The New Jersey Devils stepped up and played their first complete game of the season.
And as a result,the Devils rolled over the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-1 and earned their first win ever at the Prudential Center.
Brent Sutter moved Dainius Zubrus to the line with John Madden and Jay Pandolfo and the move paid immediate dividends as the line combined for 4 of the 6 New Jersey goals with three of the goals by Pandolfo(4,5, and 6).
The hat trick was the first of Pandolfo's NHL Career.
Madden popped in a goal (his 5th) and also assisted on each of the Pandolfo goals,while Zubrus added 2 assists on the evening.
The remaining Devil goals went to Zach Parise (3) and Arron Asham (3).
Marty Brodeur got the win and generally played well although he was not often tested as he faced just 22 shots.
Best effort of the season by far and hopefully this game will allow Sutter to kinda lay low on switching lines around for a while and see how things jell.
Some of the offensive problem could be that guys just aren't getting enough time together to create chemistry as a unit.
The Devils were tough and physical between three fights and generally bouncing the Lightning around the rink all evening and were able to assert the physical dominance.
I wonder if Tampa's Andre Roy will get any fines for an obvious sucker punch on David Clarkson.
Roy made an excellent and hard check on Clarkson that drove him into the boards and I have no complaints on the hard play,but the follow up uppercut on the unsuspecting Clarkson was unneeded and simply dirty hockey.
In any event-Great job for the Devils tonight and here is hoping they can carry it over into Friday night's game vs the Maple Leafs at the Rock!
Bullpen Notes
The Pirates are still looking for a field boss and it looks like one of the early favorites has removed himself from the running.
John Farrell,the Boston pitching coach, is leaning towards staying in Boston.
Likely a good career move as Farrell will likely get a raise and stay with a high spending winner.
If he accepts the Pittsburgh job,it could take a while to get things turned around and the next manager could get the resulting benefits.
More Bucco boss news.
Cleveland third base coach Joel Skinner will be interviewed today,while early next week White Sox bench coach Joey Cora will get his chance to impress Huntington and company.
The Cleveland Browns placed large Ted Washington on the IR list and clai
med former Steeler corner Ricardo Colclough off waivers.Washington had been playing little and his future was in the past,so I have no problem there.
He certainly was not going to be the cure for this defense.
Colclough intrigues me though.
He was a second rounder in 2004,which means not too much mileage on him,but has only been activated for four games this year.
Is he having physical or off the field issues or is his skills not a good fit for the Steelers defense.
I don't know,but for the waiver price of 100 bucks-I am happy to take that chance to find out.
In basketball exhibition action,the Ohio State Buckeyes hammered the visiting Ashland Eagles 88-59.
I taped the game,if I have time to watch it,I will do a run-down before hiatus.
Finally for the chileheads out there (like me) we have a new
reigning champ as "Hottest Chile' Pepper in the World"!The Bhut Jolokia was discovered in India and displaced the Red Savina at the top of the Scoville Scale.
At one million Scoville units,it blows away the Red Savina's 577,000 units for the crown.
Now that is hot!!!
Photo Credits
Pandolfo-Rich Schultz-AP Photo
Colcolough-Upper Deck
Bhut Jolokia-Darren Phillips-New Mexico State University
1 comment:
the problem with Colclough, is he can't hold on to a ball.. i think he had 4 fumbled punts last year, plus he was also called toast..
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