Martin Brodeur (70 Games) 38-16-15-1, 2.07, .919, 7 SO
Patrik Elias (47 Games) 14-36-50, +18
Sergei Brylin (48 Games) 8-9-17, -8
Brian Gionta (26 Games) 11-7-18, +8

Henrik Lundqvist (11 Games) 6-2-0, 1.60, .938, 1 SO
Jaromir Jagr (56 Games) 27-51-78, +18
Brendan Shanahan (30 Games) 10-8-18, -14
Chris Drury (20 Games) 5-6-11, -2

Injuries …

Devils: Out: Colin White (Eye), Cam Janssen (Shoulder), Jaime Langenbrunner (Hernia); Questionable: Karel Rachunek (Groin)

Rangers: Out: Ryan Callahan (Knee), Martin Straka (Finger); Questionable: Marek Malik (Back); Probable: Sean Avery (Shoulder)

Game Story: Neither team is off to the start they envisioned, but both have reason to be excited for two decidedly different reasons: one is playing perfect positional hockey and one is scoring a lot more.  If you think you know who is who, you are wrong.

The New York Rangers bring their - dare we say, TRAP! - and the virtually unbeatable Henrik Lundqvist (5-6-1, 1.67, .937) that has the Rangers dead last in goals scored and first in goals allowed while the Devils GFA continues to move up, scoring nine goals in the past two games.  It is quite an interesting switch, especially with Martin Brodeur looking merely very good over the team’s first eleven games.

Players to Watch: Lundqvist had another fine outing on Thursday, shutting out the Capitals.  If not for a Vincent Lecavalier penalty shot goal on Monday, Lundqvist would be working on a 120:16 shutout streak. The Rangers are simply not scoring, but the Swede has single-handedly won more than half of the team’s games.  For the Devils, it is once again time to watch Jay Pandolfo and John Madden … but, again, not for the same reason as normal.  Instead of being locked on the opposing team’s top scorers, they ARE the top-scorers with six goals a piece.  Even better, whoever gets to ride shotgun on the right with them also starts scoring.

New Jersey Wins if … Pandolfo and Madden keep up their offensive wizardry?  Wow.  They don’t get much recognition because of their perceived styles, but the two of them have been the most steady offensive forces in hockey this season outside of Ottawa’s #1 line.  Even with this determined Rangers defense, this team cannot defend three scoring lines, which is what the Devils have when these two are skating wild.

New York Wins If … Lundqvist and the defense continue to play at this level.  Yes, the Devils technically have three scoring lines, but that is based on potential.  Patrik Elias, Dainius Zubrus, and Brian Gionta are considered scorers, but they aren’t doing much of it lately.  The Rangers also will get back Sean Avery and perhaps he is the kick the Rangers stagnant offense needs.

How It Will Play Out: Against all odds, it will be a shootout with the each team’s entire roster figuring on the scoresheet, but Martin Brodeur will finally play like the Marty of old in the third period.  Jaromir Jagr will continue to terrorize the Devils but Patrik Elias begins his coming-out party tonight.

The Skinny: Winnipeg-native Nigel Dawes scored the early and late goals and Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 21 shots he faced as the Rangers ended a four-game losing streak and, most importantly, scored a goal. Scott Gomez and Karel Rachunek made their debuts against their former team, but both were ineffective throughout. The Devils were outshot 31-22.

Goal Scorers
Devils: None
Rangers: Nigel Dawes (1,2)

Goaltenders
Devils: Martin Brodeur (L, 2-5-0) 29-of-31
Rangers: Henrik Lundqvist (W, 3-5-1) 22-of-22

Stars of the Game: Dawes, Lundqvist, Brodeur

Analysis: New Jersey doesn’t have anywhere near the talent in place to consistently win games, so it has to hustle for a full sixty minutes. They did, and it gave their opponent a tough, physical challenge. They still lost 2-0 to a Rangers team that, quite honestly, is playing terrible hockey.

The entire offense struggled to string together chances and the defense, while not bad by any stretch, once again did nothing to tilt the ice in their favor. Half the defensemen (Martin, Greene, Oduya) won’t shoot and the others that will (Vishnevski, Rachunek) do not hit the net. It is not a good day when five-game veteran Sheldon Brookbank is the most active player on the blueline.

The passing game is still a tremendous issue. Who exactly did Karel Rachunek think was open on the play the resulted in Dawes’ first goal? For that matter, who called a wholesale line change in the defensive zone? In fact, the Devils were caught with their pants down at least four times on line changes, a sign of a tense team not paying attention to the little things that win hockey games.

The good news is that the unprecedented nine-game road trip is over with the Devils securing 7 of 18 points. That is not horrible, especially without the team’s best defenseman (Colin White) and Jaime Langenbrunner. However, they’ve allowed 3.3 goals per game over the nine games. That isn’t an insurmountable number if the offense is clicking. They’ve been shut out three times and if you take away the eleven goals scored against Atlanta and Pittsburgh, the team’s GFA is 1.3.

Martin Brodeur is going to need to carry this team until Brent Sutter can figure out who else, besides Madden and Pandolfo, wants to contribute offensively. With the home opener against Ottawa coming up, the offense is going to have to quickly find something it can do reasonably well.

Completely fed up with EA Sports extremely lackadaisical approach to providing gamers with updated rosters, I redid my previous effort. The past four days have been total hell on the eyes and rendered all other life tasks impossible. :) The original was posted on DigitalSportsMania and included only a handful of created players and nominal roster changes.

These don’t. These are as official as it gets. Here is what this roster update includes:

- Rosters updated (with 99% accuracy) as of Saturday, October 20th.

- Approximately 100 created players. Their attributes were decided mainly using McKeen’s Hockey, Red Line Report, TSN, the Hockey Forecaster, and Hockeydb.com. Other information was found through the always helpful Google.

- Corrected salaries, up to about 75% accuracy. This is a tedious task, so this will become further accurate in future updates.

Other things to know:

- Some players remained on their teams despite being sent packing to an ECHL team. I’d rather have them on an AHL team than in the FA pool.

- This will be updated semi-weekly here at On Fire.

- The potential rating was a very useful tool. I basically judged a player’s potential by where they were drafted or their overseas experience (combined with age). This is important to know before asking me why Josef Boumedienne got a fairly decent rating; his rating won’t be improving anytime soon.

- Also remember that if you do not like a rating, feel free to edit it yourself.

Things to come

- Retired players will be “zero’ed” out. In other words, they will be given the worst possible rating and highest possible salary to prevent any CPU acquisitions in Franchise mode. I didn’t do it now just in case people want to keep those players in the game.

- Massive player re-ratings. Some of these guys are rated horribly. Rico Fata is an example. Yeah, he can fly, but that is about all. In this game, speed can get you a lot of chances, so we have to tone him down in the other categories.

In any case, enjoy. I am sorry 360 owners, I don’t have one, so I cannot help you.

List of 145 Created Players

Download Rosters

—-

How to Get These on your PS3

1. Download the compressed file.
2. Open it up.
3. Extract it to whatever drive/folder that you like. Desktop is easiest since you can just delete it afterwards.
4. Be sure to unzip it while keeping the folder structure intact: PS3/SAVEDATA/…(roster file). If you don’t have those two folders, the PS3 will not recognize the file.
5. Copy them to any USB device you have; a flash drive, a mp3 player, whatever.
6. In the main PS3 menu, scroll right to “Game, move up to “Saved Data Utilty” and then “USB Device”.
7. Locate the NHL Rosters file and press triangle to copy it over to your PS3’s hard drive.

The Skinny:  In what was never going to be confused as a defensive slugfest, the two teams combined for nine goals, 65 shots, and five straight power play goals.  Two of the consecutive tallies came from Travis Zajac while the grinders - Jay Pandolfo, John Madden, and Aaron Asham - accounted for the other three goals.  The Penguins weren’t as creative; their goals came from the players designed to score them: Gary Roberts, Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin, and - the sudden offensive juggernaut - Maxime Talbot.  Both Martin Brodeur and Marc-Andre Fluery made some big saves despite allowing nine goals.

Goal Scorers
Devils: Jay Pandolfo (2), John Madden (4), Travis Zajac (2,3), Aaron Asham (2)
Penguins: Maxime Talbot (4), Gary Roberts (1), Sergei Gonchar (1), Evgeni Malkin (2)

Goaltenders
Devils: Martin Brodeur (W, 2-3-0) 26-of-30
Penguins: Marc-Andre Fleury (L, 2-3-0) 30-of-35

Stars of the Game: Zajac, Gonchar, Zach Parise

Analysis: Forthcoming…

Career Top Performers vs.

Martin Brodeur (56 Games) 30-19-4-0, 2.64, .889, 5 SO
Patrik Elias (47 Games) 14-27-41 +14
Sergei Brylin (46 Games) 9-18-27, +16
Brian Gionta (24 Games) 11-8-19, +5

Marc-Andre Fleury Games) 4-8-0-2, 2.88, .910
Mark Recchi (87 Games) 33-38-71, -9
Sergei Gonchar (58 Games) 8-20-28, +5
Signey Crosby (16 Games) 8-10-18, +5

Injuries …

Devils: Out: Colin White (Eye), Cam Janssen (Shoulder), Jaime Langenbrunner (Hernia); Questionable: Nicklas Bergfors (Shoulder)

Penguins: Doubtful: Brooks Orpik (Concussion); Questionable: Georges Laraque (Groin); Probably: Dany Sabourin (Head Laceration)

Game Story: A pair of two-win teams, with entirely different reasons for their lackluster start, meet up for the first Atlantic Division battle of the Devils’ season. The game has the interesting juxtaposition of a coach (Sutter) looking to continue the rebuilding/retooling (choose your preferred word) of a Devils team that no longer traps at all against a team that is supposed to be on the happier end of the rebuilding process. Both teams’ best offensive players - Sidney Crosby and Patrik Elias - had breakout performances in their last game. Their goalies? That’s been another story.

Players to Watch: Martin Brodeur and Marc-Andre Fluery. As stated above, these two have been kidnapped and replaced with mediocre goaltenders. To be fair, they haven’t been awful - each are playing behind defenses that have started quite poorly - but neither Martin or Marc-Andre have come up with a game-stealing performance. That’s what they get paid the big bucks for.

New Jersey Wins if … they keep scoring. Of course, 10 of their 13 goals have come against Florida and Atlanta but this offense looks like it is one skate blade away from blowing up under Brent Sutter. Patrik Elias is shooting the puck and being creative, a chew-gum-and-walk kinda proposition for him since last season, and John Madden is having fun since being freed from his defense-only responsibilities. None of that matters, though if Brodeur doesn’t stop 95% of the pucks coming at him as they’ll only lose 7-6.

Pittsburgh Wins If … they keep the Devils busy chasing them and not allowing the Devils to dictate the pace. This Pittsburgh offense is perfect for New Jersey’s defense. The Devils seemingly can’t stop anyone once they get moving in the offensive zone and they’ll be plenty of opportunities created with Crosby and Malkin showing how dominant they can be down low. Of course, the Penguins are absolutely awful in their own end, too, but the if they can’t get there, the Devils won’t be able to exploit it.

How It Will Play Out: Sidney Crosby and his friends will run wild over the Devils. However, Brodeur will pull enough saves out of his rear to keep New Jersey in it late when one of the more active, non-scoring lines (re: any line with Asham on it) scores twice off some tough work cycling the puck.

Offbeat Stats

- The Devils are 23-7 in their last 30 after allowing 5 goals or more in their previous game while the Penguins are 6-2 under the same circumstance.

- The Devils dominate Wednesday contests, going 73-32-7 in their last 112 Wednesday games while Pittsburgh won only 17 of their last 67 Hump Day games.

- Likewise, the Devils have a huge advantage when on three days of rest. New Jersey is 59-28-6 in their last 93 games playing on three or more days rest; the Penguins are 12-39-7 in their last 58 games.

Nick, who has scored three goals in four games for Erie since returning Devils camp (2 Games, 0-0-0, -1), will miss at least a month after being diagnosed with mononucleosis. Infection aside, Palmieri’s stay with the Devils did an awful lot for his confidence. McKeen’s Hockey reports that Palmieri “is the type of player that will help the Otters, as he commands respect and has a good skill set.” Looking at box scores, it appears Nick is playing on the right of center Justin Hodgman and LW Jordan Skellett.

Tyler Eckford (University of Alaska-Fairbanks, NCAA)

The offensively-gifted Eckford scored twice, including the game-winning goal, in a preseason tilt against the Southern Alberta Tech. After finishing eighth amongst CCHA defenseman as a sophomore, Eckford appears poised to blow up this season.

Mike Hoeffel, Jeff Frazee (University of Minnesota, NCAA)

Brian Deutsch of the Minnesota Daily reports on CSTV.com that Mike Hoeffel might have a big impact on the Gophers as a freshman. Deutsch also reports that Frazee is unquestionably the starter in net going into the season.

Matt Halischuk (Kitchener, OHL)

The 2007 fourth-round pick picked up four assists in a 5-3 win over Guelph. He then followed that up with a two assist effort in a loss to Ottawa. On the season, Matt is 3-11-14 in six games.

Nathan Perkovich (Lake Superior State, NCAA)

Last season’s leading goal-scorer for LSSU scored the game-tying goal for the Soo in their opening contest.

T.J. Miller (Northern Michigan, NCAA)

The sophomore captain scored the game-winning goal for the Wildcats as his shot from between the circles at 3:43 of the third found the net in a 3-2 win against Michigan Tech.

The Skinny: Rostislav Olesz, Olli Jokinen, and Nathan Horton each scored while Tomas Vokoun earned his first win as a Panther - and the Panthers first win of 07-08 - with a 3-0 drubbing of the 1-3 New Jersey Devils. Martin Brodeur played well enough despite allowing three goals and is now 0-3-0 for the first time in his career.

Goal Scorers
Devils: None
Senators: Rostislav Olesz (1), Olli Jokinen (1), and Nathan Horton (2)

Goaltenders
Devils: Martin Brodeur (L, 0-3-0) 28-of-31
Senators: Tomas Vokoun (W, 1-2-0) 29-of-29

Stars of the Game: Vokoun, Corey Murphy, Jokinen

Analysis: When the game-winning goal comes at 14:48 of the first, there really doesn’t need to be much of a recap. The Devils played one of the most listless games that can be played. Whoever told Jaime Langenbrunner to rest his injured hernia should have their medical insurance premiums tripled. No matter which three players (of the five more offensive players) are played together, this team has one offensive line and it is not clicking.

Then, there was the officiating. However, instead of harping on the officials themselves, it is time to make an “official” announcement: the NHL has become a mockery. Virtually every penalty called in this game - with the goalie interference on David Clarkson being the most ridiculous - was embarrassing. It was likely called by the book, which is worse. A missed call or a bad judgment by a referee is understandable; it happens. Excluding the Clarkson call, these weren’t judgment calls, they were made correctly … sadly.

A loss like the one to a terrible Florida team could send the Devils into the tank for a few games, but with five more road games against increasingly tough competition, the team has to find a way to forget this clunker as soon as possible. They got destroyed down low, a sign of a tired team, and gave Brodeur virtually no help. Tomas Vokoun is not an NHL-caliber starter and the Devils got shutout by him, putting 29 feeble shots on net.

Silver lining? This is a rather absurd stretch of games for the Devils to be playing. Even the best teams in the league would have trouble with this nine-game road trip. Patrik Elias showed remarkable improvement. He was only credited with four shots, but even on the ones he missed on, there was no thinking … he just shot the puck. Mike Mottau had himself another very good game, much to the dismay of those who are quick to blame him for the 1-3 start.

The rest of the cloud is dark.  Real dark.  Brian Gionta is invisible.  If your name isn’t David Clarkson or Zach Parise, you are a New Jersey Devils playing like this is the ECHL and you can just mail it in.

The Skinny: Chris Kelly and Dany Heatley scored in the first-period as the Senators rattled off 17 shots in the opening twenty minutes. The Devils would play much better over the next forty minutes, but a hooking penalty on the suddenly penalty-happy Jay Pandolfo, led to Wade Redden game-winner at 5:33 of the third. Zach Parise would score soon thereafter to bring the game within one again, but Devils had a hard time generating any sustained pressure despite outskating the Senators for the duration of the game.

Goal Scorers
Devils: Arron Asham (1), Zach Parise (1)
Senators: Chris Kelly (1), Dany Heatley (4), Wade Redden (1), Daniel Alfredsson (5)

Goaltenders
Devils: Martin Brodeur (L, 0-2-0) 33-of-36
Senators: Martin Gerber (W, 3-0-0) 27-of-29

Stars of the Game: Alfredsson, Antoine Vermette, Parise

Analysis: It was almost like a win! God help the NHL if Patrik Elias ever decided to, like, play hockey or something because this team is looking real good under Brent Sutter. At the very least, they look as great as a .333 team can look. There were no major breakdowns, Mike Mottau and Johnny Oduya were outstanding and Sutter rewarded them with extra ice-time. As for Elias, he looked like an entirely different player with Travis Zajac centering him, but he still will not shoot the puck.

All together, even with the loss, there were positive signs for the Devils. The defense was again better after being torched by Tampa Bay a few nights ago, and despite Ottawa holding on to the puck seemingly for sixty minutes, New Jersey still scored twice and got a good bunch of quality chances on net. Martin Brodeur was solid enough, but he looked silly on Ottawa’s third goal when Redden’s offspeed chance had Brodeur doing a poor imitation of Dominik Hasek. Basically, the team should know it can hang with the better teams, now it needs to roll over Florida, and Atlanta before dealing with some tough road, division games.

Tampa Bay 3 New Jersey 1

The Skinny: Kevin Weekes stopped 32 Panther shots, John Madden scored twice and the defensemen added two goals as the Devils won their first game of the season for their rookie Head Coach Brent Sutter. New Jersey went 2-for-3 on the power play, killed off five-of-six Panther advantages, and showed better conditioning after chasing around Florida forwards for the first twenty minutes.

Goal Scorers
Devils: John Madden (1, 2), Andy Greene (1), Mike Mottau (1)
Panthers: Cory Murphy (1)

Goaltenders
Devils: Kevin Weekes (W 1-0) 32-of-33
Panthers: Tomas Vokoun (L 0-2) 20-of-24

Stars of the Game: Weekes, Madden, Murphy

Analysis: Devils fans can exhale and take a break before the upcoming game in Ottawa. Florida is not a playoff team and it may be early, but the losses and injuries New Jersey suffered looked like it might be more than Sutter could handle. The Panthers dominated the first period, outshooting the Devils 21-9, but only secured a 1-1 tie.
Kevin Weekes had a great deal to do with that. He was absolutely sensational in his first start with New Jersey. After Johnny Oduya was penalized for holding at 9:01 of the first, Weekes went absolutely wild, making two fantastic saves on Olli Jokinen. He preceded this by stoning the excitable Nathan Horton twice as well. Then, the Devils took over.

John Madden scored his second of the game - and eventual game-winner - on a lucky play that does not happen if (guess who?) David Clarkson doesn’t hustle to pressure Vokoun behind the net on the advantage. Aggressive play led to the Devils third goal as Andy Greene made a sensational play at the blue to keep the puck in and then immediately joined the rush. To any Devils fan stuck watching last season’s offensive abomination, this play alone was enough to excite them.

Every single goal the Devils scored was the end result of tenacious skating and hard work. The opening goal was off of a turnover (remember those?); the Madden and Mottau goals were all Clarkson’s doing, and the Greene goal, as mentioned, was the work of a defenseman playing smart, yet aggressive.

New Jersey almost played a perfect game short of allowing way too many shots on the power play, something that all 30 NHL teams could probably work on. The game probably wasn’t as physical as Sutter would hope, but there probably wasn’t a need for it. Elias was also invisible yet again. However, as a team, they passed as crisply as they have in years, all four lines were active, and Weekes showed last season’s clunker of a season was an aberration … for at least one game.

Moreover, they didn’t simply hand the puck over as the team has been apt to do. Of course, even if they did, Florida doesn’t boast a line with the potency of Tampa Bay or Ottawa. If they take penalties and then kill them as they did tonight, Ottawa will score five times.

Game Time: 7:30 PM (FSN2)

Career Top Performers vs.

Martin Brodeur (47 Games) 30-10-7-0, 1.96, .919, 5 SO
Patrik Elias (34 Games) 17-15-32, +4
Dainius Zubrus (50 Games) 14-15-29, +6
Jay Pandolfo (29 Games) 4-9-13, +8

Tomas Vokoun (6 Games) 3-1-0-1, 2.63, .919
Josef Stumpel (36 Games) 8-17-25, +8
Radek Dvorak (35 Games) 4-11-15, -2
Olli Jokinen (30 Games) 7-4-11, -9

Injuries …

Devils: Out: Colin White (Eye), Cam Janssen (Shoulder), Jaime Langenbrunner (Hernia); Questionable: Kevin Weekes (Concussion)

Panthers: Out: Richard Zednik (Shoulder), Steve Montador (Back)

Game Story: Neither team is particularly happy with their opener, the Devils falling in Tampa Bay and the Panthers losing to the Rangers.  The Devils will look to avoid their second straight loss to a Florida team after losing 3-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum, and will look to give new head coach Brent Sutter his first win. Florida was played the Rangers quite well, but got struck by lightning of their own when Petr Prucha, Ryan Callahan, and Chris Drury scored goals in a 2:51 span.

Players to Watch: There was absolutely nothing to like about Patrik Elias’ play on Thursday.  Dainius Zubrus played well, but Elias still looked lost.  Johnny Oduya and Mike Mottau were not as terrible as a lot of people would like to believe, but they still cannot be paired together.  Florida is an interesting team with only four of their starting 12 forwards having been born before 1980.  Nathan Horton is probably the player most Devils fans wished were in Newark.  His likeness to Gary Roberts is uncanny.

New Jersey Wins if … they don’t allow this team to suddenly start scoring goals.  The good news is that Florida has nothing near an NHL-quality top line, seemingly the only thing that the Devils team cannot handle.  Olli Jokinen is a fine #1 pivot, but he doesn’t have the supporting cast to dominate a game.  Having Oduya and Mottau see less than 10 minutes of ice time as a pair will also go a long way.

Tampa Bay Wins If … they don’t ignore how pourous the Devils defense is.  Of course, Martin Brodeur is still in net, but - excluding Boston - New Jersey has the worst defense in the NHL.  Meanwhile, Florida has one of the better groups.  They did a great job against a stacked Rangers team if you eliminate the three-goal burst that was more the fault of the forwards and Tomas Vokoun than anyone.  On that note, Tomas Vokoun needs to find his Nashville form from two years ago.

Offbeat Stats

- The Devils are 9-4 in their last 13 games playing on 1 days rest while Florida is only 1-4 under the same conditions.

- Saturday and the Panthers don’t mix as Florida has won only 33 of their last 120 Saturday games.

- The Devils are 15-3-1 in their last 19 trips to Miami and 29-6-3 in their last 38 games versus Florida.