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[Dynasty]

Lacklustre effort, leads to loss

Philadelphia Flyers at New Jersey Devils
Jan 1, 1 2 3 F PHI (1-0-0) 0 1 2 3 NJD (1-0-0) 0 0 1 1 Three Stars Claude Giroux 1 goal 1 assist 1 shot +2 Jakub Kovar 1.00 GAA .955 SV% 22 saves Zac Rinaldo 1 goal 2 shots +2	Team Stats Comparison PHI NJD Shots on Goal 16 22 Hits 7 19 Faceoffs Won-Lost 9 14 Penalty Minutes 4:00 2:00 Power Plays Converted 0 0 Power Play Opportunities 1 2 Time on Attack 3:12 5:15
Scoring Summary SECOND PERIOD PHI 18:02 C. Giroux (1), (C. Pronger) THIRD PERIOD NJD 6:26 Samuel Pahlsson (1) (Nail Yakupov, Mark Fraser) PHI 9:01 Z. Rinaldo (1) (Unassisted) PHI 17:21 D. Briere (1) (C. Giroux, E. Gustafsson)
Philadelphia Flyers - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA J. Kovar 22 21 95% 1.00
Philadelphia Flyers - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM C. Giroux 17:52 1 1 2 1 0 D. Briere 21:49 1 0 3 1 0 C. Pronger 21:49 0 1 1 0 0 Z. Rinaldo 16:37 1 0 1 2 0 E. Gustafsson 16:12 0 1 0 1 0
New Jersey Devils - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Marty Turco 16 13 81% 3.00
New Jersey Devils - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM Samuel Pahlsson 17:31 1 0 0 2 0 Mark Fraser 17:03 0 1 0 0 0 Nail Yakupov 16:55 0 1 0 1 0

Press conference with Scott Stevens

As we begin a new era here in New Jersey where we look to new faces arriving in free agency, through trading and young players coming through our system we want to match that youthful enthusiasm with tempered experience and winning attitude.

I would like to announce the hiring of our new head coach here in New Jersey, Scott Niedermayer. Scott is a guy who knows what it takes to get it done on both sides of the puck, he’s been in the biggest of stages all through his hockey career and we are excited to name him as head coach here in New Jersey.

Even though Scott has no prior head coaching experience we know his personality and work ethic and we believe he will be an excellent choice to come in here and work with the young guys coming up and those players that are veterans on the team, we believe that Scott is not far removed form the on ice game which gives him unique insight.

While we had a long list of potential suitors for the coaching position here we believe Scott is the right choice considering the direction we are heading, without further ado I give you, Scott Niedermayer

Niedermayer on the Devils

We are a growing team and I want these guys to play in roles that suit them. Now one has to understand that as we grow there may be times where players are asked to play in positions that may not be their best but we will get through it.

Looking at our lines I can see a few things off the top that will dictate how our team will play

Team strengths

Faceoffs: Zajac is rated 85, Pahlsson is rated 83, Steckel is rated 85, Konopka is rated 87, any one of our centres can take a draw in any zone and be relied upon to win.

Physical play / puck protection and retrieval Artyukhin, Pahlsson, Steckel, Clarkson, Konopka, Tootoo are all physical guys who know how to get a puck and hold it if they need to, they will all get into those dirty areas and work for it.

First line attack Between Zajac, Kovalchuk and Parise I expect them to produce on a nightly basis, they have the talent and more to spare to do so, we need it and I expect it.

Weaknesses:

Team speed After the first and second line we get slow with foot speed, and some of our D men are not the most mobile guys on the ice

Scoring depth After this first line it starts to get a little thin, and it’s feasible to see the scoring drop off a lot after line one.

Goaltending While we do have two veteran guys in net again this season, who have been proven net minders in their past it is up in the air how well, or how bad they may do this season, but it's not all on them the team has to help them out, and that may also be lacking the further down the depth chart you go.

Injury depth if we suffer injuries like last season it will be to similar results, we have a few talented guys in our system but even they are pretty raw and not NHL ready.

I am also looking for each of my lines here to have a specific flair and identity of their own, and that is exactly what I want to see from them out there on the ice.

Line one: Offence, offence, offence. I want these guys to play a high paced north/south game, I want to see free wheeling offence at its finest, shots from all angles and goals raining from the sky.... I hope.

Line two: Two way effective hockey, I want these guys to play hard in all areas of the ice, and be creative on the offensive side while being responsible on the defensive side.

Line three: Down low play with offensive upside, I want these guys to dig deep into the trenches and play a down low cycle game I believe between Steckel and Artyukhin who can hold and maintain pucks and Tedenby with his offensive abilities this is reasonable.

Line four: bang and crash, energy line that drives the net. I want these guys to hit everything that moves, generate energy out there and drive that net as hard as they can.

As far as our goaltenders are concerned I believe we have two capable veterans that are on an equal skill level, as it stands no one is the starter, and no one is the backup. both guys will get play time based on their efforts on the ice and I will be riding the hot goaltender, if you loose, your out, if you win, you’re in.

Thanks everyone for gathering, I’m going to call this conference done as we have to get prepared for the Rangers game on Thursday.

[Dynasty]

Shootout thriller ends in seventh round

New Jersey Devils at New York Rangers
Sep 27, 2012 1 2 3 F NJD (1-1-0) 0 0 1 2 NYR (2-1) 0 0 1 1 Three Stars Henrik Lundqvist 0.92 GAA .974 SV% 30 saves Marian Gaborik 1 goal 2 hit 2 shots +1 Martin Biron 0.93 GAA .947 SV% 18 saves	Team Stats Comparison NJD NYR Shots on Goal 31 19 Hits 13 11 Faceoffs Won-Lost 17 18 Penalty Minutes 2:00 6:00 Power Plays Converted 0 0 Power Play Opportunities 3 1 Time on Attack 5:30 3:21
Scoring Summary THIRD PERIOD NYR 2:01 M. Gaborik (1) (W. Wolski, M. Staal) NJD 19:09 Travis Zajac (2) (Henrik Tallinder, Patrik Elias) SHOOTOUT NJD Andrew Greene
New Jersey Devils - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Martin Biron 19 18 95% 0.93
New Jersey Devils - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM Travis Zajac 16:03 1 0 0 2 0 Patrik Elias 15:22 0 1 1 2 0 Henrik Tallinder 23:11 0 1 1 1 0
New York Rangers - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA H. Lundqvist 31 30 97% 0.92
New York Rangers - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM M. Gaborik 18:38 1 0 1 2 0 W. Wolski 23:35 0 1 0 3 0 M. Staal 28:56 0 1 1 0 2:00

Niedermayer on the game

I was happy with the effort level, we just need to capitalize on the opportunities and the play where Gaborik got behind our D and had all the time in the world for a breakaway goal shouldn’t be happening.

Biron impressed in net tonight, he made many excellent saves and saw the puck very well all night.

No line changes for our last pre season game against the Islanders, I like how the team is playing as is.

[johnnyrocks]

Yakupov good?

[Dynasty]

Biron makes a bid to start regular season

New York Islanders at New Jersey Devils
Sep 29, 2012 1 2 3 F NYI (0-2-1) 0 0 0 0 NJD (2-1-0) 1 1 0 2 Three Stars Martin Biron 0.00 GAA 1.000 SV% 26 saves Travis Zajac 1 goal 1 assist 1 hit 4 shots +1 Zach Parise 1 goal 4 shots +1	Team Stats Comparison NYI NJD Shots on Goal 26 29 Hits 8 10 Faceoffs Won-Lost 13 19 Penalty Minutes 8:00 4:00 Power Plays Converted 0 1 Power Play Opportunities 2 4 Time on Attack 3:36 6:50
Scoring Summary FIRST PERIOD NJD 17:00 Zach Parise (3) (Patrik Elias, Travis Zajac) SECOND PERIOD NJD 7:57 Travis Zajac (3) (Andrew Greene, Henrik Tallinder)
New York Islanders - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA R. Dipietro 29 27 93% 2.03
New Jersey Devils - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Martin Biron 26 26 100% 0.00
New Jersey Devils - Skaters SKATERS TOI G A +/- SOG PIM Travis Zajac 18:49 1 1 1 4 0 Andrew Greene 17:49 0 1 0 1 0 Patrik Elias 18:03 0 1 1 1 0 Henrik Tallinder 19:14 0 1 0 1 0 Zach Parise 18:50 1 0 1 4 0

Did the coach call it?

Niedermayer claimed he could see what the teams strengths and weaknesses would be during the upcoming season, since the Devils used a close replica of their NHL regular season line up in the pre season let's see if the coach called it right.

Strength 1

The ability to win a draw on all four lines
Zajac: 52.5% 21/40 (rated 85 in face-offs)
Pahlsson: 53.3% 16/30 (rated 83 in face-offs)
Steckel: 62.5% 15/24 (rated 85 in face-offs)
Konopka: 73.9% 17/23 (rated 87 in face-offs)

Verdict: Correct

Strength 2

Physical play / puck protection and retrieval
Artyukhin: 5 hits 0 give aways 3 take aways 1 assist in four games
Tootoo: 3 hits 0 give aways 3 take aways 0 points in four games
Steckel: 2 hits 2 give aways 4 takeaways 1 goal in four games
Konopka: 0 hits 3 give aways 1 take aways 0 points in four games
Pahlsson: 0 hits 6 giveaways 5 takeaways 1 goal in four games
Clarkson: 0 hits 2 giveaways 6 takeaways 1 goal in four games

Verdict: Correct

Strength 3

First line attack
Kovalchuk: 1 goal -2 0 power play goals 18 shots 5.6 shooting % in four games
Zajac: 3 goals 2 assists even rating 2 power play goals 9 shots 33.3 shooting % in four games
Parise: 3 goals 2 assists -1 1 power play goal 11 shots 27.3 shooting % in four games

Verdict: Correct

Niedermayer on the rookies:

ultimately they played well in the pre season and we got a good long look at who they might be in the future, but as for now Adam Larsson will be sent to Albany and Nail Yakupov will be returned to the juniors, obviously we wont be able to recall Nail for the remainder of this year but if injuries occur on the blue line Larsson may be our first option for recall.

I cant stress enough that these two guys didn’t do anything wrong out there and we were impressed with their play, they just need more time before we can truly say they are NHL ready, who knows that may happen in a month or two for Larsson, maybe not till next year.

Either way we are really excited for these two young guys, we believe they have a bright future here.

Stats:
Yakupov: 4 GP 1 assist 2 PIMS +1 9 shots 1 give away 2 takeaways

***NOTE: It was ultimately his lack of overall that killed him here, he isn’t fast enough or stable enough to take NHL punishment yet, he had some really good shots and made some very nice plays but he needs to work on foot speed and balance***

Larsson: 4 GP 0 points 4 PIMS -1 4 shots 3 hits 5 give aways 4 takeaways

***NOTE: Larsson will benefit more playing with Albany this year then he will with the Devils, he has a greater chance of getting more points and positive ice time playing with guys at his overall level (or below lol) then he will getting rocked in the NHL on a nightly basis, this goes for both these guys. If I could insulate them more in a deeper line up with a better support cast I would keep them both, but in this shape I cant keep them in the NHL the Devils are not deep enough, I expect them both to be NHL ready next year***

Team record in pre season: 3-1-0

Devils pre season stats Stats - 2012
Skaters	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	GW	PIM	SOG	SPCT
Zach Parise	4	3	2	5	-1	1	0	11	27.3%
Travis Zajac	4	3	2	5	0	0	2	9	33.3%
Henrik Tallinder	4	0	3	3	1	0	0	3	0%
Patrik Elias	4	0	3	3	2	0	0	5	0%
Andrew Greene	4	0	2	2	-1	0	0	11	0%
Sheldon Souray	4	0	2	2	2	0	0	3	0%
Anton Volchenkov	4	0	1	1	-1	0	0	3	0%
Mark Fraser	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	3	0%
David Steckel	4	1	0	1	2	1	0	5	20%
Ilya Kovalchuk	4	1	0	1	-2	0	0	18	5.6%
Evgeny Artyukhin	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	4	0%
Samuel Pahlsson	4	1	0	1	0	0	0	6	16.7%
Mattias Tedenby	4	0	1	1	1	0	0	5	0%
David Clarkson	4	1	0	1	0	0	0	6	16.7%
Nail Yakupov	4	0	1	1	1	0	2	9	0%
Zenon Konopka	4	0	0	0	-2	0	0	3	0%
Adam Larsson	4	0	0	0	-1	0	4	4	0%
Jordin Tootoo	4	0	0	0	-1	0	0	10	0%
Goalies	GP	W	L	T	GAA	TOI	SV	SV%	SHO
Martin Biron	2	2	0	0	0.48	124	44	.978%	1
Marty Turco	2	1	1	0	3.01	119	30	.833%	0

Coach’s thoughts on pre season play:

We got through it well I thought, got a good look at our two brightest prospects while we were at it, it could have been worse if not for the stingy play of Biron and our good team defence, but that’s the way we are going to have to play, bottom line.

Our top line has tons of skill but we cant play run and gun, if were going to have a chance of competing we have to play a team defence game and make sure we capitalize on the opportunities that present them selves.

Kovy ended up with poor stats as far as a guy of his talent level is considered but he was ripping shots, just didn’t get the bounces that will come in time. The line as a unit is playing well.

As far as replacements for Yakupov here is our opening night line up:

***Changes in bold***

Line one
Ilya Kovalchuk Travis Zajac Zach Parise

Line two
Mattias Tedenby Samuel Pahlsson Patrik Elias

Line three
Evgeny Artyukhin David Steckel Shawn Thornton

Line four
David Clarkson Zenon Konopka Jordin Tootoo

Defence one
Anton Volchenkov Sheldon Souray

Defence two
Henrik Tallinder Andrew Greene

Defense three
Mark Fraser Mark Fayne

Goalie one
Martin Biron

Goalie two
Marty Turco

Albany lines

Line one
Tomas Tatar Adam Pettersson Nick Palmieri

Line two
Michal Repik Robbie Czarnik Viktor Tikhonov

Line Three
Oscar Osala Adam Henrique Jonathan Parker

Line four
Vladimir Zharkov Jacob Josefson Patrick Naslund

Defencce one
Adam Larsson Pierre Durepos

Defence two
Alexander urbom Rob Davidson

Defence three
Matthew Corrente Eric Gelinas

Goalie one
Mikko Koskinen

Goalie two
Thomas McCollum

Season start:

Management wants:
36 wins and they would be happy to make the playoffs but not upset if we don't.

Key player progression

LW Ilya Kovalchuk 29 years old 91 overall C/C/C potential WAS 91 C/C/C
LW Zach Parise 28 years old 91 overall C/C/C potential WAS 91 C/C/C
C Travis Zajac 27 years old 85 overall C/C/C potential WAS 85 C/C/C
LW Mattias Tedenby 22 years old 82 overall B/B-/C WAS 80 B/B-/C
D Adam Larsson 19 years old 77 overall A-/A/A- potential WAS 72 A-/A/A-
LW Nail Yakupov 18 years old 74 overall B/A/A- potential

Season prediciton:

Looking at my roster I predict 36 wins at best with little to no injuries, but i'm leaning more towards 28-30 range due to **** goaltending and cascading injuries, especially if a loose anyone from my top line.

I predict Parise will dominate team scoring and Kovalchuk will have a mediocre year, Biron will be my best solution in net, but not much of a solution at the end, since I have no alternative.

[Dynasty]

Hello and welcome fans and readers, for TSN I am hockey insider Bob McKenzie.

Though this may not come as a surprise, the Devils have lost both opening games to begin this season and while watching the Devils play is a varied bag of emotions ranging from utter rage to heart stopping elation, even though this is a severely depleted club in comparison to years past the style in very similar, though one has to admit playing a defensive game is more necessity now then it may have ever been in the past.

I sight the goal from Marian Gaborik and John Tavares from the Rangers and Islanders respectively. Both goals were scored due to defensive break downs where the opposition forward skated behind the Devils D to receive a pass and skate unhindered against Martin Biron. It's these moments where you want to assault nearby objects and then you have a guy like Zach Parise who takes the puck off opposing forwards due to diligent back checking and slips a fore hand backhand deke past the defender just to get the goalie and remaining defender moving East West only to slam on the binders and rip a blazing shot into the top corner.

This is how the season will carry on for the Devils, they will irritate you by making these mistakes, then dazzle you with top tier plays only to loose close decisions because Zach Parise unfortunately is not a one man band and can't play all positions simotainiously.

Alas the Devils are heading in the right direction as an organization on the mend, although that doesn't translate to W's in the win column just yet, that is all on the horizon. Many fans last season while it pained them to see their beloved Devils bottom out in the standings many carried "FAIL FOR NAIL" posters and they are correct in the belief that Yakupov may very well be a force in the NHL in a short time, accompanied by an upcoming stud defender who plays both sides of the puck equally well all playing along side established stars like Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk, all is not so dark, and as the Devils have long survived and thrived on a very patient system, so I believe they will continue to do so.

While at the end of the day it's the quality, ability and charecter of your on ice staff that produce wins the same is said about your off ice staff.

Here again I believe the Devils have chosen wisely, GM Lou Lamoreillo isn't far off retirement and has all but chosen Scott Stevens and successor in New Jersey. Stevens enters as a sound hockey mind that is also a long time Devil legend and fan favourite, just from a PR stand point this is a brilliant move as during this dark time for the franchise a guy the fans relate to and look up to will be invaluable and may even grant greater leeway in the term allowed for failure.

And again the Devils install another legend from the glory days in Scott Niedermayer as the head coach, both of these guys understand, respect and have personal experience with the Devils long time defensive system.

Both of these guys are fan favorites who will be widely accepted and instantly respected among a disgruntled fan base and both of these guys know what it takes to win, on and off the ice.

Yes I believe if you are a Devils fan, this is a time for optimism, your hockey team has been well managed and is heading in a very good direction with the right people in the right places. All that is now required is just a little bit of patience, and hey another top ten selection wouldn't hurt either

For TSN I am hockey insider Bob McKenzie.

[ImNoCementHead]

Nice write up dynasty. Will definitely be following

[Dynasty]

Quote: Originally Posted by ImNoCementHead

Nice write up dynasty. Will definitely be following

Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

[Jonesey]

You planning to keep Parise or deal him? If you are going to deal him, I'd suggest Suter or Weber from the Preds.