What does Kirk Gibson‘s famous World Series home run have to do with tonight’s game?  Just listen to the calls – ‘I don’t believe what I just saw!’ from Jack Buck…and Vin Scully‘s ‘The impossible has happened!’.  More or less those were my exact emotions tonight when during a rare Devils win, an even rarer occurence happened after Cam Janssen of all people deflected an Adam Larsson shot past Ray Emery for only his fourth NHL goal (second as a Devil).  Janssen’s and his teammates’ collective reaction make the goal itself worth a video of the day tomorrow whenever DevilsPR or the NHL puts it up on YouTube.  Somewhat surprisingly Janssen was recalled when the Devils waived Rostislav Olesz earlier this week and sent him down to Albany.  While I don’t believe even Lou Lamoriello had this in mind when he made that move, Janssen’s goal was an uplifting moment that was much needed after two dreadful losses had put the Devils right back into the malaise they’ve been in the last few months.

Tonight’s win gave me no illusions over where the Devils are…it was one bad team beating another bad team that was getting the crap booed out of it at home.  Just like when the Flyers beat us on Saturday, though our boos weren’t anywhere near this vociferous.  Even Steve Cangelosi and Chico Resch got caught up in the Flyer fans’ misery, pausing for a moment to let the audience hear the boos at the end of the second period.  So much for the Flyers’ 1-0 win against us turning around their season, eh?  After Derek fave Manny Maholtra beat them in OT the other night down in Carolina, the Flyers returned home for the first time since their embarassing display against the Caps and promply laid another egg.  Ironically, Martin Brodeur‘s 122nd career shutout was rendered secondary by Janssen’s goal (which finally put him ahead of Marty in career tallies).

With the Devils being the Devils though they couldn’t even get through this game without some bad news, when Eric Gelinas (whose rocket created the opening goal in the first period) blocked a Scott Hartnell shot and had to leave the game in the third period.  His status for tomorrow’s game in Toronto is uncertain, but without him coach Pete DeBoer will have to abandon his lefty-righty rotation for a night and play a fourth righty in Mark Fayne – scratched tonight in favor of the returning Peter Harrold.  You need to have a chart to keep track of the lineup comings and goings.  Patrik Elias is still out with back spasms or whatever issue’s caused him to miss four straight games including tomorrow.  Travis Zajac and Harrold did return tonight, and of course DeBoer couldn’t wait to restore Harrold to the lineup at the expense of Fayne, who’s been sufficiently ruined to such a degree I no longer care whether he plays or not.  I don’t see why Harrold has to constantly get immunity for everything but it is what it is at this point.  Bryce Salvador‘s still hurt and Ryane Clowe is supposedly feeling better but there’s no timetable yet for his return.

This win was nice – punctuated by Andrei Meszaros giving away the puck to ex-Flyer Jaromir Jagr for an empty-netter – but tomorrow’s game in Toronto could be a severe reality check with the Leafs playing well.  Toronto-Devils is a CORSI believer’s nightmare since the Leafs constantly get outshot and win, while we hardly ever produce anything with our massive shot totals.  When Janssen actually helps the offense you know you’re bad off, but hey at least Janssen has more goals than Flyer ‘captain’ Claude Giroux – once erroneously called the best player in the world by ex-coach Peter Laviolette.  If he was, Laviolette wouldn’t be out of a job although the Flyers may be on their third coach by the time we play them again at this rate.