What you missed last night while you were charing your roomba (not a euphamism)

Red Wings beat the Flames, 2-1: The Wings goals were scored in the exact fashion that you would expect them to score. Datsyuk makes a move and with no release, snipes high blocker. Holmstrom in front, tip, goal.

Devils beat the Bruins, 3-2: Marty Brodeur caught the puck, made a sick saucer pass to Clarkson, who scored on Thomas. Was anyone else surprised that Chara made no play on Clarkson?

BJs beat the Oilers, 5-3: Why would I watch this game?

What you missed last night because all the game were pretty much on at the same time

Sabres beat the Oilers, 3-1:
Plus - Ryan Miller
Minus - Why can't Ryan Miller get the shut-out?

Capitals beat the Islanders in the shoot-out, 5-4:
Plus - Semin's rip of a wrister 8 seconds in
Plus - Trent Hunters bar-and-in slap shot to tie the game
Minus - That was the most boring extended shoot-out I've ever seen.

Red Wings roll over the BJs 9-1:
Minus - Steve Mason in the first period
Minus - Putting Steve Mason back in the game
Minus - Bressler for making "Steve Mason is the new Andrew Raycroft" jokes
Plus - Todd Bertuzzi scoring like Holmstrom

Hawks beat the Sharks in the shoot-out, 3-2:
Plus - Craig Anderson still getting it done
Minus - Does Colorado have a back up?
Plus/Minus - All the goals for Chicago were high-short-side snipes

Kings beat the Hurricanes, 5-2:
Plus - Manny Legace's white helmet
Minus - Manny Legace's goaltending

Devils win over the Ducks, 3-1:
Plus - David Clarkson's goal

Crib Notes - New Jersey Devils

I'm going cover all 30 teams. Aggressive? Not really. No information in these crib notes is new or useful.



New Jersey Devils
Last season - 1st in the Atlantic, Lost a heartbreaking 1st round series to Carolina in 7 games.
Lost defensive center, John Madden to Chicago via free agency
Lost backup goaltender (who held the fort down for a good chunk of last season), Scott Clemmensen to Florida via free agency
Lost tough guy Mike Rupp to Pittsburgh via free agency
Lost center Brian Gionta to Montreal via free agency - biggest move for the team
Signed backup goalie (who sneaky had a strong end to last season for the Islanders), Yann Denis as a free agent
Resigned - Johnny Oduya, Andy Greene, Travis Zajac, and Brendan Shanahan

Questions going into 2009-2010:
Will the Canadian Olympic camp mean that Marty finally shows up Devils camp in decent shape?
How much will they miss Brian Gionta?
Does Shanny have anything left in the tank?
How come the Devils can't sign free agents?
Will Jacques Lemaire bring back some Cup magic from 94-95?
At what point in the season will Lou Lamoriello fire Lemaire and put himself behind the bench?
How many Affliction t-shirts will I see down in Point Pleasant this weekend?

Poised for a breakout season:
Zach Parise picks up where he left off last year and puts up a mastodon-like 100+ season.

Guys on roster that I can't tell apart:
John Oduya and Bryce Salvador



If you had to buy one NJD sweater:
Grab a David Clarkson red jersey. If you don't have to pay by the letter try and fit Letourneau-Leblond on the back.

Player whose game you sneaky like:
No sneaky here. Zach Parise is an American hero. We're looking for him to be a rainmaker in Vancouver.

Players on the roster who sound best through a greasy Jersey accent:
"JP's kid, Zach Pareeezy"
"Johnny Orrduya"

Old guys:
This is a pretty old team
Shanny is 40
Marty is 37
Brian Rolston is 36
Jamie Langenbrunner is 34. I keep forgetting that he has been around for so long.

Young guys:
Travis Zajac is 24, Parise is 25 and the rest of the team is kind of old.

Tough guys:
Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (despite having a name like a movie jewel theif) is a beast.
David Clarkson hits, fights and wants to take sean Avery's head off.

Interesting:
Marty and Sheldon Souray are co-owners of a pizza joint in Montreal called "La Pizzeria Etc."
New Jersey has more diners than any other state.

Nostalgia:
Did I mention that Jacques Lemaire is back behind the bench?

NHL 94 players:
Alexander Semak as starting C
Chris Terreri in net
Scott Stevens and Slava Fetisov on D
Billy Guerin was rated a 49 that year.

YouTube:
Parise's top 5 goals from last season. The shootout goal nearly knocked me off my chair. Sick.


- Nemmy

What you missed last night while you were changing too slow

Devils shut-out the Hurricanes, 1-o (NJD lead series 3-2): Brodeur was one better than Cam Ward and thats all it came down to. A tip from David Clarkson - shot actually broke his stick - was all the Devils needed. I like how Brodeur, in the game after his meltdown, pitched a shut-out. Thats leadership and a veteran calm. Not much more to say about this game, except that between this and the Caps/Rangers series, its showing that 1-0 games can be exciting.

Ducks shut-out the Sharks, 4-0 (ANH leads series 3-1): The Ducks have one line. Really. Teemu Selanne is playing with Andrew Ebbits. Rob Neidermayer is a great grind guy. The Ducks only have one scoring line and Sharks can't keep up. Bobby Ryan (rookie stud), Corey Perry (freak stud), and Ryan Getzlaf (stud stud) roll through San Jose like they roll through SoCal. Is this really how its going to end for the Sharks? Also, Nabakov sneaky sucks this series.

Flyers shut-out the Penguins, 3-0 (PIT leads series 3-2): Holy crap, there were a lot of shut-outs last night. Not much to say about this game. Flyers did what they need to do. Penguins seemed slow. Back to Philly.

Red Wings win over the BJs, 6-5 (DET wins series 4-0): Heartbreaker for the BJs. Not that they would have won the series or even the game if it went to OT, but to comeback (twice!) and lose it shorthanded because of too many men on the ice call. That hurts. Also, imagine if Steve Mason actually played like he did in the regular season. This could have been a series or at least one more game. For everyone else in the West, if you can shut-down that offense, Osgood didn't look too sharp last night.