msweet Posted October 12, 2002 Share Posted October 12, 2002 http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_...33&page=5281697 Devils hope for hot start Saturday, October 12, 2002 By TOM GULITTI Staff Writer EAST RUTHERFORD - Having already put the first win of the Pat Burns' era into the books Thursday night in Ottawa, the Devils head into tonight's home opener against Columbus with an opportunity to do something they could not do last season. Beginning with tonight's contest, the Devils play five of their next six against teams that missed the playoffs last season, providing a great chance to build up some early-season points. Next Saturday's game in Carolina, the team that knocked the Devils out of the playoffs in the first round last season, is the only exception. The other five contests - vs. Columbus, Nashville, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Tampa Bay - are against clubs that were a combined 79 games below .500 last season. The Devils lost their first four games last season (one in overtime to the Rangers) and never really recovered from the slow start that eventually cost Larry Robinson his job. Conversely, teams such as the Islanders last year and Vancouver two years ago have made the playoffs simply by putting together a good streak early in the season and treading water the rest of the way. This has not been lost on Burns, who planned his training camp with getting off to a good start in mind. He had players with the best chance of making the team practice together from the first day and began establishing his line combinations and defensive pairings right away, rather than wait until the season, as some teams do. "Once this team gets going, I think the success of the team early will really make things a lot easier on everybody," Burns said. "I think that's important. That's why I want to get off to a good start." Plus, with several new faces on the team, including Jeff Friesen, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Mike Danton, the players are still getting to know each other. With that in mind, the Devils have some team-building activities planned for the three-day layoff they'll spend in Atlanta in two weeks, but nothing builds team chemistry better than early victories. "The quicker you become a team and the quicker you become a tight group, the better off you'll be down the road," center Joe Nieuwendyk said. "I think it's everybody's goal to try and achieve that early on. I think the way you do that is by getting off to a good start." That's what made Thursday's 2-1 win in Ottawa so important. The Devils struggled at times early in the game and no doubt need more time to get in sync, but still posted a victory over one of the teams they are expected to compete with for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. And now, with five days off after tonight's game, they have a chance to take some positive momentum into that break by posting another win. "We don't have a lot of games coming up, so we wanted to get some points and get some wins before we have that week off," captain Scott Stevens said. "I think we're all still feeling each other out a bit and I think we got stronger as the game went on. We have some videotapes to look at now and a chance to see what we can improve on." Tom Gulitti's e-mail address is gulitti@northjersey.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HellOnICE Posted October 12, 2002 Share Posted October 12, 2002 Kind of irrelevant i guess, but what ever happened to Mark Czerwinski as the writer of the Record? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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