It was a very special night at the Prudential Center this past Saturday as the New Jersey Devils retired #26 forever. Patrik Elias joins an elite group of 4 that had their number retired before. Those people are Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermeyer, and Marty Brodeur. It was also a very special night because Patrik becomes the first forward in franchise history to have his number retired. Patrik Elias was joined by his family, Wife Petra, 2 daughters Sophia and Kaila, and his mother and father who are both cancer survivors as well as his two older brothers. Patrik was also joined by some of his closest teammates like Mike Rupp, Sergei Brylin, Kevin Weekes, Martin Havlat, Marek Zidlicky,  Bryce Salvador, Bobby Holik, Brendan Morrison, Colin White,  and of course the A- line Jason Arnott and Petr Sykora.  He was also joined by the 2017-2018 New Jersey Devils. It was very cool to be there and see my idol growing up getting his number retired

Michael Grabner made his Devils debut since being traded by the Rangers in the first ever trade between the two teams. The Devils wore their White away jerseys in honor of the number retirement of Patrik Elias. The Devils had a sloppy two periods and then a fireball shot out in the 3rd. Everyone was all of a sudden into the game as Kyle Palmieri (Montvale NJ native) nets his 15th goal on the season to tie the game up.  Taylor Hall continued his 21st consecutive game with a point. Then late in the period Hall gets a pass to the defenseman Sami Vatanen who puts the puck on net and who else but Kyle Palmieri to redirect it in front and the Devils take a 2-1 lead. Keith Kinkaid make some big saves for the Devils late as they beat the Islanders 2-1.