A new stop in Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. -- As you get set to watch tonight's Sabres-Devils game, you might want to keep your eyes on some of the little things the Sabres were paying pretty close attention to at their morning skate.

The Prudential Center has been open for less than two months and it's Buffalo's first time here. So Lindy Ruff himself was firing pucks around the glass this morning to test which way they would come out. His verdict to Ryan Miller -- stay in the net tonight.

"I got one that bounced right off the glass into our goal, especially at the end where the [zamboni] gates open up," Ruff said. "I've already talked to Ryan that we don't need to risk anything by going out if dump-ins get high on the glass."

The glass here is seamless on the sides but there are seams behind the nets and that can cause some crazy bounces. The ice seemed good this morning but there was a Seton Hall basketball game here last night and it could deteriorate quickly. Players around the league have rated the ice merely OK so far and ex-Sabre Dainius Zubrus, now with the Devils, told me this morning it can get mediocre pretty quickly on the days after events.

The arena itself is beautiful outside and in, a huge upgrade from the Meadowlands. One key highlight is a giant video screen on the Mulberry Street facade. Inside, there's still a surprising amount of construction dust around and the musty smell of drying concrete. Work continues in some areas, including the Devils' practice rink.

Hope some work is done on the neighborhood too. Sheeesh. Right across the street from the Devils team shop is some abandoned buildings with windows blown out. Across the street from the service entrance is some abondoned tenaments. Not postcard material.

This page on the arena's Web site has a cool slideshow of images inside and out. Worth your time.

Go to this page and scroll down a little to see  a time-lapse of the arena's construction and a virtual-reality tour on opening night in October, courtesy of the Newark Star-Ledger. Pretty cool too.

---Mike Harrington

Comments

[L. Craig Schoonmaker]

Oops. The program for comments included too much in the hyperlinks. There should be no close-parenthesis and no ". Then" in the two links in my comment. Computers still don't think like people.

[L. Craig Schoonmaker]

First, I the vacant buildings opposite the main entrance to the Prudential Center are under renovation, not abandoned (see pix in my "Newark USA" fotoblog entry of today, at http://newarkusa.blogspot.com). Second, the link to the time-lapse video of the Arena's construction on the Newark Star-Ledger site doesn't work. I see what happened, because I have had the same thing happen in my own blogs. Harrington left out the "http://", which rendered what followed into a relative hyperlink, that is, to a page on the default website, the Buffalo News's own server, which of course is not where the Star-Ledger page resides. The correct link is http://www.nj.com/newarkguide.Then scroll down to the time-lapse video. It is really worth seeing.
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We here in Newark are very proud of the Prudential Center. Even the new mayor, who tried to block its construction, saw the lite and thanked the former mayor for pushing it thru against heavy odds. Buffalo and Newark have a lot in common, both being cities that have gone thru bad times as a lot of the monied people poured out into beautiful suburbs. Both cities are coming back. Buffalo and Newark are fiting the good fite for central cities.

[James A from KT]

Miller can't get a shutout to save his life.

The Sabres lose again.

Are they out of a playoff spot again?

What a waste.

The Penguins will clean the Sabres clock Saturday.

[SMB]

Hey, at least we got a point out of the game I guess. It's better than NO points. A win tomorrow night would be nice, and with the goaltending situation in Pittsburgh, we should win that game.

[Cornholio]

Nice win, boys....er, I mean overtime loss.

This team is not ready to play with the elite, and the Devils are far from being the Sens. So what does that tell you about the 07/08 Sabres?