DING DING DING! Round 1 of Devils vs. Rangers about to begin.

No Sean Avery tonight, and a more cuddly, controlled verson of Andrew Peters to make an apperance tonight, so the fisticuffs may wait until later in the season, but the action is moving fast and furious from the opening whistle.

The Devils score less than two minutes in, when Jay Pandolfo controlled the puck off the boards and found Rob Niedermeyer in the right faceoff circle, and Niedermeyer one-timed it into the upper right corner of the net.

The Rangers took a timeout after the Devils earned another shot on goal, and immediately took a 2 minute interference penalty. The Devils look like a completely different team than Saturday’s version, and we’re only 2 minutes in.

The Rangers kill the penalty, but the momentum is still with the Devils. And our first look at Pikkarainen, the Devils biggest offseason acquisition, is in the penalty box. 2 min for hooking. Awesome. Brodeur makes a save on his right side to start the PK.

Michael Del Zotto, one of the youngins playing for the Rangers this season, scored on a wide open rebound from the left side of the ice off of a shot by Vinny Prospal.  First power play goal given up by the Devils this season, and second goal of the season for Del Zotto. FANTASY HOCKEY TIP: Pick up Del Zotto. Now. On an offensively-challenged squad, he may be the scoring leader sooner rather than later.

Devils kill a second penalty very aggressively, and in turn create a penalty on the Rangers. Time to see if the Devils power play is less anemic than its’ Saturday version. With one shot on goal in the fifrst 20 seconds, the answer is yes.

Just as I was telling my colleague Denis Gorman that I didn’t like the Devils new power play set up, with both Zajac and Clarkson crashing the net, Clarkson gets a pass from Parise down low, and makes a sweet backhand, no-look pass to Zajac on the right side of the net. Zajac threw the puck into the upper right hand corner of the net to regain the Devils’ lead.

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It’s a good thing that Martin Brodeur is in net tonight. The Devils aren’t necessarily doing the best job of keeping the shots away from Brodeur, or staying out of the penalty box.

The Flyers struck first tonight on their second power play. The penalty came on boarding by Peters, and after a less-than-terrific fight between Matt Fraser and Dan Carcillo (DOWN goes Fraser!), Matt Carle was in the slot to fire a one-timer off a Danny Briere pass from the left faceoff circle that went top shelf on Brodeur.

Tonight’s lines for the Devils: Zajac-Parise-Langenbrunner, Pelley-Rolston-Clarkson, Bergfors-Sesitito-Halischuk, Pandolfo-Zharkov-Peters.

Kevin Harvick of NASCAR fame is here, a few days before the Chase Race in Dover. This has sparked conversation in the pressbox about the Flemington dirt race track (that is now a Wal-Mart) and other local New Jersey race tracks either operational or defunct. I really enjoy listening to my fellow writers talk about what New Jersey life was liek before I got here.

Ray Emery has done a good job in net for the Flyers. He just stopped a great chance by Langenbrunner as the Devils take over the shots-on-goal lead with a minute left in the first.

End of 1: Flyers 1, Devils 0. Shots on goal: Flyers 8, Devils 7

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