MONTREAL — The Devils took one step last night toward earning their fans’ forgiveness for Friday’s Folly. Tonight, they try to make their annoyed patrons forget the brass’ silly default position of “Tell ’em as little as possible.”
They will seek absolution for that policy the same way they have for 20 years — by winning. Satisfying their aggravated fans will probably require a comeback from a 3-0 deficit when they resume Friday’s suspended lights-out game with the Lightning at 6 p.m. tonight in Newark.
They gave themselves reason to think they could come back tonight by beating the Canadiens 2-1 on Zach Parise’s overtime goal last night.
“It’s definitely huge,” Jamie Langenbrunner said. “We’re down 3-0 and we understand that, but to get these two points, the way we did. . . . Our goal is to jump on [Tampa] as quickly as possible.”
Travis Zajac gave the Devils the lead last night before ex-Devil Scott Gomez tied the game in the second. Then, in overtime, Parise broke his stick blocking a shot, but instead of remaining in the defensive zone stickless, he went to the bench for a new implement. Zajac spotted him alone at the Habs’ blue line, Parise gloved down the touchdown pass and made his signature backhand hoist for victory at 2:38 of overtime.
“If that didn’t work out, I would have been in a little trouble,” Parise said after his team-best 19th goal.
The victorious Devils returned to Newark for the final 29:12 of play tonight against Tampa Bay. With collective-bargaining regulations against playing three straight days waived, the circus delayed and arena workers hurriedly called in, the Devils and Lightning, who lost 4-1 in Philadelphia last night, chose the best-available solution of playing tonight.
Martin Brodeur, heroic last night with 29 saves, may not be back in net tonight.
The Devils will have to live down yet another example of failing to make their fans appear important to the team. In the nearly two-hour delay Friday as workers tried in vain to restore the failed lighting in the not-so-new Prudential Center, the Devils failed to offer any information, updates or even commiseration after the initial announcement that the players were going to the locker room to await repairs.
Yesterday, general manager Lou Lamoriello said, “In hindsight, if we knew it was going to be that long, we might have done things differently.”
Until the resumption announcement after 3 p.m. yesterday, the fans remained in the dark, much as they had Friday night. Then the Devils began damage repair, promising Friday’s ticket holders a plan for a free ticket to another game, in addition to admission tonight. The Devils told patrons to retain their ticket stubs.
Of the failure to keep Friday’s crowd informed, Lamoriello offered a non-apology apology.
“We could not really tell them anything, except what they knew, that the lights were not on,” Lamoriello said. “We think it was the right way to handle it.”
By the 10:07 p.m. suspension announcement Friday, the remaining fans had begun booing lulls in the music or video displays, throwing hats and bottles on the ice, and many had trooped down to the box office for unobtainable refunds, before security closed the box office doors.
The north bank of lights went out at 8:18 p.m. Friday after a power loss tripped a circuit breaker, and the governing computer failed to reboot and reset the lights.
* Parise said he was “a little shaken up for a couple of shifts” after being slammed by Habs behemoth Hal Gill in the first. Parise suffered a bloody nose and cut lip in addition to the bell-ringing.