Damien Brunner getting stuffed at the net (NJ.com)

Whatever can go wrong, will – that’s what Murphy’s Law is.  And that’s pretty much how the Devils’ Opening Night began last night, before and during a 3-0 loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh.  As much as I’d been looking forward to the season opener, I was in a foul mood after the team lost defenseman Alex Urbom on waivers to Adam Oates and the Capitals of all teams, and it wasn’t improved thereafter by the game.  Yes, one can say we went on the road and played the prohibitive division favorite with a bunch of new faces – even coach Pete DeBoer played that card after the game.  It wasn’t so much the loss that bugged me though, it was more the (again) questionable lineup decisions of the coach and an offense that didn’t look improved at all despite bringing in an armada of 20-25 goal scorers and touting depth over talent.  Sometimes you need talent too, you know.

As far as the lineup – once again, Mark Fayne sat in favor of Peter Harrold.  And though Harrold played fine and is a good fill-in, he’s not an every-day player and there’s still no excuse for what’s happened to Fayne the last several months.  We could have just traded Fayne and kept Urbom, but we lost Urbom on waivers and now we’re letting Fayne rot until he walks as a UFA this offseason.  I had less of an issue with scratching Jacob Josefson and Rostislav Olesz up front, though Olesz sitting was a mild surprise.  I understand wanting to keep Carter-Gionta-Bernier together as one line with continuity but let’s face it, baby Gio is a gamer but even he can’t overcome his limitations (you can be short as a wing, but not as a center, especially if you can’t win a single faceoff).  Probably my biggest problem with the coach is what happened in-game though…all through the preseason word was that Patrik Elias would be shifting back to center and Adam Henrique would play wing.  And I was fine with that, Elias has played center before and Henrique’s played wing before and honestly despite his own faceoff limitations, Elias is the closest thing to a first-line center we have – though Travis Zajac is certainly capable of an all-around game.

So what happens last night?  Elias indeed was moved to center, on a line with Ryane Clowe and Damien Brunner.  Little surprise that Clowe and Brunner were among the best Devils last night, since Elias always seems to raise everyone else’s game around him. While Henrique and Zajac played on a line with Jaromir Jagr, which was fine on paper – except it was Zajac playing wing for much of the night, not Henrique.  What?!?!?!  A guy that’s never played wing in his life and is being paid (and expected to produce) like a first-line center is all of a sudden shifted to the left wing on the eve of the season?  After not getting any time there in the preseason?  I have no idea how to explain some of Pete’s whims other than perhaps he’s trying to surprise teams.  Henrique even took some faceoffs over Zajac, which is not a good idea in any universe (Henrique was 1-6 last night, Zajac 8-14).  This is even more bizarre than the whole Kovalchuk at RW fascination, but to put it mildly I hope this one gets nipped in the bud.  I don’t expect it to happen though, cause Pete’s stubborn to the nth degree.

Not that coaching was the only problem last night.  I don’t care what lines you throw out there, you gotta score at least one goal against a bad defense (without its best player in Kris Letang) and shaky Marc-Andre Fleury in goal – who was getting heckled all spring and summer because of his bad playoffs, but by the end of the game was getting his name chanted by the home crowd.  In what looked like a re-run of a number of games last year, the Devils dominated the shot counter over the last forty minutes but created little in terms of quality chances until the game was gone at 3-0 in the latter half of the third period.  Our best chance in the game’s first fifty minutes was when Marek Zidlicky wound up with the puck and an open net late in the second period…and tried to pass it back through Fleury instead of just shoving it in.  Aye yai yai – Zidlicky said afterward his body was slightly turned and he didn’t see the open net, but it didn’t take him long to realize his mistake either, slamming his stick on the ice after a play which could have changed the entire feel of the game.  Brunner was very active with eight shots on goal, but I can’t remember a single one of them where Fleury had to struggle to make the save.  Even when Henrique got taken down in the final few minutes and a penalty shot was called, Fleury wound up making a routine save off the pads.

Even our defense and goaltending, which was supposed to be the foundation of the team looked shaky last night, giving up two-on-ones all over the place.  Particularly in the first period, where both Penguin goals came off two-on-ones, though admittedly the first one came off a horrendous rebound off Cory Schnieder, which Chuck Kobasew swatted in after gaining the zone and skating past Adam Larsson.  Not that Larsson was alone in making defensive mistakes – Harrold bailed out d-partner Anton Volchenkov after he got out of position in the d-zone by sweeping a goal-bound puck off the line. There was really little Harrold could do on the next two-on-one he got caught on though – though he made the correct by-the-book play taking away the pass, when the puck’s on Sidney Crosby‘s stick you’d generally rather he make the pass.  Instead Crosby fired a laser past Schnieder, and just like that the perfect goalie in the preseason was anything but in his first real action giving up two goals in the first 12:19 of the season.  Schnieder played better after that, though he nearly gave up a Johan Hedberg-like goal early in the second period when Elias had to bail out his goaltender after shaky puckhandling.  As a whole, it just looked like we played the Penguins’ game in the first period although when we started to play a more Devil-like game in the last two periods it didn’t help our offensive production.

So here we are, 0-1 going into the home opener tonight against the Islanders, in a game that’s as vital as any second game of the season could be with a West Coast trip looming after our lone home game in the season’s first two weeks.  It’s not just the upcoming five-game road trip that is cause for concern though…after all the negativity of not being able to score goals late last season and with all the drama that surrounded the offseason, it’s imperative this team doesn’t let the negative juju bleed over into this season.  Especially with the grim reaper (Lou Lamoriello) ready, willing and able to take decisive action after an offseason of trades and signings galore, showing he did not want to miss the playoffs for a third time in four seasons.  I’m already feeling it as a fan, but then again I watched last year happen and quarter of the roster wasn’t even here.  For all the talk about the Islanders being improved, tonight’s still a winnable game – especially with it being their season opener tonight after a long layoff.

At least I have a previously unscheduled day off today, so there’s plenty of time for me to get excited again for the home opener, particularly seeing some people I know for the first time in a while.  And it’s going to be nice weather out again so there’s that.  I didn’t particularly want to do this recap after sleeping the game off last night but since I had time, might as well pick the bones.  Hopefully tomorrow’s recap will be sunnier.