Crikey, it’s getting old. Brian Gionta just got pushed off the puck hard, and it looks like he hit both shoulder and head against the unforgiving Detroit boards. He skated off on his own power, but has yet to return to the game, which currently sits at 2-1 Detroit after two periods, on the strength of a pair of Marian Hossa goals. Parise notched a deflection off an Oduya slapshot for the Devils only tally so far.

Edit: As the third period is starting, it becomes apparent that Bryce Salvador has not returned to the ice either. Salvador was hit by a puck in the second period, leading to Hossa’s goal. Sigh.

So, the updated injury counter:

Martin Brodeur, torn bicep
Brian Rolston, high right ankle sprain
Bobby Holik, broken pinkie
Andy Greene, broken hand
Paul Martin, upper body soreness
Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, cracked orbital bone
Brian Gionta, unknown head/shoulder injury
Bryce Salvador, some kind of puck-to-knee injury

Add to that Matt Halischuk’s apparently serious leg injury suffered in the L-Devils game at Wilkes-Barre the other night, and the Devils are short EIGHT players, less than one calendar month into the season.

Ouch.

With the dawn of each new NHL season, I wait very impatiently for the schedule to be released. When it finally is, I plan which games I want to attend, whether or not I’ll take a road trip, and other fun and extremely expensive ordeals. Then there is that game… that one single game that you want more than any other one. The one that makes you more wide-eyed than an all-night eight-ball-induced hallucination. That’s the way I always feel when I see the Devils squaring off with the Detroit Red Wings. So, let’s take a look at what tonight’s contest has to offer…

Ever since that fateful day back in 1995 the Devils have enjoyed very limited success against the fellas from mo-town. Winless at “The Joe” since 1996, the Devils will take to the ice against the defending Stanley Cup Champions without the likes of Brian Rolston, Bobby Holik, Andy Greene, Paul Martin, and world-class goaltender Martin Brodeur.

Wait… I was looking forward to this?!

Tonight’s contest had the potential to be one of the most entertaining showdowns of the entire season. Instead, it is shaping up more and more to be a crime scene with the victim being the Devils’ pride. However, I’m doing every little bit that I can to remain optimistic… and who else to supply a little pep than Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner. Langs issued the following statement in the Nov. 6 edition of The Bergen Record:

“We’re still a very good team and if anything it’s a chance for us to prove that it isn’t just him [Brodeur] like all of you always write.”

That’s exactly the mentality that I’ve had since I learned that Marty will be out for an extended period of time. This isn’t just a period of survival for the Devils, it’s a chance for them to silence the critics once and for all. It’s a chance for the team to show everyone what we, the fans, have known all along. That the Devils win because they are the Devils. The fans are united, and apparently (and more importantly) so are the players.

With enough emotion and heart, tonight could still be one to look back on come the end of the season. Then again, it could also give us flashbacks from those Devils teams of the ’80s.

I’ve officially tweaked myself out. Is anyone else scared sh!tless?!

So, there is a silver lining in the Marty injury saga. It’s a very very small silver lining, barely registering on whatever one uses to measure silver linings. But it’s there, and I’ve found it. The very very small silver lining to Marty’s injury is thus:

We can use the Weekeser Beam picture again!

Okay, so in all seriousness now, it’s still rather unclear what Brodeur’s injury is, but the Devils said “elbow bruise” when it happened. And in Devils speak, “elbow bruise” probably means his arm fell off. Or possibly a pulled hamstring. I’m out of practice with my Devils injury speak.

Either way, it’s becoming (PAINFULLY) clear that Marty’s chase of Patrick Roy’s wins record is probably on hold for at least a few games. Kevin Weekes definitely has the nod in between the pipes this evening at the Rock against the Sabres, and my guess would be we’ll be seeing him on Wednesday as well. I have little fear with Weekes in net, the man was a starter for many years and is nearing his own milestone - two wins gives him 100 on his NHL career.

Backing up Weekes will be former 2MA icon Scott Clemmenson, who was recently recalled from Lowell for the assignment. The Devils also recalled rookie defenseman Anssi Salmela, for reasons unknown. I don’t think it’s to play goal, though. Edit: According to Gulitti, Paul Martin’s not on the ice for practice today. Crap.

Tonight’s Buffalo/New Jersey matchup provides one other interesting storyline that I never would have expected out of this game before the season started: The NHL’s top two goal scorers will be in the house. Thomas Vanek leads all scorers with 11 goals in as many games, while Zach Parise comes in at second with nine goals in ten games. Who woulda thunk it, a Devil amongst the league leaders in goal scoring? If Parise pots a puck (yay alliteration) tonight, he’ll also set a Devils record for most consecutive games scoring a goal - he sits tied with Valeri Zelepukin, Bobby Holik, Kirk Muller, and Pat Verbeek for the club record with six consecutive goal-scoring games.

I won’t be watching this evening’s game (lousy classes need to stop occuring on game nights), but I’m sure you can expect a typical Scott Mackie rant afterwards! And for those fearing that we’ve forgotten about LiveCaps - fret not, they’re coming. It’s been a rough go of things schedule-wise for most of the crew here, but after this week, things should be relatively back to normal. Thanks for sticking with us!

The injury bug just won’t leave the Devils alone this season. First Brian Rolston’s ankle. Then Bobby Holik’s pinky. Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond’s cracked orbital bone struck a blow to hyphen-lovers everywhere (see what I did there?). And now tragedy has even befallen the man, the myth, the monster…the Mister Andy Greene.

Andy apparently took a puck off the hand early in the Devils 6-5 shootout loss to the Maple Leafs Wednesday night. The Lean Greene Point-Producin’ Machine managed a career-high three assists despite the broken hand. Hell, maybe it was even because of the injury. Maybe it made Andy angry. You wouldn’t like Andy when he’s angry. Greene celebrated a birthday by getting his hand X-Ray-ed. That’s gotta suck, but Andy’s hardcore like that.

The puck that befell the Greene Monster came off the stick of Pavel Kubina, no less. Y’know, the guy who knocked Scott Stevens silly with a puck to the head a few years back. Greene’s injury is slightly less scary than Stevens’, though, and will shelve Andy for about a month, maybe more.

While the Devils must wait another four-to-six weeks to again Go Greene, one Sheldon Brookbank will be paired up with Mike Mottau as the Red n’ Black’s third pairing. Getcha Pepto Bismol ready.

So besides the terror-inducing duo of Mottau/Brookbank (inducing terror in Devils fans, I mean. Not so much the opposition), what else can we expect tonight? Welp, after taking part in his NHL debut and notching his first-career point with an assist, Matt Halischuk gets to take a cozy seat in the press box, as Niklas Bergfors gets to make his season debut for the Devils tonight. Since Niklas’ only other prior NHL experience was the season opener last year against Tampa Bay, and since he got hurt in that game and never made it back to the NHL, and since last season’s opener so thoroughly sucked - I say that game gets stricken from the record. Niklas Bergfors gets to start anew tonight, in his first ever NHL game. I don’t care what the record books show.

The Devils ride into tonight’s game on a three-game losing streak (yet still managing the charity point in two of the three), sitting at 5-2-2. The Thrashers come in as the second-worst team in the NHL, one point ahead of the Islanders and sporting a 2-6-2 record. The Thrashers recently fell victim to that evil injury bug themselves, losing No. 3 overall pick Zack Bogosian to a broken leg during a 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Philadelphia last week.

So the boys have completed their first road trip of the season and are returning home with a very respectable 4-1-0 record. The trend thus far seems to be thousands of shots on goal with minimal results on the scoreboard, but apparently that’s all that’s been needed. Marty has been Marty, and the D has been…well, the D. You know — giving us the occasional coronary every now and then, nothing out of the ordinary.

Oh, right — and we’ve lost Bobby Holik and Brian Rolston. Yup, Both of them. Rolston probably for a month or two.

I really don’t know what to make of this situation. It’s kind of funny — in a cosmic sort of way. Ya know, we bring back two veterans from the past and instantly our team is somewhat of a threat again. We get all amped up about it, and now they’re both sidelined less than three weeks into the season. On the other hand, there’s the fact that neither one of them has really had much of an impact on the outcome of the first five games, aside from Rolston’s game-winner in Atlanta.

As a Devils fan, I almost feel contractually obligated to round up my fellow fans and organize a cult-like mass suicide. But, for some reason or another, I’m still optimistic that the favorable results will continue. (Maybe that’s you-know-who’s way of telling me to stop drinking.)

This year’s Black & Red squad is a deeper one than last year’s, and I think we will be reminded of that over the next month or so. For instance, the group is definitely younger. Vrana is much more favorable to have in the lineup than Sergei Brylin; and on the same side of things I’d rather have Leblond playing over Aaron Asham. (Leblond has been called up to fill in for Holik for Wednesday’s game vs. Dallas.) Are they going to be easy replacements for Holik & Rolston? No. Hell No. But I think they will fit in nicely with the mold of the team and continue to help do the little things right. After all, that’s what has gotten this team to where they are now.

At one point or another, every team in the NHL will be going through a scenario similar to this. There will be other star-players that will go down and other rookies will get their shots with the big boys. I guess a positive to take out of this would be the fact that we’re only five games into the season, we have a .800 winning percentage, and six of the next seven will be home games for New Jersey. Not to mention the upcoming opposition hasn’t exactly been making much noise thus far.

The next several weeks will be very telling of the dynamic and character of this year’s New Jersey Devils. I’m tempted to watch with my hands half-covering my eyes, like it’s a badly-written television drama.

I guess what I’m trying to say is… Don’t hit that panic button just yet. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the way the team will perform in the absence of Rolston & Frankenstein.

If, two weeks from now, all hope seems to be lost…just be happy it’s not the last week of March.

No, really! I’m not kidding! Three whole goals! And a shootout win! Amazing! Wee!

Whew, that was a pretty intense game. Well first things first, congrats to Petr Vrana on his first NHL goal and Patrick Elias for passing his way to the all time Devils assist lead! Woo! They jump started what was a fantastically exciting 4-3 shootout win for our boys.

Now for the bad news, Chico reports that Geico Spokesman Bobby Holik has broken his pinky finger after taking a shot to the hand during the game, meaning that Lou’s grand plan for revamping the Devils is on the injured list in its entirety after a mere 5 games.

Alright so our Back to the Future team is on the IR and our season high is now three goals scored in a regulation game, but a 4-1 start ain’t to shabby is it? I don’t think so. We could put Mr. Ovechkin on our team and I’m convinced he’d score 60 points, that’s just the way it’s gotta be.

Aside from the fact that our offense reflects our country’s booming economy, there’s a lot I liked during this game. First of all, it was a blast to watch, a fantastic showcase of hockey in my view.

Of course, Zach Parise is amazing. You can’t understate it, but I feel like everything that’s could be said already has, the kid’s just money. Travis Zajac looks like last year didn’t even exist. I LOVE the way this guy has been playing this year, and tonight is a perfect example of that.

I have to interject into my own post here and say I absolutely ADORE that Ron Duguay from MSG is getting into the Halloween spirit, his Jon Bon Jovi drowning in a blue dye factory costume is just spot on. Spot on.

Anyways, much as I’ve dragged his name through the mud, Johnny Oduya looked great tonight too. He seems to have carried his second half performance through to the start of the season and just looks like he’s primed to have a big season.

On the flip side of the glory of tonight’s comeback win, why can’t the Devils score on the freakin’ rush?! I feel like every time they have a fast break opportunity the second they go to shoot, they just seem to instantly have some sort of brainfart. I don’t think John Madden has scored in a high pressure situation since he coached the Oakland Raiders in the 60s! Zing!

Ok that wasn’t funny. I apologize. I think it’s too early to start making bold predictions about the Devils for this year (spoiler! Brent Sutter will continue to go bald!). Right now, there are about as many reasons to be excited as there are to be angry, so I’m hovering at a happy medium for the moment.

Nonetheless, I’m $%(#($^# thrilled hockey’s back. Keep it to 2ma for more.

Well folks, it starts tomorrow. Game one of eighty-two. To me, it really feels like Christmas Eve.

A bigger, stronger, and faster Devils team will take the ice tomorrow night at The Rock. Martin Brodeur will don the newly designed mask for the very first time as he resumes his quest to overtake Patrick Roy’s wins record. Brian Rolston & Bobby Holik will make their returns to the Garden State.

I’m drooling. The long off-season is finally over and for the first time in three years, Red & Black will christen the new season on home ice, and against a cross-town rival nonetheless. Home openers are great, but Home season-openers are even better. The Rock will be even louder and more decorated than last season, I’m sure.

I will be in attendance myself — section 122 / Row 12 on the aisle — stop by between periods or before the drop of the puck and we’ll have a beer and talk Devils! It would be great to hear from YOU - the readers - face to face and give me some feedback on what you would like to see more/less of right here at 2MA! While you’re at it, you could print out and bring a copy of THIS with you… I’d be happy to autograph it for you.

Make sure you hunt down Josh as well and tell him how awesome his 90’s Music Blog is and talk live-cap with him!

In all seriousness, tomorrow night can’t get here soon enough. See you all at Fan-Fest!!

I’d like to thank everyone who dropped by and hung around for the Live-Cap of the Devils/Rangers game a few nights ago.  As you may have noticed, we’re toying with something new as far as the structure of our Live-Cap is concerned.

Frankly, the maiden voyage has generated some mixed reviews.  It mainly breaks down like this:

But on a serious note…

- Those of you that attended and interacted in the Live-Cap had fun with it and seem to be giving it a thumbs up.

- Readers who checked it out after everything was wrapped up (I happen to fall into this category) are generating the more negative responses.

There are also plenty of readers I’ve spoken to that need to see some more of it before they can form an opinion.

This being the case, I wanted to let all of our readers & fans know that we truly appreciate your feedback on the matter and we assure you that we are listening to your advice and we will be trying different approaches, set-ups, and structures for our Live-Caps for the remainder of the pre-season.  We would love it if as many of you as possible could get involved and be a part of the process.

More or less, we’d like to use the comment-thread for this post as a braindump for you and ourselves to share ideas and explore some possible improvements.  So get to typing!!

I’d also like to point out that there is not necessarily a definite change taking place to the Live-Cap structure.  It’s very possible that we could end up using the original format, thus wasting our time after all. ;)  Hey, change isn’t always a bad thing.  Just ask Larry Robinson.

Thanks again for getting involved, 2MA loves you!

Pre-season action begins tonight! Wee!

That’s right ladies and gents, our boys will be suiting up for their preseason opener tonight in Philadelphia, which means we are one gigantic step closer to beginning the season in earnest.

Word on the street is that the Flyers will be streaming the game tonight on their website, which may be the only way any of us will be privy to this contest. If you can’t stomach listening to a pair of radio hosts gush about how fantastic (terrible) an idea it was to sign Mike

Richards for the next three centuries, Tom Gulitti says he’ll be giving period by period updates over on Fire and Ice, so check that out.

Speaking of everyone’s favorite Devils’ beat writer, Gulutti reports that none other than Kevin Weekes will be in net this evening! This of course means three things:

1. We totally have an excuse to use the Weekes laser beam photo.
2. Weekes has completely recovered from the torn bicep muscle he sustained lifting books of crossword puzzles every night on the bench last year.
3. This will be the last time this season the poor dude will see any playing time before March.

In other news, Gulitti also reported this afternoon that one of the line combos will be a trio of youngsters, with Petr Vrana centering a line with Fedor Fedorov and Nicklas Bergfors. Also expected to get substantial time (including some PP action) are Tyler Eckford and Matt Corrente.

Gulitti reports that Mr. Sutter will also try out Brian Rolston on the point during the powerplay (as he should) and Bobby Holik on the top powerplay unit (WHAT…THE…F%*&). No word on if my personal favorite Matt Halischuk will be playing, but i’ve heard he’s been turning heads at camp so I certainly hope so.

At any rate, we’re a mere two and a half weeks from dropping the puck for the start of the season and I can speak for all the 2ma staff when I say it’s about effin’ time. Keep it here for updates as we hurtle towards another New Jersey Devils season.