Devils drop Florida opener in OT

The New Jersey Devils picked up one point in their season opener in front of what appeared to be 100 people in Miami,as the Florida Panthers scored a 2-1 overtime win over the Devils.
PA Parenteau scored the only Devils goal in the first period when a Yohann Auvitu shot bounced off Parenteau and by Roberto Luongo....
The Devils return to the ice in Florida Saturday night in Tampa on a busy sports night for me (Indians,Buckeyes and Devils) and on a day/night that something else is going on as well...

Hell Raisers

1) Not the most exciting game that I have ever seen and that is to be expected from an opener,but the Devils were outshot 34-24 and that I don't account for being in the opener.
Shots on goal should not be totally affected to that degree early on in the season..

2) Great night for Cory Schneider,who was not accountable for either of the Florida goals-the first of which deflected off a Devils (John Moore,I believe) and the game ending goal in which he was hung out to dry.
Terrific night from Schneider and the main reason the Devils walked away with a point...

3) Damon Severson has to get tougher on the puck.
Severson was just blown away behind the net in overtime by Michael Matheson,who then hit Aleksander Barkov for the one timer that ended the game.
Severson has to be tougher in situations similar to that and at least force teams to work harder...

4) That said,there could be an argument that Severson was interfered with shortly thereafter.
Severson was knocked off the puck cleanly,but was then thrown off off his feet and to the ice.
Remember in Rocky III in the Clubber Lang intro where he threw his opponent into the turnbuckle?
It was kinda like that.
It was a borderline call and one that (in my opinion) shouldn't be called in overtime and wasn't-Lets hope that over the course of the season,the Devils get one of those too...

5) Happy for rookie French defenseman Yohann Auvitu for his first NHL point in his first game.
We'll see how long he sticks around,but he'll always have Florida..

6) Adam Henrique whiffed on a great opportunity early in overtime.
I of course would love to see those slammed home,but on that at least,I'll feel comfortable with "it's early season".

7) This defense is going to be slow.S L O W....
Both newcomers that played on the blueline (Kyle Quincey and Ben Lovejoy) looked downright turtleish in the loss.
This team needs more speed on the defense and if Lovejoy is slow now-imagine how slow he'll be after the end of his three year deal?
That one looks questionable to me....