Well folks, the Devils won their 25th Anniversary season opener in a most un-Devil-like fashion. They came back from a 6-3 deficit to beat Toronto in a shoot out. WOW - amazing.
Brodeur, who looked good in the first period, fell asleep in the second, letting in 2 goals in 48 seconds and then another just 3 minutes after Sergei Brylin scored to narrow the gap. We thought we were going to make an early exit, but then Brian Gionta decided he needed a hat trick. The third period was all Brian all the time. The last tally came with 37 seconds left on the clock after the Devils had pulled Marty for the extra skater.
Then came the overtime. No score. Then came the shoot out and John Madden saved the day by going top shelf to beat Jean-Sebastien Aubin for the winner. A very exciting come back, but if they play this way all year, I'll be a basket case come spring. This was fun, but only because the Devils finally prevailed.
My 3 stars for the night were:
Madden for the win, 2 goals and an assist.
Gionta for the game winner and the hat trick
Paul Martin - 1 assist, but he seemed to be the only defenseman awake during the second period - those Toronto goals weren't all Marty's fault.
There must be someone new at the helm in the Meadowlands because when Gionta scored his hat trick they made announcements telling fans not to throw stuff on the ice or the would be ejected. DUH! I felt like I was at a Florida Panthers inaugural season game. Guess no one told these guys that you're supposed to throw hats when someone scores a HAT trick. It's probably a new Homeland Security measure. They must have heard that terrorists were using hat bombs these days. Sheesh - what is this world coming to!
Posted by Cyberkat at October 13, 2006 6:40 AM | TrackBack