On a slow, lazy Saturday we have a few things on our mind (mostly those things involve rum-soaked pound cake and MarioKart Wii):
– Today’s pre-season game against the Rangers could not have been better. The Rangers dressed pretty much their entire regular season line-up, including Lundqvist. The Devils had 1 1/2 NHL-caliber defensemen and 2 NHL-caliber lines. And yet the Devils still ran circles around the Rangers, who Joe Micheletti assured us were only sucking because they need it to be the regular season before they can play well. Handsome Hank got pulled in the second after the Elias-Gionta-Rolston powerhouse line scored their third goal. If that line can keep that going this season, we’ll be happy, happy campers.
– At one point in the game, Marc Staal went down to block a shot fired from the blue line by Brian Rolston. If there is one thing any scouting report should say about a game against whatever team has Brian Rolston it should be: “For the love of Pete, whatever you do, do NOT block a shot from Brian Rolston!” Staal appeared at the time to avoid any serious injury, but honestly, that boneheaded play had broken arm written all over it. Which got us thinking about why the Devils don’t go down to block shots. We’re pretty sure the reason is that every training camp there’s an oldish guy who shows up for one more shot at making the bigs. And then in the first big practice, he goes down to block a shot. Screaming, he gets up from the ice and… One of his arms falls off! Lou then leaps out from one of the benches and shouts, “And that is why you don’t go down to block shots!!!” It should be noted the Devils also never put empty milk containers in the fridge without a note saying someone needs to buy more milk.
– We had several goals in mind when we started this blog. Chief among those goals was to receive the following picture in our email inbox with the message, “I saw this and thought of you and the Devils!”
Photo Credit: Patty (in Dallas)
