Devils 1 - Blue Jackets 0

Another Shut out - YES! Marty is now in sole possession of 4th place on the all time shut out record roster.

This was a tense game. Both teams were playing a tight checking game (despite the new rules) and neither team could get a rythm going. Turnover was the theme of the game and both goaltenders performed well. Marty, of course, did a notch better and so earned his second shut out in a row. Parise scored his second goal in 2 games to break the 0-0 tie at 14:05 of the second period - 2 shut outs, 2 goals, period #2 - there's a pattern here, but I'm not sure what it means.

In the 3rd period, Cam Janssen slammed Ole-Kristian Tollefsen into the boards. I thought it looked like a clean hit and apparently so did the refs, because neither of them blew the whistle. As Janssen skated up ice (and Tollefsen limped back to the bench, Jody Shelley jumped him at the blue line. A brief scuffle ensued. Janssen was just doing his job and Shelley was protecting his teammate, so it should have been an even up 5 for fighting or we should have and the advantage if Shelley had been given an extra 2 for instigating. He was, but they also gave Janssen an extra 2 for charging. HUH??? Never heard of a retroactive penalty before. If Shelley hadn't jumped him Janssen wasn't getting any penalty. Don't know where this retroactive bit came in. I guess Shelly complained, so the refs decided Janssen deserved a penalty too.

I forgot to mention in the last post that the Devils' Power Player girls have begun an attempt at leading the D-E-V-I-L-S cheer. Not too successfully, I might add.

Bouman, the originator of the cheer, was been absent from many of the games last year and this year he's only done it about once a game. He never did do it too often. Guess he didn't want to wear out his welcome. I'm also guessing that the team decided he needed some help. The Power Player girls go into one of the sections with the letters written on cards. A guy joins them and shouts out the "gimme a D" etc. He needs a megaphone or a microphone because he simply can't compete with Bouman in sheer volume.

They did it at the game Saturday and Bouman was there. I wanted to start a "Bouman's better," cheer, but I couldn't get anyone to go along. Guess I'm not such a hot cheer leader either.

Either way, Bouman got the hint and did his thing, getting the whole arena rocking in a way that the Power Players and their cardboard letters can only hope to achieve. Leather Lungs Bouman 1 - Power Player Girls 0

Devils 2 - Panthers 0

YES! - a shut out! After dropping the last 2 games on the road (especially the stinko 8-1 loss in Ottawa!) the Devils come home and post a shut out. Guess they like playing at home.

Martin Brodeur tied Hall of Famer Jacques Plante for fourth place on the NHL shutout list with 82. Go Marty!

Not a lot of fans in attendance as is usual for the Devils early in the season - especially with the World Series going on. (baseball - who needs stinking baseball when you have hockey to watch!) Zack Parise got the sparse crowd going with a power play goal in the first. I didn't think it was going in, but Zack made it happen. Gotta love this guy!

Elias got the second in the second and then the Devs shut them down and out. Good game.

Tom Chorske, new radio color commentator (anyone know what happened to John Hennessy and Randy Velischek?), was interviewing Parise after the game and Parise told him that he had 2 teeth knocked out by a high stick . Panther's Martin Gelinas only got 2 minutes. They should include knocking out teeth in the additional 2 minutes you get for drawing blood. I don't know how you can knock out teeth without drawing blood, but maybe they were both just broken. Either way, teeth should be included.

My husband and I usually come early to the games. We eat and watch the pregame warm-up. We were sitting there and we noticed a couple of the Devils Power Player girls talking to some people down at the end of the row in front of us.

They finished their conversation and headed our way. They said, "hi" and asked if these were our seats - I'm guessing that the other people were "just visiting." We said. "yes," and then they asked if we wanted to do the Sovereign Shuffle game. I wasn't sure I felt like being in the spotlight, but my husband - who is usually shy - said, "Sure, why not!"

So they took his name and town, then told us that they would be back during the 2nd TV timeout during the 1st period. The camera guys showed up soon after the game started. When the girls came back, they asked if we would move to a lower row, because they "couldn't get a good camera angle."

That was just a ploy, we thought because there weren't a lot of people seated around us. Hey, guess they didn't know that we know all the people in the area and we could filled those seats by asking our friends to move.

We went along and moved to a row about 4-5 rows up from the ice. It was kind of fun sitting so close, but I wouldn't want to do it for a whole game - you can't see anything that's not in front of you very well. We were hoping for a goal - didn't happen. We were also hoping we would get hit by a puck - just our luck - but that didn't happen either.

We easily guessed which helmet the puck was under and we won the prize. It was a white Corvette bank with the Sovereign logo on the trunk and license plate. We also got a Devils gift pack which included a puck, a team picture, a pennant, a mini-replica Stanley Cup and a travel mug - all previous give-away items. But it was fun.

Our section mates all complained that this was the first time they would get to ogle the Power Player girls up close and we took them away. We told them, "They took US away," but that didn't cut us any slack.

Goal Song

If you haven't been to a game lately, you might not know that the Devils have joined many other franchises that have stopped playing the Gary Glitter song, Rock and Roll Part 2 when the home team scores.

Far from being an good role model, Glitter whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd was convicted of child pornography in England in 1999. He, then, moved to Vietnam where he was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2005. It took the second conviction to cause the sports franchises to decide his song was no longer acceptable.

I can certainly understand the reasoning, but the song is just a song - and it's a great song that has become tradition in many arenas across the country. Do we condemn the song because of the song writer? I don't know - I have mixed feelings about that. Many artists throughout history have not exactly been shining examples of mankind, yet their works still hang in museums or grace bookshelves.

Rock and Roll Part 2 is hardly a work of art, but it is a part of sports history. So do we continue its use as a goal theme song? You decide.

The Devils have a poll going. You can vote which song you want to hear played. One category is "other." If you like the Gary Glitter song - da-dada-dada-da - Hey! You can write it in - Rock and Roll Part 2 or you can chose one of the others.

Being somewhat of a traditionalist, I voted for it, but I also like - Zombie Nation's Kern Kraft 400 and Do It Again by Queens of the Stone Age.

Either way - go vote! or don't complain.

Devils 3 - Predators 4 (BOOO!)

Well, I really thought the Devils were going to lose this one. They played fairly well with some disorganized and sloppy moments, but Nashville played better. During the first period the Devils only had 3 shots on goal, mostly due to good defensive work by Nashville.

When it didn't look like the Devs were going to be able to get 2 goals past Mason, we left early. Both of us were tired and we each had headaches - I know, no excuse! Turned out to be a bad decision. I wasn't even going to put the game on the radio for the ride home, because we didn't want to listen to the loss, but I decided to anyway. Good decision.

When they scored the first goal, we both said that was annoying. I hate when they get your hopes up, then lose anyway. Then Brian Gionta - who is fast becoming a game-saving hero - scored to tie it up. We were whooping all the way down Route 17 - YES!

Have I said how much I hate the shootout? That game should have ended in a tie. I know we got a point anyway, and that's what counts, but I see nothing wrong with ending a game as a tie.

Phil Esposito once said that a tie is "like kissing your sister," but I think it's a perfectly respectable end to an evenly played game.

Our society seems to demand that there always must be a winner and a loser. From a philosophical point of view, I don't think that's a healthy attitude. Sometimes a peron or a team doesn't deserve to lose; conversely sometimes they don't deserve to win. A tie leaves both sides somewhat unsatisfied, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. I firmly believe it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. Playing to the best of your ablility and playing fair is far more important than winning in my opinion.

This whole win at all costs mentality is what kept us in Vietnam for far too many years and it's what's keeping us in an illegitimate war in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people are being killed soley to achieve a "win."

::end of philosophical ramble and political rant::

I forgot to mention that Scoro has returned. They have a new method of choosing the participants - you just have to sign up and then it's a random pick. One of our section mates got to do it last game. He didn't win, but he made a respectable showing.

PEACE!

Devils 3 - Flyers 2

For home game 2 they were remembering the 1982-83 season as part of the 25th anniversary celebration. Joe Cirella and Chico Resch, both members of that team, dropped a ceremonial puck to start the game.

This time the Devils looked more like the strong defensive team they usually are. Again they scored first, but they took a 4 penalties in the first period, so Philly took advantage and evened the score. I thought the referees could have called a few more penalties on Philly as well, but he didn't see what I saw. Perhaps one ref should sit in the stands to get a better vantage point.

Again, the second period was not their best. Brodeur let in a soft goal, but managed to shut the door for the rest of the time. Brian Gionta scored in the third to maintain his hero status for another game. He's really hot right now, so I'm very glad Lou was able to sign him. He's fast becoming one of my favorites - #2 right after John Madden (must redo My Guys page).

There was a loud, obnoxious Philly fan in the next section over. He kept challenging all the Devils' fans to meet parking lot after the game, and he came very close to getting thrown out. At least he was quiet after the Devils tied the game so we enjoyed the last period in peace.

After the game we got a 1982-83 team picture as a souvenir.

Devils 7 - Leafs 6 (Shootout)

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!

Some Off Season Remarks

Home Opener - October 12 - counting the days.

I'm very glad to hear that we signed Elias and Langenbrunner and especially glad that we signed Elias for the long term. I hope we have enough room under the cap to sign our restricted free agents as well.

Don't know much about the new coach - will have to wait and see.

What's up with Mike Rupp????