Devils Issues, Views & Analysis

REJOICE! HOCKEY RETURNS

The NHL season is scheduled to begin today. And since the games do not take place in National Parks or the Library of Congress, games will go on and meaningful NHL hockey will be be back in our lives.

By Mike Stromberg@ColdSportsTakes Oct 1, 2013, 1:00pm EDT

Ah, the first day of hockey season: the air is starting to get crisp, your local amusement park has begun its Halloween-themed shenanigans, and ESPN is running 30-second-long hockey features in the 58th minute of Sportscenter. It is truly a great time to be alive. Devils hockey remains a couple days away, but kick it over to NBCSN tonight, and regular season hockey (Caps-Blackhawks) will be in your living room. So lets get ourselves revved up for this new season.

First off, do yourself a favor and check out SB Nation's NHL preview with write-ups for all 30 teams. John did the Devils feature over there and it looks really snazzy, and writers from the other 29 team blogs give knowledgeable perspectives for their clubs, so you should at least take a look. There are also features on realignment, advanced stats, rule changes, and fantasy tips. Kudos to Travis Hughes and the team at the SB Nation Mothership on pulling this together because it is pretty awesome.

Next, lets look at when and where there will be hockey on your TV this upcoming season. Steve Lepore put the National NHL TV schedule together a couple months ago and the Devils schedule can be found on the team website, as ever. There is a lot of NHL hockey to watch on TV these days. Pretty good times to be a hockey fan.

To keep up with all of the stats this season, there is always NHL.com for your basic goals, assists, points, etc. For your Corsi/Fenwick and time-on-ice needs, behindthenet.ca is always a good place to start. Over at stats.hockeyanalysis.com, they have some good stuff as well, including the very useful with-or-without-you (WOWY) charts (like Bryce Salvador's tire fire of a 2013 season here).

Devils-wise, we've been hard at work getting you prepped for the upcoming season at ILWT. In case you missed any of our full preview, the sections are all here:

Part 1: The Forwards

Part 2: The Defensemen

Part 3: The Goalies

Part 4: The Special Teams

Part 5: The Predictions

If you're on Twitter, you probably already know this, but it's always a good idea to follow Tom Gulitti (@TGfireandice) and/or Rich Chere (@Ledger_NJDevils) to keep up with all of the Devils latest goings-on. Don't forget to also follow @InLouWeTrust and all of its witty and stunningly attractive writers (@JKFischer, @BashBroMatt, @KMeilands, @jerrytierney, @natepilling, and @ColdSportsTakes) while you're at it.

Now join me, won't you, for some enjoyable hockey moments to ring in the new season: