head coach: Jacques Lemaire

roster: C - Doug Gilmour, Bob Carpenter, Bobby Holik, Denis Pederson, Petr Sykora. LW - Dave Andreychuk, Steve Thomas, Valeri Zelepukin, Jay Pandolfo, Reid Simpson, Scott Daniels. RW - Patrik Elias, John MacLean, Randy McKay. D - Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Daneyko, Lyle Odelein, Kevin Dean, Vlastimil Kroupa, Brad Bombardir. G - Martin Brodeur, Mike Dunham.

injuries: None.

transactions: 10/3 - Re-signed free agent holdout LW Brian Rolston.

standings:

GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   HOME      ROAD
 2   1   1   0     2    5    7  0-0-0     1-1-0

game results:

10/3 at Tampa Bay   W 4-3
10/4 at Washington  L 4-1

team news:

by Phil Aromando, New Jersey Correspondent

The Devils live and die by their system. Call it the trap, the Lemaire Lock, boring; but anyway you look at it, it takes a huge amount of individual dedication and a willingness to play by the team concept. During Jacques Lemaire’s first season as coach five years ago, there were few players who didn’t buy into it. The team started out strong and quick and didn’t stop for two years. The heartbreaking loss to the Rangers in ‘94 confirmed they were headed in the right direction. The Cup win the following season delivered the ultimate. They looked so strong that new rules were even being considered to limit the trap and the oncoming juggernaut of Devil dominance. The future looked bright. The Devils had arrived.

But something strange happened the following season. They failed to make the playoffs. Perhaps it could be attributed to the fact that key individuals within the system left or were dealt away. Claude Lemieux and Bruce Driver were integral parts. Poised as contenders, the Devils drifted all season.

The addition of Doug Gilmour late last year seemed to be the answer. They finally had acquired a scoring center. Someone to bolster the offense and allow the team to play with a lead of more than one goal for stretches longer than ten minutes. He would complement the suffocating defense and lead the way to glory. Unfortunately, the overachieving Rangers, with axes to grind of their own, effectively short circuited them. The Devils imploded. Whether it was players in the crease or general whining about the officiating and everything else, the team that new rules were going to be made for looked and played sloppy. No longer contenders, they didn’t even look poised.

Will this year’s team live up to its potential? Will this be another season of expectation followed by the dull thump of an early playoff exit? Will they even make the playoffs? Not even Barry Melrose picked them as Eastern Conference favorites this year. There is a sense that the system has run its course; that it now bores the players.

There is also a sense of disarray in the lineup. Two players that are integral to the team’s success have not even seen the training camp dressing room. Brian Rolston finally ended his holdout and signed last Friday and should join the team for the home opener against the Flyers on the 8th of October, but Bill Guerin has formally asked to be traded. Rolston simply wanted to get back and play, but Guerin wants market value for his talents and it doesn’t sound like he or the Devils will budge. We all know what happens to players that upset the system: they are let go, traded or allowed to sit out a year (remember Sean Burke?).

The fifth season of the Jacques Lemaire era began with a win immediately followed by a loss. Both games had strange qualities and in many ways highlighted issues that will surround the team as the season unfolds.

Against Tampa the Devils controlled play and looked sharp for much of the game but still couldn’t take a lead greater than one goal deep into a game. Let me clarify: they did have a two-goal lead with five minutes left to play and had limited Tampa to only two shots in the period up to that point in the third, but they gave it away in a sixteen-second span. Jason Wiemer scored twice to bring the Bolts within one with less than two minutes to play and the Devils had to scramble to contain a game that normally would have been theirs. If it weren’t for Brodeur and two saves he made in the final minute, the game would have slipped away.

The loss of Shawn Chambers and Dave Ellett to free agency may not be felt at all this season, but watching something like this unfold, you can’t help but wonder whether or not the defensive supremacy the Devils are known for has taken a hit. Vlastimil Kroupa and Kevin Dean may fill the void, but the tradeoff in experience is something that may have an impact. Kroupa played wildly and erratically. As he said after the game, "I have to learn to stay back." As Scott Stevens said: "It was an adventure."

Brodeur could do nothing about the first goal Tampa scored (Patrik Elias unwittingly tipped it into his own net after upending Rob Zamuner in the slot), but he made a beautiful glove save on a Tampa three-on-one midway through the second to keep the game at 2-1.

Randy McKay scored the first Devil goal of the season eight minutes into the first and played with his usual fervor. He will benefit most from Bill Guerin’s absence, seeing time on Gilmour’s line.

Petr Sykora seemed healthy, scoring once and assisting on a power-play goal. John MacLean scored the game-winner, assisted by Denis Pederson and Valeri Zelepukin. Dave Andreychuk played and skated well: it looks like the ankle he broke last season is completely healed. The win, Lemaire’s 200th NHL coaching victory, extended Jersey’s unbeaten opening day streak to nine consecutive games (7-0-2).

During the preseason, Jacques Lemaire complained about the logistics of this season’s schedule. There are more back-to-back games than usual to accommodate for the two-week league shut down in February while NHL stars go off to play for their respective countries in the Olympics. He suggested that there would be more injuries and more juggling of ice time for older players (which the Devils have in abundance) than normal. Not that he was making an excuse, but after the loss to Washington he said that the emotion of playing the season opener and then travelling to Washington and arriving at two a.m. may have had something to do with how flat the Devils played.

Maybe. But there would have been no stopping the Caps even if the Devils played like they had in Tampa the night before. Washington is playing a lot like the Devils did at the start of 93-94 (Lemaire’s first season). Ron Wilson seems to have gotten the core of this Caps team to believe in itself. They always play the Devils tough defensively and Bill Ranford is a goalie they always have trouble beating. But this night they took it to the Devils with their offense and without Bill Ranford in goal.

Washington scored on their first shot of the game and led 4-0 by the midway point of the second period. To make matters worse, the Caps scored goals three and four in a span of 36 seconds, eerily mirroring the game in Tampa the night before. Yes, Brodeur was in goal (although he was sitting on the bench at the beginning of the third). It was not entirely his fault. Scott Niedermayer and Lyle Odelein were on the ice for three of the Caps' goals. One goal was the result of a Dale Hunter takeaway from Nieder that then hit Odelein’s shin pad and deflected into the net. All in all a rough night for the defense. Brad Bombardir made his NHL debut, subbing for Kroupa. Lemaire said he had planned to start Bombardir in place of Kroupa even before the Tampa game. Considering Kroupa’s play the night before, it was a valid and prescient move.

The Caps defense shut down everyone but Randy McKay. He scored midway through the second off a feed from Holik (the Thomas-Holik-McKay line was the most effective all evening). But by that point the game was firmly out of reach.

So another season begins and the Devils look forward to their home opener against the Flyers on Wednesday night. The Flyers are the class of the East this year. The measuring stick that the Devils once were. It will be the first real test of the lineup as it is presently comprised. Hopefully, the defense will settle down and realize that these games count and the offense will pick up and generate some quality scoring opportunities. There are 80 more games to play, but a victory against a team like the Flyers can go a long way to reassuring fans that their team is still capable of competing at the level they have grown accustomed to. After all, this season may be their best last chance: after this season, Brodeur, Stevens, Niedermayer, and Gilmour will all be free agents of one type or another.

RECENT LINES

Offense
Steve Thomas/Doug Gilmour/Denis Pederson
Dave Andreychuk/Bobby Holik/Randy McKay
Jay Pandolfo/Bobby Carpenter/John MacLean
Reid Simpson/Petr Sykora/Scott Daniels

Defense
Kevin Dean/Scott Stevens
Scott Niedermayer/Lyle Odelein
Brad Bombardir/Ken Daneyko

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