After last season, long-time general manager Lou Lamoriello left to join the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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This was not the way Hynes wanted to begin his National Hockey League coaching career. Shero did not make any earth-shattering moves during his first summer at the helm but added several useful parts in Jiri Tlusty, Lee Stempniak, Kyle Palmieri and defensemen John Moore and David Schlemko.
“I’m simply cheerful they are going in”, he said.
On Friday afternoon, ahead of the season opener against the Winnipeg Jets, the Devils named defenseman Andy Greene the 11th captain in their franchise’s history.
Greene is the right choice, as he is one of their longest-tenured players. The Jets outshot New Jersey 30-21.
Blake Wheeler sank a goal and tacked on an assist Friday in a 3-1 win over the Devils.
Goaltender Michael Hutchinson made 20 saves while left wing Andrew Ladd also scored for the Jets. Despite the lack of goals they did have their chances in the early going, out shooting the Devils 12-4 in the 1st.
Mark Scheifele opened the scoring for the Jets for the second night in a row.
For the Winnipeg Jets, the goal this season is to return to the Stanley Cup playoffs after a short visit to the postseason last spring.
Tlusty said of his goal, “I was trying to go around the goalie, but it had a amusing bounce, and kind of exploded from my stick”. “I don’t know whether it bobbed or what, yet right post and in”.
The Devils finally got the puck behind Hutchinson midway through the second stanza. He can play the way that we want to play and he’s a leader on the ice. And then there were a few times when we got out-competed and out-battled on the puck.
“The game was full of spurts and not enough good ones”, he said.
It’s likely he sits out tonight’s game in Washington as well, though Devils coach John Hynes said he was “not ruled out, yet”, for tonight’s lineup. It kind of somehow found a spot there, so tough break.
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“All it takes is five minutes and the game gets away from you a little bit”, Schneider said. “We did a nice job not letting getting too far away”. The Jets are playing in a back top back but with this being just their second game of the season there shouldn’t be much rest or exhausted legs as we will grow accustomed to seeing later in the season. We know the way he wants us to play the system and we just didn’t execute.
