Kevin Klein’s OT game winner which sent Devil fans home vexed (NJ.com)

DISCLAIMER: While part of me feels silly about posting this blog after the real-life tragedy in Ottawa earlier today, ultimately there’s nothing we can do but send our best wishes to all those affected there.  As much as we may rant about our favorite teams (and I’m about to do that now) ultimately we know in the end it’s just a game and how sobering it is when real life interrupts our little diversion known as the NHL.  That said since I teased this blog yesterday in Derek’s recap, and won’t have time to do it the next couple days it’s time to return to the diversion now:

Although I’ve calmed down a little bit in the nearly twenty-four hours since the Devils’ latest meltdown at the Rock against the rival Rangers, I still feel compelled to vent about last night.  Derek already did a game recap so I don’t really want to do the blow-by-blow though I will get into certain specifics and problems this Devil team is facing after six games.  Before I get to any of that though – the airhead coaching, bad PK’ing and goofy roster management, I’ll start this blog with some off-ice commentary.

Number one on the agenda is last night’s attendance, or lack thereof.  Since moving to the Rock, every single Devil-Ranger game – playoff or regular season – was a sellout before last night by whatever sellout number the Devils have used, either the 17,625 under previous owner Jeff Vanderbeek or the thousand or so less premium seats new ownership is no longer counting in the reported attendance.  Whatever a sellout entailed, the Devils filled every seat in the building for every single Devil-Ranger matchup the last six years…until last night when there were more than 2000 empty seats, according to the reported figure of 14,484.  If you’re racking your brain wondering how a Devil-Ranger game could be so far from a sellout (even on a weekday in October), the answer is quite elementary and just one word long.

Pricing.

Over the last few years the Devils have gone to a tiered pricing system where games against the Rangers get the highest pricing and there are a few other levels down from that, but this year the Devils pushed the envelope till it finally broke in reference to the level of increase this game got.  Memo to whoever was reponsible for last night’s pricing (where single-game tickets started at nearly $100 upstairs), whether it was CEO Scott O’Neill, DAE president Hugh Weber or one of their underlings…this isn’t MSG, Montreal or Minnesota!  You simply cannot price the market as if it was.  Me with my zero economics degrees could have priced that game better last night.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the concept of tiered pricing in itself, but you can only gouge people a ‘premium game tax’ so much, especially in October.  Especially when the Devils have three home games in six days, with the other two games the home opener and a much more affordable game on Friday where longtime broadcaster Chico Resch will be honored before the Devils’ now-crucial tilt against the Stars.

If I weren’t already a season ticket holder going to all three games and I only wanted to pick one or two, I’d pick the less expensive games with undivided crowds.  You would think maybe Ranger fans would have scooped up the extras (and they certainly made their presence known) but even they seemed disinterested to a degree…after all it’s only been a few months since their fans shelled out second mortgages for a long playoff run at MSG.  Even they weren’t even going to run out and buy $100-500 tickets for an away regular season game in October.  Regrettably I forgot to take a picture of the uppers last night because it was a true ghost town in the 200 sections.  The lower corners were also scattered like it was a midweek game against Florida.  I half-joked to a friend that the crowd seemed like 45% Devils fans, 30% Ranger fans and 25% empty seats.

Quite honestly though, I never thought I’d say this but now I’m glad there’s only one more Devil-Ranger game in NJ at this point since more and more every year it seems to bring out the worst in both sides.  Whether it’s the idiot Devils fan sth in 120 who did an unfunny caricature of a ‘Ranjuh fan’ but mostly was just talking to hear himself talk, the Ranger fan who tried to tackle my friend leaving the arena out of nowhere, the inevitable random fight I always wind up walking past during these games – last night it was on the way out – the shenanigans around Devil-Ranger games at the Rock have gotten old.  The irony is, the game itself last night was as entertaining as most Devil-Ranger matchups have been even if it was mostly a special teams battle (three PP goals for us, two for them) and a bit on the sloppy side.

Which leads to my critiques of the in and out-of game management from the Devils.  Yesterday might actually have been the worst managed/coached hockey game I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something considering my various issues with Devil coaches aside from Pat Burns and Larry Robinson.  What annoys me the most about current coach Pete DeBoer is everyone loves his system (whether we blow a million leads or not), it’s more asthetically pleasing to watch than the trap, players love it….all that’s true, which makes Pete’s in and out-of game management even more maddening.  My aggravation with Pete started even before the game when he scratched Tuomo Ruutu in favor of Jordin Tootoo.  I understand you needed to make a change to keep Damien Brunner in the lineup – and Brunner actually had his second straight good game in a row since getting a chance after Martin Havlat’s gruesome facial injury.  However, this staff’s collective mancrush for Tootoo is puzzling, to say the least – particularly since Detroit had him in the AHL before they let him go and Ken Holland doesn’t throw out good hockey players.  Let us ignore for a moment that any hockey scout would rate Ruutu as the better hockey player or even that he brings the same ‘grit’ they go ga-ga for about Tootoo, but what exactly has Tootoo done to earn an every-game spot in the lineup anyway?  He’s spent almost as much time in the penalty box as he has on the ice this season.  Ruutu actually has a goal and saved another goal with a good defensive play, and he can play on the top three lines in a pinch.

While I was happy to see Adam Larsson finally get ‘a’ chance on defense, that turned into another fiasco as he wound up only playing twelve and a half minutes in an overtime game, and was frequently benched for noted defensive stopper Marek Zidlicky late in the game (sorry if I blew up anyone’s sarcasm meter with that one).  Predictably, Zidlicky had a horrendous giveaway that led to Rick Nash’s tying goal in the third period.  Also predictably Zidlicky got even more icetime late while Larsson continued to stew on the bench.  If I wasn’t convinced before, I am now…a change needs to be made for all involved.  Trade Larsson for whatever you can get before he goes back to Sweden, bring back Peter Harrold to fill in and just get rid of the angst.  I get the fact that young guys like Jon Merrill and Damon Severson have/are succeeding under this coach and Larsson hasn’t looked the same since his rookie year and at some point he has to be accountable to his own play, I get all that.  However if you’re going to demand safety first, second and third from a talented 21-year old and hold a guillotine over his head while he’s skating, how is he ever supposed to get better?  Sadly it seems Larsson was ruined by too much, too soon as an eighteen-year old.

Even the benching of Larsson and treating Zidlicky as a shutdown defenseman wasn’t Pete’s most egregious tactical error of the night, although it certainly didn’t help matters as the Devils blew yet another multi-goal lead.  Neither was having Tootoo in the lineup over Ruutu.  Even when Stephen Gionta (he of the 26 points in 127 career NHL games) was on the ice for an offensive-zone faceoff with under a minute left in regulation, as annoying as that was it still wasn’t the most egregious snafu Pete made last night.  Nope, Pete waited until overtime for his most idiotic move.  In a four-on-four situation Pete puts our two slowest cement-skating forwards (Danius Zubrus and Ryane Clowe) on the ice – together!  Against a Ranger team that’s all speed!  The end result was predictable with Chris Mueller and Chris Kreider skating circles around our slugs setting up Kevin Klein’s OT winner.

Make no mistake I don’t just want to take Pete to task for last night.  As good as our power play was last night (scoring all three goals), we were -2 even strength in the game and gave up two more power play goals.  It seems as if Bryce Salvador and Andy Greene are on the ice for every single one of them too.  Whether it’s Salvador’s own cement skates or Greene playing on his off side, that pairing just is not working on the PK.  Ideally you want to have one vet with one kid, especially since Greene and Damon Severson are an even-strength pairing.  Why not pair them on the PK and have Sal and Merrill be the other pairing?  Merrill probably has more quickness than Greene at this point and can compensate a little bit for Sal being stuck in mud.  Of course it would help if we didn’t take nine million penalties a game.  Who do the Devils think they are, the New York football Jets?  We can’t even catch a break with the calls right now, as Mike Cammalleri’s questionable delay of game – which to me looked like it could have been deflected and/or hit off the camera above the penalty box – led to the Rangers’ second power play goal in the third period that made the game 3-2 and turned what looked to be a comfortable game into a nervous one, and we know how the rest ended.

After yesterday, Chico night can’t come soon enough.  At this point in the season Devil fans need a little laughter and healing, which no doubt the Devils’ former color man will provide when he’s honored before Friday’s game against Dallas.  Devil fans especially need some of Chico’s humor now since the Dallas game has become vital with the team now at 3-2-1 after its opening streak on the road.  I don’t want to put the ‘must-win’ term on an October game but let’s be honest, going 0-3 at home with tough trips to Ottawa and Pittsburgh looming is not exactly a recipe for success.  Especially with the schedule only getting harder and more taxing in November.