Barclays during warmups (Fire and Ice blog)

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see this game because the Isles’ stream was only restricted to certain areas that apparently didn’t include northeast New Jersey, go figure.  Even the radio links for the game were wonky as the WFAN link kept directing me to the Mets’ baseball broadcast.  Then when I did find Matt and Sherry on the radio, you could still hear the Mets’ broadcast in the background.  So I missed half the first period until finally an audio link worked unfettered.  It’s hard to really follow a game on the radio when you’re looking at performance more than worried about results though so I turned it off after the first period and did other things.

I did however, follow Tweets and read some recaps of the game.  Apparently Cory Schnieder dazzled again, running his streak to five spotless periods in a Devil uniform – seven if you count the two shutout periods during an intrasquad scrimmage. Of course this is still preseason, but he’s making an early claim for the majority of playing time in net with two straight shutout appearances (this one the full three period variety).  At least we know he’s going to make the team anyway haha. For his part, Schnieder wasn’t happy with his rebound control, but hey this is preseason after all.  Other players gave some noteworthy performances as well.

In his second preseason game Damien Brunner fit a lot better and had two assists, earning praise from linemate Patrik Elias (also looking ready in his first preseason action with a goal and an assist) as a ‘good player, a smart player’.  Also playing with them was Jacob Josefson, who oddly slotted in at left wing instead of his normal center position with Elias moving over to center for the night.  Maybe that change helped, as Josefson also had a good game with a goal – off a rebound of a Brunner shot – and assist of his own.

One thing I did notice early on was Stefan Matteau took a bad penalty and was demoted to the fourth line.  Odds are he still needs to work on his discipline in the AHL.  Also getting away with a ‘interesting’ high stick was Jon Merrill who poked fun at himself as running around like a goon but it was no laughing matter for Isle fans as he high-sticked Kyle Okposo in the face, albeit accidentally you would hope although why he had his stick that far above his shoulder swinging backwards I have no idea.  On the somewhat brighter side, Merill nearly scored at the end of the second period, just getting beat by the buzzer.  Other young defensemen such as Alex Urbom and of course Adam Larsson played, and Larsson by all accounts seems ready to take the next step toward being an upper-echelon defenseman this year.  Urbom’s been fine too but probably will get caught in a numbers game.

As far as the arena itself, reviews were mixed at best – with a myriad of obstructed view seats, pictures from some of which were utterly laughable.  You literally could not see the net or the entire area behind the blueline in one of them.  Of course some of this was inevitable given the arena itself wasn’t built with hockey in mind but still if you paid $50+ for a preseason game with the view from some of these seats you’d be peeved off to say the least.  Devils beat writer Tom Gulitti even compared the concourses to the ones at the Meadowlands (which is not a good thing if you’re an Isles fan).  While anything’s better than the concourses at the sardine can known as Nassau, the CAA was no day at the beach either in terms of moving around during intermission.  At least the game was nearly a sellout, with only a few hundred empty seats – most likely the expensive ones.