Devils open preseason at the Rock tonight

September 16, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

In Jacques Lemaire‘s unofficial return to New Jersey, the Devils will play the Rangers in their first game of the preseason at 7 PM tonight.  It will be the Rangers’ second exhibition game, after their tilt with Boston last night at the Garden.  For tonight, the Devils will ice an interesting lineup (aren’t they all in preseason, at least early on?):

• Parise-Zajac-Shanahan
• Rolston-Zubrus-Bergfors
• Zharkov-Cormier-Clarkson
• Leblond-Pelley-Pikkairainen 

Bolded are forwards I’ll be watching closely.  The others either have a role on the team pretty much set in stone or I’m at least familiar with what they bring to the table.  Granted, nobody has a longer resume than Brendan Shanahan but with Patrik Elias‘s absence (he’ll be out the next 3-6 weeks, which means he’ll miss all of preseason and the start of the regular season) and Shanny having a full training camp this year, Lemaire is looking to see whether the vet still has it in him to fill in as a top six forward.  He’ll almost certainly get opportunities tonight with two-thirds of the Devils’ dynamic top line – shown above in practice jerseys.

Obviously the others are younger players who will get time to show what they can do in preseason.  Can former ’05 first-rounder Nicklas Bergfors finally begin to cement a role in the top six or at least as a regular on the NHL level after a couple years in the AHL?  Will ’08 second-rounder Patrice Cormier turn enough heads to win a job at just 19 years of age?  Doubtful but the Devils could use another offensive center and at least Cormier is being trained to fit that bill.  How will fellow AHL’er Vladimir Zharkov (third-round pick in ’06) do with Cormier?  And just what can we expect of Ilkka Pikkarainen, a one-time Devils draftee in the seventh round of ’02 but only now returning to North America after a stint overseas?

As far as the defense goes, there are also a mix of regulars with players to watch:

• Salvador-Murphy
• Mottau-Oduya
• Fraser-Urbom

Three players expected to be in the Devils’ top six – Bryce Salvador, Mike Mottau and Johnny Oduya will play but not with their familiar d-partners.  Mark Fraser probably will play in the AHL again, but he’ll still be only 23 in October and because he’s physical (152 PIM’s in 74 AHL games last year) he might be considered for a callup if something should happen to Salvador or Colin White.  Cory Murphy could give the Devils’ power play a boost – if he shows enough to crack the top six which is doubtful – or if someone gets dinged up during the season which is far more likely.  And I’ll get to find out just who, exactly Alexander Urbom is.  Apparently he was drafted just months ago and signed a three-year deal at around $600k per within the last week.  From what little I’ve been able to read he seems ticketed for the WHL (juniors) but must be doing something right to get a contract so soon after being drafted.

As far as the goaltenders go, the early preseason games are usually the time for the #2 and #3 guys to get action in place of Martin Brodeur, since barring injury or divine intervention they rarely do so from late September on.  And for different reasons I’m interested in seeing both Yann Danis and Jeff Frazee, who are supposed to split time tomorrow night but Lemaire hasn’t committed to playing ’05 2nd rounder Frazee in the game.  Still, Frazee had a good season in the AHL last year and in another organization might be considered for promotion at 22 years of age. 

It is tomorrow’s starter Danis who’ll probably serve as the backup goaltender behind Brodeur though, and Danis looked pretty good in the latter half of ’08-09 with the Islanders when under siege.  Ironically Danis was the starting goalie for the Isles in one of the preseason games I went to last year – and if he doesn’t get his new mask in time he’ll be wearing the same mask he did then haha.  Hopefully he shows enough in camp and the preseason to get more than the five games that is usually slated for a Brodeur backup.

In any case, it should be fun at the Rock tonight and the game is also on TV – MSG and MSG+ – so I’m sure many local hockey fans will be watching as well.  Particuarly Devils fans since it will be our only televised preseason game, while the Rangers I think have them all on MSG. 

And for those who are the true diehard hockey fans (and have the whole day off), the two teams’ minor league affiliates Lowell and Hartford are also playing a 1 PM AHL preseason game at the Rock, a baseball-like day-night doubleheader to welcome the fans back after a long offseason – four plus months in New Jersey, which is at least one too long.