Battle Of Hudson

After Friday’s disheartening 3-0 loss to the Rangers I was going to write another piece on how unbelievable the injury tally was getting with Martin Brodeur and Colin White both missing that contest, and complain for the hundredth time this season about our lack of offense – particularly the $100 million man Ilya Kovalchuk, who was in lala land on the third goal and pretty much the entire evening. Not to mention David Clarkson yet again getting stupid against the Rangers (memo to Devils’ management: Prozac might not be a bad thing here). Even before the game began I was annoyed that Brodeur was going to miss this all-important tilt after being assured from both he and GM Lou Lamoriello that Brodeur would definitely play Friday.

It’s all starting to reach a point of saturation for me though, there’s only so much complaining and banging your head against a wall you can do. All I want at this point is the team to keep giving effort no matter how big the hole gets (channeling former Jets coach Herm Edwards and his famous ‘you play to win the game’ speech), our health to improve and Brodeur to be behind the pipes Wednesday. Sure, you couldn’t fault Johan Hedberg on any goal Friday but if Brodeur does miss Wednesday’s game against Buffalo a week after getting a ‘bruised’ elbow, then it seems like proof we’re either hiding something – or worse, our doctors are missing something in the diagnosis, which wouldn’t be a first over the last few seasons.

Still, it’s not like we’re the only team that’s struggling…you only need to look toward Western New York to find a fanbase that, if anything might be more disappointed in its team’s recent start than we are, if only because the Sabres have more die-hard fans than we do plus they don’t have our history of winning the ultimate prize three times. Thinking of our teams’ upcoming matchup four days away – which seems like a month when you’re struggling – I’m half hoping Henrik Tallinder goes into the wrong locker room Wednesday (since he came from the Sabres) and stays there. For me, Tallinder’s basically become what Patrick Lalime is for our Sabre blogger, you expect bad things to happen when they’re on the ice and are seldom proven wrong. Maybe the affable but ineffective former Sabre defenseman wasn’t wrong when he said his main assets were ‘height and reach’.

Then thinking about how both our teams are cousins in a way with our close proximity, being competitive but not bad-blooded rivals plus the Tallinder-Lalime comparison with me and Brian it hit me…the Devils and Sabres actually do have a lot in common on the whole. First of all, as fanbases we share a collective disdain of the Rangers, Flyers and Maple Leafs – particularly the latter two in Sanborn’s case. We both have beloved announcers with the ultimate professional Doc Emrick behind our mike and the always entertaining Rick Jeanneret for the Sabres. And on the ice, both our teams’ fortunes have taken a collective nosedive since that weird ending to the regular season last year at the Prudential Center where Jamie Langenbrunner‘s empty-net winner gave us the second seed and neither team the playoff matchup it wanted. Of course, things played out the way we both feared it might as the Devils got pounded by the Flyers in five and the Sabres were shut down by the Bruins in six.

Our teams’ disappointing play last April has carried onto this season where neither team’s off to the start it wanted, in fact two division winners last season are both in the basement this season. Both our Vezina-winning goalies have missed time recently and both teams have players who shined for Team USA last February that have had disappointing starts to their seasons so far with Ryan Miller not playing as well as he did last year when he could have been the Hart Trophy winner. For us, captain Langenbrunner’s overall play has bottomed out since the Olympics and Zach Parise is of course on the shelf for three months after a slow start to this season and bad playoffs last year. And we both have big-money dissapointments as well – Kovalchuk for us and Thomas Vanek for the Sabres, who has had some good years but never quite lived up to the big offer sheet from the Oilers that Buffalo felt compelled to match after losing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere in the same offseason.

Can either team turn it around? I’m already on record in pronouncing us dead, but doctors’ diagnoses can be wrong, so can mine. That said, if we’re six feet under already then the Sabres are on life support. Clearly both teams have the talent to turn it around, actually part of the reason our starts have been so shocking is that much more was expected from both us and Buffalo. In a normal season, we’re fighting for first place and the Sabres are competitive, usually at least on the borderline of a playoff spot even in a bad year. Neither is the case this season, far from it (in fact, both the Devils and Sabres are the ony two teams in the league without a home win) and it’s certainly been a struggle to deal with on my end.

It’s not that I thought the Devils would never bottom out, I just didn’t expect it to happen this year. Plus when you’re a season ticket holder, it’s a little different going through a bad season than ‘just’ watching the games on TV when you can. You can always turn the TV off and with the Mets I basically turned them off period after July. Baseball is the worst sport for meaningless games though, even when you’re in the playoff race the motivation really isn’t there for me to watch every inning of 162 games but when you’re playing out the schedule it really gets boring, especially considering the sport.

Baseball is far worse boring than hockey or football (especially since the NHL season’s ‘only’ 82 games and the NFL is a mere 16). In fact, hockey’s probably the best sport to watch period when you’re watching one or two bad teams play out the string but I don’t have much personal experience in this. I can maybe count the number of meaningless games I’ve seen on one hand since becoming a Devils fan – most of them involved the final home game of the season when we’re already locked into a seed.

Granted I’m probably going to cut down on my games attended and watched a little later in the season if this keeps up, but even in a worst-case scenario I’ll probably wind up going to around 20 games (so far I’m at four), whereas in a normal year since becoming a sth at the Rock I’ll go to 27-28 in the regular season plus playoffs. In comparison I went to about three Met games each year for the last two seasons. And my blogs might become more a once-a-week type thing later on…but I’m not in the mood to concede either point yet. In early November with sixty-seven games left is too much time to start getting apathetic about the season.

If you’re looking for some inspirational message at the close of this blog, I got nothing. Except that it’s November and we both gotta keep plugging away. Buffalo as a team never seems to give up on Lindy Ruff and hopefully our team doesn’t give up on Johnny MacLean. Eventually you have to figure talent will start to show and one or both of us will get back into it, especially with mediocrity being more and more the norm in this post-lockout NHL.

Hopefully we start our turnaround Wednesday and they start theirs Thursday at the Garden. Although it’d be nice to see them beat the Leafs tonight as well.

The second Hudson Battle is two hours away. Though I won’t see any of it due to a Procal Harum concert in Westbury with Dad. They’re a great 60’s group that’s part of that British wave. Should be fun.

As for tonight, the Devils look to make it two in a row. Can the newly formed Kovalchuk-Zajac-Langenbrunner line do damage? They’ll be banking on their top two lines, including Elias-Arnott-Clarkson if they want to get a ‘W’ against the visiting Rangers, who enter off a 4-1 disappointment at the hands of the Flyers. With King Henrik in net and Tort disliking his team’s effort, figure them to be ready.

It will be odd without Martin Brodeur, whose bruised elbow suffered the other night keeps him out against his favorite nemesis. Johan Hedberg gets the call. Don’t be surprised if he plays well. He has a history of stoning the Rangers. By no means will it be easy. The Devs are also without Colin White but get Anton Volchenkov back. That’s a nice trade even if White is still a good team guy who plays hard. Andy Greene notched his second in the win over the Hawks. Keep an eye on him and rookie Matt Taormina. Either Stephen Gionta– younger brother of Brian- will make his NHL debut or Patrick Davis will be in for John MacLean.

With the Rangers waiving Todd White (no shock), it looks like they’ll go with the same lineup as last night with the Boogey Man back in fresh off his scrap with one-time Ranger Jody Shelley. Unless Ruslan Fedotenko can’t go following Dan Carcillo’s hit, there won’t be any changes. Another game for Evgeny Grachev, whose size is evident. Can he provide a spark for slumping Derek Stepan? The Devils will concentrate on blanketing the Homegrown Line (Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan). With Avery-Stepan-Fedotenko broken up, there’s not much else to concern themselves with. Especially as Russian enigma Alex Frolov continues to be stuck on two goals. One player to keep an eye on is Erik Christensen, who’s been shooting more and playing better. Thus far, Dan Girardi and Michal Rozsival have been the club’s best on the blueline. Is this the game Mike Del Zotto explodes?

We’ll see. Figure it to be heated, intense and physical as well as emotional in the stands. Can’t wait to catch the replay.

The Rangers took it on the chin literally in their first meeting against the hated Flyers, falling 4-1 at Wachovia Center. So much for making a statement after how last season ended. I only caught the first period and penalties definitely hurt us. While they killed them off, only two shots were registered in a physical stanza that also saw our luck end with a couple of posts early, including a Brandon Prust try.

Being that I hungout with friends, here’s how unlucky I was. Ran into CVS for Starburst while the Rangers were on the power play starting the second. Of course, Brandon Dubinsky scored his team-leading eighth putting us ahead while I was inside. Then, as I’m picking up friends, the Flyers scored three unanswered including two from ex-Rangers Blair Betts (rebound) and what sounded like an awful goal off the stick of Russian enigma Nikolay Zherdev. Just dandy. At that point, I turned it off. It’d be sad if it weren’t so funny in a gallows sense. Haha

Obviously, I didn’t see Daniel Carcillo’s hit on Ruslan Fedotenko (seen above) but heard plenty about it from our fans over on Twitter. I’m just going to clarify that I hate Carcillo with a passion. Especially after the garbage he pulled last year with our goalie. However, I don’t feel he meant any harm. Fedotenko had his head down and got caught. Still, Carcillo left his feet and it should’ve been a penalty. How it wasn’t I don’t get. As for the debate over shoulder or elbow, I’m not sure. I’ll leave that to other bloggers from both sides.

Am I upset? A little bit. They did go toe to toe with a better club early but when you get into penalty trouble warranted or not (some claimed it was one-sided), it usually comes back to haunt you. They have to be more disciplined against the Devils tonight. Save me the excuse of a back-to-back against a rested archrival. I don’t want to hear about Anton Volchenkov even if it likely will give my fantasy team a boost. This team has proven they can win without Marian Gaborik by playing a grinding style that can frustrate opponents. They simply have to get back to that. The Rangers have been resilient thus far. Get the two points.

After starting our road trip of doom out West with a 1-4 record and with star winger Zach Parise now on the shelf for three months, the Devils were looking for something, anything to build on in Chicago before returning home for four games over the next week and a half. Amazingly, the Devils managed to score more than three goals for the first time all season in a 5-3 win against what’s left of the defending Stanley Cup champs after defections and injuries to key players like Marian Hossa.

With all of our problems this season though, my heart isn’t exactly bleeding for the Hawks. This was a game the Devils needed desperately and got under some of the most bizarre circumstances you could outline. Last night was really a tale of two or three games. In the first part, the Devils dominated and got out to a rare 2-0 lead in the second period after goals from Jason Arnott and Travis Zajac. Arnott’s goal came at 15:31 of the first on a nice bang-bang play when Patrik Elias found the centerman right in front of the goalcrease and Arnott put one past Marty Turco for his fourth goal of the season. Zajac’s goal at 4:14 of the second was only his second goal of the season and it was assisted on by Ilya Kovalchuk and Jamie Langenbrunner, primarily Kovalchuk who helped create the goal with some nice stickwork.

Barely a minute later, the nightmare scenario of our season almost became a reality as a shot from Troy Brouwer hit Martin Brodeur near the elbow and stung him badly. While Brodeur tried to continue at first, he had to drop his stick when making a save and then left the game seconds later for good with what was officially termed a ‘bruised elbow’. Even though I thought the shot was probably a stinger and it didn’t look like anything serious (x-rays showed no broken bones so that was good at least), you couldn’t help but think the worst. Especially since the last time Brodeur had a ‘bruised elbow’ he was out four months.

Just dealing with his loss last night proved to be almost an insurmountable challenge, as the stunned Devils (who were playing pretty well for the first twenty-five minutes) allowed the next ten shots on net and looked dazed and confused, as they have for much of this season. Even though Johan Hedberg was game and stopped the initial flurries – which included a breakaway save on Jack Skille – the wall came crumbling down eventually when a Brian Campbell shot deflected off of Colin White and in for the Hawks’ first, at 16:02 of the second. Chicago brought that momentum into the third period and tied it at 3:42 when Fernando Pisani scored off a bad rebound allowed by Hedberg.

Facing a potentially devastating loss on and off-ice, the Devils finally found a second wind about midway through the third period, started skating and eventually got a power play to to work with. Unfortunately the power play was still powerless as we dropped to one for our last thirty with the man disadvantage. Still, we were playing better and for maybe the first time all season caught a break when faceless fourth-liner Brad Mills took a shot that was stopped by Turco but quickly shovled the rebound in from the side of the net for an extremely unlikely – but vitally important first goal of his NHL career at 16:09, with the assists going to Langenbrunner and Kovalchuk.

After Mills’ goal, the Devils hung on for dear life until Langenbrunner’s empty-netter with fifty seconds left apparently sealed the game after assists from Elias and Zajac. I say apparently because at that point everyone – fans included – relaxed, unfortunately so did the players as Henrik Tallinder got caught up-ice and Hedberg gave up another questionable goal to Viktor Stalberg with thirty-four seconds left, again cutting our lead to one and giving us more anxious moments during the final timeout of the game until Andy Greene finally sealed it for good after another empty-netter with just eight seconds left.

Even though Hedberg gave up one or two questionable goals, he also made some very good saves and played well under trying circumstances – coming in cold, with a stunned team not doing much to help him initially – and his win last night might do a lot of good down the road. After his inital nightmare against the Sabres a few weeks back at the Rock, maybe this game restores enough confidence in the veteran to play him more often. Hopefully not on Friday though, and Brodeur did speak to the media after the game and claimed he was fine with the expectation he would make that all-important home start against the Rangers.

For the first time all season things are looking up coming off a win where we finally put a crooked number on the scoreboard, with Anton Volchenkov‘s return imminent. Although the move hasn’t been made yet, I’m pretty sure Tyler Eckford will be sent down to make room for the big, physical Russian since he played sparingly last night (less than two minutes) – to put it charitably. Having ‘only’ two rookies on our defense will be a step up for sure. Of course, since we haven’t won two in a row all season Friday’s challenge will be to keep our momentum from the big win last night.

Hopefully all the players will be in bubble wrap on the flight back to the East coast…with the way our season’s been going you just never know from where or how the next injury will be coming.

Is it possible to be astounded and yet not surprised at the same time? Those were my emotions when I got home from the movies and found out that Devils’ star winger Zach Parise is now done for the next three months after surgery was needed to repair a torn meniscus. While I wasn’t expecting something that dramatic even after the initial reports of a potentially serious knee injury, it fits in with the theme of our season.

As a sports fan your worst nightmare is to have a season blown up either in the preseason or early in the season due to key, long-term injuries. Perhaps the only time I ever felt anything comparable to the way I feel now was in 1999, when coming off a 12-4 season and AFC Championship appearance the Jets lost All-Pro QB Vinny Testaverde for the season in the first half of the first game. Other injuries followed and the Jets started 1-6 and never fully recovered, though they did rally to finish 8-8. Of course the Met season blew up in a similar haze of injuries two years ago, but that was more like a slow leak in a tire that eventually turned into a flat starting around midseason.

This total confluence of events is like nothing I’ve ever seen before though…historic underachieving by an offense that was supposed to be one of the best in team history, laughable mistakes by the defense and a frightening injury tally worthy of a Halloween horror flick. We aren’t even a month into the season and I give this team zero chance to make the playoffs. Not even .00001 percent but zero. Am I being premature? Maybe. But with our 3-9-1 start, losing our best forward for such a protracted period and so many key players strugging at this point the team really needs everything to go right just to squeeze out an eighth seed.

For starters it would be nice if the $100 million man starts living up to his contract. Not to mention our other dissapointing forwards picking it up like Patrik Elias, Jamie Langenbrunner and Travis Zajac (who has a ghastly one point in his last eleven games). Having Anton Volchenkov come back Friday should help the defense tremendously but it would be nice if fellow vets Henrik Tallinder and Andy Greene – he of the -11 after thirteen games – started playing better. If the rookies are going to make mistakes, at least the veterans better step up. It’s a given that Martin Brodeur needs to play better…but even if all that happens, you still need almost perfect health for the rest of the season to mount a surge and on a team with so many 30+ year olds who haven’t been on IR yet that’s probably too much to ask.

With still almost seventy games remaining I’m reduced to having more modest goals – for starters, a team that tries…and honestly they have (from what I’ve seen) for much of this trip other than the first two periods at the Garden. While I don’t want a full tank job, especially with some 20+ more home games to attend among the 36 remaining on the schedule, it would be nice to see the youth develop like it has been doing across the river.

That has to start with rookies like Matt Taormina and whatever other kid defenseman stands in for the injured Bryce Salvador until he returns (right now either Olivier Magnan or Tyler Eckford). If the other rookies aside from Taormina can’t hack it then get a hold-the-fort vet to fill in, god knows we have the cap space now! Not to mention forwards like the gritty Rod Pelley, who’s finding a niche as a popular fourth-liner or more skilled players like either Matthias Tedenby or Vladimir Zharkov, assuming one of them eventually gets called up to go along with Jacob Josefson whenever he comes back.

Plus we need to find out which of the vets have to go and which ones should remain as Brodeur makes one last run for the Cup next year. If Langenbrunner’s not going to be traded to shake up the core, he might ask for a mercy deal anyway as the team continues to struggle. Who knows who else of the NTC/NMC crowd (Elias, Jason Arnott, Colin White or Brian Rolston) will be persuaded to either ask for or accept a trade. This season doesn’t have to be a total loss, even if there isn’t going to be a Stanley Cup at the end of the rainbow, or even another empty division banner.

What will be key now is how Lou Lamoriello will shape this team in the coming months for not only next season but the next few years as well. Assuming Parise returns as the player of old, there’s no reason not to give him an extension before the end of the season presuming he still wants to sign one. We have to find out whether UFA-to-be Greene was a first-half fluke in the ’09-10 season or if he’s worth keeping on a multi-year, multi-million deal. If not, we might have to go shopping for the puck-moving defenseman we’ve sorely lacked in recent years. Maybe Tomas Kaberle on a short-term deal or perhaps the Canucks’ Christian Erhoff. Not to mention we have to commit to Johnny MacLean as the long-term coach, there’s no reason not to at least give him a full season and probably beyond at this point.

Yes, I know it’s way too early to be talking about next offseason already. Especially when we’re just coming off the offseason that wouldn’t end. Maybe it’s just the only way I can keep my sanity at this point. I know people want to point out that we overcame the loss of Brodeur two years ago, but with as great as Brodeur is in a post-lockout NHL it’s easier for a team to cover up for a goaltender if they play better defense and/or score more to compensate. You can’t invent offense and the 40 goals you’re missing from Zach.

No Gaborik. No problem. When the star finisher went down in the third game with a separated shoulder, panic already set in. Could the Rangers survive? Following a dreadful loss to Colorado in their first game without their offensive leader, they’ve won five of seven including a well earned 3-2 win over the Blackhawks last night.

The best aspect is how they prevailed, winning the battles in the trenches in a game that was fun to watch. Both Original 6’s played to win, attacking whenever they could. It forced Henrik Lundqvist and Marty Turco to be good with each making tough saves. Even if our goalie was busier playing the hero late, the adventurous Turco also played well, giving his team a chance. Despite boasting a ton more talent, the defending champs fell short due to their opponent’s sheer determination. While it’s true the Rangers were on their heels for a couple of nervous shifts nursing a one-goal lead, they did all the little things to prevail for just the second time on home ice.

Players sacrificed to send most of MSG aside from the assorted Hawk wagon home happy. They were a T-E-A-M in every sense, grinding it out, which is all we’ve asked for. John Tortorella’s scrappy bunch were hungry and it showed with his team more physical, outhitting the Hawks 35-18 led by frequent target Steve Eminger. Yes. While he did reach a lot, he paced the club with six hits. Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle and Ruslan Fedotenko were right behind with five apiece. Those four outhit the entire Hawk roster. Even Alex Frolov, who was stoned by Turco early, finished a check.

They laid it all on the line, getting in the path of Chicago shots and passes- making life difficult on Joel Queeneville’s group. The Rangers blocked 33 shots to the Hawks’ 15. Something that was noted in this space last night. Dan Girardi, who’s becoming the team’s best defenseman- was all over the ice blocking half a dozen. If he erred allowing the dangerous Tomas Kopecky to come in on Lundqvist, who had his teammate’s back, at least Danny G took the penalty with less than 26 seconds to spare. It’s no secret that this isn’t the best D but they played together all night. From the goal out to the hard work of forwards like Callahan, offensive star Brandon Dubinsky, two-way center Artem Anisimov, Brian Boyle and lunch pail favorite Brandon Prust, these Rangers won over the crowd with their style.

“You get in the lane and sacrifice your body for the team,” Girardi remarked. “There is no skill about it. You just get in the lane and go down.”

 “You’ve got to sacrifice yourself in order to win games, and I think that’s been the key to our success when we win games, everyone is blocking shots and making desperate plays, and that’s what good teams do to win,” Dubinsky added after scoring his team-leading sixth and seventh goals while making a diving clear to preserve the win.

This is a tough town. All New Yorkers ask for is an honest effort. Expectations aren’t through the roof despite Dolan prices in a rough economy. But what we’re seeing from our kids bodes well. Maybe they aren’t winning a championship this year. It remains to be seen if they’ll make the playoffs. However, they’re coming together without the Great Gabby, Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal. The younger Blueshirts are learning how to win the right way, borrowing a page from bitter enemies the Devils and Islanders. Well, the old Devils to be politically correct. It isn’t always pretty but doesn’t have to be. From the elder statesman Michal Rozsival who’s been here since the lockout to the youngest in Evgeny Grachev, there’s a lot to like about this group. They’re resilient as Erik Christensen demonstrated when he got the winner, responding to Patrick Kane’s tally 28 seconds later. A beautiful finish which hopefully will boost his confidence.

“That was a big-league goal he scored there,” Tortorella said. “It was huge because you could feel the air being sucked out of the building, but this gave us a second chance and we held our own after that,” Christensen mentioned.

“Everyone contributed, and the biggest strength to me is that this is a team and everybody is playing for one another,” the pleased coach accurately noted. “That’s a good thing here early in the year, and we have to keep building on it. This was a good one to win.”

Even when they break our hearts like in disappointments last week, they don’t quit. A good quality to possess much later. By now, it’s evident how they must play every night. Though he shortened his bench late, Tortorella’s message is getting through. No wonder the fiery coach has been not as edgy thus far. When you get the attention of your much more accomplished opponent with Queeneville even admitting that’s what he wants to see from his club, that speaks volumes.

“A lot of work goes into a win, especially against a good team like Chicago,” Lundqvist pointed out after coming up large with 33 saves. “Everyone pulled together [Monday] night for a great win.”

“I think we owe Hank a couple still,” praised Prust. “He saves our butts a lot, and that’s why he’s the best in the league. So it’s good to get one for him.”

It’s that kind of positive attitude that exemplifies what these Blueshirts are all about. A formula which can pay off. The chemistry is there. An exciting thing to see with new leaders developing. A great sign moving forward.

The King has reclaimed his thrown. For a third consecutive game, Henrik Lundqvist was brilliant- making 33 saves in backstopping the Rangers past the defending champion Blackhawks 3-2 at The Garden. He was especially at his best late in protecting a one-goal lead with scintillating stops which included a sliding denial with under a minute left.

It meant a rare feat with our heroes winning for only the second time at home. Their losses have come to Toronto (OT), Atlanta and Carolina. It really makes ya wonder. Especially when they turned back as talented a team in the league. Sure. They wouldn’t have stood a chance without Lundqvist, who truly was the last line of defense in a fun game his team was outshot 35-23. All that counted was the Blueshirts had the better goalie, just as in their 2-0 blanking of the Leafs Saturday. In the two wins, he’s turned aside 69 of 71. That’s what you expect from one of the game’s top five netminders. It couldn’t come at a better time with tough division road games on the horizon with bitter enemies Philadelphia and New Jersey this week.

Aside from the goalie, the club got standout performances again from Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan, who along with Russian linemate Artem Anisimov, combined for two of the three goals. Dubinsky scored his team-leading sixth and seventh while Callahan and Anisimov each had a pair of helpers. Without the Homegrown Line, they would be sunk. The good news is that Marian Gaborik began skating and isn’t too far away. Perhaps his return could be what the doctor ordered for MIA Alex Frolov, who again wasted tons of ice-time playing mostly on the perimeter. Given how well Evgeny Grachev, Derek Stepan and Todd White played on what was the fourth line, it’s hard to get why John Tortorella stopped rolling all four.

The strategy made no sense. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of tired shifts from our forwards while the fresher Hawks had us pinned in for what felt like an eternity. Or the 56 years it took my Dad’s baseball team, the NY/San Francisco Giants to win another World Series. Congrats to him and all the fans who grew up idolizing Mays and Marichal at the Polo Grounds. Despite some scary moments, the Rangers fought for every inch of ice against a Hawk club that’s just not up to speed. In a cap era, it’s not easy when you lose key cogs like Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Kris Versteeg and Ben Eager. The lack of grit was evident. No coincidence that both Chicago goals came in the trenches. The skill of Jonathan Toews, goalscorer Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp was there but they couldn’t get the puck past Lundqvist without traffic.

The guys in the classic home white and red jerseys with the cool Hawk logo controlled much of the first, outshooting the Rangers 13-7. However, the best they could do was a Tomas Kopecky redirect of a Duncan Keith shot for a power play goal at 17:13. The once little used fourth liner has been one of the bright spots and was in Lundqvist’s face all night. With Erik Christensen off for high-sticking, Kopecky deflected Keith’s blast home for the lead. Sharp got a secondary assist. Before they got comfortable, the Broadway hosts responded in the final shift of the period thanks to the Homegrown Line. Callahan started it but Dubinsky finished off his sixth from in front, steering a loose puck past Marty Turco at 19:39.

Neither Original Six budged in a good second that saw both goalies stand tall. The Rangers were better, generating scoring chances off the cycle with splendid work done by Grachev, who had his best game. On one shift in particular, the 20 year-old Russian rookie forced a turnover that nearly led to a goal. Too bad Frolov was the shooter. Anything he shoots turns to rubber. Brian Boyle also turned in another solid game along with Sean Avery. Hell. Boyle almost pulled off a toe drag but couldn’t quite get the puck past a Chicago defender. Had he finished it off, that would’ve been sick. He sure is a different player.

Each club took only one penalty in the seesaw period that saw us hold a 10-8 SOG edge. The Rangers easily killed off an Avery delay of game for batting the puck out. It was an accident just like a few nights ago with Michal Rozsival. That rule really needs to be adjusted. It should be more on interpretation. Especially in such instances. It’s ridiculous if a call like that decides an outcome. The way this league’s run, no wonder Bettman is mocked when we go. At least it was killed. As they did in the first, the Rangers came on at the end, forcing Keith into a hooking minor with 21 seconds remaining. Dubinsky made him pay after intermission when he took a great Callahan feed and went top shelf on Turco for his seventh 55 seconds into the third.

Up one for the first time, they pushed for another but Turco kept his team afloat. Eventually, the Hawks tilted the ice, making life difficult on Lundqvist. It was going to take plenty to beat him again. A great backcheck by Toews resulted in Kane’s equalizer. The Chicago captain stole the puck from Dubinsky and then worked the puck around to Keith, who fed Kane. His quick shot from a sharp angle with Troy Brouwer in front surprised Lundqvist, sending Chicago supporters into a premature celebration. There was one arrogant fan who stood up for as long as possible in our section, drawing even a ‘Sit down’ from me. I hate fans like that. You want to cheer when your team scores, fine. But don’t keep standing there in front of us when play’s continuing.

As fate had it, he got what he deserved. On the very next shift, a brutal turnover led to Christensen scoring his second just 28 ticks later. Mike Del Zotto pounced on the loose puck and fed Brandon Prust, who was strong throughout. The spark plug wasted no time dishing off to Christensen, who cut to the left and fired a perfect laser upstairs. At the time, I was mentioning how he really needed one. Like Johnny on the spot, Christy must’ve heard me from 411. Good thing too cause everyone was joking about how they never win here.

It didn’t come easy. They killed off a bench minor for too many men and then withstood a Blackhawk onslaught the last eight minutes. But even in a period where they got half a dozen shots as compared to our opponent’s 14, the Blueshirts competed. They forced Chicago to the perimeter and got their jerseys dirty, blocking 33 shots. Of course, the next captain Callahan was responsible for six including an amazing sprawling stop late in the second that hobbled him. He didn’t miss a shift. Cally also came back hard to deny a pointblank opportunity, checking a Hawk in front before clearing the puck.

On a night he increased his point streak to seven (4-7-11) two days after scoring a beautiful penalty shot in Toronto, enough can’t be said about the 25 year-old Rochester native. There’s nothing he won’t do to win. No wonder he’s my favorite Ranger along with Tweep sarcasmpucktail, who I briefly chatted with between periods. She donned the jersey of her favorite player and also got to meet him afterwards. Not bad.

Dan Girardi, who again stood out defensively also blocked half a dozen- getting help from Rozsival (4) and Anisimov (4). In fact, 13 of the 18 skaters dressed got on the stat sheet. By comparison, the Hawks only had 15, meaning three of our players blocked more. That desire to do anything possible was the difference along with Lundqvist, who saved his best for last, robbing Kopecky from in front. Amazingly, he did it again on him when Girardi fanned on a puck, forcing him to take a penalty with under 26 seconds to go. However, the hustle of our PK helped clear the front of the net and then a sliding Dubinsky got the puck out ensuring a well earned victory.

3rd Star-Ryan Callahan, NYR (2 assists extending to 7-gm Pt streak (4-7-11), 6 blocked shots, 5 hits in 19:50)
2nd Star-Brandon Dubinsky, NYR (2 goals-6th, 7th, 3 hits, 9-3 draws in 22:02)
1st Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (33 saves, incl.13/14 in 3rd)

I haven’t watched much of tonight’s game, which has the Devils in a familiar position – behind 2-0 on the road – this time at Vancouver after two periods because sad to say I almost forgot it was coming on while I was watching the end of the Giants’ World Series game (and triumph). Not like I missed much though, I saw the highlights of Matt Taormina blowing a tire behind the net leading to the Canucks’ first goal which was helped by Jannick Hansen knocking the goalstick out of Martin Brodeur‘s hand. No goaltender interference was called on that one, but of course it got called on David Clarkson when he finally went to the net in the second period and while there was contact with his skate and Roberto Luongo‘s pad it looked like a tacky call at best. If that was goaltender interference, then so was Tuomo Ruutu‘s in the playoffs two years ago…but I digress.

To add injury to insult, the Devils received word today on two more walking wounded. Zach Parise will have arthroscopic knee surgery soon and a timetable for his return is unknown. And somewhat surprisingly it turns out teen center Jacob Josefson has a torn ligament in his thumb and will also be out 6-8 weeks. Including Brian Rolston who’s rehabbing from a sports hernia, the Devils now have three top nine forwards and two top six defensemen on the shelf (Anton Volchenkov and Bryce Salvador) to go along with fellow d-men Matt Corrente, Mark Fraser and Anssi Salmela.

So basically that’s five starters and three depth players (all on defense) that are now out of the lineup, and when you add to that all of the changes we made this offseason to begin with, well you have an utter lack of chemistry and total confusion on the ice that we’ve seen so far this season in what now looks like a 3-9-1 beginning. What’s worse, it doesn’t seem like the coaching staff has been able to outline any sort of plan to get out of this hole. For someone who’s been a part of the staff almost a decade, Johnny MacLean has the look of Larry Robinson circa 2006 – dazed, confused and out of answers. And what, exactly has Adam Oates added to the power play? If anything it might actually be worse from last season’s dreadful second-half power play and I didn’t think that was possible.

And just as things are looking darkest, teams all over the league can’t wait to mock us after our years of success. Astonishingly enough, one of the biggest jabs came from Kings management over the weekend when they put a couple of different cards (both mocking the Ilya Kovalchuk signing) in the bathroom toilets at Staples Center including the one listed above, courtesy of PuckDaddy. If for a moment we ignore how crazy the Kings management and fans both went this summer because they wanted him…to answer the rhetorical question, right now things aren’t working out. Kovy’s averaging under .5 PPG so far this season, a ghastly total for a guy with his skills.

Yes, we have other underachievers right now but when you spend a whole summer trying to sign a guy, finally sign him too a nine-figure contract and expect him to be the marketing face of your franchise well…the honeymoon period’s going to end sooner or later if you don’t produce and it might end Friday when the Devils finally limp home after a predictably horrible trip that concludes Wednesday in Chicago. Not to mention Kovy’s hardly had an off-ice impact so far as the Devils are among the bottom third in the league in attendance with four subpar crowds after an Opening Night sellout.

While Lou Lamoriello himself is not getting paid as much as his star winger, he does have a high standard to uphold and having a proud franchise look so discombobulated has to be affecting the GM. If there is a next move to be made before this season spirals totally out of control Lou’d better make it soon – unless by now he’s concluded that with the state of our defense and how filled up our trainer’s room is getting with the IR group there really isn’t a lot that can be done to improve the team.

And yet we do have talent here, talent that should not have only seven points after thirteen games scoring under two goals a game. Therein lies the rub, while in one respect you have to live with the rookie mistakes on D until help arrives (supposedly Volchenkov will be back by Friday), the hugely disspointing offense shouldn’t be tolerated but it’s much harder to make a move there with all the big money contracts and NTC/NMC’s. Will he give in to public pressure and sack Johnny Mac? If so, that shouldn’t be the first option. Let some of these players come back and maybe make a trade or two before you make what’s literally the most unstable job in sports even more so.

Figures that while I’ve been typing this nothing’s happened during the third and it’s still a 2-0 game late. It’s to the point where we’re even looking at moral victories for not getting blown out in these games and outshooting the Kings the other night but like NFL coach Bill Parcells always said, you are what your record says you are…and right now we’re the worst team in the league. Just as I’m wrapping this article up, Colin White‘s trip of Henrik Sedin leads to a penalty shot – which the talented center converts. 3-0 – game over, good night.

Things went from bad to worse for the Devils. During their latest defeat by a count of 3-1 to the Kings, homegrown star wing Zach Parise left the game with an injury following a collision with LA wing Kyle Clifford with 3:40 left in the second period. As WFAN radio tandem Matt Loughlin and Sherry Ross updated in the postgame, it’s being termed a “lower body” injury.

Parise immediately flew back to New Jersey to be examined by team doctors. It could be potentially serious with it being a knee injury. Hopefully for No.9 and the Devils, they’ll get more encouraging news.

“I didn’t see him come out for the third. Hopefully it’s nothing major,” linemate Travis Zajac told The Ledger’s Rich Chere. “Right now is not the time to lose a player like that.“

Throughout a seven-year career, the ’03 first round gem has been one of the most durable players in the league, only missing three games while becoming an All-Star. Arguably the best American, he became a folk hero with his dramatic tying goal that forced sudden death against Canada in the Vancouver Olympics. Even though Sidney Crosby broke USA hearts, the clutch goal along with a virtuoso performance in the tournament put Zach Attack on the radar. It followed up a breakout ’08-09 season in which he established career bests in goals (45), assists (49), points (94), plus/minus (30), power play goals (14), power play points (30), shorthanded points (3), shots on goal (364) and matched his previous high in game-winners (8).

In 12 games this season including tonight, Parise was 3-3-6. Under first-year coach John MacLean, the team’s struggled to find chemistry despite having Ilya Kovalchuk signed long-term along with ’00 Cup hero Jason Arnott reunited with Patrik Elias. Regrettably, the Minnesota native entered Saturday tied with Arnott and Kovalchuk for the club lead in goals. After getting Jamie Langenbrunner’s first and Elias’ second in a 2-1 win over Anaheim Friday, they only got one against Jon Quick despite outshooting LA 20-4 in the third minus Parise. Surprise rookie defenseman Matt Taormina notched the only marker, putting him into a share of the lead with three. Before the Devils could attempt tying a game they trailed by two, Jarret Stoll scored 24 seconds later.

The Devils fell to 1-3-0 on the six-game trip with a pair of tough games against Vancouver tomorrow and defending Cup champ Chicago Wednesday. When they finally return home, the Rangers will be waiting for them.

Losing Parise for any stretch would be a crusher. Especially since he’s a tireless worker who combines his speed and skill along with a great work ethic that makes him a fan favorite. The Devils are also still without defenseman Anton Volchenkov, who sat out a 10th straight game with a broken nose. He has begun skating and could return soon. They’re probably holding the gritty ex-Senator out until the November 5 game versus the Blueshirts.

In the mean time, it’ll be up to Kovalchuk who again was held off the board and booed roundly by Staples Center to pick up the slack. The electrifying Russian superstar finished with only two shots along with a minus-one rating in 20:18. It’ll take a total team effort for New Jersey to turn it around. They’ll enter Monday’s contest at Vancouver with an East worst 3-8-1 mark for eight points, trailing only other Battle disappointment Buffalo who fell yet again 4-zip at Dallas.

As noted NJD blogger Hasan might say, something has to give.