And then it was Monday

I guess the good news though, is that is only a three day work week. But boy, what a Sunday yesterday was for a Jets and Devils fan.

It all got started around noon for those of us on Central Time. The New York Jets were down in Nashville to face the undefeated Tennessee Titans and it was being televised in my area. The Jets were up 7-0 after the first quarter, 10-3 after the second, and 20-3 after the third. Then the fourth quarter started. The Titans started off with a field goal to make it 20-6. Two touchdowns could tie it up. I started to get nervous. Then Leon Washington busts out his 61 yard run for a touchdown to put the Jets up 27-6. I breathe a sigh of relief. But then it takes the Titans only 4 plays in a span of 1:24 to answer with their own touchdown to make it 27-13. I started to get nervous again but thanks to some dropped passes and pass interference penalties by Tennesse, the Jets not only hung on, but scored another touchdown to give the Titans their first loss of the season.

Well that was awesome, and by the time it was over I only had an hour to wait until the Devils game started. Only an hour, more than enough time to think about how bad the Devils were going to suck and kill my buzz. The first sign that it could happen was that I was only going to get the Tampa Bay feed. The Devils tried to ease my mind by taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. That's nice and all but I'm still nervous. By the middle of the 2nd the Devils are up by 5-0 and have chased Kolzig out of the net. Then the next thing you know, bam! Bam! Bam! Three unanswered goals by the Lighting and they are back to trailing by only two goals going into the third. The optimism well has now run dry. I prepare myself for a failure of epic proportions. Fortunately, Dainius Zubrus and the Devils did not let that happen. Zubes netted two more goals to bring his total to four in the game setting a personal record. Not only that, but that made him the first player of this season to score four in a game. I have no idea if Kevin Weekes knew any of this or not, but all of the patting on the back he gave to Zubrus during the on ice post game celebration was reminiscent of Brodeur's 500th win.

Still hayseed enough to say

I currently live about a two hour drive from Nashville, and a three hour drive from St. Louis. There's a place across the Ohio River in southern Indiana called Evansville where they are just as far away from NHL hockey as I am, but the travel time might be reversed. Well when I first moved out here, one of the first things that I looked for was a skatepark (be patient, I'll get to the hockey part in a minute). I found one nice indoor park in Evansville at a place called Swonders.

Yes, it looks like somebody built a skatepark in a section of a concourse in a hockey arena. The really cool part though, is that is kind of what they did. On the other side of the wall to the right is in fact, a hockey rink. It's like my two favorite things all rolled into one. Swonders just got better though, they now have their own minor (very minor) league hockey team, the IceMen.

The only thing that bothered me though, was the local coverage:

Keep in mind though, this is the same channel that a few years ago reported that the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Houston[sic] Oilers for the Stanley Cup. Not to mention that I can't even begin to try to type out how they pronounced "Brind'Amour". Is fighting really what all those people went to see? Well that's what Mike Chesney (by the way, I've never seen him on the news before) and some random player said, but I didn't see any interviews with fans. Fortunately, the morning crew had a little bit more hockey insight and enthusiasm, too bad they are Pennsylvania team fans. At least their normal sportscaster put some real effort into it.

They Must Be Crazy

That's the only reason that I can see why somebody would voluntarily want to be the person whose job it is to use their body to block frozen pieces of rubber that may be traveling at over 100 mph. SI has posted 52 photos of the masks worn by these crazy men in the NHL this year. Well, here are a few of my observations:

Kiprusoff's mask reminds me of the red skeletons that you just temporarily knock down to a pile of bones on Castlevania for the NES.

McElhinney's mask makes me think of just one word, TOASTY!

Does Evgeni Nabokov watch Frisky Dingo?

Turco's mask looks like Bowser on steroids.

Kari Lehtonen must be an anime fan, but I don't recognize the characters.

The back of Peter Budaj's mask is awesome. What is that anyways, a cross between Flanders and Ryu?

Is that Aslan playing a guitar on the side of Pekka Rinne's mask?

Bad luck? No comment.

Patrick Lalime's artist must have forgotten what Marvin the Martian's helmet looks like. It looks more like something the Senators would wear, ooh wait.

Pascal Leclaire obviously loves his Captain Crunch.


UPDATE: Maali informs me that Lehtonen is not an anime fan. it's yuna and rikku from final fantasy. But after closer inspection, I'm not so sure it's not The Bride and O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill. But that's all trivial considering Kari is wearing a KINGS logo on his chin!

You can dance if you want to.

I'm not sure why Martin Brodeur got the win over Atlanta instead of Kevin Weekes, after all, Weekes had more ice time and stopped more shots. What even bothered me more though was that Weekes, who normally looks like the happiest guy in the arena after a Devils win, barely showed any emotion. Perhaps he was as shocked as us fans that Marty was pulling himself out of a game that the Devils were not losing by 42 goals. Well no matter, tonight he played a full game in which he earned his first win of the season, and some of that emotion of his shown through when Langenbrunner scored the winner in the shootout.



Like Chico said, go ahead and celebrate, Kevin, you've earned it.

Yesterday I got so scared...

...I shivered like a child.

I'm sure that you have heard by now, the first man crush of my hockey fan career is going to have surgery on Thursday to repair a torn distal biceps tendon. The early prognosis is that he will miss 3-4 months. That's going to be the longest period of time without Broduer that we have ever seen since he became a regular in the Devils lineup. There have been a lot of clamoring from fans that Marty needs to play fewer games because he looks wore out in playoffs. Well, be careful what you wish for...

Now, there's a lot of fans blaming it on the new mask. Add to that all of the attention the goaltending record books. But some claim that it was bound to happen, after all, so far in his career he has only missed at the most six consecutive games due to injury. Us New Jersey Devils fans are a spoiled bunch. Don't know what you got until it's gone and all.

Even more interesting is that some nonDevil fans say that Marty was just a product of the system, but now people are voting on if the Devils will now miss the playoffs. I'd call this ironic, or hypocrisy, or an oxymoron, or some some other word that I don't yet, but if you look at the shots on goal for the last two games, it's obvious that the Devils play a different game when Marty is not in net. That is what really worries me the most.

The Devils now have an excuse to suck. Sure, they have claimed "no excuses" in post game interviews, but their just talking the the talk, not walking the walk. Well, except maybe for one, Zach Parise. This could be a time for a changing of the guard as far as the face of the franchise goes. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Parise is the new Captain by February. Zach keeps giving it his all and I can only hope the rest of the team will follow his lead through these trying times.

For now, I will try to stay positive. I have faith in Weekes and Clemmenson. Now is your time to shine guys, make the best of it. And to the rest of the team: