Battle Of Hudson

The Sabres’ woes continued at the hands of bitter rival Boston, who edged them in a shootout prevailing 3-2 at HSBC Arena tonight. David Krejci snapped a 1-1 tie in Round Four to give the B’s their second consecutive win, tying the idle Flyers in points (61). However, they remained in ninth due to one more game played. Not bad considering Claude Julien’s club had just ended a 10-game losing streak the other day.

Boston got superb goaltending for a second game in a row from rookie Tuukka Rask, who finished with a career high 43 saves and turned aside three of four Sabre shooters. Perhaps he’s finally supplanted last year’s Vezina winner Tim Thomas, who’s been up and down all season. The 22 year-old Finn who posted a shutout to get his first win since 12/30/09- bested Ryan Miller (32 saves), who did all he could to allow his team to rally from a two-goal deficit. He allowed a pair of first period goals to former Sabre Daniel Paille, who played a big role in beating his former ‘mates. Paille scored on a wraparound 4:51 in from Marc Savard and another ex-Sabre Miro Satan. Just over seven minutes later, he burned Buffalo again by neatly deflecting home booing target Zdeno Chara’s left point shot for his ninth. Derek Morris added a secondary helper.

Despite outshooting Boston 17-11 in the first, Buffalo trailed 2-zip. That didn’t deter them from coming out with a strong second to get the game tied. The Sabres took eight of the first nine shots, forcing Rask to come up with some tough saves. They couldn’t beat him until a two-man advantage, which Derek Roy cashed in for his 13th at 4:35 to cut it to 2-1. After some sloppy passing, a nice pass play was started by Tim Connolly, who dished across for Jason Pominville who quickly fed Roy in the slot for a blast that went top shelf. It came following a scrap between Craig Rivet and Milan Lucic with the Bruin antagonist getting an extra two for a hook. A Steve Begin hold less than a minute later allowed Buffalo the opportunity to get back in it which they did on Roy’s sixth PPG.

With the Sabres upping the ante, it got heated when Paul Gaustad’s challenge was turned down by Chara, earning the Goose an unsportsmanlike minor. The fact the towering Boston captain backed down was yet another example of why the instigator needs to go. He certainly can throw ’em but opted to say no, earning a power play which Buffalo killed off. Rookie Tyler Myers tied it with 75 seconds left bringing the crowd to their feet by taking a Gaustad feed and beating Rask with a wrister for his eighth. He’d later leave the game late in regulation following a blocked shot taken to the neck but skated off on his own.

Though they outshot the B’s 12-8 in a very exciting third that saw both teams go for it, Boston had the better chances but couldn’t beat Miller who wasn’t allowing anymore at least during the hockey portion. However, Rask was every bit as good forcing it to overtime where both netminders made great stops. On the first shift, Miller slid across to his right to deny a two-on-one. But Rask cameback with two tough stops through traffic including a rebound he got with his goalstick. The Bruins couldn’t cash in on a 4-on-3 power play drawn by Michael Ryder with Miller turning away Dennis Wideman twice and the Buffalo PK doing the rest. Before time expired, Wideman sent one more shot on Miller which he repelled taking it to the shootout.

In Round One, Pominville (five-hole) and Marco Sturm (forehand deke shortside) traded goals. Nobody scored in the next two frames sending it to extras where Rask stoned Drew Stafford setting the stage for Krejci to be the hero. He obliged by beating Miller with a quick snapper handing Buffalo a fifth straight defeat. With the point, the Sabres remained atop the Northeast due to two fewer games played than Ottawa, who cameback from two to post a 3-2 home win over Calgary. Both clubs have 72 points.

3rd Star-Daniel Paille, Bos (2 goals versus former team)
2nd Star-Ryan Miller, Buf (32 saves)
1st Star-Tuukka Rask, Bos (career high 43 saves, stopped 3 of 4 shooters for 2nd win in row)

In the Devils’ 3-2 loss to the Flyers, what will get plenty of attention is Jeff Carter’s hit that injured defenseman Anssi Salmela after he scored shorthanded 61 seconds into the second period. In reviewing it, the first angle looked worse with him catching the reacquired D a little late after he’d released the puck.

The debate is whether it was cheap. In Carter’s defense, he was coming hard on the backcheck and seemed to be making a hockey play. However, it doesn’t look good. Especially on a team synonymous for these types of hits. Mike Richards had one earlier on David Booth who was concussed and finally just returned. Fortunately, Salmela, who was taken off on a stretcher only suffered a fractured broken nose and some missing teeth. Good news for the Devils, whose blueline was weakened in the Ilya Kovalchuk deal. Puck Daddy’s Sean Leahy has more on the controversial play.

During the second period with the Devils leading the Flyers 2-0 and seemingly in control Joe Beninati (announcing the game on VERSUS with ex-Flyer Keith Jones) stated how the Devils become like a boa constrictor with a lead and generally praised our defensive work as well as Jacques Lemaire‘s coaching. Joe, have you watched this team over the last month? In particular the last week where the Devils had blown two two-goal leads?!

Well, make it three now as the Devils piled up yet another embarrassing, ignominious defeat losing 3-2 to the Flyers in Philadelphia in yet another game that shows how this team has had no guts for three straight years now. It wasn’t even just blowing the lead which entailed giving up two goals in the final two minutes of the second period and a third-period power play goal where our slow skaters were once again stuck on the ice while the speedy Flyers danced around them all night. It’s really become tiresome to bag on the Devils’ defense, which clearly isn’t any good. And tonight Martin Brodeur couldn’t be blamed on any of the goals at all.

Still, what irked me the most about this game was early in the second period. After Zach Parise’s fluke power play goal off of Chris Pronger‘s skate gave the Devils a 1-0 lead in the first period – and more shockingly a power play goal! – the Devils were shorthanded to begin the second period. That proved to be no problem when Anssi Salmela channeled Bobby Orr with a great rush from center ice, deking out Mike Richards and beating Michael Leighton with a wrister at 1:01…just before he got blindsided by the Flyers’ Jeff Carter, leaving Salmela prone on the ice for five minutes being taken off on a stretcher, the second Devils’ player in the last month to leave a game that way.

Unlike Ryan Wilson‘s hit on Patrik Elias though, I didn’t think this one was totally clean. Yes, I grant that Salmela had his head down but Carter also went out of his way to target it from behind, when Salmela was close to the goal in a situation where you really should be playing the puck or the pass unless your intent is to injure. Plus his elbow moved big-time after the hit though you couldn’t actually tell from the replay whether his elbow or shoulder made the contact. I didn’t even think it was a particularly late hit even though the puck was in the net by the time Carter clocked the Devils’ defenseman (who’s been a revelation in his three games back with the team). Still, I thought the Devils should have made Carter answer the bell the way they did Wilson after a totally clean hit when Mark Fraser challenged him. Nobody so much as touched Carter the remainder of the game, even though earlier on Bryce Salvador had no problem dropping them with Daniel Carcillo after hitting the Flyers’ winger along the boards.

Makes you wonder about the logic of dressing two supposed fighters (as Lemaire did for a third straight game), when neither actually play hockey or fight. Andrew Peters had a grand total of forty-two seconds of icetime, this time without the excuse of shedding his uniform and getting ejected. Plus without Salmela in the lineup – early word is he fractured his nose and lost several teeth – Lemaire leaned even more on the slow and slower defensive tandem of Colin White and Mike Mottau. The scary part is that Andy Greene was the only mobile defenseman left in the lineup without Salmela, so it’s not like he could play all sixty minutes.

Of course, our familiar woes came back to bite us once again. Our ineffective power play was just one for seven, even though the undisciplined Flyers gave us as many opportunities as we usually get in a week. Parise’s 26th goal, at 7:00 of the first period was by his own admission pure luck, with Patrik Elias and Greene getting assists. Salmela’s shorthanded goal sixty-one seconds into the middle period was assisted by Travis Zajac (who actually led the team in icetime with 25:21) and Jamie Langenbrunner, who again looked like he should have been in a sickbed despite the secondary assist. After that however, the offense fired blanks against the Flyers’ second string goaltender and despite giving up their fair share of shots the defense still had control of the game with about two minutes left in the second period.

Then the roof caved in once again. A typically lazy shift by Brian Rolston and Rob Niedermayer (guess it runs in the family, eh?) led to the Flyers getting a chance, with James Van Riemsdyk somehow beating Martin Brodeur one-on-four by using Greene as a screen in front for a wrister that got the Flyers going at 18:24. Just seventy-two seconds later came the tying goal when Scott Hartnell and the aforementioned Carter got a two-on-one with Mottau as the one defenseman. Mismatch much? To add insult to injury, Mottau couldn’t prevent Hartnell’s pass to Carter and he completed a productive second period with a knockout at the beginning that completely changed our defense and a devastating goal at the end. I said game over at that point.

Indeed it was although it took the Flyers a while to actually get the winning goal in the third, and they had to kill off another power play first which was an easy task against us of course. Having Ilya Kovalchuk play entire power plays doesn’t help, especially when he can’t rush the puck up ice because he’s conserving energy (and when he does carry the puck in he does it very well) although what happened to Lemaire’s supposed special teams genius?! His Wild units always were among the top PP and PK units in the league even with mediocre offensive talent overall, but the Devils’ PP has been an unmitigated disaster since the New Year, with or without Lou Lamoriello‘s latest acquisition – who’s been pointless in two straight and has actually been outplayed by the less heralded import from the Thrashers…Salmela.

After another ineffective power play came another powerless penalty kill. Or more accurately slow, slower and slowest struck again as the White-Mottau defensive pairing of hell and the just as slow forward tandem of Jay Pandolfo and Niedermayer all looked like they were standing still as the Flyers expertly and quickly passed the puck around, finally resulting in a Richards goal at 12:02. Even after the Flyers finally took the lead, there were still more ignominies to come. Leighton robbed Elias late in the period and after a final boarding penalty by Kimmo Timonen with just 1:52 remaining, the Devils couldn’t even get quality chances on that power play. Even after pulling Brodeur with about a minute remaining for an extra attacker, with Kovalchuk narrowly missing the net just before the horn sounded on another head-banging Devils defeat.

I’m getting really tired of these post-mortems. The good news is the Devils go back home Wednesday and I plan on being in attendance. Our home games with me in the stands have been about the only times we’ve won in the last few weeks (14-1 since early November to be exact). The bad news is we’re supposed to get another storm of all storms on Wednesday so me and my friend might get snowed in. And worse, this team has shown almost no signs of life at all over the last month plus now, even after the trade to end all trades. What’s next to spark the team? Lemaire’s not getting fired, he and Lamoriello are too alike in the way they think although usually a coach firing is the next step for our GM.

Apparently all that’s left is to hope the team comes back from the Olympics recharged, but with Brodeur, Parise, Langenbrunner, Elias and Kovalchuk all playing in Vancouver that’s a mixed bag. There’s no time for Lamoriello to see how the team will gel post-Olympics since the trade deadline is literally days after the players get back in March. If I was going to point to one bright spot? For years I’ve been complaining how the Devils go balls to the wall in situations where they really don’t have to and aside from the usual overplaying of Brodeur, really they’ve taken off since the end of December for the most part. Even our few wins have been sloppy. Maybe this is our year to coast for a while, like the Pens did until February last year and then turn it on in the playoffs?

Of course I could just be reaching and we’re really at Defcon One…
BoNY Three Stars:

1. Jeff Carter (goal)
2. Mike Richards (goal, -1)
3. Martin Brodeur (34/37 saves)

Who needs the Super Bowl when you got the best two players in the sport and their respective teams going at it in what was a classic. Or as Doc Emrick justifiably noted along with NBC sidekicks Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury, this was a playoff game played between the Penguins and Capitals who didn’t give an inch. The amazing aspect of Alex Ovechkin’s Caps’ riveting come from behind 5-4 overtime win over Sidney Crosby’s Pens is I only caught the tail end after missing the opening 40, signifying how special both were and how truly blessed we are to have these guys playing our game.

I’ll readily admit that I thought it was a bit much with heavy snow making travel so hectic for the Pens that they had to alter plans just to get there so the NBC noon game could go on as scheduled. However, big props to the NHL for getting this one right because this was spectacular. On Super Bowl Sunday, I just wonder how well they did ratings-wise. It’s the kind of game that can really attract new fans, scoring big for the league. If only hockey drew better than their beloved golf which they immediately cut to following the exciting conclusion that saw a nicked up Ovechkin rifle one off the post that Mike Knuble swept home for the winner that extended Washington’s win streak to 14. Three shy of the league mark ironically held by the Pens (March 9-April 10, 1993).

How well are the Caps playing? Against the defending champs who ended their season last year, they climbed out of a 4-1 hole to keep the streak alive. The Pens built the lead thanks to a first period pair from Crosby, who with No.’s 38 & 39 matched his career high set back in his rookie year (’05-06). Sandwiched around Jordan Staal’s deuce, Ovechkin scored the first of three. Despite missing nine games, the electrifying Russian leads the league with 42 goals, 86 points and a +41 rating. Entering his fifth season, he was only a career plus-19. As great as Sid The Kid is playing along with Henrik Sedin, it looks like Ovie could become the first player to win the Hart three straight years since The Great One, who won a record eight straight (’79-80 thru ’86-87). Wayne Gretzky owns a record nine MVPs. Amazingly, Super Mario won just three.

Still trailing late in the second, one of the Caps’ role players Eric Fehr put home his own rebound slicing it to two. Ovechkin took over from there scoring twice and setting up Knuble’s power play decider. He started it by whistling a backhand rebound past Marc-Andre Fleury at 6:51 from Tom “Orr” Poti and best kept secret Nicklas Backstrom. With the crowd going nuts as furious action went end to end, Ovechkin took an innocent hit to the hip that bothered him. With Emrick and Co. noting that something was wrong after he limped off the bench for a shift, Alexander The Great silenced the trio by getting his hat trick off a faceoff, sending a plethora of hats onto the ice.

Following the delay which probably irked Crosby (flashback reference), an absolutely dreadful call by ref Tim Peel– who somehow confused a composite plastic stick break into a Jeff Schultz phantom slash- handed the Pens a power play. However, they couldn’t take advantage of the break thanks to a couple of big saves from Jose Theodore and some strong penalty killing, especially Matt Bradley. Pittsburgh still got momentum off it generating a few chances with Evgeni Malkin dangerous. Theodore quietly made a few timely stops to force OT.

In it, nothing was decided until Brooks Orpik foolishly high-sticked Alexander Semin, handing the Caps the only chance they needed to end it. Off a faceoff win, Backstrom patiently passed to Mike Green who dished across for an Ovechkin sizzler which rang off the post and right to Knuble, who earlier took a Fleury whack but still steered home his 21st with 2:21 remaining. It sent the packed home crowd into a frenzy and touched off a celebration as Washington continued to roll. Their 41 wins and 88 points pace the league. Three better than West-leading San Jose. The only question is can they bring home the franchise’s first Stanley Cup with Theodore (31 saves) sharing the load with rooks Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth. While Varlamov remains out, both Theodore and Neuvirth have held down the forte. What happens when he returns? Guess that’s for Bruce Boudreau to decide. Regardless, they’re going to be a handful to beat in a seven-game series.

The Super Bowl is a couple of hours away between the Saints and Colts. But at least in our book, the real one already took place. America. Please take note.

3rd Star-Mike Knuble, Wsh (PP OT winner, assist, 17 PIM)
2nd Star-Sidney Crosby, Pit (2 goals-38th and 39th tie career high)
1st Star-Alexander Ovechkin, Wsh (hat trick-league leading 40, 41, 42 plus assist)

For two weeks during what’s been a poor stretch that saw his struggling team drop seven of eight entering tonight, Henrik Lundqvist had also been substandard, bringing a six-game losing streak into the latest installment of the Battle Of Hudson. However, with his favorite opponent staring across in the other goal, he transformed from Queen Henry to King Henrik in backstopping the Rangers past the Devils 3-1 at what was a chaotic MSG atmosphere.

If it’s true I didn’t have any confidence headed into this game due to the Devs’ big addition Anssi Salmela Ilya Kovalchuk, perhaps I overlooked our goalie’s history versus the great opposite No.30 Martin Brodeur. We all get how great MB30 is with almost every record plus the hardware (3 Cups, 4 Vezinas, Olympic gold which Henrik also has). We also fully grasp how intense this rivalry is bringing out the best in our flawed roster against one of the East’s top contenders for Lord Stanley. Especially with Ranger killer Patrik Elias coincidentally returning. Whenever he faces the guys wearing white, black and Satanic red, Lundqvist elevates his game to where it should be for his hefty salary ($6.875 million). Saturday was no different with the 27 year-old Swede finishing with 41 saves, including 19 of 20 in a predictable late Devil onslaught.

“I just tried to battle the last two weeks,” explained the winning netminder who improved to 17-6-5 all-time versus the Devils. “I have been working hard. It was an intense game, fun to play in and big relief to get a win at home. It is a big one for us to get, in a lot of ways.”

“Their goalie was great,” Devil coach Jacques Lemaire said after having no qualms with his club’s effort even if they were a little exposed in a dreadful second period. “He was there at the right moments. When there were great chances, he made the save.”

Unlike Thursday’s ugly line (6 GA on 32 shots) in which he couldn’t make the big save against a scary Caps’ team, Lundqvist found his ‘A’ game turning Devil after Devil away while his team settled down from a shaky start. It wasn’t shocking to see the Devils come out quickly. Especially off such a miraculous comeback Friday victimizing Toronto. With Elias finally back from a concussion after missing 10 games, Lemaire loaded up his top two lines, reforming ZZ Popp while sandwiching Dainius Zubrus between Elias and Kovalchuk. They had the Rangers on their heels getting seven of the game’s first nine shots. However, they couldn’t beat Lundqvist. Shots wound up 10-7 with the Blueshirts coming on late, missing a few chances on a jittery Brodeur who left rebounds.

In between, it certainly didn’t lack entertainment from the all too predictable brutal officiating on both sides (missed hi-stick, phantom call, 3 missed bench minors) to a couple of fun scraps between Devil heavy Andrew Peters and newly acquired Brandon Prust. Facing a mountain of a man, Prust did alright even throwing down Peters in the rematch. The ex-Sabre has come under criticism (from Hasan and plenty of Devil worshippers) for being a slug. Basically, he’s their Donald Brashear. At least, he fought twice but still took an undisciplined misconduct during the second fight.

If there was a pivotal moment, Lundqvist’s glove save on two bit Devil scrub Rob Niedermayer shorthanded in the final minute could be classified as that. Even if he stinks, it was a quality chance with the game still scoreless. Henrik was just getting warmed up, later flat out robbing Peters of all people with a quick glove following a Sean Avery turnover. It’s no secret that our goalie’s biggest weakness is high glove and the Devils tried, tried and tried to expose it. It would be a theme all night.

The Rangers got into early penalty trouble in the second with Jokinen (hook) and Tinman (delay of game which douche stood and cheered) handing the Devs a great opportunity to go ahead. With only 16 seconds of a five-on-three, Lemaire predictably took his timeout. However, it backfired when frequent Hasan target Brian Rolston failed to keep the puck in. Instead, the Ranger PK killed the remaining minor and swung the momentum. Before Niedermayer hooked one of our players, they finally started attacking with in particular, the Brandon Dubinsky-Jokinen-Ryan Callahan line wreaking havoc. In just their second game together, they dominated shifts utilizing their size and speed to generate opportunities.

After failing miserably on two power plays in which the shorthanded Devs forced Lundqvist to make a couple of tough stops, the Blueshirts finally struck thanks to a brilliant Mike Del Zotto seam pass which led directly to Marian Gaborik’s team high 35th. In front of his net, he threaded the needle to Callahan, who cruised down the right wing before dishing back to the 19 year-old freshman at the right point. Instead of shooting, he passed down low for Callahan, who then dished across for an easy Gaborik tap-in. Tic-tac-toe. Ranger goal. It was the fifth PPG over two games.

Carrying momentum, they made it two straight only 56 ticks later thanks to a great individual effort from true captain Callahan, who stripped Mike Mottau of the puck and then fired past Brodeur unassisted for his 15th. With a crowd that featured plenty of Devil jerseys mixed in suddenly getting on favorite target, “Marrrrrrtttty, Marrrrrrtttty, Marrrrrtttty,” Lemaire made a strange decision sending his fourth line out versus the Ranger one that still featured Chris Drury. He may be a shell of the player, but is still better than anyone the Devils had out. Perhaps, the vet coach outsmarted himself thinking Peters could have Round Three with Prust which would’ve gotten both tossed. Wouldn’t you know it? It blew up with Drury making him pay by scoring his ninth from an effective Matt Gilroy- who played one of his better games- and Prust, who earned his first point as a Ranger.

“Obviously, everybody in the room gets pretty jacked up playing against the Devils,” Callahan noted. “I think Hank was. When you know he is on his game, we’re going to have a great chance to win. It was uplifting to see Hank play like that.”

Suddenly, they led 3-zip striking for all three in 2:39. New Jersey had played the night before and looked a little lagged, losing battles. A little shell shocked, they then allowed a clean Dubinsky breakaway. With the place ready to explode, he couldn’t beat Brodeur, who just got a piece of it. Look. They scored five the other night and already had three in un-Rangeresque fashion. You didn’t expect to really run away from the Devils. These games are never over. So, when they couldn’t reach four, I knew the third would be like a Chinese fire drill.

Sure enough, New Jersey controlled most of it outshooting the Rangers by a dozen (20-8). Yes. John Tortorella sat back a little too much. But when opportunities arose, they still forechecked with the aforementioned Dubi-Jokester-Cally line putting together a whale of a shift that lasted almost 90 seconds to cheers. When they weren’t out, the ice was tilted with our Hostess Twinkie D finally remembering who they were. Well, it was a combo. The Devils kept firing on Lundqvist from every angle but he kept turning them away, making a few more large saves including a gem on Mottau, who had one labeled. Just amazing stuff. Of course, I didn’t play him figuring Marty and the Devs would prevail. When he wasn’t robbing unlikely targets, Henrik was plenty good enough to deny Kovalchuk (8 SOG), Elias, Langenbrunner and Zach Parise. The dangerous quartet combined for nearly half (20 of 41) their total.

In a game where he deserved his third shutout, it wasn’t to be as Zubrus ended the bid when he took an Elias feed in the slot and beat Lundqvist at 11:11, cutting it to 3-1 with lots of hockey left. As normally happens, the pesky Devils swarmed his crease trying everything to pull off another miracle. But our goalie ain’t Jonas Gustavsson. Oddly enough, with Jiggy getting a second consecutive shutout in a Leaf 5-0 pasting of the Sens, you wonder why Ron Wilson didn’t start him Friday. The Leafs’ win in fitting tribute to Brendan Burke has them and the Candy Canes only 10 out. Could that extra two prove costly? Speaking of Burke, why didn’t the Rangers have a moment of silence? No class.

Still up two, the Rangers were pretty disciplined. While they continued to lead, the douche in our section wearing a second rate blank Devil jersey continued to talk smack, using the lame “3 Cups” and “9th/10th seed” crap. If we hadn’t made the postseason the past four years, fine. We know our team sucks. I don’t know about other fans but our section has some of the most knowledgable/passionate fans who get it. This is a very flawed roster which needs fixing. Aside from the penalties, Jokinen has looked good. In the four years this team’s seen the Spring, they’ve advanced to the second round twice with the only shot blown by Tom Renney at the end of Game Five versus Buffalo. Anyone with a clue realizes that making the playoffs is counterproductive because it allows Dolan to believe it’s a success. The East blows! Plus if they get in, it lets Slats off the hook for the upteenth time. So, talking redundant crap doesn’t bother us because unlike Kool Aid drinkers like Joe Micheletti (fyi that ‘Shuddup Micheletti chant in 409 was epic), we’re thinking Big Picture. I only want to make it if we can seriously compete for the hardware. Hopefully, Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Ryan McDonagh and Evgeny Grachev continue to develop. A word of advice for Spicoli who probably couldn’t name half the ’03 Devil roster. Next time, find better material. When you don’t even know ‘your team‘ has won the same amount of series post-lockout, you’re a fraud.

Now, to the Avery/Kovalchuk shenanigans. It’s already been discussed at length on Twitter and I had a friendly debate with @stevelepore over the matter. Apparently, @seanaverydotcom talked smack to the former Hotlanta star who lost his cool shoving his stick into him. A repeat offence also done during a first round sweep in 2007. Both received matching double minors (roughing) with 2:16 left, meaning Avery did his job. Look. We know he tries to goad opponents. Unlike Brodeur in the 1-0 epic last time out, Kovalchuk admittedly lost discipline then throwing punches. When your team’s trailing late, you can’t do that. His selfish play which was cheap and should merit a fine or suspension (oh it won’t bc of double standard) hurt his team. They eventually got a late six-on-four thanks to waste of space Wade Redden’s second minor but the Rangers did a great job blocking shots with usual suspects Callahan and Drury killing off the clock.

As for Lemaire’s gripe that trash talk be penalized, ha. How much fun should be taken out? At the end of the day, they’re just words. Actions speak louder. If Kovalchuk wants to win in the playoffs, he has to show better composure.

3rd Star-Brandon Prust, NYR (assist for 1st Ranger Pt, 10 PIM in six shifts-4:18)
2nd Star-Ryan Callahan, NYR (PPG decider, assist, 5 SOG, 6 hits, 2 blocked shots in 22:22)
1st Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (41 saves incl.19/20 in 3rd to snap personal 6-gm losing streak)

Danius Zubrus has scored on the great Lundqvist with oh, 8:43 to go? Cue the bronx cheer as we cut it to 3-1.

I know, I know I’m setting myself up for major crow-eating if a miracle happens tonight but I really don’t see it. Although at least the Devils came out more intense in the third period and are finally shooting at more than 2/9ths of the net.

So much for momentum as the Devils again crap the bed early and in about as much time as they scored three goals last night, gave up three tonight in the second period (within 2:39 to be precise) to break a scoreless tie. Unlike last night there will be no miracle comeback though, not considering this franchise is totally psyched out by the pad wonder known as Henrik Lundqvist. What will be his career GAA against us now after he gets yet another shutout, 1.40? Disgusting. He could lose ten in a row, give up four goals every game and still pitch a shutout against us the next night. It’s a wonder we even won two games against this team this year although one of them Lundqvist actually got a shutout in.

Obviously the book is to go glove side on Puffy Pads, everyone including Patrik Elias (who went there for the shootout winner a few weeks back) knows that. But like a pitcher in baseball, you just can’t throw the same pitch over and over again without varying it up, or the batter will be able to cheat and lay off it or hit it. So far we must have gone glove-side like ten times and it’s barely halfway through the game, including some opportunities where we shot wide glove side instead of going where there was room far side.

Of course our shooters aren’t alone in stupidity tonight, our power play is just as clueless as ever. Against a team that gave up 900 power play goals the other night we couldn’t even gain the zone. And when we got a miniscule five-on-three for like twenty seconds I said to myself, ****ing Lemaire’s going to take a timeout, he can’t help it. Sure enough he did, regular as clockwork, and the Devils failed to even get a shot on net despite winning the faceoff thanks to the spectacularly bad keep of the zone by (who else?) Brian Rolston. And that timeout would have proved handy later when the Rangers scored twice in rapid succession. Instead, the Rangers were able to build off that momentum and score a third goal when Chris Drury – who’s now listed as a fourth liner?! – beat Martin Brodeur with a weak floater at 9:59 and the crowd loved every second of it.

Stupidity’s ran amok tonight, from Andrew Peters risking an instigator by dropping the gloves too soon for his second fight of the first period with Brandon Prust, to Bryce Salvador leaving the front of the net before the Rangers’ first goal on the power play where Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik worked a nice two-on-one in front of Andy Greene, with Gaborik getting the easiest tap-in goal of his career and finally Mike Mottau‘s predictable killer turnover before Callahan scored through a screen just 56 seconds after Gaborik’s goal.

And not to leave out the refs, who did their best to ruin the game before the Devils managed that all by themselves. They were so bad in the first period they should have been fired on the spot! Not only did they miss a first-minute high stick on Zach Parise which drew blood (yes it was incidental contact but you must have control of your stick) but the two penalties they called on the Devils were among the worst I’ve ever seen. There was basically no contact on either play and on the second one Michael Roszival either dove or was tripped by the invisible man to draw a call behind him. Not that it was all one-way, as they missed an obvious too many men on the ice by us – even Chico Resch admitted that – but as I said earlier also could have thumbed Peters for an instigator instead of giving him a useless ten-minute misconduct.

Oy…the Olympic break can’t come soon enough for this team who while they haven’t been as terrible as they’ve been in a lot of games once again have come out totally flat mentally. And things don’t get any easier this week with the Flyers coming up twice, an improving Predators team on Friday at the Rock and finally a trip to our tormentors Carolina on Saturday before finally everyone will break for the Olympics.