Snowman On Fire

Nice day for Devils hockey fans.

Our little Devils wound up their season with a 6-1 win, with six different players putting the puck in the net. What they worked on all year — passing, skating, controlling the flow, taking away passing lanes, clearing rebounds — all came together. Great way to enter the last two weeks of skating before we’re off to Lake Placid for the year-end tournament.

The big Devils had the (practice) ice before us. No Elias — still hurting. Not good. Langdon and Krisjanis Redlihs got an extra skating session in after the rest of the team was in the showers. Both were scratches tonight, but it was the first time Redlihs was on the Devils’ roster (he was called up from Albany). With Matvichuk hurting, maybe we’ll see the Riga rook soon (he’s Latvian, not Swedish).

Highlight of the morning skate: the players all stopped to sign autographs on their way off of the ice. Marty must have signed a dozen, and Zach Parise autographed a wide variety of sticks, hats, and one person’s year-old copy of USA Hockey magazine with Parise’s 20-year old mug gracing the cover (that would have been me). David Hale got some major props from the Mite squads waiting for him.

Both Hale and Parise had assists tonight as the Devils knocked down the blueshirts, 2-1. You can be nice and good at the same time.

But highlight of the highlight was Jason Ryznar. Despite the fact that he was sweating like a marathon runner in July, and that half of the kids gave the cocked-head “Who are you?” at his Hancock, he was good-natured, stopped to talk to the adults and the kids, and gave an honest answer when I asked him “What’s the best thing you can do in Albany?”. “Sleeping” was Ryznar’s reply.

Fair enough. For Parise, Ryznar, Hale and Redlihs, I’d have wagered on “leaving” as the best part of Albany, but that would be a complete and total ken a hora. I’m glad to see the four of them skating around on our rink.