It’s the first game of the season. And whether you’re a 15-year veteran or a rookie, there is always an eagerness built around that opening game.
“It’s exciting. The beginning of every year is exciting,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “You want to see what your team is made of. This is the first test. It’s always nice to start on the right foot.”
“Finally, things get started for real here,” forward Jesper Bratt said. “I thought the preseason was really good. I thought our camp and the games we played in were good. We’re getting closer and closer to the intensity that we’re looking for. The last couple days has been a good mix of hard practices and recovery to stay fresh for tonight’s game.”
Fired Up Philly
The Flyers are playing the second game of back-to-back nights. They opened the season at home on Wednesday against their most heated rival in Pittsburgh. However, the result was not what they wanted, losing 7-0.
The lopsided and embarrassing home loss should only be fuel for Philly tonight.
“Philly is going to come out buzzing. We have to weather it to the first TV timeout, play simple, get pucks deep and go from there,” Rodrigues said. “Play as simple and as dumb as you can.”
While the Devils know the Flyers will have an early push, New Jersey is trying to focus on its own game.
“They’re going to come out hungry for sure. They had that kind of game in their own building,” Bratt said, “getting a new game today to play again. They’re going to play a good game. Our focus for us is to keep the focus on what we can do out there, our game is, sticking to our identity and for us to start building something.”
“Focusing on us, you want to start fast, you want to get out there and get your legs moving, get involved,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We have to ramp up the intensity for ourselves.”
Nose for the Game
The Devils received a blow with the injury to forward Connor Brown tweaking something and missing the first two games (as of now) of the season. That opening will be an early test of the team’s depth.
New Jersey has two options as a replacement with Jesper Boqvist and Stefan Noesen. The team is going with the veteran righty in Noesen.
“I think he’s had a good camp. He’s done well in his time that he’s been here, especially when healthy,” Keefe said. “He’s feeling better now than he did last year. I don’t think we ever got him at 100 percent last season and he missed training camp. We want to get him going.
“Boqvist has had a really good camp. I really like his game too and the speed that he brings. I asked him for a little more patience.”
He Said It
Luke Evangelista on captain Nico Hischier: “He’s a fantastic human. You can tell that already. I joked with him that I have good experiences with Swiss captains. I had (Roman) Josi in Nashville and now I get Nico here. He’s a great dude. Getting a chance to play on a line with him to start, I sit next to him, we’re stallmates. It’s been great playing with him, too. We’re finding some chemistry. We clicked a couple times in the preseason and figuring out each other’s game. He’s very vocal. He’s a guy to talk to. He’s been awesome with me so far.”
