Chance to win free tickets to the regular season opener through Twitter

Beginning at midnight tonight (12 a.m. Eastern Time Thursday), you can win free tickets to the Devils' regular season opener against Philadelphia on Oct. 3 at Prudential Center through the "I love the New Jersey Devils because..." Sweepstakes.

The contest runs from midnight until 8 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday.

To enter, visit http://twitter.com/NHLDevils

To enter, begin following the @NHLDevils Twitter account and retweet the following message:

“RT @NHLDevils I love the New Jersey Devils because” with a personalized response and the hashtag #GoDevils

Example tweet:

“RT @NHLDevils I love the New Jersey Devils because this is the year they win it all #GoDevils

An electronic random drawing will be held on or about Friday. Five winners will be selected. Each winner will receive two tickets to the 2009-10 regular season opener against the Flyers.

For more information, visit www.newjerseydevils.com.

And remember you can sign up to follow this blog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TGfireandice.

Comments

[Maxwell]

says 'That page doesn't exist!'

[Maxwell]

Ah - correct link should be "http://twitter.com/NHLdevils"

[TG]

I had to correct the link by making the "D' upper case. It should work now.

[SonicDude]

maybe because it starts at midnight

[Maxwell]

I don't think case-sensitivity matters in twitterland. It was bc of the \com\ in there, but looks good now. Thanks TG!

[devilstown]

TWOW TWO TWEE TWICKETS, TWATS TWEET !

Sorry, new to twitter, it seems very pretentious to me.

[A Local Fan]

I'M IN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Warren]

Twitter...email...blog...phone call...or even postal letter...all you want...this team STILL has no 2nd line center and no all star defenseman! I'm twittering nothing until there's a team i can feel good about on the ice.

Say what you will about the Rangers...at least they make their off-seasons interesting. We get psyched for the trade deadline...NOTHING! The playoffs...NOTHING AGAIN...July free agency...LESS TNAN NOTHING!!!

Oh yea...they're wearing their dopey red & green uniforms on March 17th. Biggest news of the off season. Remind me again not to care!!!

[Phil]

Ok. don't care.

[.B.C.]

"“RT @NHLDevils I love the New Jersey Devils because this is the year they win it all #GoDevils"

Thats why i dropped $100 at MGM Grand in Vegas this weekend on 18/1 odds that the Devils take home the Cup.

Gotta have faith!!

[Josh]

I may finally sign up for Twitter... not that I would have use for the tickets here in upstate NY... there's always Ebay though.

[devilstown]

Warren I must agree, after last year's "kick in the gut game 7, I too am feeling a bit apathetic about the upcoming season. I can't even bring myself to attend the BBQ. Knowing the history of the Devils putting on such events, they tend to be somewhat lame, but that may just be my opinion.

[Warren]

I have been a Devil fan since Day 1,1982. I can quote chapter and verse in Devil history. Enough about that because so what...all it proves is I'm a long time fan cause I'm 49 years old.

I have to admit I don't know if I've ever been this negative towards the team. But, honestly how can you lose the way they lost and do NOTHING??? It's insulting!!! Does even the most rabid Devil fan think they'll even have a chance? Lou has been the worst GM in hockey since the lockout. Does anyone really think that they even deserve to be on the same ice with Pittsburgh? Or Washington??? Just to name two...

Sorry...under Lou this organization has been b-o-r-i-n-g for years...BUT winning has a way of hiding that boredom. So...no big deal. But now...yikes...this is bad. Real bad.

[Mike]

I don't get twitter. I understand the whole sending updates thing from teams or organizations etc. but "following" people during their mundane boring lives seems pretty pathetic. lol I guess it makes sense for this type of thing though since so many people now carry around smart phones.

[SonicDude]

Warren

i posted very similar things last year. i even said we were a 1 or 2 round and out team. of course, all the kool-aid drinkers disagreed, yet here we are.

but i have since come around on lou somewhat since i saw chemistry which clearly benefited this team for long parts of last year.

i am giving lou the benefit of the doubt that he'll add a center. and while we also desperately need a big top 4 d-man, the drop in next year's cap likely wont allow that. the good news is that improved drafting has netted a stockpile of large d-men, and only 2 of them need to "hit."

having said all that, if lou does not get a center before the season starts and corrente is only average, i'll be ripping lou hard. i can live with boring, but not being average (at best).

[Neil S]

I agree Warren, the Devils should spend money like the Rangers so they can have just as much success as the Rangers have had since 1994. What has all that spending gotten them besides a fan base that's ticked off every year and wants to run those big name free agents out of town? They hated Gomez, they still hate Drury, Redden and Mara. I guarentee you the second Marian Gaborik comes up lame with that glass groin of his they're going to want to crucify him too. The Rangers can't even keep their fans happy with an enforcer, they let fan favorite Orr walk in favor of a guy that tried to take off another fan favorite's head in Betts.

Thank the hockey gods the Devils aren't run like the Rangers.

[Maxwell]

Warren, you're really being a Debbie Downer.

I realize the second season hasn't been good to the NJD in the last four years, but they were definitely built to go all the way last season. They simply choked in a huge game 7 vs. a team that wanted it more than they did. I think Sutter's constant pressure (on the team, not his style of coaching) turned out to backfire, and instead of motivating it simply got in the way. I'm sure that Lou provided pressure of his own, but I really blame Sutter and a lack of discipline for the Carolina Incident.

Had they not lost to Carolina, I'm confident we would've seen them in the Finals. Obviously that's pure speculation and you can argue me all you want - that's just how I felt about that team.

They have a large amount of cap space, still. Don't be flustered because they didn't go out and sign a Gaborik or a Pronger. Let camp play out. By next Friday, LLT (Lemaire/Lamoriello/Tremblay) will have answers to many questions we've been dicsussing for months and they can start moving forward.

The July 1st UFA frenzy was crazy, and it appears that a number of players are being way-overpaid (See: Brian Gionta). I don't think there's any rush to make knee-jerk signings. Lou is the best GM when it comes to assessing real talent/potential. I hope that this time next year you will be praising his patience and ability to build solid teams for now and the future.

This is not bad. This is not boring. This is watching a real franchise be consistently good. Do you even realize what it's like to have your team make the playoffs every year for the last 12 years?! The Devils have missed the playoffs only 2 times in his 20-year GM stint. They've come in 1st place in the division in 8 out of the last 12 seasons!! He's been inducted into the Hockey HOF for fu*#'s sake (sorry)!

How can you be this down when you have a guy like Parise doing what he's doing and you still have the living legend Marty Brodeur between the pipes?

Sorry for ridiculously long post, but this needed to be said.

[Mikey]

Kick some Warren booty Maxwell Smart! Sweeeeeeeeeet!

[.B.C.]

Amen, Brother Maxwell!

[SonicDude]

maxwell

while i dont agree with warren that lou has been the worst GM in hockey, his cap management has been poor since the lock-out and our drafting has been worse, at least until the last 2 years (i hope).

i stand by my comment about good chemistry and credit lou for creating that. but we are thin at many positions and have large holes at center (for now at least) and on defense. we also lack size and a d-man with a set of *****.

you say the devils were built to win the cup last year...to this, i must ask you to put down the kool-aid. lou's long-term track record and the NJD's consistency have been amazing. but we are not in the top eschelon of teams right now.

[TG]

I vow to you all that I will never put anything on Twitter that has anything to do with my otherwise mundane life. I also don't think there's any interest in that.

In this case, I view Twitter as another tool to get information to the readers of this blog and, hopefully, attract interest from those who haven't found it yet.

Occasionally, I'll lighten things up and mention a media meal or a place I had dinner on the road that I thought was good. Some people here seem to enjoy that.

But, mostly, the Twitter account will be for following Devils' news. I prefer to stay in the background.

[TG]

I've stated this before. The Penguins had Crosby and Malkin, who are two of the top players in the NHL, (and Gonchar shouldn't be overlooked either) so that gave them a huge advantage, but they were in a similar position a year ago to where the Devils are now.

They were coming off a summmer in which they lost Hossa and didn't really sign anyone of signficance. Other than Sykora, who faded significantly and wasn't a factor in their Cup run, they didn't have another legit top six wing on their roster. Satan was washed up. Fedotenko was inconsistent. Gonchar was hurt, so that really was a big blow, too.

But, they had cap room, so they were able to make the trades for Kunitz and Guerin and suddenly they had two wingers for Crosby. Fedotenko lifted his game in the playoffs. And things with their D fell back into place with Gonchar's return.

The point is, things can change dramatically from September to April.

Can the Devils repeat what Pittsburgh did? It would take a lot falling into place. But I think this team will look at lot different by the time the trade deadline passes.

Now, it's easier for me to talk about that because I'm an objective observer and not someone who pays for tickets and has an emotional investment from rooting for the team for X years. Some of you not being willing to be so patient is understandable.

[.B.C.]

I dunno TG, maybe it's just me, but you almost sounded like a Devils fan right there!

[Kelly]

TG... is Jordan Parise signed with the Pens? Or is it just a tryout?

[Maxwell]

TG - don't forget the coaching switch-a-roo. I think that got the Pens feeling like the season started anew at the right time: about 2 months before the playoffs started.

Sonic - As far as drafting goes, we'll see how Bergfors does this week in camp. I don't think we have holes in the organization at C (except for on the 2nd line on the NHL team(, and there are a number of solid, young D-Men in the system. If we were completely out of cap space right now, I'd definitely be worried. But we're not, so I'm not.

And about the team being built for a cup - there were a NUMBER of Devils that echoed that same thought after the G7 loss. I think in some ways they were looking past that game because of how confident they were about the team they'd assembled.