Season of Joy
It’s a fall Saturday afternoon and I’m typing rather than lugging a telephoto lens up and down the sideline of a football field. High school football season has ended for our Montclair Kimberley Academy Cougars, after a semi-final playoff loss last night. To balance the feeling that last night was the last time some of [...]
NJYHL Playoffs
As Disney fave Rafiki says, “It is time.” NJYHL playoffs start in about 30 minutes for the Bantams, continuing into tomorrow morning for first-round “A” games and tomorrow afternoon for the medal round games at the “B” level. 10 months ago, we picked a team based on tryouts, coach’s evaluations of the players, and what [...]
Reading Your Own Headlines
Last weekend our youth hockey team had a 4-0 lead and then stopped playing midway through the game. Our opponents out-played us, 2-0, down the stretch, leaving us with a 4-2 win but one that we honestly didn’t earn with a solid effort. Watching the Devils game last night, I could only think of what [...]
Great Season
It’s over. Just like that, on a Sunday evening that feels more like October than May, the Devils are done for the season. No heads hanging down here, though, because it was a great season. Who knew Marty would win 43 games and lead the NHL in wins? Who knew Patrik Elias would recover from [...]
Devils Over-Rotation
It has been classic over-rotation in the hockey media: Coverage of the Devils sweep of the Rangers, of Elias’ comeback from his battle with Hep A, of the team winning 15 games in a row. Patty and Klee are on the cover of the current issue of The Hockey News in a game-winning embrace. How [...]
Brooms on Broadway
There are brooms on Broadway tonight and it’s not for a ticker tape parade in honor of the Rangers. The $10 bet I placed for a certain friend (sorry, Big D) was good money after bad hockey. Never been so happy to lose a Hamilton. Devils 4, Rangers 2. Devils win the series 4-0, and [...]
Flying and Foofing
Phonetic phun with Dion Phaneuf is the latest phad in hockey coverage. The big Calgary rookie has turned heads — both sportswriters and some unprepared opposing wingers who were on the wrong end of a phreakin’ hit. Last night, though, Phaneuf was a playoff rookie, and it showed. Certainly his goal late in the 3rd [...]
Another Manic Monday
As has been the case for the past few weeks, I’m on the way to California. Cranking up the Audioslave – Out of Exile on the tune machine, and reading email in the airport lounge, I spot today’s Star Ledger with our dear Patrik on the banner, his second front-page appearance in less than two [...]
Picture Perfect Ending
What an end to the Devils’ regular season. After being 19 points behind the Rangers, they win the Atlantic Division title in the last game of the year, in the 3rd period, coming back from a 3-goal deficit. The Rangers lost, the Flyers didn’t matter, and the Devils are given their due: their 6th division [...]
Playoff Dreams
All of the sudden, the Devils are playing like a team possessed by the, uh, Devil. Or at least by Lou Lamoriello. Nice win over Buffalo, big win in Ottawa and today they took care of Philly in the City of Brotherly Battery-Filled Snowballs. First time the Devils have won in that building since my [...]