After seven and a half months without hockey, the NHL began anew with a bang locally as all three teams were in action, including a Devils-Islanders showdown on Long Island.  As is usually the case with these two teams, it was another nip-and-tuck game that wasn’t decided till the final moments.  Though the Devils’ 2-1 game lacked crispness – it certainly wasn’t missing passion.  That passion started in the stands with an electric atmosphere from a sold-out crowd (at least a couple thousand of which were wearing Devils red), and continued throughout a tense game where the Devils’ best players made the difference in the end.

While there was little surprise that Ilya Kovalchuk played nearly 25 minutes and had a gorgeous assist on Travis Zajac‘s goal – the opening goal of the game at 14:01 of the second period…I do have to admit being nervous about how Martin Brodeur would come out after such a long break and only two ‘games’ in that period (a team scrimmage on Wednesday and the charity exhibition in Atlantic City a couple months back).  By his own admission, Marty played a lot of golf during the lockout, but after a strong 18-save performance including some five-bell stops in the third period when the Isles had their best chances of the match, coach Pete DeBoer could only chuckle after the game:

One of Marty’s best saves was a five-beller with the glove on Isles defenseman Travis Hamonic in the third period at the tail end of one power play, minutes after the same Hamonic scored the Isles’ only goal of the game (also on the power play) when a defensive breakdown left three of the four Devils trapped in the corner and the Isles’ defenseman all alone in the slot.  Marty also stopped Michael Grabner on a partial breakaway in the first period – seemingly meeting his quota of getting at least one breakaway chance against us every game.  New York got strong goaltending of its own by fellow vet Evgeni Nabokov, who made 28 saves and was third star of the game, and one of his best saves of the game came early, when he just got a piece of a Mattias Tedenby breakaway to send it over the net.

For his part, Tedenby – who I’ve been a critic of – actually played well in his eleven plus minutes of icetime, being a factor offensively on almost every shift including drawing a penalty early in the third, in addition to nearly scoring on that breakaway in the first.  Unfortunately for the Devils, their new power play with Matt Shaw did very little in its two attempts on the night.  Surely, special teams will have to improve as the Devils also could have given up two PP goals very easily in the third period.  Overall, the PK looked too passive and playoff dissapointment Anton Volchenkov didn’t start off on the right foot tonight either.

With the game still hanging in the balance early in the third after Hamonic’s tying goal at 7:12 of the final period, the Devils responded quickly, as they did so often last year.  And it was 2011-12 revelation David Clarkson that scored the winner off a broken play, where he tripped his own teammate – Tedenby, who then proceeded to get up and distract the goalie in front enough for a Clarkson toe-drag wrister to slip through traffic and Nabokov’s five-hole to take the lead.  Continuing their playful relationship, Brodeur had challenged Clarkson to score before the game if he wanted to get 30 in a shortened season.  After his goal tonight, Clarkson reminded his elder teammate that he was on pace for 48 now.  That goal would hold up as the winner, despite some hair-raising moments the rest of the game.

On a personal level, I have to admit despite all the nonsense of the past several months, tonight fit like a glove.  I was glad to finally be able to fist-pump a goal at 8:30 when Zajac scored off the nice feed from Kovy on a two-on-one and celebrate Clarkson’s lead goal and the eventual win without any hint of guilt.  Not to mention being able to watch hockey all day between NBC, the NHL Network and my (finally!) working free Center Ice preview on TV.  I did have a chance to go to the Prudential Center for a surprise last-minute viewing party the Devils were holding for season ticket holders despite the Disney On Ice show ending just before the game, but I opted out preferring to stay home and enjoy the whole day in peace.  An astounding total of over a thousand fans did show up at the arena tonight though, and on real short notice, less than two days’ notice in fact.  Oh well, I’d rather have my first trip back in months be an actual home game.  I’ll be back at the arena soon enough Tuesday, when everything will finally return to ‘normal’ again.

At least as close to normal as a 48-game season can be.  After all, everything’s fun and games until the first loss – just ask Derek, or Isles fans who haven’t seen their team win a home opener since the previous NHL shortened season – in 1995.  Especially when each game is nearly twice as important this year as it is in a normal regular season.  Maybe even more so considering the fact that every single game is division or conference, making every game a potential three-point night.  It’s going to be harder to rebound from a poor start, the way the Devils themselves did in ’95 when they started 0-3-1 and didn’t crack the .500 mark until early April.  With the OT loss/shootout point, being below .500 for that long can be a death knell this time around.

Fortuantely for Devil fans, they’ll still carry an unblemished record into the home opener on Tuesday against the Flyers.