Battle Of Hudson

Following Tuesday’s dismal effort, John Tortorella went ballistic. He was as animated as I’ve seen him and that’s saying something. If the justified criticism didn’t get his team’s attention, then there’s a problem.

As of now, the Rangers still sit eighth in the East with 28 points by virtue of one fewer game played than tonight’s opponent Winnipeg. To say this is a must win would be an understatement. In a shortened season, these are the type of games that determine your playoff fate. A win in regulation would go a long way to building momentum.

The Jets already beat us once. An ugly 4-3 defeat at MSG where a furious rally fell short. Winnipeg can finish. Evander Kane is their most lethal finisher with goals in his last two. His 11 markers rank second to team captain Andrew Ladd, who paces Winnipeg with 13 goals and 25 points. Blake Wheeler is second in scoring with 21 points (10-11-21). Along with rover Dustin Byfuglien, they do the bulk of the scoring. But as the Rangers found out, Olli Jokinen scored two of his five goals in an otherwise bad year. His minus-12 rating is a team worst.

There are a few other players to keep an eye on. Former Blueshirt Nik Antropov is more than capable of factoring in along with overlooked teammates Bryan Little and Alex Burmistrov. Ron Hainsey and Kyle Wellwood are also looked upon for offense. They haven’t all performed up to expectations but the Jets play a high tempo in front of the best home fans in the league. It should make for a chaotic environment.

Get to Ondrej Pavelec early. That should be the message. Pavelec has turned around his 2013 by winning five of his last eight starts. In that stretch, he’s 5-2-1 with a 2.33 GAA (goals-against-average) and a .914 save percentage. He’s allowed two-or-less in five including the last three. Much better than his season (2.78, .903).

It’s still odd to see a donut next to Henrik Lundqvist‘s name for shutouts. Indeed, the Swedish King has the same amount as Pavelec. That’s unacceptable. Even if our battered D isn’t the same without Marc Staal, there are nights where he must stand on his head and steal games. This qualifies. Play like a Vezina winner and not like the last three in last year’s Conference Final.

Lundqvist isn’t the real issue. It’s a lack of consistency from the team. One minute, they look on the verge winning four straight. The next, they lay an egg dropping two of three including one to an NHL doormat. Those are the ones that hurt the most. The reality is there’s 23 games left. Win tonight and it’s a big two with the mighty Pens on the horizon. Lose and uh oh because they can’t beat Pittsburgh.

Simply put, it’s time for Marian Gaborik to wake up. One goal over 11 doesn’t cut it. He can’t always be in Tortorella’s dog house. The same for Brad Richards, who’s shown a pulse. Rick Nash has been as good as advertised. A scoring machine who makes teammates better. It can’t always fall on his shoulders along with Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin and omnipotent captain Ryan Callahan.

Last year, they were a T-E-A-M. Only four points separates eighth from fourth. Ottawa and Toronto have played two more games. The time to make a move is now. That means more from everyone. Oh. And a much better game from Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi. Forget about trades. The answer is on the roster. That includes Mike Del Zotto, who is due for one of his hot streaks.

It all starts at 8.

Although the Devils had beaten the Flyers six straight games (four in last year’s postseason) before last night, I was still somehwhat concerned about the teams’ third meeting at the Rock this year.  Both with the spotty way the Devils have been playing lately and just the fact that you’re not going to beat a team with the Flyers’ talent every single time.  Not to mention the Flyers were – to a man – pointing to this home-and-home series as do-or-die for their playoff chances.

Desperation may be a powerful weapon, but it wasn’t enough for the guys in white and orange last night as the Devils’ recent dominance over their tri-state rivals continued with a 5-2 win last night that was every bit as impressive as the final scoreline.  Perhaps now, with three wins in their last four games the Devils have finally stemmed the tied of their February losing.

As was the case in the teams’ first two meetings at the Rock this year, the Devils jumped out front quickly, this time scoring at 2:02 when Patrik Elias converted off a rebound from his backhand for his ninth goal of the season after shots toward the net from Adam Henrique and Steve Bernier (both getting assists).  Although there were a couple of sketchy penalty calls against us in first period, perhaps hockey justice was served when the only good call – tripping on Ryan Carter – wound up burning us when Wayne Simmonds found an open Jacob Voracek at the left side of the net for a one-timer goal at 9:45.

After thirty-six seconds of being level on the scoreboard, the Devils regained the lead for the remainder of the game when Henrique’s shot toward the net deflected off Matt Read and in.  Elias and (believe it or not) Johan Hedberg got assists on that goal.  Perhaps Moose has gotten his confidence back with his play in recent games, even playing the puck better though I’d still prefer he stay in the net most of the time.  More importantly he’s making the stops when he needed to, like a two-pad stack and juggling glove save robbery on Simon Gagne‘s one-timer at the side of the net on the Flyers’ first power play.

Philly’s third power play of the first period also resulted in a goal – for the Devils, when Stephen Gionta‘s well placed clear found a wide-open Kovalchuk streaking in one-on-one with Ilya Bryzgalov.  Kovy beat the Flyers’ quotable netminder shortside high for his tenth goal of the year, which includes an incredible four shorthanded goals already.  Even that wasn’t the prettiest goal of the night however, that honor belonged to Kovy’s countryman Andrei Loktionov (see above YouTube) with Alexei Ponikarovsky starting Lokti and Kovy on a two-on-one after another well-placed chip out of the zone.  Instead of automatically deferring to Kovy on the two-on-one, Lokti pulled up with a beautiful toe-drag faking Braydon Coburn off his skates, and beating Bryzgalov with a wide-open wrister in front at 6:31 of the second period for his fourth goal since coming to the Devils.  As coach Pete DeBoer said after the game, most young players don’t get the opportunity to play with a player of Kovalchuk’s caliber, but Lokti’s earned the right to stay on that line with production almost every night.

Our 2013 scrap-heap wonder (Lokti) would also have a hand in the Devils’ final goal, which was a nice tic-tac-toe passing play on an early third-period power play.  Kovy to Marek Zidlicky to Lokti and then finally to Henrique, who finished it off with an open backhander in front at 1:16 of the third.  Zidlicky and Lokti got the official assists on Henrique’s second of the night, which effectively finished the game as a contest.  Philly’s usual goonery when behind led to three third-period penalties that helped the Devils run off the clock although they nearly lost a player in the process when Daniel Briere cross-checked Krys Barch headfirst into the boards – a penalty that was not called – and with the way Barch was laid out I instantly thought concussion and he’s out for a long time…he didn’t miss a shift and in fact nearly scored on his next one.  New acquisition Tom Kostopolous laid out Scott Hartnell in what was arguably the highlight of the third.  It would be Hartnell who closed out the scoring with what may be laughingly be described as a consolation goal at 16:08.

Last night however, belonged to a New Jersey team increasingly regaining their confidence from the goal out.

One of the great things about this team is the backup goalie. Marty Biron is one of the most likeable players in the league. The always quirky and quotable Ranger netminder finally got in yesterday for Henrik Lundqvist and ruled D.C. He finished with 28 saves in the Blueshirts’ 4-1 win over the Caps. His first appearance since Feb.23 produced his second win (first since Feb.2).

After permitting an early goal to Steve Olesky 2:16 in, he blanked the Capitals the rest of the way. Afterwards, Biron joked about the tough start to chuckles in the locker room. He just gets it. Biron is popular among teammates, coaches and fans for that happy go lucky attitude. He plays his role perfectly.

On a day I went all the way up to Harlem with a friend, the Rangers continued their turnaround. Since Rick Nash returned, they’ve won five of six and moved into eighth with 28 points (13-9-2) at the halfway point. They remain a point behind the Devils, who have slumped recently. However, they did post a shootout win over Winnipeg yesterday as Hasan detailed. Ironically, the Jets rank ninth two points behind us. It’ll continue to be a challenge in the second half in what’s a chaotic schedule. There’s no room for the weary with the Rangers back at it tomorrow at Buffalo and then in Winnipeg Thursday.

As usual, Nash did his thing setting up two goals. A power play goal which was credited to him was changed to Ryan Callahan, who got a piece of Nash’s one-timer for his eighth. Though his goal streak ended at five, Nash extended his point streak to 10 dating back to Feb.10. He’s tallied 16 points (7-9-16) during the stretch including five two-point games since his return. Nash is 6-5-11 with a power play goal, game-winner and a plus-four rating over the last six. Only one of his nine markers this season haven’t come in the third period. A recent 3-2 loss to Ottawa.

After Derek Stepan tied the game by banking one off Braden Holtby from behind the net, they took full advantage of Alexander Ovechkin mistakes to take control. On a delayed call, the Washington captain took another penalty. A rare instance where the same player was going to receive two penalties. Still with the puck and Biron to the bench for an extra attacker, Carl Hagelin and Ryan McDonagh combined to set up Brian Boyle for his first of 2013. It’s been well documented about Boyle’s struggles. Back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch against Ottawa, he let go of a shot that deflected off Ovechkin past Holtby.

”I tried to start a new season, basically,” Boyle said after receiving 15:30 of ice-time in 22 shifts. ”I tried to put myself in position to do the things that I can do well. I tried to keep it simple.” He took three shots, blocked two shots and went 8-of-16 in the faceoff circle with a minor penalty. Hopefully, it’ll boost his confidence.

With Ovechkin in the box for holding, Captain Cally notched his club-leading fifth PPG. How does he do it? By standing in front of the net. Simple yet effective. Nash took a Michael Del Zotto cross feed and shot from the right circle off Callahan for the Rangers’ second goal in 41 seconds- chasing Holtby (3 GA on 16 shots) in favor of Michael Neuvirth.

They led 3-1 but weren’t out of the woods yet. Late in the second, Darroll Powe followed Boyle to the sin bin, handing the Caps a great opportunity to get back in it. They had a five-on-three for 36 seconds. That’s when Biron stepped up. Coincidentally, we were in the car listening to the end of the period. Biron made at least three gigantic saves to keep Washington off the board. Eventually, Boyle returned and the Rangers killed off the rest of Powe’s minor. They got the job done despite losing two penalty killers.

I didn’t catch any of the third but had my Ranger text updates via my i-Phone. Once I saw that Brad Richards scored for the second consecutive game late in regulation, I was happy. Not that I expected the Caps to come back. I guess I felt confident that they’d be fine following the great PK. It’s nice to know that things are starting to come together. Now, they must continue it tomorrow.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Carl Hagelin, NYR (2 assists, 3 hits, +2 in 21 shifts-16:01)
2nd Star-Ryan McDonagh, NYR (2 assists, +2 in 25:58)
1st Star-Marty Biron, NYR (28 saves-2nd win)

Despite the split in points from this weekend’s games in Carolina (loss) and against the Jets at home (shootout win), at this point it feels far from satisfactory.  There are still a myriad of problems with this team, evidenced by the fact they couldn’t build on their come-from-behind win against the Sabres on Thursday, getting whipped in Carolina on Saturday night making third-string goalie Dan Ellis look like Martin Brodeur playing the puck and stopping it for much of the game.  After nine games of being scored on first, the Devils finally got the first two goals tonight and couldn’t build off that either, blowing the lead before the second period was over.

Pretty much the only thing the Devils can build on as a team right now is Johan Hedberg‘s individual performances on Thursday and Sunday.  Although I’ve been screaming and yelling at Pete DeBoer for letting Hedberg take the net by rote when he was giving up four goals a game with a sub .850 save percentage (not to mention playing a 39-year old goalie seven games in eleven days), Moose has come up big two of the last three games at least.  And Saturday he had little chance on any of those goals until the game was out of hand midway through the second period.

He needed to come up big because from what little I saw of tonight’s game, the merry-go-round defense gave up a ton of quality chances again.  Particularly after the Devils dominated the first period but could only escape with a 2-1 lead after Andy Greene tipped a Mark Stuart shot past Hedberg, and by the goaltender’s own admission he had to fight the ‘here we go again’ thoughts on another bad break going by him.  Truth be told, I’m tired of hearing about bad breaks though, especially considering the teams the Devils have been playing.  Not when David Clarkson hasn’t scored in a month, Travis Zajac has eight points in twenty-six games this season and the defense continues to brain-cramp such as Adam Larsson slipping and falling causing a two-on-one chance the other way that led to the tying goal by Evander Kane.

At least I do have to give the team credit for battling it out although it wasn’t pretty, it was their seventh game in eleven nights after all, and the night after a game in Carolina.  And after the power play has scored a couple goals this week, they had a ton of chances on their only opportunity in the first period but indiciative of the offense’s struggles they couldn’t put one puck on Ondrej Pavelec despite having about ten shots at the net.  Ironically although the CBGB line has been split apart the last few games, they continued to save our bacon tonight as Ryan Carter scored a pretty goal after a bad bounce off the boards went to Zajac, who threw the puck through the crease right to Carter and he turned around and fired a wrister past Pavelec at 8:47 to get the Devils on the board first, at last.  And just eighty-five seconds later, Ilya Kovalchuk sprang Stephen Gionta for a breakaway, and he beat Pavelec with a better one-on-one goal than I’ve seen from most of our shootout attempts this year.

Gionta at times catches too much crap from Devil fans so it’s always nice to see him produce.  Yes he should stay on the fourth line, and yes having a short forward penalty kill can be a problem at times, and has been a problem.  But he’s excellent in his role and has proven to be worthy of an NHL spot since last Spring.  Admittedly, another guy I’ve been on at times is Anton Volchenkov and he had one of his best games as a Devil tonight (and has been solid in general at least the last couple weeks).  During one shift on the penalty kill in the third period, he got hit with two seperate shots on the leg and in the back, and still managed to clear the puck despite limping around on the latter block.  I was worried he would be out for weeks after seeing him limp off, but he didn’t even miss a shift.

Other than the above guys I mentioned, I can’t think of too many others that really deserved the two points we wound up getting from tonight’s game.  Especially when we were moping around in the second period after that first goal, seemingly waiting for disaster to strike.  Which it did on the aformentioned goal by Kane at 17:19 of the second, his tenth of the season – seemingly all against the Devils in the last three weeks.  Fortunately the Devils picked it up after that but there were plenty of hairy moments where Moose had to make saves – one on a two-on-one, another with Dustin Byfuglien on the side of the net for an open shot.  At least getting to overtime ensured the Devils would still be in a playoff position by night’s end – amazing we’re even talking about this after the first twelve games of the season, but here we are squarely on the bubble.

I wanted a win in overtime at least, since we haven’t had a ‘true hockey’ win in over two weeks, dating back to when we beat the Caps in Washington on the 21st of February.  After a five-minute period where we were outshot 5-2, we were fortunate just to get to the shootout though.  For the second time in three games, Moose came up big in the skills competition stopping Blake Wheeler, Kane and Andrew Ladd in succession.  After Kovy got stopped on his first attempt (his golden stick from last year in the shootout has dissapeared) and Clarkson got stopped on his predictable one-trick move, Patrik Elias needed to score…which he did on a deke shot that he put through the five-hole, giving the Devils just enough margin to squeak out that all-important second point of the night.

Last night seemed like the same exact Devils game we’ve seen over the last three weeks for the first fifty-five minutes.  Dominate early, make journeyman/backup goalie look like a Vezina candidate, get scored on and then lose any confidence and die a quick death.  After losing six straight going into their game against the Sabres, the Devils found themselves behind 2-0 late in the third period last night against the immortal Jhonas Enroth, a goalie who hasn’t actually won a game since 2011!  Many in the sellout crowd of 17,625 started leaving after Bryan Flynn (who?!) scored the Sabres’ second goal at 9:56 of the third.  I was just sitting there in disbelief at the fact we were about to lose our seventh straight game for the first time since 1985-86…yes, even the John MacLean Devils never lost seven straight.

Staring all this negativity in the face, perhaps the Devils finally hit rock bottom in the third period last night.  At last the power play showed some real life for the first time in weeks when Adam Henrique scored at 13:30, a play started by Ilya Kovalchuk keeping the puck in at the left point and standing his ground when Steve Ott tried to knock him off the puck.  Instead, it was Ott who fell to the ice with a broken stick – and Kovy’s wrister deflected off Mike Weber‘s glove right onto the stick of Henrique, who put in the rebound for his seventh goal of the season.  Still down 2-1, I started to get the scary feeling that the season may well be on the line in the last five minutes, with our precarious playoff position and a tougher schedule coming up in the next few weeks.

Finally with sixty-six seconds remaining and the Devils’ net empty, New Jersey caught a break they desperately needed when Enroth left a juicy rebound on a soft David Clarkson shot from just inside the point, and Patrik Elias – who earlier had missed an open net – at last managed to put it behind a diving Enroth.  While Elias’s seventh of the year may have saved the Devils’ bacon the night was far from over…except for Enroth who came up with leg cramps after the goal, and gave way to Ryan Miller (strangely given the night off, after he ran his big yap after Saturday’s game).

Overtime was mostly uneventful except for Mark Fayne nearly getting coned for the second time of the night (the first time giving John Scott of all people a golden chance), and he could only watch as Jason Pominville‘s shot clanged off the post and right back to Johan Hedberg.  Perhaps he deserved that break, since Hedberg himself finally had a good game for the first time in weeks, only allowing a one-timer goal by Thomas Vanek on a Sabres power play at 7:56 of the second period.  Predictably the penalty was taken by Anton Volchenkov, and also predictably Fayne and Bryce Salvador were on the ice watching Vanek get wide open with both of them and Henrique all stuck on the boards.  Incidentally, Salvador himself turned the puck over on Flynn’s goal early in the third period – which may have been borderline goaltender interference too – and the captain’s become the pink elephant in the room as he continues to struggle.

Also predictably toward the end of overtime (similar to Saturday’s game), Tyler Ennis started poking his nose where it doesn’t belong, slashing Travis Zajac after a whistle.  Zajac calmly knocked Ennis’s stick out of his hands, then the two exchanged punches before going to the box for the final half-minute of overtime, leading to some rare three-on-three play.  Neither team really had a good chance on the three-on-three though, and off to the shootout we went again.  With Kovalchuk being stopped again by Miller to open the skills competition and the memory fresh of Hedberg standing like a statue as two Sabre goals went by him last weekend in the shootout, I wasn’t feeling very confident.

Fortunately Vanek (not great in the shootout himself) gave Hedberg an easy save, and David Clarkson of all people came up with a nifty move beating Miller towards his right post.  Moose this time stopped Pominville himself without the aid of the post, then Elias – the end of regulation hero – closed out the shootout with a sick deke of Miller, putting the puck into a vacated net.  Ironically Elias is never usually that effective in shootouts either, it’s definitely the best shootout goal I can remember him getting and it provided an unexpected, satisfying finish to last night’s game.  Not only was it the Devils’ first win in over two weeks, it was their first home win in nearly three weeks, since I was in the ice cream suite for our game against the Flyers in the middle of February.

This could well have been a season-turning win.  We’ll have to wait till this weekend to find out for sure, when the Devils go to Carolina Saturday and return home for another game against the Jets on Sunday night. I’m tired of saying they’re winnable games because literally just about every game during this malaise we’ve played teams below us in the standings that should have been winnable but weren’t.  However, at least for one night we can look past all the negativity and lineup questions of recent weeks.  Elias himself summed it up with one word after the game when he was asked about his thoughts when scoring at the end of regulation….’finally’.

There have been a few times over the years where I could only shake my head at fellow fans’ behavior during a particular game.  Cheering Kevin Weekes when he got hurt a few years back was at the top of that list.  The treatment of Johan Hedberg tonight, and to a lesser extent the team itself wasn’t too far off though.  What annoys me even more is I knew this was coming, when Pete DeBoer announced that Moose was again starting despite a GAA that’s higher than Miguel Cabrera’s batting average, I figured we’d fall behind two or three nothing early and the atmosphere would get ugly.  Just like I knew we would get whipped in Toronto last night.

At times, stubborness is good, but Pete’s stubborness in regards to Hedberg may just cost this team a playoff spot.  With Brodeur still out probably forever with mysterious back issues, the opportunity was there to give Keith Kinkaid a start.  Especially when you consider a 39-year old goaltender is not normally expected to play both ends of a back-to-back in different cities anyway.  I understand Pete’s reluctance to scapegoat Hedberg and this hideous 2-8-2 ‘slump’ against the dregs of the East is not all his fault but facts are facts.  He’s not stopping the puck and the team’s not winning.  As much as I’ll forever sneer at Brent Sutter for the way he walked out on us, I’ll acknowledge my respect for the way he saved our season when he didn’t stubbornly stick with the vet Weekes and gave unknown Scott Clemmensen a chance to run with the starting job.  It was Clemmensen who wound up leading us to an improbable Atlantic Division title in 2009 with twenty-five wins.

Now that said, I admit I was screaming at Hedberg in no uncertain terms to stay in his crease and not play the puck after the first goal when I erroneously thought he turned it over (he did complete the pass to Bryce Salvador, who himself turned it over).  And I was screaming at DeBoer to pull him in no uncertain terms after the third goal against.  That said, I wasn’t celebrating when he did finally pull him like the majority of the crowd was, it’s basically piling on.  I know Moose was doing his best.  Booing him after every goal allowed and when he leaves the ice is a bit much.  Chanting ‘Kinkaid’ after the second goal allowed – which was NOT Moose’s fault is a bit much.  Our crowd tonight gave me flashbacks, and not in a good way to Jets’ fans treatment of Mark Sanchez toward the end.  Especially with the clowns behind me, who were a black hole of negativity throughout the game.  At one point when one of them said I’ve never felt so depressed to be a Devil fan, it was all I could do to avoid turning around when I said ‘this is worse than two years ago?’.

I complain and moan about my team –  many times through this outlet – but some people just take it way too far.  My former seatmate last year (who’s now a few seats down since I moved to the aisle) couldn’t take it anymore after the second period and moved to the emptier 215.  It got to the point where I was almost hoping Tampa would score in the third period so I could high-tail it away from the section too.  Which they did, getting one goal on Kinkaid to make it 4-0.  Honestly it should have been 4-0 earlier but the rookie did make some brilliant saves earlier in the period including one on a Steven Stamkos breakaway.  I stood by the Diablos section for a while, then just started walking aimlessly around the arena.  I didn’t really want to leave early, since my general rule is you only leave early when it’s 5-0 or worse after two periods.

Somewhat encouragingly, the Devils showed some fight in the final few minutes getting a shorthanded goal from Adam Henrique and a power play goal from Patrik Elias, pulling to within 4-2 with five minutes to go and causing Guy Boucher to use his timeout.  After the timeout, the Devils kept the pressure on and came within a hair of making it 4-3 with just over two minutes left before the Lightning finally sealed it with an empty-netter.  Kinkaid’s play, and the team’s renewed bite late had me feeling good despite a bad result against a bad team that had lost twelve of its previous fifteen games.

Until that is, DeBoer announced that Hedberg would be starting AGAIN Thursday, again at home.  I love Pete but he’s just flat out wrong on this one.  There’s no couching that sentiment.  I don’t know whether he’s afraid there’ll be a mutiny in the room if he does bench Hedberg but there’s really no other reason not to at this point.  Especially given the crowd’s treatment of Moose tonight.  The absolute worst thing you could do is send the guy out when he’s got no confidence, into a hostile ‘home’ environment.