Devils vs. Bruins, 3/15/10

When we started IPB, our intention was not to blog about the Devils, necessarily, but rather to blog about being Devils fans. Or, more specifically, what it’s like being us, with a focus on our Devils fandom. Yeah, that sounds about right. Anyway, tonight we’re going to share an especially magical aspect of our hockey-watching lives, a thing we like to call “Pookie’s Late Night”.

Being a reference librarian in a library that is open until 9:00 every night, Pookie is required to work the night shift once a week. Normally she’s able to jigger her schedule around the Devils, but tonight she wasn’t able to. But instead of tivo-delaying the game, she has green-lighted Schnookie and Boomer to watch the game without her, and we’re going to write a game diary of the experience. This should be fun, because Schnookie and Boomer have a tendency to sit in sullen silence, or a state of suspended animation, on Monday nights while waiting for Pookie to get home. This is exacerbated by the fact that Schnookie spends all that time IMing with Pookie, and her attention span is only so broad. So stick around, Gentle Reader, and let’s see how much of the game we’re able to notice and/or remark on!

FIRST PERIOD

19:41 The phonk??? Patty’s centering Zach and Langer? Doc makes a point of mentioning this unusual situation, and nearly immediately, Travis takes to the ice. Whatever, Jacques. Whatever.

19:08 Perhaps confused by the rapid changing of top-line centers by the Devils, the Bruins take a quick penalty. The picture on Blersus is terrible, by the way. As if the Devils moved their arena to Calgary or something.

15:38 So far we have had this sole exchange about this game, following Doc informing us that Sobotka (CANS!) comes from the same hometown as Patty, the “lake district” Trebic. Schnookie: “Lake district?” Boomer, not looking up from the NYT crossword she’s doing online: “Hnm.”

10:02 WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! The Devils put together two good offensive-zone shifts, and then Clarkson scores on a typically enthusiastically crazy-assed shot while Niedermayer (the Lesser) is holding down the screening fort in front of the crease. The energy level is high at stately IPB Manor, where Schnookie looks up from her laptop to say softly, “Wow,” while Boomer doesn’t even bother looking up to say, “We scored?” 1-0 Devils.

8:53 Our Blersus sideline reporter has the kind of weave that Tyra gives the girl she’s most interested in breaking on ANTM. It’s probably supposed to look like some sort of Botticelli’s Venus sort of hairdo, but with the weird white balance Blersus is rocking tonight, it looks greenish. Like if Botticelli’s Venus’s hair got seasick on that clamshell.

7:41 The Clarkson goal has been downgraded in handsomeness to being a Niedermayer (the Lesser) goal.

6:10 In the midst of composing an email to Pookie, Schnookie looks up to see Egg making out with Mark Stuart at center ice. Apparently, it’s the aftermath of a fight over Langer’s honor. Whatever, Egg.

2:37 WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Marty laces a brilliant outlet pass to Clarkson for a breakaway goal that has Andy Brickley just losing his mind over the sheer awesomeness of it. 2-0 Devils, and this prompts an actual shout of glee from Schnookie. Boomer is in the basement puttering around with putting groceries away or something, and waits several minutes to ask what happened. We’re very engaged with the game.

1:50 WHAAA? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! The announcement of Clarkson’s goal hasn’t even ended, and Doc hasn’t even started engaging with the “resuming after commercial” play-by-play, when the Devils outhustle the Bruins in the offensive zone and Zach is there to shovel a bad rebound past Thomas to make it 3-0 Devils. Boomer is still in the basement, and likely won’t notice the score until much later in the game.

0:00 Boomer reemerges from the Basement after the buzzer, and when Schnookie tells her Zach scored, she wonders aloud if maybe she should just stay downstairs. It’s clearly good luck.

SECOND PERIOD

19:34 Rats. The Bruins put Rask in Thomas’s place. Now the Devils won’t be able to carry on scoring at will!

19:17 Double rats. The Bruins come out skating hard down low in the Devils zone, and the inevitable terrible-angle shot beats Marty to make it 3-1 Devils. If this keeps up much longer, Boomer will be relegated to the basement again.

17:13 Leblond and Thornton fight for what seems like weeks. Brickley tells us it was “very tactical”. We found it “very boring”.

11:07 WOOOOO! No, wait, BOOOOO! The Devils have stabilized quite a bit since the first shift of the period, and after some sustained pressure, Niedermayer (the Lesser) tips a point shot into the net. It’s immediately waved off, as he clearly hit the puck with a high stick. Schnookie, watching the replay, says, “Yeah, that was pretty obvious.” She then looks over for corroboration from Boomer, and notices Boomer is sitting back in her armchair, “resting her eyes”.

10:49 Aw! Congratulations to Egg’s dad on his retirement today! Thanks for sharing that with us, Doc.

6:53 Poor Looch faceplants himself into the dasher behind the Devils net. He leaves the game for stitches, and Blersus shows us a zillion replays of it, if just so Doc can reminisce about the time Pando’s head got smashed open on the glass in Detroit. PandoNation loves that story.

5:53 Blersus gives us a little interviewy soundbite with Kovalchuk in which he is raving about Zach. He mentions Zach’s closing in on his 400th game, and that’s a shocking enough stat that Boomer stops “resting her eyes” long enough to agree with Schnookie that it’s ridiculous to think that Zach is almost old enough to get his own room on the road.

2:53 Looch is back and doesn’t look nearly as split-open as Pando did that time. Hmph.

2:00 The Blersus intermission show teaser features the studio host guy wondering aloud whether the Bruins are going to take matters into their own hands to make Matt Cooke pay for his non-suspended hit on Savard. Gee, we hope they do. That can only work out well, right, Todd Bertuzzi?

0:00 That period wasn’t as fun as the first one.

THIRD PERIOD

17:18 One of Schnookie’s tasks today while Pookie was at work was to cook some black beans and the October beans we grew in last summer’s garden, to be used in chili tomorrow. She is busy packaging the beans up in the fridge when the period starts, but seems to have missed nothing in the first three minutes of the period. Boomer, meanwhile, is deeply engrossed in computer solitaire before jumping into her job of cleaning up the bean pots. It’s a thrill a minute around here.

13:45 Marty has had to make one solid save after another after another since we started paying attention to this period. It is as if the Devils think it’s springtime or something.

9:25 Now Blersus is talking about the Coyotes and the Devils vying for the Jennings trophy, and all we can say is that there’s still puh-lenty of hockey left to play. This is always the time of year when the Devils still think they’re going to win it, but then go on a rampage of losing every game by at least six goals before capping things off with the first-round playoff collapse. It’s like clockwork.

4:45 Yikes! Where did this period go? How is there less than five minutes left? And what’s with the Bruins being on the power play? Monday nights are strange. That’s all we can say.

1:03 The Bruins get the extra attacker out, and score to make it 3-2 Devils. It suddenly seems like we’re not going to have the luxury of not paying attention to the last minute of play. Unless the Devils are going to treat it like a first-round elimination game at home against Carolina, in which case, we’re better off not paying attention.

0:27 The Devils can’t clear the defensive zone, and Schnookie and Boomer have their first conversation exchange since the second intermission:

Schnookie: “Ugh. These stupid shitheads can’t do shit.”
Boomer: “Yep.”

0:00 The Devils barely hang on to the 3-2 win, and when Blersus cuts to the studio show, the host dude chirps that “it was a strong first period for the Devils, and that was all they would need.” Boomer: “Yeah, that and strong fingernails.” But… a win’s a win, right?

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