Perhaps in an effort to nip our complaining in the bud, FSN doesn’t bother giving us a NY Hockey Night Live pregame show. It’s amazing how unhappy we can be about an absence of Stan Fischler in our lives.
The Doc and Chico pregame chitchat is, predictably, all about how great Zach’s been so far this season. Puzzlingly, though, the stats graphic has the header “Zach’s a Fact!” Schnookie: “Wha? Why not ‘Zach’s a Kazoo!’?”
Steve Cangialosi gives us a “Wow, but the Panthers suck! They’re desperate! They’re so bad that their desperation might make them harder to play than you’d think!” pep talk, then smugly says he asked Marty if that would be a concern in tonight’s game. We then cut to a sound bite of Marty chirping, pricelessly, “Well, we’re not in a great position ourselves!” He took the words out of our mouths.
FIRST PERIOD
19:28 This game starts off the way all of them have so far – with the Devils pinned, helpless, in their own zone.
18:23 The Travis/Gio/Patty line mounts a wee bit of cycling pressure, and a slippery move by Travis to get to a loose puck draws a tripping penalty on Bouwmeester.
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