Late night open thread

Hockey Inc. takes no prisoners. The Devils learned this creed up close and personal like at The Rock tonight. The Red Wings scored two goals inside of two minutes to begin the game and were never really headed after that. Martin Brodeur was absolutely brutal on the second and questionable on the first. If your hall of fame netminder can't hold the fort while the team somehow tries to apply the tourniquet it may be time to call it a season and free up some cap space and acquire picks and young talent at the trading deadline. That's IF the many many Devils with no trade clauses (and we don't mean Santa), will accept a trade. The way Mark Fayne and Henrik Tallinder played Henrik Zetterberg as he fed Pavel Datsyuk on Detroit's 4th goal would indicate they both had a big bowl of Inept Defensive-O's for breakfast.

Danny Cleary has really stepped up for the Red Wings this season. He scored the Wings second goal, his 11th of this season. He's helping take some pressure off of a slow start by Johan Franzen. Chris Osgood was solid in net for Detroit, making key timely saves in the first period his counterpart was unable to make. The win was number 399 for Osgood.

It becomes more apparent with each passing game that Datsyuk and Zetterberg are the best tandem in the NHL. They play in every situation, they're not only Detroit's best offensive weapons but they're the top defensive forwards as well. Datsyuk has multiple Selke trophies as best defensive forward, leads the NHL in steals by an almost superhuman margin while Zetterberg has also been nominated for the Selke and got himself a shiny Conn Smythe trophy in 2008 for checking Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin into the ice. In game 4 of the 2008 Final Devils announcer Doc Emerick said Zetterberg had a 3 on 5 shift for the ages while Detroit killed a two man disadvantage.

Speaking of Doc Emerick, Johnny had the extreme privilege of meeting Mr. Emerick in between the second and third periods. Johnny was on the aisle in section 18 and Doc was a couple rows down having a discussion with what looked to be friends. As he walked by Johnny gave the glad hand to Doc and congratulated him on his well deserved induction into the hockey hall of fame last year. He looked at the Red Wings sweater adorning Johnny and said "Your team is playing VERY well tonight". "So far so good," was Johnny's reply, "we had an interesting third period last night vs. Montreal so anything is possible". Doc cracked a knowing smile at the "so far so good" comment. "So far happens A LOT with them".

How true Mr. Emerick, how true.

Now the pictures

Time for Jersey City, After Dark