For the first time in seven and a half months, Devil fans could enjoy a live game at the Prudential Center last night.  Our last home game was a happy occasion – on June 9, when the Devils won Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Kings in a taut 2-1 game, turning what was a 3-0 series deficit to a more manageable 3-2.  Of course, we know what happened in LA and the Devils couldn’t quite force one last home game during a fun Spring.  Since then, I’ve only been to Newark once…in August for the seat relocation event where I was able to switch my season seats from the middle of my row to the aisle.  Both me, and the Devils returned last night for the home opener against the Flyers.

I won’t go so far as to say last night’s 3-0 shutout of our division rivals was worth the wait, but it was certainly the best way possible the Devils could welcome their fans back.  Even if the game itself wasn’t indiciative of the score in the first thirty minutes – only a Martin Brodeur highlight reel of stops and three goals on our first four shots against Ilya Bryzgalov got us a big enough lead that prompted the Flyers to do what they do so often when behind in games…goon it up.  It wasn’t exactly Slapshot but there were no fewer than twenty minor penalties (to go along with two fights in the last five minutes) from the midpoint on, including a bench minor from Peter Laviolette and another unsportsmanlike for abuse of officials from team captain Claude Giroux.

Pretty much the only bad part of last night was the Devils’ inept power play.  While the numbers say we went 1-5 which is okay, the execution really wasn’t there.  Two of those we didn’t score on were 5-on-3’s including one that was a minute and forty-nine seconds long.  I suppose it’s inevitable some aspect of the team would be off considering the long layoff.  At least in the Devils’ case it wasn’t as long a layoff as it was for most other teams, so hopefully new PP coach Matt Shaw will be able to use some of the precious early-season off days to get this team’s man advantage into gear.  However, half our special teams were special as the record-setting penalty kill from last season returned with a vengeance (after an off Opening Night against the Isles), going 6-6 in kills and even scoring shorthanded when Ilya Kovalchuk was hauled down on a breakaway, and converted the resulting penalty shot.

While the call itself seemed a bit iffy to me, I’ll take it – especially if it contributed to the Flyers losing their minds later on.  Such as Wayne Simmonds‘ nonsense shove on Brodeur later in the second period.  I admit, Marty kinda flopped on that one but what was the Flyer winger even doing giving a two-handed shove after the whistle to a slightly off-balance goaltender anyway?  Immediately the Devils surrounded Simmonds and later he and David Clarkson would drop the gloves.  New captain Bryce Salvador also made sure Max Talbot didn’t get away with going after prized rookie Stefan Matteau in the third period, and both Salvador and Talbot got roughing minors in the scrape that ensued.  Steve Bernier and Brayden Schenn didn’t want to miss out on the fun, getting involved in another bout with just thirty-three seconds remaining in a 3-0 final.

Nonsense aside, the Devils’ return to the Rock also saw the unveiling of their 2011-12 Eastern Conference Champions banner.  Predictably – and thankfully – the pre-game acknowledgement of this was tacit, with only a two-minute higlight video of big plays during last season’s playoffs, and spotlighting the already hung and uncovered banner during Arlette‘s national anthem.  As coach Pete DeBoer said, ‘You know my boss (GM Lou Lamoriello)…there aren’t going to be any parades for finishing second’.  There was nothing out of the ordinary about player introductions or the crowd reactions to them, although it was amusing seeing tiny Stephen Gionta come out right after big Danius Zubrus.  You didn’t have to have 20/20 vision to see the difference in their height, and get a chuckle out of it.  Before intros and the acknowledgement of the Eastern Conference banner was a more somber open that paid homage to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

If the pregame started on a modest note, the game itself started with a bang after a good first shift by the Devils’ top line when good work keeping the puck along the boards by Zubrus led to a Salvador pointshot that rebounded to Travis Zajac in front, and the centerman put the rebound past Bryzgalov to send the crowd into a frenzy after just sixty-seven seconds.  Despite a dominant period from the Flyers that saw them outshoot the Devils 9-3, it was New Jersey that somehow went into the locker room with a 2-0 lead, for the only time all evening taking advantage of a power play when Clarkson gathered up a rebound from a Kovalchuk shot and banked in a shot off Ruslan Fedotenko‘s skate in the final minute of the first.  After Kovalchuk’s penalty shot goal less than three minutes into the second, little did we know then that the game was all but decided.  Especially with the 40-year old Brodeur amazingly on top of his game in only his second start back after the long layoff.