ever gets “defensive” is because he makes the best of what he is dealt. Do you think he is going to bring in the reigns on guys like Parise? NO! Lemaire is back in Jersey, but now has a talented core of offense around him and has gone on to say that he already likes how the Devils play and will only be making minor tweaks. This idiot Burnside is clearly a Devils hater as he makes reference of a long Devil home stand in Newark to be subjective as a good thing, since it would be in Newark. I’m sorry, I rarely get very personal or opinionated on what I write on here, but I would imagine if you are writing for something as big as ESPN, you should get your facts all straight first before you submit anything for all to read.
Don’t worry Devil fans; it happens year in and year out. We lost this guy, and this guy isn’t talented enough or big enough, your goalie is washed up and can’t hack it in the playoffs anymore. It gets said every year and for the most part, everything gets shoved back down these critics’ throats. When you have a sophisticated and well organized management like the Devils do, they will be competitive year in and year out. This will just have to be another year where the Devils shut the critics up…again.
Lastly, the Devils play the Flyers on Wednesday and the Isles on Thursday each @ 7PM, in pre-season action.