1. The Crowd outside
2. Great Painting on the way up to the lower level. For our friend Greg Wyshynski’s benefit, the adjacent painting of the opening nights in KCity and Denver aren’t including.
3. The Stanley Cup and the Vezina Trophy
4. The Rink Pre-Pre-Game Skate
5. The Scoreboard

1. A painting in the back of the arena of skates and a puck
2. Devils Logo in the Devils Den.
3. A photo next to the team store.
4 & 5. Painting on the exterior just past the Devils Den.

Here are some of the odds and ends of the building, in order they are:

1. The Verizon Tower
2. The Practice Rink from Outside
3. A painting in back of the arena of the NJD Logo
4. A painting in back of the arena of a skater.
5. A painting in back of the arena of Brodeur from the back.

Very tired, very annoyed, much more tomorrow, including a full recap of my 10 hours of Rock madness, meeting Jeff Vanderbeek, photos of the Stanley Cup, ripping a grown man to shreds in front of his daughter (verbally of course) and general fun and heartbreak from opening night at The Prudential Center, the first of hopefully many, many more (and happier) to come.

There are a lot of games on tap tonight, so I will just give scores for the most part.

Games still in progress:

3-1 Atlanta leads Chicago in the 3rd

4-2 St. Louis leading Washington in the 3rd

2-1 Dallas leads Phoenix after 1

1-1 Edmonton and Los Angelas after 1

Finals Scores

2-1 Philly over Boston (Bergeron is ok, check the Rangers post for my last update)

2-1 Columbus over San Jose

4-1 Ottawa over New Jersey (Ouch. I fully expected like 6 goals and a shutout for the Devils.)

8-3 Carolina over New York Islanders (Brind’Amour with a hat trick)

4-1 Toronto over New York Rangers (recap below)

4-3 Montreal over Pittsburgh in a shootout

4-3 Buffalo over Tampa Bay in overtime

4-3 Nashville over Florida

9:25 - Game Over. Kilger added an empty net goal for Toronto. 4-1 final in New York. Once the Rangers find the offensive groove, they will be a really good team. I just don’t know how long you can wait. They need Sean Avery in this lineup. Other than that, I’m out of ideas.

9:12 - Not much of a third period so far. With just over 5 minutes to go the Leafs don’t have a shot on goal and the Rangers have only 5. A Gomez-Drury- Jagr line should be frightening to opposing teams, but it failed to generate anything offensive. The Garden is now not even booing. They’re just out of it.

9:00 - I don’t know how Jagr missed that open net. Toskala was down and out and Jagr’s backhander went right through the crease. The Garden is booing too, which is never good to hear.

8:32 - In a span of only a few minutes, the Rangers have had 2 defensive breakdowns which led to 2 goals for Toronto. Both of them were avoidable. End of period 2. Rangers have to play a much better 3rd period to win this game.

8:13 - 1-1 after a Pavol Kubina just scored from Blake and Kaberle.

8:05 - That’s what we need from Jagr. Nice goal. Nice shift before that by the fourth line. Someone needs to remind Toronto that they need to shoot to be able to score.

8:00 - Second period’s about to start, but just wanted to pass along that Bergeron suffered a broken nose and a concussion on the play, but is conscious, and moving all of his limbs after a scary few hours. Back on the Ranger front, Rangers on the power play, Drury just hit the post. I don’t think the call on Sundin is a penalty, much like Joe Michelleti in the booth.

7:41 End of first period - How about that? A scoreless period for the Rangers. Good defensive period. Both teams looked good at times. Some good saves by Toskala. Lundqvist wasn’t tested too badly.

Update 7:22 - “Great defensive play by Jagr.” Yep. Those words really did just come out of Sam Rosen’s mouth. And it was well deserved. Jagr broke up a breakaway. Halfway through 0-0.

I’ll be here throughout the game. Same lineups as Thursday for the Rangers, and the Leafs are without Tucker and McCabe. I’ll send updates frequently.

Also, Randy Jones had a vicious hit on Patrice Bergeron this afternoon. Bergeron was taken off the ice in a stretcher without moving. Jones will undoubtedly be suspended, and has already offered a letter of apology. Hope Bergeron is alright.

The Islanders are home tonight against a familair foe in ex coach Peter Laviolette. This marks the return of Josef Vasicek against his old team. Im sure he’s looking to put up some points against them.

The Islanders have sent Darryl Bootland back to Bridgeport as it seems as if Aaron Johnson will stay playing on the fourth line.

Also Sean Bates is a gametime decision. In my opinion, he should stay on IR….FOREVER!

A quick in depth article by Illustrated on Chris Simon has been published. Its a pretty good read, but got the Islanders front office steaming because they kind of made Simon look bad. Check it out here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/michael_farber/10/24/simon1029/index.html

As Joe Bechtel from 2MA said on NJDevs this morning: “It’s not even about the game tonight. This is a celebration”.

Let’s Go Devils!!!!

Hell Has a New Home!

For once, an unrealistic prediction: Devils 6, Senators 2

Elias and Parise 2 each, plus Madden and Rod Pelley.

There were five scheduled games tonight around the NHL. Here’s what’s happening:

Finals Scores:

Vancouver 3 Washington 2

Michael Nylander and Alexander Ovechkin scored power play goals for the Capitals and Daniel Sedin scored once and Taylor Pyatt scored twice, including the game winner in the third. Luongo stopped 26 shots in the win.

Montreal 7 Carolina 4

The Canadians are not making it easy for anyone doing a recap. 11 total goals, 10 goal scorers between the teams. For the Canadians, Kyle Chipchura, Tomas Plekanec twice, Alexi Kovalev, Saku Koivu, Mark Streit and Mathieu Dandenault scored. For the Hurricanes, Jeff Hamilton, Eric Staal, Ray Whitney and Rob Brind’Amour recorded goals.

In games still going on:

Buffalo 3 Florida 2 3rd period

Drew Stafford just scored to put Buffalo ahead. Johan Hecht and Ales Kotalik have Buffalo’s other goals. Josef Stumple and Ville Peltonen scored for the Panthers.

Detroit 5 San Jose 1 Final minutes of the 3rd.

Alexei Semenov has the Sharks’ only goal. Valterri Flippula, Andreas Lilja, Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Kirk Maltby have Detroit’s tallies.

Colorado 1 Calgary 1 End of the 1st

Joe Sakic for the Avs, Alex Tanguay for the Flames.

****Updated - 8:08****

Darius Kasparaitis has signed on to play over in the Russian Elite League with the SKA St. Petersburg. It is a welcomed move by the Rangers as now they have a free spot to give to a youngster down in Hartford. There was virtually no chance that we were going to see Kaspar with the Rangers again, and he has stated that he is happy with the move and feels “appreciated” where he is going. Best of luck to Kaspar, who was among my favorite pre-lockout Rangers.

Finally got enough free time to get to the computer. Some observations from last night’s game to start:

- The offense wasn’t bad, but there are still some improvements to be made. The Rangers had a 4 on 2 at one point and made one too many passes. In that instance, one pass, shoot low, bang in the rebound. Same goes with the power play. Shoot the puck whenever the opportunity is there. Moving around the defense is great, but simple is sometimes better.

- Nigel Dawes played well, and will continue to cash in if he is given playing time. Really needs no further explanation.

- The defense was solid again. They were positioned well, took away passing lanes, blocked shots and cleared the crease. It was a solid effort all around.

- Hollweg didn’t look too out of place on the third line. It was obvious that he does not have the skill set required of a top 3 liner, but as a temporary fix, I don’t mind it. Same with Strudwick. He’s not an offensive player, but he played hard and was a grinder for the 8 minutes he played, which is all you really need from the 4th line.

- Lundqvist might never allow another goal. Ever.

Some other quick things:

- The Rangers might be going with the same tomorrow night against Toronto. No call ups are imminent.

- Sean Avery wants to play Monday. It might not happen but he wants it to. Straka and Callahan were being re-evaluated today, Straka to see if he needs surgery and Callahan to see exactly how long he’s out. More when I find out about it.

- When all of these players come back from injury, the Rangers should ask for a 5th line. If they don’t get it, they will face some really hard roster decisions.

Enjoy the Friday night. I’ll be here for tomorrow’s game.