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The New Jersey Devils 2021-22 Regular Season Thread


mfitz804

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7 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Before the loft became a thing (and before we'd do club seats here and there), fingers + fries was my go-to for my then-younger daughter (who loves both)...quality would vary re:  the fingers, but most of the time I remember them being pretty good.  

Mine always wanted the ones that come in the helmet bowl, but we never got it because it looks like it could feed a family of four. 

She is probably past that age now. 

Edited by mfitz804
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Ever since the owners did that big concourse and club "refresh" a few years back, the arena experience has been declining steadily ever since.  The food selection sucks, the food quality is garbage, the merchandise selection is crap along with expensive, and the last few times I went to the arena the atmosphere was stale as could be.  I haven't gone this year but I have had friends who complain that half the stands on the concourse are closed most games and that the food in the club seats are drastically reduced in terms of offerings and quality.

I have been to other stadiums and arenas in the area and they all are far and away better than the Rock (Yankees Stadium comes a little close though) in terms of just about everything.  I still can't imagine the Barclays Center or MSG having a leaky roof not fixed for almost a decade and broken bathroom fixtures for years.

The article is 100% correct and you can see that once the Devils fan blinders come off.

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2 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

The article is 100% correct and you can see that once the Devils fan blinders come off.

I mean, I honestly don’t care about much but the food. Which is why I seldom eat at games. I find the atmosphere to be fine for the most part. Really nothing to do with blinders, as opposed to being a pretty low maintenance fan. I do agree that the merch selection in the store could be better. 

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2 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

I mean, I honestly don’t care about much but the food. Which is why I seldom eat at games. I find the atmosphere to be fine for the most part. Really nothing to do with blinders, as opposed to being a pretty low maintenance fan. I do agree that the merch selection in the store could be better. 

I very rarely eat food at the Rock because of the poor quality and selection.  I am not going to pay $12-15 for chicken tenders that might make me sick (there have been several posts over the past 3-4 years of fans being served raw tenders at the Rock).  If you are going to charge a premium for food then have at least a decent selection and make sure quality is passable.

The leaky roof and broken bathroom fixtures are almost unforgivable.  The roof was damaged over 9 years ago.  Maybe it is in their best interests to actually fix it rather than move fans whenever it rains.

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51 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

I very rarely eat food at the Rock because of the poor quality and selection.  I am not going to pay $12-15 for chicken tenders that might make me sick (there have been several posts over the past 3-4 years of fans being served raw tenders at the Rock).  If you are going to charge a premium for food then have at least a decent selection and make sure quality is passable.

The leaky roof and broken bathroom fixtures are almost unforgivable.  The roof was damaged over 9 years ago.  Maybe it is in their best interests to actually fix it rather than move fans whenever it rains.

As far as the actual "in seat" experience goes, I really have no complaints (though if I ever got stuck sitting under a leaky roof, I'm sure I'd be plenty ticked about THAT, especially when you have the means to sign Hischier, Hamilton, and Hughes).  Sure, sometimes you can get stuck sitting next to or near annoying a$$holes, but that can happen in any public setting.  But watching a game, quality time with my kid, general atmosphere...all good (yeah, crowd can be a tad somnambulant at times...that's always been the case though.  Giants fans tend to be on the quieter side too).  

Can't really disagree on the food...having sat just about everywhere the last couple of seasons, I'd rate the restaurant a solid B.  The lofts used to be about the same, but based on what I saw Opening Night, I'd drop it to a C-...overall it's fallen THAT far...what's sad is that part of the reason I migrated to the lofts is that I found the all-around "Seats w/Buffet" experience much better than what was offered in the Club Sections, so if the food in the clubs was worse than the lofts, kind of scary to imagine what the current club situation is.  And based on my recent concourse experiences...I'd say maybe a D...and not only is it not good, but man some stations are SLOW.

And yeah, they gotta start fixing things as needed.  It's not a good look.    

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976
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6 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

As far as the actual "in seat" experience goes, I really have no complaints (though if I ever got stuck sitting under a leaky roof, I'm sure I'd be plenty ticked about THAT, especially when you have the means to sign Hischier, Hamilton, and Hughes).  Sure, sometimes you can get stuck sitting next to or near annoying a$$holes, but that can happen in any public setting.  But watching a game, quality time with my kid, general atmosphere...all good (yeah, crowd can be a tad somnabulent at times...that's always been the case though.  Giants fans tend to be on the quieter side too).  

Can't really disagree on the food...having sat just about everywhere the last couple of seasons, I'd rate the restaurant a solid B.  The lofts used to be about the same, but based on what I saw Opening Night, I'd drop it to a C-...overall it's fallen THAT far...what's sad is that part of the reason I migrated to the lofts is that I found the all-around "Seats w/Buffet" experience much better than what was offered in the Club Sections, so if the food in the clubs was worse than the lofts, kind of scary to imagine what the current club situation is.  And based on my recent concourse experiences...I'd say maybe a D...and not only is it not good, but man some stations are SLOW.

And yeah, they gotta start fixing things as needed.  It's not a good look.    

#SATWords

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3 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

#SATWords

I misspelled it...went back and fixed it.  Yeah been a while since I pulled that one out.  

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55 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

The leaky roof and broken bathroom fixtures are almost unforgivable.  The roof was damaged over 9 years ago.  Maybe it is in their best interests to actually fix it rather than move fans whenever it rains.

Don’t disagree at all, that’s ridiculous. 

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1 hour ago, DevsMan84 said:

IThe leaky roof and broken bathroom fixtures are almost unforgivable.  The roof was damaged over 9 years ago.  Maybe it is in their best interests to actually fix it rather than move fans whenever it rains.

Moving fans because of a 9 year old roof leak is obviously ridiculous. 

The obvious answer is that they should hand out out buckets and those fans should be responsible for catching the water. 

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3 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

As far as the actual "in seat" experience goes, I really have no complaints (though if I ever got stuck sitting under a leaky roof, I'm sure I'd be plenty ticked about THAT, especially when you have the means to sign Hischier, Hamilton, and Hughes).  Sure, sometimes you can get stuck sitting next to or near annoying a$$holes, but that can happen in any public setting.  But watching a game, quality time with my kid, general atmosphere...all good (yeah, crowd can be a tad somnambulant at times...that's always been the case though.  Giants fans tend to be on the quieter side too).  

Can't really disagree on the food...having sat just about everywhere the last couple of seasons, I'd rate the restaurant a solid B.  The lofts used to be about the same, but based on what I saw Opening Night, I'd drop it to a C-...overall it's fallen THAT far...what's sad is that part of the reason I migrated to the lofts is that I found the all-around "Seats w/Buffet" experience much better than what was offered in the Club Sections, so if the food in the clubs was worse than the lofts, kind of scary to imagine what the current club situation is.  And based on my recent concourse experiences...I'd say maybe a D...and not only is it not good, but man some stations are SLOW.

And yeah, they gotta start fixing things as needed.  It's not a good look.    

A lot of modern arenas have gotten to the point where few to none have bad in-seat experiences.  Outside of exceptions like Barclays Center which wasn't designed with hockey in mind, I cannot think of a single arena right now that has "bad sight lines" as a thing.

A lot of arena experience is outside of literally sitting in your seat and watching the game.  That is why the Devils are in the pits.  The concessions are slow, the food selection and quality are terrible, apparently we have some of the highest, if not the highest (in this case beer) concession prices around.  My wife is a vegan and it is just about impossible to find something substantial for her to eat outside of pretzels meanwhile other stadiums/arenas in the area have far more options.

The concourse is also pretty bland and there are still vast swaths of empty or underutilized spaces.  From what I heard a couple years back, it is the concession vendor who actually controls what can go on the concourse but I believe our current owners have a stake in that company (I believe it is Legends and there is a chance I am wrong about that).

Also, the area around the arena has gotten kinda bleak too.  I get COVID-19 has put a dent, but places like Edison Ale House was doing downhill before it closed, Dino BBQ closed (it sucked anyways), the space between Redd's and EAH has been empty for years, Hell's Kitchen has closed down, that restaurant at the end of that row on Edison continues to have a revolving door of restaurants that never last long (I think it was a PJ Ryan's most recently), and the little plaza outside the arena is dead on most days.

Overall it is just bland, basic and everything is looking more and more to be done on the cheap.  Even the concessions at my local AA affiliated Somerset Patriots in Bridgewater, NJ had better options than the Rock.  It's sad.

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2 hours ago, DevsMan84 said:

A lot of modern arenas have gotten to the point where few to none have bad in-seat experiences.  Outside of exceptions like Barclays Center which wasn't designed with hockey in mind, I cannot think of a single arena right now that has "bad sight lines" as a thing.

A lot of arena experience is outside of literally sitting in your seat and watching the game.  That is why the Devils are in the pits.  The concessions are slow, the food selection and quality are terrible, apparently we have some of the highest, if not the highest (in this case beer) concession prices around.  My wife is a vegan and it is just about impossible to find something substantial for her to eat outside of pretzels meanwhile other stadiums/arenas in the area have far more options.

The concourse is also pretty bland and there are still vast swaths of empty or underutilized spaces.  From what I heard a couple years back, it is the concession vendor who actually controls what can go on the concourse but I believe our current owners have a stake in that company (I believe it is Legends and there is a chance I am wrong about that).

Also, the area around the arena has gotten kinda bleak too.  I get COVID-19 has put a dent, but places like Edison Ale House was doing downhill before it closed, Dino BBQ closed (it sucked anyways), the space between Redd's and EAH has been empty for years, Hell's Kitchen has closed down, that restaurant at the end of that row on Edison continues to have a revolving door of restaurants that never last long (I think it was a PJ Ryan's most recently), and the little plaza outside the arena is dead on most days.

Overall it is just bland, basic and everything is looking more and more to be done on the cheap.  Even the concessions at my local AA affiliated Somerset Patriots in Bridgewater, NJ had better options than the Rock.  It's sad.

Why are you still a Devils fan?  There have to be some really solid reasons that outweigh all this negativity.

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Asking for a friend wondering if this is really "on topic" since there's been a push to keep things on topic

Isn't a The New Jersey Devils 2021-22 Regular Season Thread, supposed to cover like... players, stats, coaches decisions, moves, etc and anything related to the actual season hockey wise.

Rather than stuff like... hot-dog prices and the smell of the washrooms? I mean sure that's relevant topic but is this the place for it? 

Edited by SterioDesign
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Fitz did an interview with Michael Russo, Athletic writer for the Wild.

talked about the Hughes contract, how/why they drafted Luke (no it wasn’t just cause of his brother)

he also talked a little to his vision for the team: that this year they’re competitive for the wild card spot, hopes they get in, they gain the experience and understand how challenging it is just to get in. Then, if he’s still in the seat in 3 or 4 years, be ready to be cup contenders (aka be willing to add those final complimentary pieces to get over the top). Says he wants to see how our scorers in the pipeline develop, which I’m assuming is Holtz and seeing if Mercer can sustain his early success.

Overall though I thought it was a solid interview 

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11 hours ago, Satans Hockey said:

It's not ever going to happen but I would love an owner who is like Arthur Blank though he did have PSLs sold for the Falcons which is another thing I could rant about for days. PSLs and a name change are basically the only 2 major things that would get me to cancel my Devils season tickets. I'm not an NFL guy so I can't speak about the Falcons but in the MLS he spends a ton of money on their Atlanta team and they have already won an MLS Cup and numerous other trophies and are almost always competitive. Only missed the playoffs 1 team since joining the league in 2017.

Here's another article about the pricing... 

https://sports.yahoo.com/cheap-beer-good-press-falcons-fan-friendly-pricing-win-win-191626117.html

“We had a number of owners who weren’t understanding the dynamic, the reasoning, the logic,” Blank said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “[They were asking], ‘Does this make good sense economically?’ We never justified it in terms of economics, but today we can.”

“It’s working in terms of economics, but we didn’t do it in terms of economics,” Blank said. “We did it because it’s the right thing to do for the people who are supporting our business.”

"during the 2017 season, even though prices dropped by 50 percent, fans spent 16 percent more than they had at the Georgia Dome."

"A fan that’s spending less on food and drink has more to spend on merchandise; Falcons president Rich McKay noted last summer that the Falcons saw a 90-percent increase in merchandise sales from 2016 to 2017" 

Art Blank happens to own Home depot,  or at least he founded it. He knows how to run a business. 

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1 hour ago, DevsMan84 said:

They have been my team for over 30 years now.  I don't jump ship because we have sh!t owners.

I understand your frustration with the owners but it’s funny because you were the biggest defender of the owners when they came on board iirc.

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If they are going to experiment with lines, I would do something like:

Johnsson-Hughes-Mercer

Zacha-Hischier-Bratt

Tatar-Boqvist-Sharangovich

Vesey-McLeod-Bastian

 

Hughes needs to be back at C. I think Mercer also deserves top 6 minutes, and I don't think trying him at RW would be detract from his success at all, especially if he can develop some chemistry with Hughes. Certainly not the most physically intimidating line, though. I also thought Boqvist played well enough to deserve a shot at C.

 

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2 minutes ago, nessus said:

If they are going to experiment with lines, I would do something like:

Johnsson-Hughes-Mercer

Zacha-Hischier-Bratt

Tatar-Boqvist-Sharangovich

Vesey-McLeod-Bastian

 

Hughes needs to be back at C. I think Mercer also deserves top 6 minutes, and I don't think trying him at RW would be detract from his success at all, especially if he can develop some chemistry with Hughes. Certainly not the most physically intimidating line, though. I also thought Boqvist played well enough to deserve a shot at C.

 

Boqvist does not deserve a shot at the expense of the guy who has been our best center all year having to be played out of position. Play both guys in position, Mercer at center and Boqvist at center in Utica. 

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On 12/3/2021 at 11:02 AM, devlman said:

I understand your frustration with the owners but it’s funny because you were the biggest defender of the owners when they came on board iirc.

I find it funny too.  I thought they would finally invest money into the team because JVB couldn't afford it, especially those last few years.  Now, these guys are all about ROI and having empty suits design jerseys.

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Just now, DevsMan84 said:

I find it funny too.  I thought they would finally invest money into the team because JVB couldn't afford it, especially those last few years.  Now, these guys are all about ROI and having empty suits design jerseys.

Marty is too dad bod chubby to be an "empty suit", just sayin'. 

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