The Devils seem to be poised to open training camp with a plethora of mediocre defensemen ready to patrol the blueline, but today the weeding has begun… Vitaly Vishnevski has become the first blueline-casualty as he has been placed on Waivers.

I can’t say I’m surprised, it seemed like Vish was constantly lost when on the ice last season, and often found himself a healthy scratch. His biggest fault in my eyes was constantly taking himself out of position because he was looking to lay a big hit. It’s been his Achilles ever since he was drafted (Anaheim/1998).

Well, there’s a spot open on the blueline - which will definitely make training camp that much more exciting.

Did this move open the door for Matt Corrente… ?

Ahh, pre-season. Music to any starved hockey fan’s ears. Well, the Devils provided some relief by releasing their 2008-2009 Pre-Season Schedule which looks a little something like this…

…four games at The Rock is tantalizing, however I’m a little disappointed that there aren’t any games scheduled for Bridgeport, CT or at Sovereign Bank Arena.

The real fun gets under way October 10th from Prudential Center with the New York Islanders coming to town.

EDIT: My apologies for the absolutely horrid quality of the image.  Gotta love Photobucket.

Start up your countdown calendars, folks.  We’re exactly 85 days away from the Devils home opener 2008-09.

It’s been confirmed that the Devils will open play next season with a division matchup against the New York Islanders on Friday, October 10th, 2008.  I guess they took pity on us for giving us a red-hot Ottawa team to open the Rock last year, so they went the complete opposite this year.  I’ll take it!

The full schedule doesn’t get released until tomorrow, but other little tidbits are coming out as we speak.  Following the Devils home opener, the boys will travel to Pittsburgh to partake in their opening night festivities the following evening, October 11th.  The Red N’ Black will also be the road team for Dallas’ annual New Year’s Eve matchup on December 31st.

Remember, the schedule changes go into effect this year - only six games each against division opponents (down from eight); the same 40 games against non-division conference opponents, and 18 against the other conference - one either home or away against each team; three of those teams will be played both home and away.  The Devils three home-and-away Western Conference opponents will be Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the full schedule.  And maybe even charts!  Or, y’know, some sort of lame graphic.  We’ll see.

4 years, about $2.9 per season, according to TSN.

The poetic Mark Everson from the Post has quotes from Brian Campbell’s agent confirming that Lou has been on the phone discussing signing him

There are also plenty of rumors swirling involving the Devils interest in Brian Rolston, Marian Hossa, Radim Vrbata, Darcy Tucker and others, but none as concretely confirmed as Everson’s tidbit on Campbell.

Keep it hear for updates all day/week and for the triumphant return of Patricia Greuter! Woo

Well it’s been a little bit, but this past weekend’s NHL Entry Draft was enough to break me out of my post season slumber. Generally if the Devils lose early in the playoffs I lick my wounds by paying attention to my other local sports love, the New York Mets. But since they seem intent on displaying the athletic prowess and the front office tact of an incontinent sloth, hockey seems like a safe bet this summer.

All kidding aside (well the Mets are still garbage) I love the hockey off season and after a brief break to catch my breath I’m ready to do my part to reinvigorate the 2ma engine.

That said, there was a draft this weekend! The weekend’s festivities in Ottawa saw our bald-headed beauty Louie Lams take 9 players through the 7 round draft, which was said to be one of the best talent wise in several years.

Lams shocked the capacity crowd in Ottawa when he announced that the Devils would select non other than DC Comics’ the Flash with their first round selection, a dimunitive Swedish born winger who by day goes by Mattias Tedenby. While this guy is on the smaller side (5′10” and 176 pounds), all reports suggest that the guy is basically the fastest skater alive. Frequently ranked among the top Scandinavian players in the draft this year, a lot of people seem to think this kid could grow into a great forward, but one we likely won’t see stateside for a few years while he develops back home. Sadness.

While it pained me to see us take a winger in the first round of a draft absolutely jam-packed with solid D-men, I’m gonna trust Lou and David Conte on this one. They clearly had their eye on this kid, as evidenced by the fact that they had his name printed on his jersey already despite trading their pick down twice.

While we missed out on the defense party in the first round, we did come fashionably late, taking St. Michael’s Buzzer d-man Brandon Burlon with one of our two second round picks. The report from NHL central scouting on Burlon is that he’s a fairly solid playmaking defenseman who needs some grooming but could grow into his own. Let’s hope so, because I don’t know about you guys but I’m not exactly counting on Matt Corrente or Andy Greene to turn into the next Dion Phaneuf.

The Devils also chose fiesty center Patrice Cormier in the second round. I like this pick, because by all reports he’s a hard-nosed player who likes to drive to the net and agitate opponents, a la Mr. David Clarkson. We can always use a few guys like this, especially considering the amount of Brian Gionta-mold wingers we seem to be stocking in our farm system.

Red N Black chose another Center with their third round pick - Windsor Spitfire’s Adam Henrique. Don’t know much about this guy save for the fact that he was among the OHL’s top center prospects in this year’s class, so I’ll leave it at that. As for the rest, lets just hope there’s some diamonds in the rough.

That’s gonna be it for your draft recap. We ain’t gonna see these guys for a while I’m guessing, as is the Devils style, but it seems like 2-3 years down the road we may have some solid new talent. As for the coming season, I’m sure as hell hoping we do a bit better in free-agency than Karel Rachuneck. Keep it tuned to 2MA who will have all of your free-agency preview action, followed by the the inevitable let-down post sometime a few days into July.

So Mister Brodeur has won his fourth career Vezina trophy, beating out Evgeni Nabakov and Henrik Lundqvist for the honor.  Oh yeah.

Congrats Marty, you deserve it.

I murdered Joe last night so I could write the preview.

True story.

Anyway, Black ‘n Red are playing the Anaheim Niedermayers tonight.

Good times.

Sure, there’s the tiny detail that Scott Niedermayer will be making his (triumphant) return to New Jersey for the first time since ripping the collective hearts of the organization out and eating it for a late lunch as he laughed in the faces of Devils fans far and wide.

But really, I hold no grudges.

Hey, I hold no hate towards the fella. He did what he had to do. Did it completely eff the team over? Well, sure. Was that his intent? I believe not, Mr. Holik, I believe not.

Niedermayer, Scott did a helluva job for the team when he did don the glorious black and red. That’s fo’ sho’. No one can deny that.

Well, I suppose Peter Worrell may disagree, but I think he’s still a little dizzy from getting bopped over the head with a stick by Mr. Nidermayer eight years ago.

Oh memories…

Let’s be serious here. Though I won’t be attending tonight’s game on account of sustaining a nifty hip injury after being run over by a car a mere one week ago (digression much?), I would like to say that had someone been willing to help my injured-self to the game, pay for my ticket, help chew my food, and wipe my bum when I had to go poo (too much information much?), I would not boo the bastard when he first skates onto the ice and touches the puck during play.

Oh God, that sentence is an English major’s nightmare. I blame the codeine.

Okay. Let’s find a point here.

What I’m trying (and failing) to convey with my witty banter is the fact that without everything Scott Niedermayer did for us, this team would likely not have tasted as much success.

Quick tangent: Same goes for you, Mr. Friesen. Sorry you sucked so bad after your short stay with the boys. Enjoy retirement, thanks for everything you’ve done for Black ‘n Red, us fans are forever grateful for all you’ve done!

Back on track here.

I’d hate to hear a lot of booing in the stands tonight. I know, we fans can be sensitive little buggers, and when we feel slighted by a player who did so much for us, we tend to get angry. And hurt. And betrayed.

Please, folks, let it go. The lad did all he could do here. Would it have been wonderful for him to finish his career here? Of course. Would it have helped this team tremendously? That’s a given. Then again, having to choose between Karel Rachunek and Scott Niedermayer is quite a difficult decision…

If you’re going to the game, I ask that you either cheer the man, or don’t cheer at all. Oh, that cliche piece of advice holds quite true in this case: if you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.

Granted, if I really held true by that motto, this site probably wouldn’t exist, now would it?

NOTES: Mike Mottau and Rod Pelley ain’t playing tonight. In their place? The wonderful Andy Greene and Arron Asham. It should be noted that I came up with this piece of information entirely on my own and I did not steal it from any other blogs out there.

Oh, I’m just kidding, Mr. Gulitti. You the man.

Now, we all know that David Clarkson is a young star, in that he’s young, and that we like him quite a bit ’round these parts.

Well, apparently the NHL was paying attention - or felt bad that the Devils won’t have any representatives in Atlanta this weekend, what with Marty Brodeur and Brent Sutter both declining chances to participate in the All-Star game.

Either way, David Clarkson has been added to the YoungStars team, which will participate in a 3-on-3 competition during the SuperSkills Competition on Saturday night.

Hooray for Clarkie!

You may recall a Mr. Zach Parise pretty much owning the YoungStars game not too long ago. Perhaps Clarkson can continue the wave of Devil dominance over other baby NHLers league-wide? I think it’s a definite possibility.

Now, if only there were a way to have the game decided with a wrap-around contest…

Y’know how folks are always clamoring that Marty Brodeur needs to play fewer games?

Well, here’s at least one game he’s going to skip: It was announced today that Bruins goalie Tim Thomas would be taking Brodeur’s slot on the All-Star team for the Eastern Conference.

Now I know what you’re thinking, and it’s something along the lines of “D-WHAAAAAAAA?!” That was my reaction, at least. If the true reason for Marty’s not playing is revealed, you can bet we’ll let you know, but for the time being, I’m going to guess it’s just to get a little R&R. (Edit: According to ESPN, Brodeur is skipping the game due to a “family obligation.”) As far as I know, Marty is in good health. So perhaps he’s just skipping the game to rest up for what’s liable to be a very rough few months of jockeying for playoff position?

In other All-Star news, Evgeni Malkin was added to the Eastern team to fill in for injured teammate Sidney Crosby, while Corey Perry, Mike Ribero, and (wait for it…) Scott Neidermeyer have been named injury fill-ins for the Western Conference.

Yes, the very Scott Neidermeyer who has played all of like, three minutes for the Anaheim Ducks. That guy.

The Devils signed Erik Rasmussen today.

New Jersey, I apologize for having to break such terrible news.

But hey, on the bright side, he was immediately assigned to Lowell.

You know, the Baby Devils couldn’t get much worse anyway, so it may entirely be a moot point.

Massachusetts, I also apologize to you.

I guess that’s what happens when you lose to the Islanders like seven thousand times within the span of, oh, I dunno, half a season.

I still say conspiracy, by the way.