Sometimes I have trouble starting a blog because I’m not particularly anxious to recap a bad game. At other times it’s because there aren’t really many highlights to recap, or I haven’t watched the game.  None of that was true last night and I’ve still had writer’s block all morning. Not only were there a ton of highlights, close calls and great plays in a fabulous game last night but also sometimes games are good enough to stand on their own merit.  If I could have put the highights of last night’s dramatic OT buzzer-beater against the Panthers to music like they do in NFL Films I would…it would speak better than anything I could say.

Of course, there’s no way I’m NOT recapping last night’s dramatic win over the Panthers, which was as tense as any regular season game against a ‘classic’ rival could be, and quite possibly one of my seven-ten favorite regular season games ever – of the ones I’ve attended anyway. Maybe something was in the air from the ceremonial opening faceoff when Newark native and former NBA megastar Shaquille O’Neal dropped the puck…wearing an Alexei Ponikarovsky jersey.  A hilariously random choice of attire though it’s possible the big Ukranian’s jersey is one of the few that could fit on the self-proclaimed Big Aristotle.  When Panthers goalie Tim Thomas stopped Travis Zajac on a point blank chance just eight seconds into the game, we should have known what kind of roller-coaster we were in for. Maybe I had an inkling of what kind of game it was going to be when barely a minute later, Jon Merrill‘s horrendous giveaway led to a Scottie Upshall breakaway chance that Cory Schnieder shut the door on.  In many ways, that first seventy-second seconds was a snapshot of what the game would eventually become.

Merrill’s giveaway and a few other defensive snafus by both teams aside, last night’s game was a crisp affair with few penalties (just two power plays on each side), great offensive chances by each team and goaltending that invariably was up to the task.  It may have resembled pond hockey at times with how wide open it was, and perhaps should have been higher scoring than it was but in a battle of the old pro vs. the young stud, both Thomas for the Panthers and Schnieder for us stood tall.  Somewhat bitterly I started wishing Thomas had stayed on sabbatical in the third period after the umpteenth number of his great saves, but Cory did match him save for save.  Perhaps the only thing that was missing if you were going to draw up the perfect game for entertainment value was snarl, although there was some hitting and you thought tensions could blow over in the final minute when Ryane Clowe was hacking away at a rebound that Thomas controlled.  And in the case of last night’s game it was somewhat humorous to see the Panthers’ scratch list consist entirely of former Devils (Krys Barch, Mike Mottau and Scott Gomez!), might have been more fun if they’d played though I could easily have seen Gomez burning us the way he did in ’08 too.

Even without bad blood there was plenty of tension though, especially with both teams’ place in the standings.  After a slow early start that saw coach Kevin Dineen get fired just two seasons after winning the Southeast, the Panthers have surged under new coach Peter Horachek back to the fringe of the playoff race though still several points back of the final wild-card spot.  A resurgent and healthy Thomas is a big reason why, as the Panther offense is just as lacking as ours in goals.  Our situation is well-known to readers of this blog or any area hockey fans really, since the Rangers and Devils are both in hot pursuit of a playoff spot with the surging Isles rallying back to the outskirts of the race themselves.  With our upcoming schedule though – a four-game road trip to Toronto, Montreal, Colorado and Phoenix next on the docket – a win last night was absolutely imperative.  Especially with seemingly everyone else in the Metro surging at the moment.  In some ways with what was at stake it felt like Game 8 of the 2012 first-round even more than any of our games against them last year did, though many of the faces have changed on both sides since then.

With both goaltenders at the top of their game it would take seemingly perfect plays or bounces to get goals last night.  Which is exactly how it worked out on each of the game’s three goals. As has been the case often this season in spite of our offensive deficiencies, the Devils jumped out in front with a terrific shift from the Adam Henrique-Ryane Clowe-Michael Ryder line.  Both Henrique and Clowe made great plays to win the puck along the boards behind the net, with Clowe finding a wide-open Ryder in front for a one-timer at 15:22 of the first.  Ryder’s goal was his team-leading 16th of the season and extended his goal-scoring streak to four straight games.  For the longest time it seemed as if we’d need a case to deja vu to win with Schnieder making a single Ryder goal stand up for the second straight game.  However the lock Schnieder put on our net was finally broken when professional pain in the neck Tomas Fleischmann found Nick Bjugstad in front and the big centerman beat the goaltender with a perfect deflection up high, tying the game at 11:54 of the second.  From there, it seemed obvious next goal won – if there was a next goal – though no goals at all was just as good as a loss given our shootout woes.  Both teams had glorious chances to win and couldn’t convert.  Just when it seemed overtime was an obvious conclusion to the game, Schnieder had to stop Sean Bergenheim from point-blank range with under ten seconds left, then after the ensuing faceoff an open Fleischmann shot just wide.

After coming perilously close to getting zero points for their effort, the Devils tried desperately to end the game in overtime…but it was the Panthers who nearly won when Schnieder made a stop on an Aleksander Barkov deflection then Eric Gelinas of all people (he of the 5:20 of icetime last night, including 2:03 on the power play) swept the rebound away from the goalline, saving the day one more time.  With just 3.8 seconds remaining and a final offensive-zone faceoff my one friend with me asked whether Pete DeBoer would take his timeout here, I answered, ‘might as well, what else is he going to save it for?’.  Sure enough, he did though later accounts had Jaromir Jagr in the role of player-coach tweaking DeBoer’s designed play.  Although I started the game sitting in section 3 and it might have provided an even better view of what eventually happened, I ran into a couple of friends I haven’t seen since the draft and wound up sitting with them in the third period and overtime since the seats around them in the back row of section 5 were empty, despite the reported sellout.  Despite the timeout delay of thirty seconds – minutes it seemed to me – I figured we were just headed to another grinding, unhappy shootout. Especially with my record in OT games this year (six SO/OT losses, just one OT win when Steve Bernier scored in the final minute against the Sabres in late November).

Then…IT happened.

Zajac’s critical faceoff win against Marcel Goc went right to Jagr, who quickly tapped the puck over to Marek Zidlicky for a rocket one-timer that ironically deflected off the stick of Bjugstad and past Thomas for a miracle winner with one second to play. ONE…SECOND.  I was too flabbergasted to celebrate at first, just had my eyes wide open and my mouth dropped.  After all, this is the kind of game we usually lose – well, mainly against the Hurricanes.  Finally, I slapped hands with both my friends and resumed cheering the team off the ice with a fervor I can’t remember having since the ’12 playoffs.  You rarely see that kind of pinpoint execution in the normal flow of a game, never mind with all that was at stake there.  It was an interesting grouping too with Bernier taking the place of Danius Zubrus on that line to provide the screen in front.  Not to mention that was the only time we’d had three forwards on the ice compared to one defenseman as opposed to the standard 2-2 split.  Schnieder was even lobbying DeBoer to pull him for an extra attacker with so little time on the clock.  Fortunately it wasn’t needed last night.

I was tempted to tease my other friend who was complaining about needing to go to the bathroom about being glad she held her water with that finish, but hey I know the feeling.  Part of why I rarely drink much at games apart from maybe a juice or hot chocolate (she had one of those big 32-ounce sodas).  My normal seatmate who wasn’t at the game was texting me during the game and when it was over I just texted him back, ‘Holy ****’.  Too bad he wasn’t there for the game himself but hey, three home games in five days sometimes you wind up missing one or two.  I walked out with the two friends I’d met up with at the game and then back to my car, where it started raining again.  For once, the weather belied my mood.  Nothing short of another major snowstorm would have ruined my mood at that moment.  I honestly can’t remember the last time I was that giddy over a home regular season game, maybe beating Pittsburgh on Doc Emrick night a few years ago with a dramatic Jamie Langenbrunner winner in the final minute of OT.

In fact I’m kind of worried about the letdown factor tonight in Toronto though part of me thinks if Zidlicky’s OT winner doesn’t get them going nothing will.  Still, the offense is clearly an issue even in the best of times as evidenced by the winning scores of Schnieder’s three victories since the holiday (2-1, 1-0, 2-1).  After the kind of game we played last night though it’s hard to get up for tonight.  I don’t even feel like watching to be honest, I’d rather just bask in the glow of the game for another night and not ruin it with possible feelings of aggravation, maybe just concentrate on the NFL playoffs.  Of course I feel that way…but it’s the team’s job not to. Tonight’s game is even more important than last night’s game since we’re in more direct competition with the slumping Leafs for a playoff spot.  Perhaps signaling a changing of the guard or just going with the hot hand, Schnieder earned his third straight start in a four-day period.  Ideally he would be sitting in a back-to-back…especially with all the action and close calls last night, but with Martin Brodeur obviously slated to play Tuesday in Montreal, it wouldn’t be right to make Cory wait another five days and two games for his next start either. Plus with the situation we’re in we have to ride the hot hand.  If we’re not going to score goals it’s doubly important to prevent them.  And Schneider’s GAA once again dipped below 2 after last night’s OT thriller.

If nothing else at least last night provided a much-needed fun night out for yours truly at the Rock.  Hopefully it winds up meaning more than that to the team when this week’s all said and done.