Hey, Devils fans!
I hope you’re all as excited as I am for the home opener at the Rock tonight! Having the last home opener in the league is never ideal, but what matters is that it’s finally here. Hopefully, the Devils can make the wait worth it for you fans by bringing their road mentality back home against the B2B defending champs tonight.
It was another outstanding win on the road in Columbus on Monday night. To start the season on a 3-game road trip, all against teams that finished top-10 in home wins last season (not to mention, playing in two of their home openers!) and come away with 4 of 6 PTS in those games is impressive. The Devils never relinquished the lead in either of the two wins, and they got point contributions from 14 different players, including 7 unique goal scorers. 
It looks like that Allen contract might start paying dividends sooner than we expected. As tough as it ever is to see your #1 goaltender go down, you have to appreciate the luxury of having a steady, reliable veteran presence like Allen ready to step up and give you a chance to win games. I’m confident that Allen can take over the crease and get the job done for as long as Marky is out, just like he did last season.
Dawsy clearing waivers earlier this month was nothing short of a blessing for the Devils. In this situation, the value of having a third goaltender in your system that the room can trust and is familiar with cannot be understated. Dawsy was tremendous when called upon by Sheldon last season, going 3-1-0 with a .963 Sv%, 1.03 GAA & 1 SHO.
Sal, the injuries are piling up already?! Look, if the injury bug is going to rear its ugly head at this team again, I’d prefer we get it out of the way now rather than later! It’s part of the sport, unfortunately, and look no further than FLA’s current injury list as an example of that. The best teams find ways to overcome it, and I’m confident the Devils will do exactly that.
It’s the home opener tonight, which means it’s time to start establishing a winning identity at the Rock this season. Over the last couple of seasons, I’ve talked a lot about the fact that the Devils have not made the Prudential Center a nearly tough enough building for opposing teams to play in. Looking at last season’s numbers in the graphic below, NJD finished bottom-10 in home wins, and a big reason for that was their inability to consistently start on time. Simply put, their starts were not good enough, and they found themselves chasing far too many games as a result.
With all that being said, last season is last season. If you’re the Devils, you should be frothing at the mouth seeing the B2B SCF teams in FLA & EDM come into your building over the next 48 hours. Embrace it!!
I’m looking forward to chatting with my former teammate, Mike Rupp, as Rupper will join Rachel and me for tonight’s pregame show! Tune in at 6:30 p.m. on MSGSN as we break down how the Devils can be successful at the Rock this season. Home opener, let’s go!!!
-Sal
Here is some additional video content and graphics from our broadcast in Columbus!
