Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Game Night - Game #1

Tonight - Pittsburgh Penguins at the New Jersey Devils.

Season opener. First game for Sydney Crosby. First game of the new era.

Quick look at the Devils -

- They still have Brodeur. He's still the best goalie in the game. The rules changes will hurt him, as he won't be able to handle the puck as much
- Offensively, it's Elias, Gomez, Mogilny and a bunch of guys named Moe. I'm not as familiar with the younger guys.
- Defensively, the obviously are vastly different without the Scotts. Rafalski and McGillis are the top two.

Overall, they'll probably be solid, but the new rules are designed to keep teams from playing like the Devils used to (with trapping and defensive systems). Will be interesting to see how they adapt.

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has two massively talented lines - Palffy, Lemieux, Malone and Crosby, Recchi, Leclair. Add the offensive-minded D (Gonchar and Tarnstrom), and we could see a bunch of scoring.

This season should be fun to watch.

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