Posted on

Hynes Named Coach of USA at World Championships and Other Devils News

Devils first year head coach John Hynes was named head coach of Team USA at the 2016 IIHF World Championship according to the Devils official website. The annual tournament will be held May 6 to 22 in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Hynes is making his debut as the coach of Team USA at the World Championships, but has previously coached with the USA Hockey National Team Developmental Program and at the IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship (where he won silver in 2004, gold in 2006 and bronze in 2008). He was on the staff for Team USA at the 2004 World Junior Championship, where he helped the US win gold for the first time ever in that tournament. He will also be on head coach John Tortorella’s staff at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in September for Team USA.

The former coach of the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who served as an assistant coach at UMass-Lowell and the University of Wisconsin was chosen by the US Men’s National Team Advisory Board, which is headed by Jim Johannson and includes Stan Bowman of the Chicago Blackhawks, Dean Lombardi of the Los Angeles Kings, David Poile of the Nashville Predators, Dale Tallon of the Florida Panthers, Dan Waddell of the Carolina Hurricanes and the Devils’ own Ray Shero. Players will be named at a later date, as they usually include members of teams that have either missed the playoffs or have been eliminated early on.

In other news, the Devils announced three signings and a call up today. Joshua Jacobs of the OHL’s Sarnia Sting has been inked to a three year entry level deal that kicks in next season. He will join the Albany Devils of the AHL on an Amateur Try-Out. He was selected in the second round, 41st overall in the 2014 Entry Draft. He is a 6’2”, 200 pound defenseman and a native of Shelby Township, Michigan. He turned 20 years-old on February 15.

With Boston College’s bid for the NCAA National Championship put to an end with a loss to Quinnipiac on Thursday, the Devils signed two members of the Eagles to entry level deals. The first is defenseman Steven Santini. His contract will kick in this season; he will report to New Jersey tomorrow and will wear number 38. The BC star is a 42nd overall draft choice in the second round by the Devils in the 2013 Entry Draft. He just turned 21 years-old on March 7 and is a 6’2”, 205 pound native of Mahopac, New York.

Also signed to a three year entry level contract is Santini’s Boston College teammate, Miles Wood. Wood’s contract, like Santini’s, will begin this season and he too will be reporting to New Jersey tomorrow. He will wear number 44. The 6’2” 195 pound forward was born in Buffalo, New York and is the son of form NHL player Randy Wood. His father played parts of ten seasons with the Islanders, Sabres, Maple Leafs and Stars. Miles was selected 100th overall (fourth round) by the Devils in the 2013 Entry Draft.

In news that Devils fans everywhere have been eagerly awaiting, Pavel Zacha could’ be getting his first taste of the NHL. The 6’3” 210 pound center, whose season with the Sarnia Sting was just ended with their playoff exit, was assigned to Albany immediately following Sarnia’s bouncing from the OHL playoffs, but has been called up to the NHL club for tomorrow’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Devils also assigned Blake Pietila, Mike Sislo and Vojtech Mozik to Albany. Zacha was the Devils’ first round pick (sixth overall) in 2015. The native of Brno, Czech Republic will participate in the morning skate with New Jersey and could make his NHL debut tomorrow.

As the Devils look to the future, moves like these will increase as the summer wears on. Time will tell exactly how they pan out.

Posted on

Devils Drop Fourth Straight despite Kalinin’s Two Goals

The New Jersey Devils were to face the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second time in less than a week at Prudential Center in their second-to-last game of a bittersweet season. They would need a win over Tampa to avoid being swept by the Bolts in the season series. They would not get it, falling 4-2 despite two goals from Sergey Kalinin, a great effort from the big Russian, but not enough to avoid the Devils losing their fourth straight game.

Big news from the Lightning camp was that Jonathan Drouin would be playing. He had not played in the NHL since mid-December. Since then he had demanded a trade, refused to report to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, been suspended, was not traded at the trade deadline, did report to Syracuse and was being called up for the first time tonight due to Tampa’s injury problems. Problems which include superstar Steven Stamkos going through surgery to remove blood clots near his collarbone. He will miss one to three months with that injury – likely the first round of the playoffs for the Bolts.

Speaking of the first round of the playoffs, Tampa Bay could clinch home ice in the first round with a win over New Jersey tonight. The Florida Panthers have already clinched the Atlantic Division, so the Devils did not get to play spoiler there, but they could delay Tampa’s home ice-in-the-first round mission.

For the Devils, Joseph Blandisi was back in the lineup, while Blake Pietila was out.

In goal, Keith Kinkaid got the nod for the Devils. Cory Schneider will likely start in the season finale on Saturday against Toronto, the team just wanted to give him a little breather and pace him since his return from injury. Kinkaid made 18 saves on 21 shots faced in what was a very good season for the second-year NHL goaltender making what will probably be his last start of the season.

For the Lightning, big Ben Bishop made 20 saves on 22 Devils shots faced. He will gear up for the playoffs and the defense of the Bolts’ Eastern Conference championship.

Things got off to a quick start in the game when Tampa’s Andrej Sustr was called for hooking Patrik Elias. Elias was able to draw on his veteran smarts to draw the penalty, as he felt the hook from behind and was able to “sell” it to the referees without it seeming like embellishment.

Nothing would come of the ensuing power play. In fact, the Devils went 0-for-2 with the man advantage. Tampa Bay was 0-for-3 with the extra man on the night.

Tampa would break through first in the scoring department. At 5:45 of the first period, Erik Condra tipped in a shot by Sustr to put the Lightning up 1-0. The secondary assist went to former-Ranger Brian Boyle. Tampa had actually been on the power play after the Devils were called for too many men on the ice, although the goal came at even strength after penalty time had just expired. The Lightning hit the post on the initial shot and stayed with the puck in the goal mouth scramble. With Kinkaid down, the puck went in and the Lightning had the lead.

Late in the first, Bobby Farnham and Mike Blunden fought after Blunden had been roughing up the much-smaller Blandisi. Farnham jumped in and protected his teammate, leading to a unique situation. Both teams ended up playing 5-on-5 hockey when Blunden received two minutes for roughing and five for fighting, Blandisi got two for roughing and Farnham got the fighting major.

Farnham would almost tie the game up for the Devils when he was stopped on a breakaway early in the second period. He tried going five hold on Bishop, but was turned aside. This would go on to be a huge save later.

The Devils did tie things up when Sergey Kalinin scored his first of the two at 7:16. Stephen Gionta won the offensive zone draw back to John Moore. Moore fired a shot that was tipped in by Kalinin in front of the net. The game was tied up at one.

But it was not to be for long. At 14:45, Cedric Paquette scored from Valtteri Filppula and Matthew Carle to give Tampa back the lead, 2-1. And that is how it would be going into the second intermission.

When the teams came back out on the ice for the third, the Devils were looking to get back into things. However, the Lightning would strike again when Drouin, in his first game back in the NHL after all of his drama, scored at 3:50 with an assist to Vladislav Namestnikov. It was now 3-1 Tampa.

Things looked really bad for the Devils, but it was Sergey Kalinin who came back to the rescue. His second of the game and eighth of the year came at 9:26 of the third when Bobby Farnham went in hard on the forecheck and forced Bishop to turn the puck over while playing it in the trapezoid behind his net. Kalinin jumped on the loose puck, jamming it in on Bishop’s short side and making it 3-2, Tampa. Stephen Gionta had the secondary assist on the goal. It was Kalinin’s first career two goal game and Farnham’s first assist since Halloween afternoon against the Islanders.

The Devils would try to get things tied up when they attempted to pull Kinkaid with just over a minute left in the game. However, before he left the crease, Kinkaid needed to make one more big stop on a Lightning partial breakaway.

But it was for nothing, as the Bolts’ Filppula added an empty net goal to put them up 4-2. The assists went to Nikita Kucherov and Carle. Your final score was 4-2, Lightning.

Sergey Kalinin would be named the game’s first star due in part to his two goals (he also had three shots on net, two hits and a plus-1 in 11:18 on the ice) while Stephen Gionta was named the third star (two assists, two shots on goal, one hit, plus-2 in 13:01 of ice time).

Coming up, the Devils face their final game of the 2015-16 season as Lou Lamoriello’s Toronto Maple Leafs come into town on Saturday. Hopefully, the Devils can win the game and stop their losing streak, going into the summer on a positive note. But it will be tough, as Toronto is a “tough out” with their young lineup. Despite there being nothing on the line, it should be a good game between two hungry young clubs.