Schwei's Devils Notebook: Little-Known Facts, Odd Stats And Strange Records
By John Schweibacher
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The New Jersey Devils opened the season with two road wins for the first time in team history, starting with a 6-4 victory at Philadelphia last Thursday and beating the Panthers 5-1 in Florida on Saturday.
It was only the second time in franchise history that the Devils scored at least five goals in each of their first two games. The previous time New Jersey opened a season like this was back in 1986-87; a 5-3 win opening-night against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, followed by a 5-4 victory against the Bruins at the Meadowlands.
The 11 goals matched the team's most through its first two games set back in 1991-92, when the Devils beat the Blues, 7-2, in New Jersey and the Blackhawks, 4-2, at Chicago.
Damon Severson scored his first career NHL goal at 19:32 of the first period in Florida Saturday night, after he notched the first point of his career earlier in the period with an assist on Mike Cammalleri's power play goal.
Severson, who turned 20 this past August, was the fifth-youngest defenseman at the time of his first New Jersey Devils goal:
· Craig Wolanin 18 years, 4 months, 14 days. (vs. Minnesota/Jon Casey).
· Adam Larsson 18 years, 11 months, 30 days. (vs. Washington Tomas Vokoun).
· Scott Niedermayer 19 years, 68 days (at San Jose/Brian Hayward).
· Ken Daneyko 19 years, 6 months, 13 days (vs. Pittsburgh/Michel Dion).
· Damon Severson 20 years, 65 days (vs. Fla/Roberto Luongo).
Michael Ryder scored a goal and had two assists in the Devils' 6-4 season-opening night win in Philadelphia. Ryder played in all 82 games for the Devils last season but never scored more than two points in one game, doing that just twice; December 4 vs. Montreal and December 31 vs Pittsburgh.
Ryder was the first New Jersey player to score three points in the team's first game of a season since Brian Gionta did so in consecutive seasons: 2005-06 (vs. Pittsburgh) and 2006-07 (at Carolina).
Ryder joined four other Devils in club history who had three point games against the Flyers in a season opener for New Jersey:
· 10/10/1985 Greg Adams (0 goals 5 Assists).
· 10/10/1985 Paul Gagne (3 Goals 0 Assists).
· 10/5/1989 Sylvain Turgeon (3 Goals 0 Assists).
· 10/5/1989 Kirk Muller (0 Goals 3 Assists).
· 10/9/2014 Michael Ryder (1 Goal 2 Assists).
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, on opening night Mike Cammalleri became just the sixth player in club history to score two goals in his first game as a Devil, joining: Gary McAdam (11/2/83), Sylvain Turgeon (three goals, 10/5/89), Claude Lemieux (10/4/90), Stephane Richer (10/5/91) and Mike Rupp (1/13/03).
Elias also notes that Cory Schneider became the first Devils' goaltender other than Martin Brodeur to win a season-opener since Chris Terreri on October 6, 1993 vs. Tampa Bay and the first to do so on the road since Alain Chevrier on October 9, 1986 at the New York Rangers.
Martin Havlat scored his first goal for New Jersey in the 5-1 win Saturday in Florida after picking up the secondary assist on Patrik Elias' goal for his first point as a Devil on opening night in Philadelphia.
Jaromir Jagr, who had two assists on opening night, and Elias are the two highest-scoring players from the Czech Republic in NHL history, while Havlat ranks third among active players and 15th all-time.
According to the stats page on NHL.com, Havlat became the 15th Devils player from the Czech Republic to register a regular-season point for the club:
· Patrik Elias 394 goals, 591 assists, 985 points
· Bobby Holik 202 goals, 270 assists, 472 points
· Petr Sykora 166 goals, 228 assists, 394 points
· Jan Ludvig 53 goals, 79 assists, 132 points
· Marek Zidlicky 18 goals, 54 assists, 72 points
· Jaromir Jagr 24 goals, 45 assists, 69 points
· Jaroslav Modry 2 goals, 15 assists, 17 points
· Karel Rachunek 4 goals, 9 assists, 13 points
· Jan Hrdina 1 goal, 6 assists, 7 points
· Martin Skoula 0 goals, 3 assists, 3 points
· Richard Smehlik 0 goals, 2 assists, 2 points
· Rostislav Olesz 0 goals, 2 assists, 2 points
· Martin Havlat 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 points
· Petr Vrana 1 goal, 0 assists, 0 points
· Vlastimil Kroupa 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point
Schwei's Plus/Minus:
Plus: Mike Cammalleri. Devils free agent acquisition now has 16 goals and 11 assists for 27 points in his last 22 games dating back to March 3.
Minus: Healthy but Unhappy. After strong showing in training camp, Adam Larsson sat out New Jersey's first two games as healthy scratch.
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