Last weekend

Friday they played in Manchester and I was late.  I had two hours to go 70 miles from Framingham to Manchester.  Should have taken me about an hour.  Nope.  It took exactly two.  I did not realize that the 65 mph speed limit signs north of the border are actually 5 mph speed limit signs in disguise. 

Once I finally got to the game I watched Lowell play the best I’ve ever seen them for two periods.  Unfortnately Manchester’s goalie Jason LaBarbera also played the best I’ve ever seen him and he shut the Devils out.  Then in the third period Lowell spent something like 9 minutes on the power play.  Too bad they slept through the period.  It looked very much like Lowell gave up. 

I took a lot of pictures at this game, but when I looked through them there didn’t seem to be much of interest.  Here are a some of them anyway…

Look at this picture:

Now before you look at the next one, try and guess which of these two players is going to end up flat on his face…

Did you guess?

Here’s the answer:

The Devil.  Yeah, the guy who wasn’t falling down in the first shot ended up falling down.  Nice.

Lowell has a major attendence problem.  It’s going to cost us the team at some point.  This season, however, it seems that all of the New England AHL teams are having a drop in attendence.  Manchester for years was selling out every game.  Not any more.  Check out all of the empty seats. 

Jason LaBarbara had a fantastic game, but Frank Doyle was no slouch either.

Manchester, NH… where Disco lives forever!

Here is the final score:

So after my painful experience in Manchester on Friday I took Saturday off.  Lowell played in Bridgeport, CT that night (I think) and lost again.  I’m glad I skipped that one.

Sunday Lowell travelled to Providence to play the Bruins.  This game ended up being the opposite of Friday’s.  No traffic at all.  I got there so early that I was one of the first people through the gate.  The Bruins outplayed Lowell for the entire game.  They were just steam rolling over us.  Somehow the Devils managed to stay in the game as Frank Doyle played his ass off in goal again.  Late in the third period Lowell scored to tie the game at two and force overtime.  Unfortunately the overtime period was over after 30 seconds and Lowell lost again.

And now for the pictures…..

Ever wonder why hockey sticks break?  This shot from the pregame warm up should explain it all.  This is what hockey folks refer to as “torque.”

Frankie makes a kick save and the rebound eludes the Bruin forward.

This is Lowell’s first goal.  You can’t see the puck here, but the reaction from the players is clear.  One happy Devil, and five disappointed Bruins.

If you don’t believe that Devil then this one should settle it.  This guy was between the face off circles out in front of the net.

Here’s another example of that “torque” thing.

If you’ve ever wondered how those guys manage to stay onside while flying around on the ice, this picture will demonstrate it for you.

Yes there was a fight in Sunday’s game, but the important thing in this picture is the guy wearing the Devils jersey sitting in the upper right corner.  It shows that I wasn’t the only Devils fan who drove 80 miles to sit and watch a game by myself.  This guy at least had the balls to wear his game jersey.  I did not.

And the final score…

So that was my weekend last weekend.  Two games, two losses.  Thankfully last night the Devils played Bridgeport at home and managed a 3-2 win. 

And all was right with the world.