Battle Of Hudson

1 & 2. Finishing up the mural.
3. A Devils Celebration
4. The last we saw Patrik Elias happy.

All of these are pictures from the mural.

1. The Crowd outside
2. Great Painting on the way up to the lower level. For our friend Greg Wyshynski’s benefit, the adjacent painting of the opening nights in KCity and Denver aren’t including.
3. The Stanley Cup and the Vezina Trophy
4. The Rink Pre-Pre-Game Skate
5. The Scoreboard

1. A painting in the back of the arena of skates and a puck
2. Devils Logo in the Devils Den.
3. A photo next to the team store.
4 & 5. Painting on the exterior just past the Devils Den.

Here are some of the odds and ends of the building, in order they are:

1. The Verizon Tower
2. The Practice Rink from Outside
3. A painting in back of the arena of the NJD Logo
4. A painting in back of the arena of a skater.
5. A painting in back of the arena of Brodeur from the back.

Very tired, very annoyed, much more tomorrow, including a full recap of my 10 hours of Rock madness, meeting Jeff Vanderbeek, photos of the Stanley Cup, ripping a grown man to shreds in front of his daughter (verbally of course) and general fun and heartbreak from opening night at The Prudential Center, the first of hopefully many, many more (and happier) to come.

There are a lot of games on tap tonight, so I will just give scores for the most part.

Games still in progress:

3-1 Atlanta leads Chicago in the 3rd

4-2 St. Louis leading Washington in the 3rd

2-1 Dallas leads Phoenix after 1

1-1 Edmonton and Los Angelas after 1

Finals Scores

2-1 Philly over Boston (Bergeron is ok, check the Rangers post for my last update)

2-1 Columbus over San Jose

4-1 Ottawa over New Jersey (Ouch. I fully expected like 6 goals and a shutout for the Devils.)

8-3 Carolina over New York Islanders (Brind’Amour with a hat trick)

4-1 Toronto over New York Rangers (recap below)

4-3 Montreal over Pittsburgh in a shootout

4-3 Buffalo over Tampa Bay in overtime

4-3 Nashville over Florida

9:25 – Game Over. Kilger added an empty net goal for Toronto. 4-1 final in New York. Once the Rangers find the offensive groove, they will be a really good team. I just don’t know how long you can wait. They need Sean Avery in this lineup. Other than that, I’m out of ideas.

9:12 – Not much of a third period so far. With just over 5 minutes to go the Leafs don’t have a shot on goal and the Rangers have only 5. A Gomez-Drury- Jagr line should be frightening to opposing teams, but it failed to generate anything offensive. The Garden is now not even booing. They’re just out of it.

9:00 – I don’t know how Jagr missed that open net. Toskala was down and out and Jagr’s backhander went right through the crease. The Garden is booing too, which is never good to hear.

8:32 – In a span of only a few minutes, the Rangers have had 2 defensive breakdowns which led to 2 goals for Toronto. Both of them were avoidable. End of period 2. Rangers have to play a much better 3rd period to win this game.

8:13 – 1-1 after a Pavol Kubina just scored from Blake and Kaberle.

8:05 – That’s what we need from Jagr. Nice goal. Nice shift before that by the fourth line. Someone needs to remind Toronto that they need to shoot to be able to score.

8:00 – Second period’s about to start, but just wanted to pass along that Bergeron suffered a broken nose and a concussion on the play, but is conscious, and moving all of his limbs after a scary few hours. Back on the Ranger front, Rangers on the power play, Drury just hit the post. I don’t think the call on Sundin is a penalty, much like Joe Michelleti in the booth.

7:41 End of first period – How about that? A scoreless period for the Rangers. Good defensive period. Both teams looked good at times. Some good saves by Toskala. Lundqvist wasn’t tested too badly.

Update 7:22 – “Great defensive play by Jagr.” Yep. Those words really did just come out of Sam Rosen’s mouth. And it was well deserved. Jagr broke up a breakaway. Halfway through 0-0.

I’ll be here throughout the game. Same lineups as Thursday for the Rangers, and the Leafs are without Tucker and McCabe. I’ll send updates frequently.

Also, Randy Jones had a vicious hit on Patrice Bergeron this afternoon. Bergeron was taken off the ice in a stretcher without moving. Jones will undoubtedly be suspended, and has already offered a letter of apology. Hope Bergeron is alright.

The Islanders are home tonight against a familair foe in ex coach Peter Laviolette. This marks the return of Josef Vasicek against his old team. Im sure he’s looking to put up some points against them.

The Islanders have sent Darryl Bootland back to Bridgeport as it seems as if Aaron Johnson will stay playing on the fourth line.

Also Sean Bates is a gametime decision. In my opinion, he should stay on IR….FOREVER!

A quick in depth article by Illustrated on Chris Simon has been published. Its a pretty good read, but got the Islanders front office steaming because they kind of made Simon look bad. Check it out here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/michael_farber/10/24/simon1029/index.html

As Joe Bechtel from 2MA said on NJDevs this morning: “It’s not even about the game tonight. This is a celebration”.

Let’s Go Devils!!!!

Hell Has a New Home!

For once, an unrealistic prediction: Devils 6, Senators 2

Elias and Parise 2 each, plus Madden and Rod Pelley.