It was announced late last night that The Record’s Andrew Gross will be leaving the New Jersey Devils beat for the New York Islanders beat at Newsday. This is a major loss, as Gross was one of the best personalities in the business.
Back in 2016, New Jersey Devils fans were given a major shock. Going to the Fire and Ice blog on March 30th, the great Tom Gulitti wrote that he was leaving The Record, and the Devils beat, to go write for NHL.com.
Just weeks later, the Twitter account for Rich Chere, writer for NJ.com, went dark. Just like that, the Devils beat was up in the air.
Luckily, Andrew Gross and Chris Ryan were waiting in the wings. Both of them were very active on Twitter, and Gross especially showed his personality through videos and Twitter comments.
Now, once again, a great writer is leaving the Devils beat. Gross announced officially today that he will be leaving The Record in order to go write for Newsday covering the New York Islanders.
Very excited to be joining the award-winning Newsday sports team soon.
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) February 21, 2018
Looking forward to a new challenge.
Also, longer explanation coming in a sec... https://t.co/ONlKnH0Nph
Listen, I’m sure most Devils fans are extremely happy for him, I know I am, but selfishly this really stinks. Losing another personality on the Devils beat makes watching the games less fun. Going through the various Twitter accounts of fans and writers makes it much better.
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What’s worse, he’s leaving right before the stretch run and a possible playoff push. Now, a writer will slide into the role who hasn’t spent every single day with these players, coaches and front office people. The next guy will go into the playoffs without knowing this team inside and out. Those little facts about Taylor Hall’s practice habits or Pavel Zacha’s pregame traditions (I made those up, I’m not sure if they exist) won’t be coming.
Again, we are more than happy for Gross, as he says this is the best decision for his family. However, we are sad for Devils fans.
One last thing, no Andrew, you cannot take Brian Boyle with you.
Just as it's never easy when a player gets traded because of impact on family, just got a text from my youngest daughter. She's a little sad today. She'd just gotten used to following Devils after years of following Rangers. Hard on her. Plus, I can't take Brian Boyle with me...
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) February 21, 2018