ALBANY -- That didn't take long. One regular season game, primed by a pair of exhibitions, to be exact.
The Albany Devils and Adirondack Phantoms already hate each other.
Bad blood makes for good hockey as seen Saturday night in the Phantoms' 5-3 win at Times Union Center.
"Every game," Adirondack coach Greg Gilbert said, "is going to be intense and physical."
That it was. And they play 11 more of these suckers.
"That's 24 points during the season," said Devils defenseman Matthew Corrente. "Every one counts."
Just like last year. The more things change ...
The familiar clashed with the foreign, the similarities made striking by the most obvious of differences. In many ways it seemed like another AHL season opener, just another Albany-Adirondack hockey game at Times Union Center.
Look, there are the Bennetts, mom and dad and Jenna and Zach, River Rats' Fan. No. 1 in his No. 02 jersey and wheelchair modified with his goalie mask. They were supposed to have moved to Charlotte, too, just like the Rats, but have struggled to sell their Albany duplex.
Zach is ready to shift his allegiance to the Checkers, but not just yet. The fourth-grader got out of Albany Med, where had been fighting an infection, hours before the puck dropped for Saturday night's opener. Hockey is hockey.
The Schamerhorns, Albany uber fans, were behind their booster club table, just as they've always been, part of the 5,235 in attendance.
On the ice, things looked just like last year. It took all of 30 seconds into the season for Albany defenseman Rob Davison to accordion Phantoms right wing David Laliberte into the boards between the benches. The brawl that broke out three minutes later between Albany's Chad Wiseman and Marc-Andre Bourdon was surprising only because it took that long to erupt.
For all that, it all felt ... different.
The scoreboard, new with a rotating ring at the bottom and four sides of HD clarity and non stop ads that matched the new ribbon boards extending from bench to bench below the upper level, told you that.
So did the new atrium lighting and signage out front.
The red uniforms looked the same, mostly, at least for those with a relatively long-term memory of hockey in town. And the pre-game highlights from the River Rats' 1994-95 Calder Cup championship run seemed fitting.
But it's different now. The jarring moment, months in the making, came when the new-voice public address announcer Brian Deyo introduced the home team, the pause added for dramatic effect.
Your 2010-2011 Alllllbany ... Devils.
Oh, yeah. Different.
Decidedly different, even if the New Jersey Devils already had a go-round in town.
The Times Union Center physical improvements were certainly needed -- it will interesting to see them employed for a Siena game -- and provide a missing element that has become mandatory at almost all modern arenas.
And the Albany River Rats had to go, just as the Times Union Center had to lure another AHL tenant to town. Changes had to be made.
The Devils have stepped in for the Rats in many respects, but one seemed readily apparent Saturday: They already hate their Northway rival the Phantoms.
Players finished checks, and cross checks, and right crosses. The Devils owned the first period, the Phantoms the last two and the game.
Opening night is going to bring intensity for any team (Adirondack was playing its second in two nights), but you can sense these teams, like their New Jersey Devils/Philadelphia Flyers parents, have already stoked an animosity that will make this a season series worth watching.
There's comfort in that familiar. Things change, things stay the same.
Mark McGuire can be reached at 454-5467 or by e-mail at mmcguire@timesunion.com Visit his blog at http://blog.timesunion.com/mcguire.
