Devils coach Pete DeBoer (northjersey.com)

With this season starting in much the way last one ended, a spotlight is now being shined on coach Pete DeBoer and some of his bizarre lineup decisions.  Given the team’s supposed glut of quality players everywhere you would figure the team would get off to better than an 0-1-3 start and be able to hold multi-goal leads (already two blown). That hasn’t been the case however, and the coach’s overreliance on certain role player overachievers and forgiveness of vet miscues while being all too willing to throw anyone 27-and-under into the doghouse is getting beyond annoying.  In practice today, the coach had Andrei Loiktionov, Jacob Josefson, Mattias Tedenby and Adam Larsson skating with the extras.  For those of you scoring at home, that’s three of our last four first-round picks (’08 Tedenby, ’09 Josefson, ’11 Larsson) as well as a 23-year old center who turned down $3 million from the KHL to get a full-time chance in the NHL.  While the coach cautioned ‘not to read anything into lines’ during practice, this hollow disclaimer was already proven false before Opening Night when DeBoer said roughly the same thing and then proceeded to scratch the exact same players (Mark Fayne, Rostislav Olesz, Josefson and Tedenby) skating with the fifth line and fourth d-pairings.

Though it’s true most of the younger players have not played well – Josefson still hasn’t gotten in a game though – neither have the players that have been their direct replacements for the most part.  DeBoer may not like kids, but he sure likes his vet overachievers such as Peter Harrold and Stephen Gionta. Harrold’s being paid like a swingman ($800k per), has #7 defenseman skills – nice for a fill-in, not so much when he gets exposed over longer periods – yet since the second half of last season has been a constant in the lineup despite a deep roster of vets and talented youngsters that all need to play sooner or later.  Same with Gionta, who was a terrific story during the ’12 playoffs and was admittedly better than Josefson last year but as an every-day undersized center who can’t win faceoffs he has his limitations.  Yet Gionta is also playing every game, despite a -3 and a puny one shot on goal in a scoreless first four games.  You would figure Josefson could at least crack the lineup when Loiktionov found his way into the doghouse after botching coverage on what was essentially a busted play on Vancouver’s second goal Tuesday when Ryane Clowe took a shot off the leg and had to hobble off the ice, creating an impromptu 5-on-4.

Instead of replacing a center with a center though, they chose to move Adam Henrique back to center and restore Ryan Carter (a winger) to the lineup after he sat upstairs for a game in favor of Olesz.  Now Carter and Olesz are both playing with the two young centers on the outs.  I have nothing against Olesz, he needs to play at a certain point too and there aren’t many LW spots to put him in unless Henrique moves back to the middle (which then creates a logjam there) but to me it makes more sense if you rotate Carter/Olesz and Gionta/Josefson instead of letting two dominate playing time.  Henrique might as well stay on the wing anyway with how terribad he’s been on faceoffs – 9/33 (27.3%).  Ironically, Loiktionov is the only center with 15+ faceoffs that’s actually above 50% right now, and barely at that.  It’s not as if the staff feels faceoffs are important though, why else would they continue to have Gionta 8/28 (28.6%; also below 40% last year) take any?

Our treatment of Larsson and Fayne is even more alarming.  Instead of playing a solid former top-pairing defenseman or our #4 overall pick in ’11, Pete keeps running out Harrold, a career fringe player.  I don’t want to hate on Harrold – or Gionta for that matter – because they are scrappy overachievers, after all.  It’s not even as if Harrold’s been the worst defenseman on the ice anyway…that dishonor is squarely reserved for Anton Volchenkov, who some may think is in the lineup solely because of his contract (three years, nearly $13 million total left), but that’s never been an issue with GM Lou Lamoriello who demoted Alexander Mogilny to the minors when he was making $3.5 million a year with a significantly lower salary cap.  If anything’s keeping Volchenkov in the lineup it’s the head coach’s over-allegiance to vets, and the fact he’s a left-handed defenseman.  Among his other idiosyncrasices, the head coach is a stickler for having left-handed defensemen and forwards play on the left side and vice-versa. After all, that was the impetus for switching Ilya Kovalchuk to right wing while he was here.

Our left-handed defensemen are Bryce Salvador, Andy Greene and Volchenkov while the others – including Harrold, Fayne and Larsson are righties.  Which is why it seems to always come down to those three for the final two spots on the right side of the defense after Marek Zidlicky who’s a clear fixture in the lineup. Never mind that Larsson actually played on the left side growing up, and it was his potential there that made him the #4 overall pick in 2011.  Both Larsson and Fayne have regressed in the last two years, since assistant Larry Robinson left for San Jose but having good teachers wasn’t supposed to be a problem with Scott Stevens replacing Robby on the staff.  Of course great players aren’t always great teachers – just ask Wayne Gretzky.  Even with seven players instead of eight this year, it’s still been a headache to get people the icetime they need, so much so that Alex Urbom was lost on waivers just before the season started, and is now playing for the Washington Capitals and former Devils assistant Adam Oates.

Goaltending hasn’t been a lineup issue yet, mainly because the first four games have been a pair of back-to-backs, so obviously Martin Brodeur and Cory Schnieder were going to split them.  It’s the next eight games that will be intriguing, since none of them are in a back-to-back situation.  Brodeur will start the first one tomorrow night at Calgary, in what’s practically a must-win game if nothing else because what lies ahead is even harder as the team finishes in Winnipeg and Ottawa before returning home to face a Ranger team that isn’t having much success out West either.  I always figured Brodeur would get the first ‘benefit of the doubt’ start, so there’s no alarm to be sounded yet – and both goalies have been about even so far through the first four games – but it could become problematic down the road if Marty gets a disproportionate amount of the non back-to-backs.  Especially since the Devils need to eventually see if Schnieder can handle the load before committing to him long-term.

Of course as we’ve seen at other positions, tenure seems to decide roster spots more than talent and there’s absolutely no margin for developing younger players.  After all, if you can’t play a guy in October during the first two weeks of the season, how are you ever going to trust them in March?  Even Devils beat reporter Tom Gulitti made a pointed crack about the current situation when it was reported that former NHL mainstay Sergei Federov was attempting an overseas comeback.

Tom Gulitti ‏@TGfireandice8h

Sergei Fedorov coming out of retirement in Russia. Alert to Devils: Sign him. Another old guy you can dress over a young player.

You wonder how long it’ll take before the Devils’ head coach and organization realizes the truth of this statement and how player development is getting completely retarded around here.