The NHL season has opened in Europe or Asia since 1997, the result of a global marketing campaign. This time – for the eleventh time in the Old Continent – the honor fell to the city of Prague, which inaugurated the new year between Friday and Saturday, hosting the double match between the New Jersey Devils and the Buffalo Sabres, which they won in both cases from the Newark Devils. And the Golden City, as it is often defined, brings to the minds of Nico Hischier and Jonas Siegenthaler another metal, namely that silver that the Valais attacker and the Zurich defender had put around their necks last spring, at the conclusion of a World Cup final as exciting as it was uncertain until the end, in that same O2 Arena which seemed like bedlam, also because the Swiss team’s opponent was the Czech Republic.
This time, however, the situation is much more relaxed. Not only compared to the World Cup, but also compared to the routine that marks the days in the richest championship in the world. In fact, at the end of the second of the two matches played in Czechia, Siegenthaler and Timo Meier, the Appenzell striker who completes the Swiss trio at the Prudential Center – and who in Saturday’s match scored the goal that made it 3-1 (while Hischier was went online the night before) – they climb into the stands in t-shirts and shorts, to have a chat with friends and relatives present in the stands, while a group of fans loudly chant Hischier’s name. More than the debut of the NHL season, it seems like a school walk. «And think that I was able to invite a dozen people to Friday’s match and fifteen to Saturday’s match – admits Siegenthaler -. Something like this is only possible here…”. A real exception in an exhausting season, with a very busy calendar of 82 games for the regular season alone, in which nothing is left to chance. Suffice it to say that the Devils occupied four changing rooms at the O2 Arena, not one, and that the accompanying press office alone was made up of ten people. «In the end, everyone who came here was happy – explains the twenty-seven year old defender who trained in the ZSC -. The goal was to come to Prague to win both matches and we succeeded. So we return to New Jersey with a good feeling, even though we know there are things to improve. But let’s talk about details anyway.”
Of the two matches played in Prague, the second was the liveliest, as well as the roughest. The German of the Sabers John Peterka knows something about it, knocked out by Brenden Dillon after a charge followed by a fistfight. Ordinary things, across the ocean. «In fact – adds Siegenthaler –, it is part of the game, and the fans certainly appreciated it. I believe that this season we will have our say from this point of view too.”
Siegenthaler was also on the verge of getting in the way. «But not to start a brawl. I just wanted to mark the territory, to show the opponents that they can’t do everything they want.”
There is a new mentality, we seem to understand. «If we take a look at the roster, we see that there are more big and big players in the team. The objective now is to stop the opponent in the defensive zone by asserting kilos and centimeters, and then starting the attack again as quickly as possible.”
Since the last final, the one lost in 2012, the Devils have only reached the playoffs twice, and now they rely on a coach who is twenty years younger than Lindy Ruff who was forced to pack his bags on the 4th last March, after managing the team for the last three seasons. «Sheldon Keefe (the new coach, ed.) is someone who talks a lot, he helps us and if something isn’t right he tells us straight away, showing us what we need to do to improve. I think the biggest difference between him and Ruff is in terms of communication. A coach must do his job, he must prepare us for the matches, he must raise his voice a little: but he doesn’t do it to scold us, in reality he is just helping us, showing us what we need to do to improve.”
A new way of doing things and a new type of game, based on a quick transition and new dynamics in attack, to give a greater spectacle. We will find out the result of all this in a few months, but whether the Devils manage to go far this year or not, much will also depend on the contribution of Jonas Siegenthaler, Timo Meier and Nico Hischier.
