I find it’s good to live life with the same 24-hour rule we ask parents to obey in youth hockey: if something upsets you, give it 24 hours to settle before reacting publicly, loudly and permanently to it. This season upset me, not because the Devils didn’t make a serious run at the Cup but because there was so much potential left on the table. The season began and ended the same way, with half-hearted hockey amidst serious fan involvement. A bad combination. But here are my fully formed day-old thoughts:
The Rock: A for form, but you can’t dance to it. It’s a wonderful building for hockey. Great sight lines, good acoustics, awesome food in terms of variety, speed and price, a good experience. I love the high school and youth hockey jerseys on the walls, and the displays near the towers. But for some reason, it still doesn’t feel like the fans’ building. Maybe this is part of the game experience, maybe it’s just what we associate between on-ice and in-stands events. But I think every player, every member of the Devils management team, every Power Player, and every fan should walk around to Section 1, and look over the goal that the Devils defend twice. Up on the second level, to the left of the Taste of Newark, are a set of youth hockey jerseys. They’re the only non-player jersey displays you can see from the ice; the others are in the concourse and face away from the playing surface. Accidentally or not, the youth jerseys look onto the ice, and the ice looks up to them. That’s where the future fan base is; it’s not in people my age but in our kids’ generation. We grew up with the Rangers and then the Islanders, and if you were geographically confused perhaps the Flyers as well. No Devils until 1982, long past the high school salad days of sports allegiances. But the Devils have a chance to reach the Millenial Generation, to make them life-long fans, and to build a base that will fill the rock with the kids who used to fill those jerseys, and their kids a generation after that. That’s what will make the Rock a fans’ building.
Game Experience: B- at best. And I can’t put my finger on one thing, but seeing a game at the Rock still feels like every other arena, with the silly between-whistle games, XM-sponsored music, and video sequences. What about text messages from the fans? Mobile phone photos? And I’m sorry, but the Power Players are just another silver pom-pom, bare midriff team that doesn’t dance, sing, or skate. The Knicks City Dancers, the Nets Dancers, even the Panthers Ice Cats do something. I’m not just suffering remaindered upset that I wasn’t called back when I filed an application to be Power Player; I think the Power Players need to include more of the fan base. Let’s all channel Baumann in his swamp-ish glory. Tie the Devils Legion marketing into the in-game experience, for once. The game, the prelude to the game, the postscript to the game, the days between games, and what you’re thinking of while standing in line for another Carvel sundae should be shared. It’s Facebook mashed with the Jumbotron.
Broadcast Team: A, D, and incomplete. I’m not going to jump on the “Chico is a homer” bandwagon. I happen to like Chico Resch, I think he’s funny, I think Chico Eats made it worth the electricity to keep the television on through the intermissions, and I’ll go as far as to say that Chico is the Don Cherry of New Jersey. But: I’d like to be able to find games, on cable, at a consistent place. MSG, MSG Alternate, FSNY, VS, and the Estonian sub-titled Home and Juniper Tree Network (except where blackout restrictions apply) make it a bit confusing. The radio situation is just as bad, with games moving around more than Nathan Detroit’s oldest established permanent floating craps game. And to top it off, I find Sherry Ross to be the anti-Velischek. Randy was a homer, but I loved his accent, and deep down, you could hear in his voice how he was pained by failure on the ice; he wished he was out there helping instead of in the broadcast booth. Sherry Ross comes off like Suzan Waldman but without the authenticity. If I could listen to radio broadcasts with the sound off, and just have the play by play etched into my brain via Bluetooth, I would. Gentle readers, you can assign grades. I want consistency, the voice of experience (why I like Chico and Dano) and commentary that makes me laugh.
Team Performance: I take the F. I’d like to say that I made my early season predictions - a 100 goal scoring line, a miserable year for Gomez, Rafalski churning on Detroit’s blue line - on Opposite Day, but I didn’t. I was equal parts wrong and myopic. This was the first year in six that Elias didn’t lead the Devils in scoring, and the top four goal scorers combined didn’t hit the century mark (94 to be exact). The entire team’s plus/minus rating looks like a Montreal thermocline map in January. There were a few bright spots, like Oduya and Mottau coming into their own as defensive forces who can move the puck. It was good to see Parise not only step up in scoring but step up when the going got tough and his teeth got going. Everybody’s wondering what went wrong, but I think it comes down to a lack of simplicity: At times it looked like every player was worried about or doing some part of another’s role. Elias at center. Multiple guys behind the net in the defensive zone. Slow motion in the neutral zone, or failure to hold at the blue line so that the defense is back quickly. What that speaks to, then, is the need for one or two really solid position players so everyone else can get into the zone, literally, and focus on one role at a time. A serious #1 center, a serious #1 or 2 defenseman, and the team is in good shape. And they don’t have to be big ticket guys — just hungry guys.
Sergei Brylin. I hope, seriously, totally hope, he’s back next season. I love Sarge because it’s so much fun to yell “Freakin’ Brylin!” while running through the house, or a hotel room, in my underwear (don’t ask; several Boston area hotels now have policies against this). He’s a genuinely good guy who gives of his time, autographs and listening skills as much as anyone in hockey. In some ways, he may be the Jim McKenzie of this team. After the Devils won the Cup in 2003, and McKenzie took off for Nashville, both Gomez and Langebrunner said (to me, on a golf course) that they were sad to see Jim leave — even though he was a fourth liner and a banger, McKenzie was a leader on and off the ice; he got respect in the locker room; he set a strong work ethic. I think Brylin catalyzes the same chemistry — add a few more reactive players, and let Brylin buffer the reactions.
Coaching. For once, I’d like to see the Devils have the same coach two seasons in a row. I think it takes time to mold a team, to build something with the talent you’re given (Sutter arrived once the players were signed; he had zero input). However, I’d seriously argue for sending Albelin and/or Larry Robinson off to Lowell for next season and swinging Kurt Kleinendorst onto the defensive end of the bench. KK never played pro, and more important, never played pre-lockout pro hockey, so he’s more of a student of the current game. Let’s see what he mades of the defense in the first third of the season, and then return the coaching pieces to their places if needed.
But hey, I’m the guy who got everything else wrong this season, and I’m merely a fan with a keyboard.
