A Cap on Camp | 10 TAKEAWAYS

A new season means a fresh start and a fresh batch of stories to tell.

Training camp always offers a little bit of everything. New faces, old faces, battles for roster spots and those little moments and conversations that reveal something you might not otherwise know.

There's a ton of catching up you get to do with everyone after being apart for several months. There's an excitment in the air as everyone looks to get things going again, and everyone is loose. 

Over the last few weeks, I've been collecting little tidbits from the conversations to serve up in the opening 10 Takeaways of the season! 

So, as training camp officially comes to a close and the regular season is now underway, welcome back to 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster!

Let’s get into it.

1.

There was something fitting about Jesper Bratt beginning his 10th NHL training camp with a new letter stitched onto his sweater.

Bratt was named a permanent alternate captain on the opening day of camp, joining longtime teammates Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes in the Devils' formal leadership group.

For Bratt, the significance isn't lost on him. He, Hischier and Hughes were all drafted by New Jersey and have experienced plenty together... the difficult seasons, the growth and the success that has followed.

“We all went through all of the tough years, all the good years together,” Bratt said. “We have been here for the longest time, and for me to be alongside of them now and just kind of taking charge in a way with the on-ice and the off-ice stuff as more leaders, and just continue growing.”

And Bratt doesn't view the letter as an indication that the growing is finished, either. That would be very unlike him.

“We're far from fully learned and fully adapted to being leaders too,” he said. “We all have stuff that we can learn, that we can help each other out with.” 

Bratt has long been part of the leadership circle around the Devils, but this is a new role he's cherishing now and takes very seriously. 

“To get that recognition really meant a lot,” Bratt said. “The hard work that I put in and all of the extra hours of trying to show what I can do and prepare myself and how I really want to make a difference for this organization, that was paid off in that respect.”

2.

Long before Bratt wore a letter, he had a pretty good blueprint for what leadership was supposed to look like.

Growing up in Sweden, there was no shortage of examples.

“You had Mats Sundin, you had Peter Forsberg, you had (Nik) Lidström,” Bratt told me. “Not bad.”

But Bratt wasn't necessarily talking about what they accomplished (though, they didn't do too bad for themselves!). It was how they carried themselves that became the lesson for all young Swedish players watching them.

“You were taught as a young Swede that, like, this is how a Swedish leader is,” Bratt said. “This is how they take care of themselves. This is how they take care of their team. This is how unselfish they are. This is how much they want their team to get better.”

It meant that leadership was being defined for Bratt long before he ever needed to practice it himself.

“Already by a young age in Sweden, you were very much around that,” he said. “That was the role model.”

3.

Amadeus Lombardi busted out a suit for the Devils Red Carpet arrivals on opening night. Now maybe it’s the rookie in him, still wanting to go with the suit look, despite the relaxed dress code entering its third year. But there was also a significance to the suit. He said inside the breast of the jacket are the names of nearly 200 people that have been important to him throughout his hockey career and helping him achieve his dream.

“That suit actually has all the people who helped me get to where I am today," he said, post-game. "I made it last year, so it was a pretty special moment to put that on for this game. There are about 100-200 people on there.”

It was a nice touch for a kid who truly looked grateful and appreciative to have the moment he did on Thursday night.

4.

Someone in the locker room hid Lombardi’s helmet before warmups and his rookie lap, he joked. Then, he said, he was told by his teammates to ‘Fix my hair’.

5.

Watching Lombardi experience his first NHL training camp had Connor Brown thinking back to when he was the wide-eyed kid.

One memory still stands out.

“I remember one of my first exhibition games, I parked in Phil Kessel’s spot,” Brown laughed. “He was like, ‘Who the hell parked in my spot?’ I was like, ‘Oh God. Oh no.’”

Brown couldn't quite remember who eventually moved the car — he thinks a trainer handled it — but he certainly remembers the feeling in the pit in his stomach.

More than a decade later, Brown gets a kick out of watching Lombardi experience some of those NHL firsts.

“It seems like they look younger every year, the kids,” Brown joked. “I just take enjoyment in seeing his wide-eyed enthusiasm, excitement to be in a locker room like this.”

“You just remind yourself not to take it for granted... how amazing of a job we have.”

6.

Every year when new players come into the locker room there are shifts around the room. You walk in for the first time and scan to see if anyone has changed locker stalls, or if anyone has moved for whatever reason.

It doesn't seem like you'll ever find a time where Brown isn't at the very least in a earshot of Cody Glass. 

Brown has a great sense of humor and definitely likes to serve up a good chirp every once in a while.

It's his locker room love language. 

“If I'm chirping you, I usually really like you,” Brown laughed.

That's good news for Cody Glass. Apparently, Brown likes him a lot, because Connor tells me that Glass is often at the recieving end of his chirps.

The problem for Glass is defending himself.

“He's not quick-witted enough,” Brown joked. “Usually just chirps himself, too.”

Brown knows the other side of the equation. Early in his career in Toronto, Tyler Bozak had him laughing so often that Brown naturally became the target of Bozak's jokes.

Brown secretly loved it, he said. 

Now, he's just simply paying it forward.

Sorry, Glasser.

7.

I did some surveying during the first couple of preseason games and the Home Opener. Looks like we have some new additions to the pregame soccer crew. 

Evan Rodrigues, Luke Evangelista and Anthony Mantha are all active participants in the pregame tradition.

8.

It won't be long before Jake Allen celebrates his 500-game milestone. He's now just two games away.

Five hundred games for a goaltender is often looked at much like 1000 games for a skater. Both those milestones gets the goalie/skater a silver stick. So I went to the most recent 1000-game player on the Devils roster to talk about it.

Brenden Dillon also happens to be the perfect person to ask.

Dillon and Allen are extremely close, as are their families. They text throughout the summer, have dinners together, hang out and sometimes drive to the rink together. So, Dilly knows the player, but more importantly, he knows the person.

And apparently, if you want to find something wrong with Jake Allen, you're going to have to look pretty hard.

“He’s just a good human being,” Dillon said, before searching for something... literally  anything... he could use against his teammate.

Bad with his money? Nope. Can't read a room? Nope. Bad driver? Dillon kept searching.

Even Allen's style couldn't be used against him.

“He’s got good style,” Dillon conceded.

Finally, Dillon landed on something... kind of. Maybe Allen, at 36, can be a little set in his ways when it comes to keeping up with the younger generation in the room.

“Sometimes maybe he’s just too glued to his ways as an old man,” Dillon joked.

Even Dillon knew it was a reach.

“We’re pulling at straws.”

Five hundred games in, that's not a bad scouting report.

9.

You can't help but feel for Seamus Casey.

The young defenseman came into training camp excited about what this season could bring and another opportunity to push his way into the NHL conversation. Instead, he's once again dealing with an injury that will keep him out of the lineup for an extended stretch. 

Head coach Sheldon Keefe announced the injury news that Casey underwent knee surgery and will be out roughly 8 to 10 weeks. 

It's particularly tough considering how much injuries have already interrupted the early stages of Casey's career. For a 22-year-old still trying to establish himself, those missed stretches aren't just games missed, they're valuable development time and opportunities to show where his game has grown.

Casey had every reason to be excited about this season and appeared ready to take another step.

Now, unfortunately, that progress has to be put on pause again.

Hopefully this is just that, a pause, because Casey has already had more than his fair share of stops and starts this early in his career.

10.

Where did Amadeus Lombardi get his unique first name? Turns out, creativity runs in the family and so do unique names.

Lombardi is the oldest of three siblings, followed by his younger brother, Ulysses, and sister, Symphony. The inspiration behind the names comes from his parents’ love of both music and mythology.

“Both my parents love music,” Lombardi told Mike Morreale of NHL.com. “Amadeus means to love God, so that’s where my name comes from, in Latin. The Latinized version of Odysseus is Ulysses. Symphony, I believe the translation is harmonious conjunction of sounds. We all have pretty unique names.”

Pretty unique might be underselling it.

Between Amadeus, Ulysses and Symphony, there was never much chance of a Lombardi sibling getting lost in a crowd.