Devils fall to the Stars in OT on Opening Night!

Opening Night at the "Rock"

After resting up all week, it was time to shift gears on the fly from no baseball games on a daily and nightly basis to the start of the new hockey season.

The weather here in the Northeast has four seasons, royalty covers all four major sports.

After work, I took the subway to the Path train from NYC which terminates at Newark Penn Station. Upon arrival, I walked over to the Prudential Center for Opening night between the NJ Devils and the Dallas Stars.

Since it was opening night there was a big crowd going into the building. The entrance in the front that's closest to the train station was mobbed so I wisely walked around to find a less crowded way in.

I was somewhat successful until it was time to go through security, that seemed to be the reason for the slowdown of people entering the building. The setup in this building is stupid. First they have to wand you then if you have a bag like I normally do they search it and then finally you go to get your ticket scanned to enter.

Most arenas like the one in Philadelphia you get a quick security check and you proceed in the building. In Newark, they give you a harder time. After all, we're just attending a sporting event. If you plan to see a game there, please remember to pack your patience with you. Royalty knows the drill, the working media doesn't. They turn a "blind" eye to the nonsense that really goes on when you attend sporting events especially here in the NYC area.

Like everything else in life, you need to run into the right person to be successful. If not, good luck.

As for the game I saw, the Devils came out flying they build an early 2-0 lead, thanks to their 100 million dollar man Ilka Kovalchuk, who they resigned over the summer. He set up the two goals beautifully. His line mates Travis Zajac and Zach Parise did the finishing. The visiting Dallas Stars got back into the game when Brendan Morrow lit the lamp to slice the lead in half at 2-1. It stayed that way until the Stars evened it up when Loui Eriksson scored the first of his two goals of the night. The Devils regained the lead 3-2 when Jason Arnott in his second tour of duty with the Devils found the net on the power play just past the midway point of the game. Shortly thereafter, the Stars tied it up again when Brad Richards put the biscuit in the basket. The score remained that way until it was time for a five minute sudden death overtime. The Devils did put alot of pressure on in the third period but they couldn't score. In the end, Loui Eriksson won the game for the Stars when he got his second tally of the night just 1 minute and 36 seconds into overtime.

The Devils lost, 4-3!

It was an exciting game start to finish. Unfortunately for the Devils they started fast and fizzled in the end. Thanks to the modern rules of today's NHL, they were still awarded a point for getting the game into overtime. I don't agree with rewarding a team for losing but I don't have a say in the matter.

At least for their fans, hockey's back!

Thank you for reading.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman