Rivalry Renewed: Flyers @ Devils 1/22/13

7:30PM ET, Tuesday night will be the first of five meetings this season between the long-time rivals, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers. The two teams split last year's season series 3-3. This game is the opening home game for the Devils and "The Rock" will be rockin'! After beating the Islanders in a hard-fought game, the 1-0-0 Devils look to build on their performance against a strong Philadelphia team. The Flyers, also known as the "Broad Street Bullies", are 0-2-0 and looking to push the Devils around in their own playground.

The keys to this game will be:
~Ilya Bryzgalov must show up. He has a 3.05 GAA and has not been at all who the Flyers need him to be in these first few games.
~Philadelphia's special teams needs to start working. Their penalty kill is horrendous so far, and their power play is not much better.
~New Jersey needs to start strong, control the pace, and shoot the puck at Bryzgalov.
~The Devils need to stay disciplined against their rivals and stay out of the penalty box. That was a big topic during their playoff series last year.

Without the talent of Flyers forward, Danny Briere, in their lineup due to injury, the Devils will seem a bit tougher than otherwise. Philadelphia's actual "bully", Zac Rinaldo, is questionable to play due to a cut from a skate against the Buffalo Sabres. On the Devils side of things, Adam Henrique is still recovering from thumb surgery and remains out of play.

Devils Deny Islanders On Opening Night

Assistant Coach, Scott Stevens, behind
the Devils Bench

The Islanders are officially the first victims of the 2013 New Jersey Devils. On Saturday night, the Devils traveled into a sell-out crowd of over 16,000 fans at The Nassau Coliseum. Those first 60 minutes of New Jersey Devils hockey in 2013 came with a few ingredients; hustle, aggression, defense, and in the end, a well-deserved two points.

Both goalies played well, and each earned a star in the 3-stars of the game. Islanders goaltender, Evgeni Nabokov, made huge saves to keep his team in contention to win the game. Across from Nabokov, the legend himself, Martin Brodeur, did not show signs of slowing down where he left off last season.

At 14.01 in the second period, the first goal of the game and season for these two teams came off Travis Zajac's stick. On a 2-on-1, Zajac, who recently re-signed for another eight years with New Jersey, received a BEAUTIFUL saucer pass from Ilya Kovalchuk. Islanders captain and defenseman, Mark Streit, lay down between Kovy and Zajac to block the pass. While Streit's maneuver would work against most skaters and force them to shoot, Kovalchuk's passing ability is one many do not have and never will. However, a lot of credit should go to the goal's unsung hero, Henrik Tallinder. The secondary assist getter and defenseman, Tallinder, controlled the puck above the Devils' defensive face-off circles and saw the Islanders were in the midst of a line change. With Kovalchuk waiting to stay onsides at the start of the Isles' zone, Henrik Tallinder rifled him a tape to tape pass covering the whole neutral zone and more. It was from there that the 2-on-1 occurred and was successfully completed. The scoreboard read 1-0 in New Jersey's favor.

With New York fighting to come back and win their opening home game, their efforts paid off at the 7:12 mark of the third period. There was a large battle for the puck in the left corner behind Brodeur, leaving the center of the Devils' zone wide open. Unfortunately for New Jersey, the Islanders came out with the puck and targeted Travis Hamonic who was streaking towards the net for the pass. Hamonic lasered a wrist shot past Martin Brodeur, as he had all the time he needed. His shot beat Brodeur's glove, which is definitely a rarity for shooters against Marty, but you have to give credit to Hamonic's perfectly-placed shot. All of a sudden there was a tied, 1-1, game with just 13 minutes to play.

Turns out, last year's 30-goal scorer, David Clarkson, planned on continuing his scoring ways. Just 65 seconds after Travis Hamonic's game-tying goal, Clarkson sniped Evgeni Nabokov's five-hole with a wrister from the top of the face-off circle on Nabokov's left side. Evgeni was screened completely, and Clarkson's shot made it through many legs before Nabokov's. That was the final goal of the game and the devils had proved victorious to start the season.

Every game of the shortened season is much more important, leaving no room for a slow start. Hopefully the Devils can jump on the Flyers on Tuesday, January 22 at home. Go Devils!

Remember This?

"HENRIQUE! IT'S OVER!"

This is eye candy to get us all pumped for a great year!

HOCKEY IS BACK! Season Preview

Wow, what a frustrating journey. I was not one of the optimistic people who thought there would be a season at some point, but I sure am one of the many ecstatic hockey fans today. I CANNOT WAIT to resume watching the Devils and the NHL.

Now I hate mentioning this, but it will be in my mind the whole year. The Devils lost the hardest working player in the league, their captain, and a superstar all in one package. Zach parise signed a contract with his hometown team, Minnesota Wild, over the offseason. In my opinion the Devils had built their gameplans and play-styles around him. From intensely forechecking, to fighting players off the puck, it was all perfectly resembled by work-horse Zach Parise. You will be missed.

Last season ended with a bummer. Coming up with a loss in the Stanley Cup Finals feels awful. No doubt about that. To put things in perspective, the Devils rolled into the Playoffs as a 6 seed. They defeated their two division rivals in the 5-seed Flyers and 1-seed Rangers. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Kings for an outstanding playoffs. They finished the 1, 2, and 3 seeds in the Western Conference with ease. In fact, the Devils gave them the most trouble. New Jersey brought the series to six games.

The NHL season begins on Saturday, January 19. Martin Brodeur and his New Jersey Devils will take on the New York Islanders at The Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. I am very curious to see what the lines for forwards will be, with a different group of guys. The departures of Petr Sykora, Eric Boulton, and Alexei Ponikarovsky will make things interesting. I believe David Clarkson has to continue his scoring ways and favor that in his play-style. Another question mark I have is who will be line-mates with Ilya Kovalchuk.

Captaincy for the team is up in the air. Zach Parise is gone and the team is in need. Ilya Kovalchuk is the most appropriate and likely for the job, seeing that he is a lead player who will be around for a long time. I would like to watch him receive the "C" and see how he deals with it. Another candidate is Patrik Elias. He has been a verbal leader for quite some time. However, he is aging and the Devils cannot afford to lose another captain soon. The Devils have lost two captains within a very short span of time. Kovalchuk will be here for quite a while, give it to him.