Two weeks ago, I put out a call for new writers for specific openings for All About the Jersey. I am happy to say that, once again, the community responded. I received quite a few entries. I’ve made my decisions and with the season coming up real fast, now is a good time to introduce all three.
I welcome Devin “redevin” Yang, Trevor “NJ77” Post, and Matt “mtorino75” Torino to All About the Jersey as writers. Here’s a brief summary of what they’ll do. Devin will help out as a previewer and recapper for games I’m not able to do. Trevor will assist with the Devils in the Details posts. Matt will take over fantasy hockey duties. You should see their contributions begin in the coming month.
As this is a welcoming post, here are a few words from each of the new writers:
Matt:
I'm Matt and I'm a native New Jerseyan living in Wisconsin. I've been a fan since the ill-fated 1996 season and remember losing to Ottawa during the last game of the year to miss the playoffs. I remember Robbie Ftorek throwing the bench, coming back from 3-1 on the Flyers and where I was when Elias passed to Arnott. I remember Friesen scoring to beat Ottawa in 2003, Marshall's overtime goal to eliminate Tampa and Mike Rupp of all people winning the Cup. Moving halfway across the country hasn't diminished being a Devils fan one bit and running and playing in fantasy hockey leagues during that time, with both Devils and non-Devils fans, helped me stay close to the team and players.
Devin:
Hi guys, my name is Devin from South Brunswick, New Jersey. I've been following hockey, specifically the Devils (obviously), for around 7 years now. I've experienced the joys (Henrique's ECQ goal against the Panthers especially) and pains (Bernier why?) of being a Devils fan from the past few years, and I expect to experience more ups and downs (hopefully more ups) in the future.
Outside of hockey, I am a NY Giants, Yankees and Arsenal fan. Thus, you can probably conclude the past few years have been rough for me as a sports fan. Some of my close friends (specifically you, Sumedh), enjoy torturing me with this fact.
As for Trevor, he’s been a Devils fan for as long as he’s played the game - which was when he was two. His first team shirt was for the A Line with Elias, Sykora, and Arnott. He still plays hockey to this day in New Jersey in an adult league. When he does attend Devils games, he still rocks the red with a Henrique jersey, his newest favorite player since he entered the NHL.
Again, I thank everyone for taking the time to provide an entry for the positions. I especially thank Devin, Trevor, and Matt for agreeing to join the site and I wish them the best of luck. Their contributions combined with what we already do will continue to make All About the Jersey a world class blog for Jersey’s Team.
I’ll return with more Devils-specific content next week. However, I will point you in the direction of something Devils-specific as written by a non-Devils fan in the meantime. It’s by Woodguy, who has continued to ruminate on all things related to Adam Larsson. In this recent post at Because Oilers, Woodguy breaks down the comparison between Larsson and Damon Severson. That’s certainly something that should interest any Devils fan ahead of the 2016-17 season.
It’s been a point raised by others - Woodguy cites a few - that Severson may be more desirable of a defenseman than Larsson. Strange considering Larsson got a lot of (tough) minutes and Severson bounced around the depth chart in 2015-16. Through breaking both down with the Expected Goals stat, Woodguy comes to a conclusion that meshes with the observation that Larsson was great and Severson was not so great last season. Woodguy also highlights at the end a reason as to why Ben Lovejoy may really be the Larsson replacement. As well as a short parting point as to why Severson maybe should not be paired with John Moore. Go read it. And if you like it, let Woodguy know.