Ryder, Clowe and Greene celebrating a Devils goal in their 6-4 win at Philly (NJ.com)

For the first thirty-five minutes of the Devils’ season opener last night, things couldn’t have gone much better on the scoreboard.  Despite being outshot in every period, the Devils jumped out in front 3-0 before disaster struck in the final 4:16 of the second period with a three-goal barrage from the home team.  Like they did in 2012 though, the Devils managed to overcome blowing a huge lead (then blowing another lead in the third period), before finally pulling away late for a wacky 6-4 win.  Compared to last year when the team started 0-4-3, getting in the win column right off the bat is a huge boost.

In the pregame, most of the attention was on the lineup choices, with 20-year old Damon Severson playing in his first NHL game while former #4 overall Adam Larsson was again a healthy scratch, which the Swede admitted was the most dissapointing one of all and saying he didn’t care about hearing a reason why.  While part of me’s sympathetic to the fact that he was probably assured he’d get steady playing time at last this year, it’s also a bad sign when kids younger than you (Severson, Jon Merrill last year, even Eric Gelinas to an extent) keep passing you in the pecking order.  Damien Brunner was also unhappy over being a healthy scratch, wondering out loud why he wasn’t ever given a chance above the fourth line in preseason.  Although it’d be nice to get his speed in the lineup, he’s clearly not a fit for the system or the style of play here and a trade wouldn’t shock me, if his value isn’t already a big fat zero.

I didn’t see the first part of this game and most of my first-period updates were via Twitter.  Michael Ryder carried over a strong preseason by scoring at 12:05 of the first period on his way to a marvelous three-point game.  While there was talk about Ryder being healthier this year than he was last season (when he was plagued by back issues), a new explanation for his struggles last year recently came to light – skates.  Apparently his skate company (Bauer) stopped making the brand he was wearing a year and a half ago and he went through multiple models trying to find the right fit.  Finally he found some old skates at home and was able to get a custom-made brand that suited him.

“I went to my parents’ house this summer and went in the shed and they had four old pairs from (the model) I used to wear,” he said. “So, I took those back to camp with me just in case I didn’t like that skates and (thought), ‘I’ll just wear those (old ones) because they were the same one. And they made a pair and I got them back they made them like my old ones, so it’s pretty neat that way.

“When you’re skating and you feel good on your feet, that makes a big difference confidence-wise in holding onto the puck and you know you can turn, you know you can protect the puck a lot better and move. It makes a big difference.”

Sometimes it’s amazing how seemingly little things can matter so much.  Whether health or skates were the big reason for Ryder’s struggles last year, it’s vital he keep up his good form.  Ryder also contributed to the Devils’ second goal early in the second period when he left a drop pass for Adam Henrique, who fired a wrister past Steve Mason at 2:10 to double the Devils’ lead.  By now I was listening on the radio, where I heard both this goal and the subsequent one by Mike Cammalleri, whose perfect top-shelf deflection of a Jaromir Jagr shot at 5:33 gave the Devils a three-goal lead and annoyed the boobirds in Philly.  Jagr’s assist also moved him past Steve Yzerman for sixth on the all-time points list.  Although the Devils had a scary penalty kill where Dainus Zubrus had to make a couple of great plays to keep the puck out of the net (by now I was watching on TV), things still looked good until Jordin Tootoo got whistled for a questionable penalty and Claude Giroux took advantage, firing a wrister through a Marek Zidlicky leg screen and past Cory Schneider to get the Flyers on the board.

From that point forward the Devils started to lose their poise.  Merrill got caught along the left boards and was out of position when the puck got to a wide-open Wayne Simmonds in front.  Merrill tried a desperate diving play but Simmonds toe-dragged him and beat Schneider with 57 seconds left in the period.  Being at 3-2 was bad enough, but what happened next was truly an unfortunate series of events starting with Ryane Clowe’s dumb penalty with 4.5 seconds left.  For reasons known only to him, coach Pete DeBoer put out our worst faceoff guy (Stephen Gionta) for a faceoff deep in our zone – I guess Travis Zajac couldn’t take a 4.5 second shift?  Predictably Gionta lost the faceoff to Claude Giroux, horrifyingly the puck went to Vincent Lecavalier, who flipped it to Simmonds in front as time was running out and Simmonds got the best of defenseman Bryce Salvador and tipped it home with .6 seconds remaining, tying the game.

At this point I was already beside myself two periods into the season.  How could this be happening already, and again?!  My half-serious prediction was that we’d get the lead again in the third, lose it again and then die in the shootout.  Two thirds of that prediction did come true, in part due to some Czech wizardry on Patrik Elias’s goal at 4:16 when Marek Zidlicky’s touch drop pass to Martin Havlat was followed by a quick cross-ice pass from Havlat to a wide-open Elias for the tiebreaking score.  Just fifteen seconds later, the game was tied yet again when Salvador oddly took Simmonds out of a three-on-two break, making it a straight two-on-one, which Lecavlier took advantage of by beating Schneider with a wrister.  Finally at 7:13 the Devils got one lead too many for the Flyers when Henrique found a wide open Zubrus, and Zubrus beat Mason with a wrister after an initial pass fake.  Not that I was confident in us holding this lead either at the time, but eventually you have to hold a lead by accident, right?  With just one minute left in the game Cammalleri scored an empty-netter for his second goal of the game, finally sealing the deal once and for all.

While the blown leads are clearly an issue that won’t go away (and as last year’s playoffs proved aren’t entirely exclusive to the Devils either), the top concern from last night’s game has to be the penalty kill, which was just 3/5 and could easily have given up three goals instead of two.  Losing Mark Fayne and Anton Volchenkov is clearly creating some flux among the defensive pairings on the PK early on.  Ryan Carter and Steve Bernier were also in the PK rotation up front last year and new guys like Cammalleri and Jordin Tootoo are being worked in this year.  At least the young defensemen held their own for the most part, with Severson having a ‘fantastic’ game according to coach DeBoer and even getting put on the PK himself late in the third.  From Tom Gulutti’s blog:

“I thought he was fantastic, composed, not overwhelmed, made plays,” DeBoer said. “When the game turned and it became 3-3, I thought he got better, which means something for a young guy.”

Severson, the Devils’ 2012 second-round draft pick, correctly took it as a positive sign that his coach had the confidence in him to use him in important situations in the third period of what had been a crazy game at times.

“It shows that he has confidence in me to kill penalties or be on the ice late in the game or anything like that,” he said. “You know, obviously that was my first game so anytime you get thrown out there in situations where your team is up by a goal and you need to play solid defense, it shows that he has confidence in you to really play strong defense really in your own zone.”

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Clearly our retooled offense was the brightest spot of the opening game however, with five different players scoring the six goals and each of the top three lines contributing.  Granted, this game was against a Flyers team with severe defensive issues following the loss of Kimmo Timonen indefinitely due to blood clots.  Still, six goals are six goals and can only be a confidence-booster going forward to the Florida part of our four-game road trip to start the season.  Since beating the Panthers in the 2012 playoffs, the Panthers-Lightning trip down south has been a dual house of horrors for us the last two years in the regular season, both times at crucial points in the homestretch.  At least this time we’re doing a Florida trip early, playing the Panthers tomorrow night and a strong Lightning team on Tuesday.  Hopefully the team continues its good start tomorrow and starts to bury the ghosts of sunbelt trips past.