I admit it, with the current state of the NHL it’s been hard for me to even get into the Devils’ AHL team, let alone follow all the other Devil players like Ilya Kovalchuk who are currently playing overseas while the NHL is still in a holding pattern.  And that was before I lost electricity and heat for ten days due to ‘Superstorm Sandy’ which terrorized the northeast, especially along the coast.  I finally got my power back last Thursday and my cable/internet over the weekend, so with the NHL no closer to a solution and my interest in the NFL limited to what my two fantasy teams do thanks to the Jets’ hideousness, I’m going to try a little more to get into the AHL in the coming weeks, starting with a piece on the Albany Devils’ first month.

While it’s true I haven’t watched much other than bits and pieces of a couple games online, you can tell certain things from reading recaps and looking at stats.  What is obvious is that Albany’s 3-5-3 record (including two losses to the rival Whale of Connecticut – a.k.a the Rangers’ affiliate) is not very good.  Then again that’s only par for the course throughout the last decade plus, which saw the Devils’ farm team make the playoffs one time during that stretch – and lose in a quick five-game first-round series then.  Yes, development is more of a priority than winning at the AHL level but to me part of development is learning how to win, especially if you want your young players to know what it takes in a successful organization someday.

Scoring goals is definitely an issue with just twenty-two in eleven games thus far, getting more than two goals in only three of those eleven games.  Among the few bright spots offensively is Jacob Josefson, who leads the team in goals (4), points (8) and is second in plus-minus at a +7 through the first month of the season.  Also starting out hot is career minor leaguer Matt Anderson, who has seven points and a team-leading +8.  Highly-touted defenseman Adam Larsson is continuing his maturation down in the minors with five points in his first eleven games as he not only is refining his defensive game but continuing to improve offensively.

On the downside, after making a name for himself as a rookie during the playoffs with two series-winning goals, Adam Henrique has struggled at the start of this season, with just three goals and no assists in eleven games (and a -1 with 12 PIM’s to boot).  It’s entirely possible he’s only interested in staying in shape till the NHL season starts, or his production is just suffering because of going from playing with Kovalchuk and Zach Parise on his line to playing with has-beens and never-weres this year.  Also struggling – but not as surprisingly – are Mattias Tedenby and Bobby Butler.  Tedenby has just two goals and three points in eight games, and Butler – bought out by Ottawa this offseason – has only one goal and one assist in ten games with a -3.  Both were our primary in-house options to replace the holes left by Parise and Alexei Ponikarovsky on our top three lines but if their numbers in the AHL are any indication, the Devils may have to seek outside help once the lockout ends.

Defensively things look a little better with both Larsson and young Alex Urbom showing improvement.  Urbom’s missed some time this year but has three assists and is a +3 in six games so far.  Brandon Burlon‘s also played in seven games and has one assist with an even plus-minus.  Vet Jay Leach has played in all eleven games and provided leadership for the young kids.  Both Jeff Frazee and Keith Kinkaid have put up good numbers this year sharing the load in goal.  Frazee’s played five games and is 2-1-2 with a 1.94 GAA and .917 save percentage, while Kinkaid’s played six games and is 1-4-1 with a 2.32 GAA and .920 save percentage.  With those splits, clearly the records aren’t the goalies’ fault – Kinkaid pitched a shutout in the lone win he had.

If you want to catch the Albany Devils over the next few weeks, they provide audio at the AHL website.  It’s pay-per-view to actually watch the game unfortunately (about $6 per game), unless you find a bootlegged site which isn’t that hard on the internet if you check out the Devils’ HF and NJDevs message board threads on the AHL.  Over the next month, the Devils will only play weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) matchups, with a pair of games against St. John in Newfoundland on Friday and Saturday next up on the docket.  If you live close enough to Albany and want to check out the baby Devils there, they have a pair of home games on Thanksgiving weekend against Syracuse next Saturday and Wilkes-Barre on Sunday.