Pre-Season Kicks Off!
The NHL Pre-Season for 2006-2007 has officially kicked off! The New Jersey Devils defeated the Boston Bruins 5-0 this afternoon to get things rolling.
While pre-season games are a poor indicator of the level of success teams can be expected to have during the regular season (in this game Boston did not play Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard or Phil Kessel, just for one point) it is always interesting to see who gets off to the right start (also, the last five Stanley Cup Championship teams had better than .500 records in preseason play the years they won).
Hannu Toivonen yielded 4 goals on the first 26 shots he faced (0.846 save percentage). Ha! I told you Boston’s goaltending would have difficulties this season.
The Devils scored four goals on 11 power play chances (36%). Tough luck if you were hoping for a decrease in penalties called this year.
Three other games tonight. Here we go!