Game Recap: 10/7/2005

When a season first starts, you know the likelihood of winning every single game is about one in a trillion trillion, or 2^80. Nevertheless, when a team wins the first game of the season, as the Devils did on Wednesday night, for a split second you forget what it's like to lose and think it might be possible not to. Ever.

And then the harsh reality arrives like a slap in the face and you wonder what made you think such a whimsical thought. Such was the Devils' second game, an uninspired 5-2 drubbing at the hands of the rival Philadelphia Flyers -- the first of eight regular season mettings this year.

The Devs jumped out to an earlier 2-0 lead on two power play goals, but seemed to lose their drive midway through the second period. They were treading water and had a lot of difficulty getting any momentum going. It didn't help matters that Marty Brodeur ("Superman") was not at his best, allowing a couple of soft goals in addition to the phantom Simon Gagne goal that was allowed only after an extensive video review, apparently utilizing under-ice cameras that we didn't have access to.

It was only the second game, but it's clear already that the Devils still roll four lines comprised mostly of grinders with the occasional skate-shoot-score type of player that the "new" NHL will attempt to feature more of. Other than Alexander Mogilny (ALMO), who by my pedestrian math skills is somewhere around 57 years old, who else would you trust with a penalty shot? Patrik Elias has that kind of talent, but he is still recovering from Hepatitis A. He has begun skating but there is no real timetable for his return (at least that I know of). We all wish him a speedy recovery because, let's be frank, the team might need him.

Another thing that troubles me about the team is their overall lack of size. They were pushed around by the much more physically imposing Flyers forwards and defencemen, so we'll have to keep an eye on that subplot and see if turns out to be a strength or a weakness of the team.