Continental Airlines Arena - New Jersey Devils

Trip Notes: Took a Friday night Jet Blue red eye flight into JFK. Went strait to my hotel, after I arrived sometime after 5am on Saturday. The hotel was within walking distance to most everything in upper Manhattan. Walked to Penn Station, about a mile, to hop on a bus to go to the Continental Airlines Center (New Jersey Devils) for an afternoon game. Later that night, I took a stroll around upper Manhattan visiting the area around Rockefeller Center, Radio City, and the theatre district. It was a fairly warm evening so the Rockefeller ice rink was a bit slushy from what I could tell. I didn’t have my skates so I didn’t have a chance to skate. Lots of people were out and about so I didn’t feel the least bit worried about walking around the city by myself. Next came a night out on the town. Met up with a friend for a few beers. I can’t remember the names of the bars, but I do remember having an amazing time. Had one too many Guinness’. We ended up closing down the bars. Definitely a fun city! Sunday evening I went to an early game at Madison Square Gardens (New York Rangers). It’s right next to Penn Station so it was close to the same walk that I made yesterday. Monday morning I got on the subway and took a train to Long Island where I would be going to my last game of the trip…Nassau Coliseum (New York Islanders). After taking a taxi from the train station, I checked into the Marriott Long Island hotel. The hotel was literally located in the parking lot of the arena. It was great having that short of a walk. After the game I went down to the sports bar in the hotel and had a shake to sooth my soar throat. Ended up sitting next to two nice guys who were in town for a teacher’s conference. Caught a cab back to the airport Tuesday morning and headed back home. Overall….the trip was a blast. I’d go back to NY in a heart beat!

Arena Notes: After a long bus ride from downtown Manhattan, I reached the Continental Airlines Arena. It was out in the middle of nowhere. It's probably one of the worst arenas I've visited. There wasn't much to it. All levels used the same concourse and shared bathrooms, concessions, etc. so it was very crowded during intermissons. The one bright side, my seat was top level near center ice so I had a great view of the game. I know the box score said there was 17,342 people in attendance, but I find that very hard to believe. It was only around 1/2 way full. It was disapointeing. I expected to see more since they were last years Stanley Cup Champions and they were playing a good team...the Avalanche. But I have to remember, the Devils play a boring defensive game of hockey so I'm not sure I'd pay to go see them play too many games either. The arena opened in 1981 and seats 19,040 hockey fans. Their mascot is NJ Devil a devil. Go figure. ;)

Game Notes: Jeff Friesen gave all the credit to Michael Rupp for his unassisted game-winning goal.
Friesen scored with 5:27 remaining to give the New Jersey Devils a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
"Michael drove to the net and backed the defense up," Friesen said. "It froze their goalie, with that big body going to the net. I got it on net, and it found a way to go in off the post."
Friesen had picked up the puck in the neutral zone and skated into the Avalanche zone. He pulled up at the top of the right circle and fired the shot past goaltender David Aebischer.
"Aebischer was probably thinking different when he saw Rupp going to the net," Devils coach Pat Burns said. "He cheated over to one side and that opened the hole for the goal."
The goal capped a frantic third period that started with the teams deadlocked at 2. The Stanley Cup champions took a 3-2 lead on White's goal at 9:30, only to see Hedjuk pull Colorado even at 13:51. Friesen got the deciding goal 42 seconds later.
"We got a little bit sloppy in the third," Aebischer said. "That wound up costing us in the end."
Colorado coach Tony Granato agreed that poor play proved costly against the Devils.
"They thrive on that and that's what they're built on," Granato said. "When we did make a mistake, it was in the back of our net."
Scott Niedermayer, Scott Gomez and Colin White also scored for the Devils, which won its second straight game at home after opening the season 0-3-1 in New Jersey. Martin Brodeur made 20 saves to preserve the win.
Joe Sakic, Alex Tanguay and Milan Hedjuk had Colorado's goals. The Avalanche got Teemu Selanne back in the lineup, but were without Peter Forsberg.
Selanne returned after missing one game because of a swollen knee. Forsberg sat out due to a groin injury and is day-to-day.
Gomez scored the lone goal of the second period to make it 2-2. He beat Avalanche defenseman Martin Skoula to the rebound of Brian Rafalski's shot and netted his first goal of the season at 9:18.
Tanguay scored with 3.1 seconds remaining in the first period to give Colorado a 2-1 lead. Tanguay knocked the rebound of Sakic's shot past Brodeur to cap a flurry of three goals in 83 seconds.
The Avalanche struck first as Sakic flipped Rob Blake's rebound over Brodeur for a power-play goal at 18:33. New Jersey quickly evened the score on a power-play goal by Niedermayer at 19:26.
Other Game notes: The Devils swapped players on the injured reserve list. New Jersey removed D David Hale, who missed four games with a groin injury, and put RW Grant Marshall on the list with a sore back. ... Tanguay's goal extended his point-scoring streak to eight games.
(*Game notes taken from espn.com*)