Bergen Record On The Game

[Rock]

Devils give Burns a win in his debut

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_...06&page=5272995

Friday, October 11, 2002

By TOM GULITTI

Staff Writer

OTTAWA - Of all the solutions to the Devils' potential goal-scoring problem discussed during the preseason, one name that almost never came up was John Madden.

So there was Madden, known more as a defensive specialist, scoring both Devils goals in the opening game of the season Thursday night at the Corel Centre to give them a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Madden's scoring and Martin Brodeur's strong goaltending made a winner of Pat Burns in his debut as Devils' head coach.

Typically stoic, Burns downplayed the personal significance of the victory.

"I'm glad for the club," he said more than once.

Brodeur, who finished with 33 saves, came within 1:46 of a shutout before Daniel Alfredsson's deflection of a shot by Petr Schastlivy sailed in over his right shoulder to cut the lead in half. An Alfredsson elbowing penalty with 32 seconds remaining ended the Senators' hopes of a comeback.

"The first one is always the tough one," Burns said. "You want to get it over with. It makes the team feel a little bit better."

Madden won the Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward two seasons ago, but also scored a career-best 23 goals that season. Thursday, Burns tried his best to match Madden and linemates Jay Pandolfo and Brian Gionta against Ottawa's top line of Schastlivy, Todd White, and Alfredsson, but Senators coach Jacques Martin often changed on the fly to stay away from that matchup.

So Madden was left to do his best work at the other end of the rink.

"When you play your role and you play well in that position and you play your defensive role, a lot of times you're going to get chances to score and Madden capitalized," Burns said.

Madden, 27, has always believed he can contribute offensively. He's never gotten time on the power play, but he averaged 18 goals in his first three NHL seasons. He feels he can do his part to help the Devils in that department, which is their biggest weakness.

"Hopefully, I can put up the same numbers I did [in 2000-01]," he said. "That was my best season so far. I just want to help out. I think it was San Jose that had six 20-goal scorers last year. That's what it's going to take for us. To be successful, we're going to need four, five, maybe six guys in here to get 20 goals and with the three speedy defensemen we've got back there [brian Rafalski, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Scott Niedermayer] those guys are going to contribute on the offensive end as well."

Madden's first goal came 2:04 into the second period, four seconds after a four-on-four situation. Madden scored it on a two-on-one rush with Brian Gionta, firing a slap shot from the top of the left circle that initially looked as if it went wide right. To his credit, Madden immediately pointed at the Senators' net.

"I shot it. I had a pretty good view of it," Madden said. "I knew it was in. I was thinking this is one of those times it goes upstairs and doesn't come back down as a goal, so I was a little nervous."

Play continued for 24 seconds before a stoppage allowed Richard Parayre to call down to the ice and inform the officials that he was reviewing the play. The replay showed Madden's shot beat Lalime inside the far post and somehow broke through the netting. With an assist from Parayre, the Devils had their first goal of the season.

"We had a perfect angle," Burns said. "From where we were standing on the bench, it went right through. I don't think he tore the net. I think it squeezed its way and stretched the net."

Madden's second goal was a short-hander, another of his specialties, with 1:21 remaining in the second period.

Senators defenseman Wade Redden gift-wrapped a turnover for Madden at the Ottawa blue line for a short-handed breakaway. Madden, who led the league with six short-handed goals three years ago, raced in, made one fake to get Lalime to open his legs, and slipped the puck through to make it 2-0.

"I watched video beforehand and I saw Redden likes to look to his right on his forehand, look it off, and throw it back to Alfredsson on his backhand," Madden said. "I was just denying the pass. I really didn't think he was going to throw it there. He put it right on my tape. I got lucky."