Battle Of Hudson

In a few minutes, the Rangers will take on the Sharks in the second half of back to back games for the Blueshirts. The Rangers are winless against the Western Conference this season, and this is their last chance to change that.

The Rangers will be going with the same lineup as yesterday. Marc Staal is still recovering from the flu, Petr Prucha still has an ailing shoulder and Marcel Hossa was actually sent down to Hartford on a conditioning stint. Henrik Lundqvist is back between the pipes, looking to build on a solid effort yesterday against Buffalo.

After announcing that they have resigned Dan Girardi to a new two year, $1.5 million a year deal yesterday, the Rangers will announce today that they have signed his defense partner Fedor Tyutin to a similar, yet probably a little more lucrative, deal today. Good move by the Rangers as both were set to become restricted free agents over the summer. Next up will be Sean Avery, who was supposedly looking for four years, $3 million per.

Should be an exciting game, enjoy and I’ll be back later.

Who was that team out there today?!?!?!?!?! Whoever they were, it looked like a much different Ranger team after a five day layoff. From the drop of the puck in a game they had to have, the Blueshirts dominated the Sabres by scoring four times in the opening stanza en route to a 5-1 blowout victory in front of a younger Saturday afternoon crowd who enjoyed every second of what they saw.

How fun was it? Well, they scored on the opening shift only 10 seconds in when Sean Avery pounced on a Brandon Dubinsky rebound for the first of two goals on what was a very productive day for Tom Renney’s reconstructed lines as fellow blogger Lenny reported.

Before Ryan Callahan rebounded home a Marty Straka shot in front off a nifty Chris Drury setup for the team’s second tally 4:19 later, newly re-signed No.1 goalie Henrik Lundqvist stood tall making a couple of critical stops on Sabres in close to preserve the lead. That was vital, especially against a hot team which hadn’t lost in regulation the past 10 contests (8-0-2).

With the team backchecking efficiently and playing much more aggressive north/south hockey, they pounced on a flat Buffalo club which wasn’t ready to play despite their recent hot streak which had them all the way to seventh in the East a point ahead of the Rangers.

Straka hit a career milestone by recording his 700th NHL point with an assist on Callahan’s third. The goal was made possible by a great read from former Sabre Drury, who made a brilliant pass to a wide open No.82, whose shot went off Ryan Miller right to Cally who deposited it.

The brilliant period continued when the game’s First Star Dubinsky abused a Buffalo defender skating around them before putting a backhand thru Miller’s five-hole for a three-goal lead at 9:05 from Jaromir Jagr. Before today’s game, No.68 had gone seven consecutive games without a point. Today, he was more active notching two helpers.

There’s little doubt that Miller wasn’t sharp and should’ve had Dubinsky’s 10th. It was from an awful angle. Even if the 21 year-old rookie out of Anchorage, Alaska made a nice move to beat Buffalo defenders, it was still one the Buffalo netminder usually saves in his sleep.

He was brutal and also could’ve had one of the first two as well as Brendan Shanahan’s right wing 40-foot slapper 3:20 later which concluded his day between the pipes. Miller allowed four goals on 11 shots before veteran backup Joceyln Thibault replaced him.

By that time, even Dancin’ Larry had done his idiotic dance routine. The fat lady sung a little earlier than expected. Avery would add his second of the game in the second using his great speed to blow past Sabres before beating Thibault on a mini-break for his eighth at 7:47.

The only remaining question was whether King Henrik would pickup an eighth shutout. However, it wasn’t to be as Thomas Vanek spoiled the party by beating him five-hole from in the slot for a power play goal with 6:58 left in the game.

Lundqvist still was rock solid in stopping 29 of 30 shots to give the Blueshirts a much needed ‘W,’ temporarily pulling back in front of Buffalo and Boston for the seventh seed. Amazingly, the 65 points also ties them with the Flyers, who have three more games at hand.

It really is going to depend on who plays well down the stretch. That means no mishaps. This team can’t afford to be inconsistent or mail in games. And it’s very important to follow this impressive win with another against Western foe San Jose.

As you might know by now, the Rangers are 0-7-2 against the opposite conference this season. This is their last opportunity to get two points against it.

It’s about time they did.

The Rangers’ five day layoff comes to an end in just under three hours when they take on the seventh seeded Buffalo Sabres. After watching the teams around them move up and down the standings for the last five days, it will be good to see the Rangers get back to work and try to start moving back up into the playoff picture.

Henrik Lundqvist will be in net for the Rangers, who will be without Petr Prucha, (sprained shoulder) Marc Staal, (flu) and Marcel Hossa (back.) Staal could be a late edition to the lineup based on how pre-game skates go for him, but after missing most of this week’s practices look for both Marek Malik and Jason Strudwick to be in.

There will also be some different line combinations for tonight. Here’s what they looked like in practice this week:

Avery – Dubinsky – Jagr
Dawes – Gomez – Shanahan
Straka – Drury – Callahan
Hollweg – Betts – Orr

Tom Renney also tried out Hossa in Ryan Hollweg’s spot, but it looks like he ultimately decided to keep the fourth line intact.

Back later on with a synopsis, analysis and opinion based post or rant, depending on the outcome. Enjoy.

Well not really. With a chance to pull in front of the idle Penguins for sole possession of first in the Atlantic, the Devils had to settle for one point in a tough 4-3 shootout home defeat at the hands of the Thrashers Friday night.

Things were looking good for the Devs when they got the first two markers of the contest off the sticks of leading scorer Zach Parise and Brian Gionta (second straight game with goal). However, Atlanta cameback to knot it thanks to second period goals from Ilya Kovalchuk and Todd White.

When gritty two-way pivot John Madden somehow banked one in for his 15th off an Atlanta defender in front, it looked like it might be enough for New Jersey to come away with the ‘W.’ But with Johan Hedberg pulled for an extra attacker in the final frantic minute, Marian Hossa managed to net the equalizer nudging one past Martin Brodeur with only 18.1 ticks left forcing overtime.

In OT, the Thrashers were given a makeup call due to an undetected Vitaly Vishnevski slash which bloodied one-time New Jersey Devil Ken Klee. The Thrashers came close to scoring but only to see an outstretched Brodeur do what he does best thwarting quality scoring chances during the four-on-three. The three-time Cup and Vezina winner finished with 29 saves.

The game eventually would wind up in a shootout. The Devils put their perfect 3-0 record versus Atlanta on the line but this time, it was the Thrashers who came out with the victory thanks to ex-Ranger Pascal Dupuis’ laser past Brodeur’s glove in the 10th round. When Arron Asham’s try sailed wide, Hedberg had won the battle finishing with 30 saves including stopping eight of 10 NJ shooters in the skills competition.

For their part, the Thrashers move into a tie for first with Carolina in the crowded Southeast. Combined with the Panthers’ home win over the Caps, those four teams are separated by two points with suddenly resurgent Tampa Bay making a push within six of first place.

So, how crazy is it? The Rangers who haven’t played since last weekend will finally take the ice later today in a matinee against the seventh seeded Sabres. They will enter with one more point than either Atlanta or Carolina.

Wins are the thing now for Tom Renney’s desperate club with 23 games remaining to salvage their season.

For the Devs, they are now tied with the Pens with an identical 32-21-5 mark for 69 points with each club having 24 left. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen in another tight division race which sees the slumping Flyers four behind while the Blueshirts are six out and the Isles trail by 10.

We’ll have much more later today.

While not yet official, the New York Daily News reported early this morning that the Rangers have a deal in place to sign Henrik Lundqvist to a 6 year deal worth somewhere around $6.5 million a year. The official deal could be announced as soon as today, but most likely not until tomorrow.

Good move by the Rangers getting this done now, as maybe it will lift something off of the shoulders of their number one netminder. He’s been shaky recently, but all good goalies go through tough stretches. Hopefully this lets him focus a little more on goaltending from here on out.

The Rangers resume practice today after having the last two days off. Not much happening, but I’ll be back if something breaks.

Also, good to see some Islanders coverage from IslesEnforcer. We were heavily covering the Rangers, with just a little Islander and Devil coverage for a while. I have found it tough to sit down to watch either team due to other things going on, so hopefully we can get back on track.

I also have to agree with most of Derek’s picks for awards. Head over to his page linked a few posts down and check it out. My only question on that is, where’s Jaromir Jagr in the Hart Trophy race? Not the top candidate? Wait, bad joke.

The Bridgeport Soundtigers/New York Islanders resident tough guy Kip Brennan was suspended by the AHL for 15 games for what the league deemed “inapropriate blow to the head” at a recent game against the Portland Pirates. Brennan came to the aid of teammate, Pascal Morency after he was injured by a blatant elbow by the Pirates player Geoff Peters. Brennan raced over to Peters and sucker punched him; knocking him out. He then preceeded to take on “all comers” after the entire Pirates team on the ice tried to get at him.

This will be Brennan’s second suspension this season. The first being an automatic suspension after recieving 3 game misconducts in one season. In my opinion, 15 games is way too much. When I first saw it, I figured he would be suspended, with 5 games being the max. I was obviously wrong as today he was given 15 games to think about it. View the incident here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCAVMrn4D0Y Thanks to IslesEnforcers.com for the video.

In other news, Chris Simon has 4 games left until his return and has been working out on his own. Ted Nolan was quoted as saying that he would talk to Garth Snow and Charles Wang about having Simon return to practice sometime next week. I can only imagine that this will be Simon’s final chance to make ammends for the Islanders. Only time will tell.

In case anyone missed it yesterday, the first significant deal came down involving two Eastern Conference teams. The Ottawa Senators acquired forward Cory Stillman and defenseman Mike Commodore from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for forward Patrick Eaves and defenseman Joe Corvo.

BONY Analysis: The Senators improve up front with the proven Stillman who’s been an integral part of two Stanley Cup winners (2004 TB, 2006 Car). Adding a player of his caliber to the league’s best scoring line of Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley makes Ottawa even scarier. How are teams going to match-up? Especially with underrated forwards Mike Fisher, Antoine Vermette, Dean McAmmond and meat and potatoes Chris Neil. The Sens had become more of a one-line team this season. So Stillman’s addition is huge because now Fisher has a skilled player on his line. Commodore is also a solid physical stay at home D who is an upgrade over the offensive-minded Corvo. He also won a Cup with Stillman and has been to two Finals (2004 Cgy, 2006 Car).

Before this move by GM Bryan Murray, there were questions in terms of scoring depth up front and physicality on the back line. Both have been addressed making the defending Eastern Conference champion the team to beat again.

On the Hurricanes’ side, it’s understandable why GM Jim Rutherford made this trade. Both Stillman and Commodore are eligible to become unrestricted free agents at the conclusion of the season. They probably couldn’t afford to re-sign them due to the cap.

They did get two capable players in return. Eaves could still develop into a solid third liner and possibly a second liner in their aggressive forechecking system. It all depends if he’s recovered from last year’s concussion suffered in the postseason. Corvo addesses a need on the blueline as the Canes don’t really boast a point man to run their power play which has allowed a season worst 10 shorthanded goals because they rely heavily on forwards.

It seems that both teams did reasonably well in this deal. For Ottawa, it’s all about delivering a championship this year while for Carolina, they got solid players back who can still help them win the Southeast Division and also stick around for the future.

Trade Winner: When push comes to shove, I have to give the Senators the edge here because of how much they improved for the short-term. The time is now to win a Cup. This is a great trade by Murray which could push them over the top.

With the Rangers having the next five days off, yesterday on my official Hitting Back site, I decided to take a look into the Award races. There’s only a couple of months to go in the regular season. So, which players are performing at their peak and could take home the Hart, Norris, Vezina and Calder? What coach is getting the most out of their team(s)?

All that was covered in a special hockey column written by yours truly.

Who are at the top of your lists? Let’s see what you think.

Between now and Saturday, not much will be happening for Ranger fans. The team is off entirely today and will have a light practice tomorrow. I’ll use this week to catch some games from the Devils and Islanders, as well as games from teams around the Rangers in the standings. I urge everyone else to do the same. There is some good hockey being played around the league.

Scary moment in last night’s Buffalo vs Florida game as Richard Zednik caught an Ollie Jokenin skate to the throat. A scary amount of blood was on the ice as he was rushed to the back, where trainers were able to stop the bleeding long enough for Zednik to get to a hospital where he underwent immediate surgery and is now listed as being in stable condition and resting comfortably. Best wishes to him and a big congratulations out to both teams and their fans, treating the situation with a lot of class. It was nice to see in a scary moment.

There’s a lot of talk the last couple of days about the Rangers moving Jaromir Jagr at the trade deadline. Personally, I don’t see that happening. Jagr hasn’t been the force that he was last year or the years prior, but he has in no way lost that talent. He is still an important asset for the Rangers, and if he regains some confidence he could be an important scoring threat for the remainder of the season. It’s true that the Rangers rely on him too much, though. The offense no longer goes through him like it used to. Other teams are still defending him tough, which could open up opportunities for other players to show off their scoring abilities. Plus, if we traded him, we would have to get back someone to play top line wing, mess with any chemistry Scott Gomez and Jagr have developed up until now and create a little chaos in an already unstable team. The Rangers have a lot of talent, but no one on the Rangers is ready to step in and score goals at the rate Jagr scored them. If we could bring in Marian Hossa or someone of that caliber, then this would be a different story. Right now, it might be best to bite the bullet, let him try and regain form and if he can’t start using him less. Rely more on Gomez and Chris Drury to lead the offense, which is what Ranger fans will be seeing for the next seven years.

If the Rangers were going to make a move, now would be a good time. Let the new acquisition come in for four practices, get acclimated with his new team and see where he fits in. Paul Mara, Marcel Hossa and Marek Malik remain the most likely to be moved, but you may see Ryan Callahan or Al Montoya moved for the right price as well. A package of Malik and Montoya could net a decent player in return, but anything better than decent would cost some kids, which many people are against, myself included.

I’ll update whenever something happens this week, but it may be a little limited. Enjoy the week off.

Truthfully, the Caps were the fresher team and that’s part of why they cameback to pull out a hard fought 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers earlier today in the nation’s capital.

However, this was another one of those games the Blueshirts should’ve gotten two points in instead of the annoying brownie point. How many times can they outshoot opponents and not cash in on power plays? In case you’re wondering, they took a collar finishing a deadful 0-for-6 on the man-advantage. Why not just decline it? That would make it easier for fans to watch.

Just how costly was it? In a game they controlled outshooting the Caps 33-24, their damn PP was the difference because the opportunistic Caps managed to go 2-for-3 including lethal defenseman Mike Green’s OT winner just 23 seconds into the extra session.

To be quite frank, the Blueshirts have only one PP unit now. That would be the more North American one featuring leading scorer Scott Gomez, the sizzling Chris Drury (sixth goal in last seven) along with Nigel Dawes and defensemen Fedor Tyutin and Daniel Girardi.

The Euro-overpassing unit featuring non-leader Jaromir Jagr, Michal Rozsival, Martin Straka, Petr Prucha and Brandon Dubinsky was just brutal wasting precious seconds. It was pretty easy for the Caps to kill off time when clueless coach Tom Renney stuck them out there. Why bother making a change? Right.

And is it his novel concept to stick stonehands fourth liners Blair Betts, Ryan Hollweg and Colton Orr near the end of the PP? Geez. This team is run so ass backwards, it’s no wonder they’re treading water just trying to stay afloat and make a third consecutive postseason while lesser opponents such as the Caps and Bruins continue to work harder and netting impressive results.

If they do make the cut, it’s only going to because the East sucks. Mediocrity is what Gary Bettman wanted and he sure is getting it. Call me a traditionalist but I’d prefer getting no points for losing in OT.

Why reward a loser? For the same exact reasons these brainwashed stripes waved off a perfectly legit tying goal by Wings’ defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom with under a minute left in a whale of a game on NBC between the NHL’s best and the Ducks.

Such is the nature of the rules. If you caught the couple of Ranger games this weekend, then you know exactly what I’m referring to. The soft calls which have no business being in the game. It’s gotten stupid.

I’m embarrassed to be a fan of this sport. That’s how much they’ve dumbed it down. It doesn’t help that my team continues to underachieve with Jagr managing no points in the last seven games. How is that possible?!?!?!?!?! I got into a heated argument with some fans earlier this season about what No.68 has become. They didn’t want to believe it and labeled me a “non-Ranger fan.” LMAO…who’s laughing now?

Sadly, no one is these days. Nobody feels sorry for this heartless team. I see Drury and Gomez putting a heck of a lot better effort in than Jagr or Rozsival, who suddenly is making me long for Marek Malik back in the lineup. Dawes and Dubinsky always put a good effort in and Ryan Callahan looks all the way back finally.

Is it the coach? Do they need a tougher one? There’s only 23 games remaining. Less than anyone else. The next one isn’t till the following Saturday which means teams are going to finally make up ground on our team who could be out of playoff position when they take to the ice again.

I haven’t really said much about the game which they didn’t play badly in. Problem was Alexander Ovechkin played for the opponent and once again impacted the game, factoring in on every Caps’ goal. His hard work setup the tying Boyd Gordon marker with 15 seconds left in the second. AO also notched the primary assist on Green’s 15th- a blast which unfortunately went off Marc Staal past a valiant Steven Valiquette, who in his second straight start finished with 21 saves.

Problem was Olie Kolzig was better garnering first star with 31 stops including highway robbery on Sean Avery, sliding across to rob the Rangers’ first goalscorer of a sure second one in the third.

Congrats go out to Olie The Goalie for becoming only the eighth netminder to play in 800 career games. He certainly came up large in lifting his team back into first in the topsy turvy Southeast.


Props again to Lenny for providing some excellent coverage the past couple of days. All your hard work is very appreciated. I only wish our team could work just as hard and consistently as you do.