Flyers spoil Devil opener at the Rock with 5-2 win

October 4, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Too bad real life isn’t like a video game where you can just hit reset and do it over.  Probably nobody would like a do-over on tonight’s opener more than Martin Brodeur, who gave up multiple bad goals in a 5-2 loss to the Flyers.  Not that the rest of the team was all that good either, it just kinda sticks out when your legendary all-star goalie gives up no fewer than four goals that would embarass any normal person playing street hockey much less a four-time Vezina winner.

It started out as an exciting evening to be sure, with a geeked up sellout crowd – though it did look a little less than a sellout to me, the usual Opening Night video and intros, and bringing back some kid who sang the national anthem during the ’88 playoffs (when he was six) to perform tonight before the first drop of a puck.  Not to mention the normal anticipation before a Devils-Flyers weekend night game which is at or just short of a fever pitch.

Perhaps I got a sign of what I was in for on the evening when I was walking around the arena and saw literally a couple hundred Flyers fans all congregating around a few buses.  Going by them was like walking through a gauntlet.  Evidently, most of them were sitting in the mezz section around 119-120 but they were scattered around the arena.  It wasn’t exactly a Ranger fan-like turnout at the Rock, I’d say Flyer fans numbered around 10% of the crowd if that, but there were certainly a lot more of them than there have been during the prior games since the Devils’ move to the Prudential Center – I guess someone finally told them where the arena was.

Once the puck dropped, things started bad and got worse from there.  A rare double penalty call on Scott Hartnell for a cross-check and Jeff Carter for hooking at 9:49 gave the Devils an entire two minutes on a two-man advantage.  What did the Devils do with it?  Pass, pass and pass some more.  There was so much passing on this power play you would have thought it was Tom Brady passing to Randy Moss and Wes Welker.  Unfortunately passing isn’t always good in hockey if you don’t follow it up by getting a good shot.  Somehow the Devils only managed one shot during the entire two minutes – a weak unscreened slap shot at that.  I might be warped for even mentioning this but Flyers goaltender Ray Emery did have two very solid games against the Devils in the preseason.  Perhaps he was already in their heads?!  Whatever the case they did get too cute and waste that golden opportunity, along with another 38 seconds two men up early in the second period.

By then the Flyers had taken the lead when Jeff Carter showed off his quick hands by scoring on a wrister at 15:57 of the first after having a centering pass blocked.  Due in large part to the failed five-on-three the Flyers outshot the Devils 10-6 in the opening period.  Oh, things were starting to get better early in the second as the Devils pressed the attack and were warming to the task on that early second period power play even though they didn’t score on either Chris Pronger‘s late first period penalty or Emery’s playing the puck in the dreaded trapezoid early in the second, they were still being more agressive in a period where they outshot the Flyers 13-7.

Then, Brodeur started to take both his team and the crowd out of the game in one fell swoop.

At 9:20 of the second, Ian Laperriere scored on an unscreened, undeflected shot from the faceoff circle and the roof started to fall in from there.  Mike Richards scored on a wraparound at 15:23 to extend the Flyer lead to three.  With Emery playing solid again, that looked like a mountain to climb in the third period.  A mountain that got even higher when Darroll Powe scored at 7:34 on another floater from around the faceoff circle.

Even after the Devils finally broke through with a Brian Rolston goal on the power play at 9:44, misery was again lurking around the corner as Brodeur gave up another softie to Matt Carle just 89 seconds later, ruining any faint hope of a comeback.  Jamie Langenbrunner‘s shorthand goal at 13:40 served only as torment more than consolation, since with the two late goals the Devils actually could have come up with a point or at least made it a game if Brodeur was even average. 

Still I guess to a degree this was to be expected – first of all because the Flyers are a pretty good team, showing that by beating the Hurricanes and Devils on the road to start the season on consecutive nights.  Secondly, other than the Langenbrunner-Travis Zajac-Zach Parise line the other lines really haven’t had much time to gel to this point.  With only five preseason games and many players getting a look, the Devils looked out of sync most of the night, even such things as locating a loose puck by their feet proved problematic on more than one occasion.  It doesn’t exactly say much that Rob Niedermayer and Jay Pandolfo were among the better players tonight, considering most Devil fans want the latter disposed of and the former just got here five minutes ago.

Speaking of Nieds v2.0, I admit being stunned at the hand he received when he was introduced.  I mean really, he’s gonna get an ovation just for association?  It’s not as if he was ever a Devil or a great player.  Of course, most Devil fans won’t give up the ghost on getting Scotty back (Nieds that is) so perhaps it was a way of trying to coax him to come back one way or the other – either via trade this year or perhaps even next year as a UFA again.  I was also surprised at the genuine hand Langs’ goal got.  Most people that were still there jumped up as if it tied the game, it wasn’t just your polite stand up and go ‘yay’ applause.  Then again the crowd really had very little to cheer about the rest of the game.

Even the fighters took a backseat tonight, though Andrew Peters still made his presence felt in a negative way with a dopey double minor penalty late down three with eight minutes left and still time to make it interesting.  Just by osmosis he should have been able to coax a fight out of someone – either Pronger, Hartnell or Daniel Carcillo when it could have helped the crowd stay jacked up early.

How were the kids?  Well Nicklas Bergfors had the primary assist on Rolston’s goal and played 16:25 but was a -1 and generally didn’t look all that great.  Matt Halischuk played 12:32 and was also a -1, but was stuck with Rod Pelley (10:32 and a -1) and Peters on the fourth line.  Cory Murphy was a -2 in 19:19 and like everyone else failed to shoot the puck on that ill-fated 5-on-3.  Overall, only Danius Zubrus – who had assists on both goals – and Colin White somehow escaped being a minus on the night.

Of course, it’s hard for your team not to have mostly minus players when your goaltender can’t stop a beach ball.