The New Jersey Devils opened Prudential Center tonight on a bang, the sellout crowd of 17,615 on their feet, but ended it on a sour note, losing to the Ottawa Senators 4-1.  For the Devils, they failed to score more than one goal for the second consecutive game, and were nearly shutout for the fifth time this season.

For the Senators, they continued to play superb hockey and showed the league why they are number one.  Let’s not forget their recent success against the Devils dating back to last season- 4-1 playoff series and two victories already this year.

The Devils had played their first nine games on the road, tying the league record, before opening the $375 million arena to a soldout crowd in attendance.  Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, Mayor Booker of Newark, and others were on hand to present the ceremonial faceoff to team captains.

The Turnpike Kids have not started this year on a bang, to say the least, at 3-6-1.  The Sens own the league’s best record, on the other hand, at 9-1-0.  Goaltender Martin Brodeur is enduring one of the worst starts to his hall-of-fame career as well, at 2-6-0.  But, the blame must be warranted towards his teammates who are not capitalizing on their chances, including virtually zero “juicy” rebounds off the opposing goaltender.

After a scoreless first period, in which the Jersey boys led 18-5 in shots, Andrej Meszaros scored the Rock’s first ever goal.  Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley assisted on his second of the year, coming at 5:01 of the second period, giving the Sens the 1-0 advantage.  Devils forward Brian Gionta would not let that lead last, tying the game on the Devils first goal in their new arena.  His power play shot deflected off the goaltender’s pads before hitting a defenseman’s skates and skidding into the net.  Patrik Elias and Paul Martin were credited with assists for their teamwork.  The second ended at 1-1, while the Sens led 10-5 in shots, controlled the tempo for most of the middle 20 minutes of play.

The third period replicated the Devils recent “period by period” struggles, as they allowed three goals en route to a 4-1 defeat.  Against the Isles and Flyers, they allowed three in the second period alone.  Shean Donovan scored the go-ahead goal, after a controversial non-call (in my opinion) by the referees.  Devils defenseman Johnny Oduya was clearly slashed behind the net, losing his stick for the second time in as many games, leaving Donovan in front of the net for a shot which eluded Brodeur on his stick side and silenced the crowd (sorry about run-on sentence).  Oduya lost his stick on a penalty kill against the Islanders two games prior, leaving former Devil Bill Guerin wide open to score the game-winning power play goal in overtime.  Head coach Brent Sutter was clearly frustrated with Oduya’s error in that contest, but if he witnessed the play correctly this time, he would have desired a quick whistle and a Sens forward heading towards the penalty box for two minutes.  Nevertheless, the Devils defensemen have not made one important stop all season and offensively had tallied two goals among the seven of them.  28 other blueliners have scored at least twice, according to Yahoo Sports and my counting capabilities.  Now, you are thinking that the Devs 3-6-1 record is more suiting. If that does not convince you, how about a 69% PK efficiency.  The Inbetweeners (New York and Philly) are in last place (30 of 30) in that category.  The interesting point is that they have only been penalized 42 times or fourth fewest in the league.

Vitaly Vishnevski’s holding penalty at 11:52 allowed the Sens to put what seemed like a close game (until the last 15 minutes of action) out of reach, sending the fans packing (at least they came tonight and hopefully next Wednesday and Friday).  Mike Fisher added an unassisted goal and the killer power play one at 13:34, before Daniel Alfredsson finished the scoring with a short-handed empty-netter with less than two seconds remaining.  Was the Swedish-born Alfredsson’s goal a necessity? Who the fuck cares?  The final score would have been 3-1 and 4-1 makes no difference to Sutter of his players.  The bottom line is that the Devils have not yet adapted to the league’s more spread-out run-and-gun offensive style of play.  As much as I do not blame them entirely, since their style of play was the neutral zone trap since 1995, they have had two years to adjust.  GM Lou Lamoriello signed two useless defensemen (Karel Rachunek and Vitaly Vishnevski) and one forward (that’s right Zubrus), who are wastes of talent and money.  But, sweet Lou was too focused on the Devils arena, he nearly forgot about the offseason, which, by the way, is one of his specialities (haha yeah right).  He rarely signs a big name, which might be the reason that the Devils have not been to the Cup finals since their last win in 2003, before the lockout started.  I am not genius, not by any means, but I also have some common sense.  I understand that Comm. Gary Bettman, who was in attendance, wanted a faster paced hockey game for fans. I hope that he never returns to the Rock, until the Devs win a Cup.  Nevertheless, Lamoriello should have signed a talented skater, especially after losing two of his best players, Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski.  This was the offseason to throw big money at an A-line player, who would have produced in the new arena, generated fan support, and carried the team into the playoffs.  Instead, he signed B-liners at best, who obviously left their talent for paychecks.  There is a reason that nobody else offered them contracts- they were focused on the Daniel Brieres, Ryan Smiths, even Jason Blake or veteran Petr Sykora.

Brodeur was beaten by someone named “Martin” for the third time this season.  Gerber, who started and defeated the Devils on Oct. 8th, saved 31 of 32 shots in earning his seventh win (7-1-0), while Brodeur finished with 23 saves on 26 shots.  His .877 SV% and 3.28GAA are the highest numbers for Marty in any of his magnificent seasons.

The Devils are off until Wednesday night when they host Tampa Bay at 7:00p.m (another sellout?).  Well, if the Devils lose again, that streak of sellouts might start to dwindle, understandably, because the fans wants to see wins with their thousands of dollars spent on tickets in the new arena.  State-of-the-art, cutting edge might describe the Rock, but it sure as hell, does not describe the Devils play this season.  Ottawa does not play until Thursday, when they host Atlanta at 7:30p.m.  Maybe, the Devils should have reconsidered opening a new arena until they learned to play decent hockey.  That or management should have opened the place with Atlanta or Florida (who actually beat us this season, wow, we truly suck).  Otherwise, the Eastern Conference is well-balanced with 10 of 15 teams at 50% or higher, compared with 11 of 15 in the west.

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