Battle Of Hudson

I knew that we were in for a truly special night at Madison Square Garden. If you were priviledged enough to be witness to that special retirement ceremony of all-time Ranger great Brian Leetch’s No.2 to the rafters joining the likes of Rod Gilbert (No.7), Ed Giacomin (No.1), Mike Richter (No.35) and Mark Messier (No.11), then you know how unbelievable it really was.

I am not going to go on and on about it because our outstanding blogger Lenny did a very nice job summing up what this classy former defenseman is all about. If you needed proof, just watching how eloquently Leetch spoke about the history of the franchise with Ron Greschner on hand crediting him for how he developed to the recognition of former GM Craig Patrick for having the confidence to draft him to the praise of his teammates and the role the “Ranger Faithful” played in the team achieving their greatest success in winning the Stanley Cup which included a postseason for the ages by No.2 (11-23-34, +19 in 23 GP) in becoming the only American to win the Conn Smythe.

Still, the biggest highlight had to be Brian making the surprise announcement that good buddy and Ranger fan favorite Adam Graves’ No.9 will be retired at some point next year for his outstanding work on and off the ice during a 10-year career as a Blueshirt.

On his own special night where legends such as Harry Howell and Brad Park were on hand for the ceremony and banner retirement, here was the franchise leader in so many categories putting himself aside for a teammate honoring and surprising a guy who had no idea what was about to happen.

I said, ‘If you want me to do it, I’d love to it,”‘ the former 11-time All-Star, Calder recipient and two-time Norris winner flashed back to the Associated Press.

“The only thought that came to my mind was how humble I felt,” an emotional Graves admitted. “Wearing that jersey was gift enough. Having this opportunity, I’m lucky.”

“That kind of made me calm because I knew I had that to come and it was going to be exciting,” a sporty Leetch pointed out. “I knew Adam was going to be blown away.”

“I was foggy. I had no idea,” Graves added. “It caught me off guard and I was like, ‘Go back there, it’s your night.”‘

What else would you expect from a player who was drafted in the first round 22 years prior ninth overall out of Boston College who went on to play 1,129 games as a Ranger in 17 career seasons (1988-2004) pacing the Original Six franchise with 741 assists, second to Gilbert in scoring with 981 points. And of course, tops among New York Ranger blueliners in goals (240) and points (981).

If you wanted to know how he felt about the fans, just listening to him mention how he was only on the wrong side of the bench once as a visiting Boston Bruin- then pointing out and thanking those fans for “getting him through the night when he wasn’t on the right side.”

The place went wild as it did most of this special night. From the loud chants of “Bri—-an Leeettccch” to “Leeeettttttttch,” “Messs—–ierrr” and “Adaa—–mmm Gravvvvvesss,” it was about as perfect as it could get.

Even former Ranger enforcers Tie Domi and Darren Langdon joined the fun presenting him with a Harley Davidson motorcycle featuring a leather jacket and helmet in honor of “Leetch’s wild side.”

We’ll just have to take Ranger emcee and broadcaster Sam Rosen’s word for it.

One of the things I also really appreciated was how generous Leetch and the Ranger organization with Richter presenting him with a check for $25,000 to the John J. Murray Foundation for his former close buddy who died tragically during the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

Sometimes, it really does make you appreciate what you got. It can be very humbling and that certainly was the case over six years ago remarkably. God bless Murray’s family.


“I was not that nervous, not that scared of what I was going to say,” Leetch finally said of the great night which New Yorkers will remember for quite some time.

No.2 will always be No.1 in our H-E-A-R-T-S.

Brian Leetch has been an idol of mine since I started following hockey. I was able to witness his greatness through the 1994 Stanley Cup run and was able to share in the heartache of him being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for draft picks and Maxim Kondratiev in 2004. Tonight’s ceremony did a fantastic job of capturing those moments and recognized a fantastic player.

I think what really showed what Brian Leetch is really about was, while thanking several people and teammates, he paused to make an announcement. The announcement he read was that Adam Graves will have his number nine jersey raised to the rafters next year. On a night dedicated to him, Brian Leetch passed some limelight off to a fellow teammate and friend. It was nicely done, and wonderful to see.

From hall of famers Ed Giacomin, Rod Gilbert and Mark Messier to Jeff Beukeboom, Adam Graves and Mike Richter, and even Tie Domi and Darren Langdon, the ceremony was great. Sam Rosen did another fantastic job MCing. John Davidson and Craig Patrick were in attendance and both the Garden and the WAMU Theater were packed. Great all around night.

I’ll have a new post in the morning or late tonight about the game, but so far it has been an uninspired effort by the Rangers after one period of play and no score. No word on Marek Malik either, although Spector Trade Rumors has a potential deal with Colorado or Carolina reported. Enjoy the rest of the game.

Already looking at a little easier of a task tonight with Ilya Kovalchuck in the press box, the Rangers will have Marek Malik somewhere other than the ice as well for tonight’s rematch with Atlanta. Even though the fleet-footed defenseman had picked up his game over the last three game since being reinserted into the lineup, Malik was absent from morning skate this morning. To make things even more odd, none of his equipment was in his locker either. A few pictures and a practice jersey was all that remained. Tom Renney answered the questions of where everyone’s favorite defenseman was with “it’s an internal matter,” but made sure to point out that he was still a Ranger.

Maybe Glen Sather is on the verge of pulling off a trade, and the last two games were really a showcase for other teams. I bashed Malik as much as the next guy, but was and still am fully aware that he could be a decent defenseman. In a faster league, however, it is hard for him to keep up. Unable to clutch, grab, hold and take down the oncoming offensemen has hurt Malik’s game. He will undoubtedly be suffering the Tom Poti syndrome should he be dealt, and upon returning will be met with choruses of boo’s at the Garden whenever he touches the ice.

Should Malik really be done as a Ranger, we’ll need to call someone up or acquire another defender. Thomas Pock has played in 39 games with the Wolfpack, registering six goals, 15 assists and a plus-6 rating to go along with 30 penalty minutes. He would have to clear re-entry waivers, but he should be looked at as a platoon partner for Jason Strudwick. Other than that, the only other defenseman that may be ready may be Andrew Hutchinson, who has 33 points in 40 games with the Pack and is +12 on the year. I believe he has to clear re-entry waivers as well, but I could be mistaken.

I’ll be on often today, updating everyone on Malik sightings, passing on Brian Leetch news and covering the game. Until later…

Ilya Kovalchuck won’t be on the ice when the Rangers celebrate Brian Leetch night at the Garden tomorrow night. The league handed down a one game suspension to Atlanta’s main goal scorer for his hit on Michal Rozsival in the first period last night.

This obviously is good news for the Rangers, who will now only have to focus on shutting down Marian Hossa and getting pucks past Kari Lehtonen or Johan Hedberg, both are no small feat.

Ceremonies for Brian Leetch night for those of us who don’t have tickets will begin at 6:30. I’m interested to know how that viewing party and actual ceremony at MSG goes. If anyone that reads this website goes, leave a comment on one of the entries tomorrow, or leave a comment asking for my email address if you want to actually write a blog entry. I’d be more than happy to put up a guest poster, and I’m sure Derek and everyone else here at BoNY won’t mind either.

Talk to you all tomorrow.

End of game – Solid three period, 60 minute effort by the New York Rangers. Jaromir Jagr added a goal from Fedor Tyutin and Scott Gomez to make it 4-0. Tyutin had three assists, jagr had a goal and two assists and looked great, and the new lines looked stellar. They were tight defensively also, allowing only 14 shots. Henrik Lundqvist didn’t have to be overly good, but he was good enough to get his seventh shutout of the season, the first Ranger to do that since a pretty good Ed Giacomin did it in 1970-71. Good game all around, let’s just hope that this isn’t only a one game thing. We’re back in action on Thursday for Brian Leetch night. Until then…

End of 2nd Period – After two periods of play, the Rangers now have a 3-0 lead. Martin Straka scored a shorthanded, unassisted goal off of a terrible line change by the Thrashers. They miss Kovalchuk up front, as I still don’t think they have recorded double digit shots. Brad Larson looked pretty banged up after a collision with Mark Recchi as well. The second period is usually the Rangers’ worst period of the game, and that period wasn’t so bad. The power play is the only thing that looks bad. Actually, it looked downright awful in that period. There has to be some kind of jolt to go through both units. They looked fine in the first period, but the second period was spent waiting to see if Atlanta would score shorthanded more than if the Rangers were going to stretch the lead. See you after the third.

I figured I’d keep you updated on the Ranger game with some of my thoughts and happenings. I figured after the bashing Tom Renney gave them yesterday, that the Rangers would come out hot. Here’s what the first period looked like:

It took 16 minutes for the Thrashers to get a shot on goal. In that span, the Rangers tallied two goals, 12 shots and had a mini-fight. Colton Orr and Eric Boulton dropped the gloves, Sean Avery scored from Jaromir Jagr and Scott Gomez and then Brandon Dubinsky scored a highlight reel goal from Jagr and Fedor Tyutin.

As we speak, one of the league’s best players made another stupid decision. Ilya Kovalchuk is a marquee player, but as evident from the playoffs last year, he can be dirty. Just now he left his skates and hit a defenseless Michal Roszival from behind into the boards. The hit could have been given with a clean shoulder, but Kovalchuk went over the line. He was thrown out and the Rangers will have a three minute power play at the beginning of the second period. Colton Orr took a roughing penalty by going after Kovalchuk, negating two minutes. Bad move by Kovalchuk and the way this game is going so far, the Thrashers were going to need all the help they could get. The league should look into it as well. I like Kovalchuk, but it was dirty, unnecessary and left Roszival bloodied and hurt. Back after the second.

Since I’m not able to go to tonight’s Thrashing of the Rangers (yeah that’s what I said), I figured what better time than now to give you the hockey fan some of my total randomness. In no particular order:

1.When is the NHL going to stop allowing their star players to walk all over them? No. We’re not talking about Gary Bettman’s new CBA with a rising cap where teams are panicking and signing their own players to ridiculously long contracts. What I am referring to is the latest news about the upcoming All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Why should a star player such as Martin Brodeur be allowed to miss a game which is for the fans? You think he’s going to miss any upcoming starts between tonight in Philadelphia when he does what he usually does to them and Sunday?!?!?!?!?! It is an absolute joke that the league doesn’t step in and do the right thing by the fans who want to see the league’s marquee stars lace’em up in a fun-filled skills competition.

Unless you’re out with an excuse (injury, family crisis, health issue), it should be your obligation to take part in the All-Star Game. Especially if your own fans voted you in as a starter. Brodeur is still the best netminder in the conference and plenty of people want to see him. Even now as the three-time Vezina and Cup winner gets older, the Montreal native is still one of the NHL’s biggest stars. Someone who is marketable and treats fans and writers alike with nothing but class. No.30 should be in net for that first period in Atlanta. No if’s, and’s or buts.

That also means you Roberto Luongo! The fans deserve to see the Vancouver netminder at the opposite end of the rink against Marty. The fact that the two league’s top goalies were elected and won’t participate for unknown reasons looks bad. They’re what this game should be about.

This goes for any player who is elected. Unfortunately, the league already lost their most identifiable star in Sidney Crosby due to a high ankle sprain which appears will keep the 2006-07 Hart winner out at least six weeks. And losing one of the bright young stars out West in Paul Stastny due to injury doesn’t help much. Neither does one of the game’s best players in Henrik Zetterberg for no other apparent reason than wanting to rest due to recurring back spasms.

If the league wants to be taken seriously, put out the best players for this game and make it a priority. The encouraging news is at least Evgeni Malkin replaced Crosby and Tim Thomas is now in place of Brodeur. The surprising Boston No.1 goalie certainly was worthy of making it.

On the other side, Corey Perry and Mike Ribeiro will get to take part. They certainly both belong. Scott Niedermayer was also tabbed probably as a league selection due to his veteran status. He certainly hasn’t disappointed since returning to the defending champion Ducks posting 11 points in 17 games and helping lead his team to the top of the Pacific.

2.Hell or high water, Tom Renney has to go. His message clearly isn’t getting through anymore to the underachieving Blueshirts. There’s little effort. No discipline. And zero accountability. The affable coach is good at analyzing the team’s problems. The problem is he never punishes his best players and that’s not a good recipe for success. This team is severely lacking and has become softer than a box of Twinkies.

If the Ranger organization wants to save their season, they must bring in a tough cop. Pat Burns would be perfect. So too would John Tortorella if he ever gets fired down in Tampa. It’s more likely that Jim Schoenfeld takes over if the Rangers don’t get a win tonight or on Brian Leetch night against Atlanta.

3.Speaking of which, how is it possible that the Rangers host the Thrashers twice in a row??? What are the schedule makers doing? If it were a traditional home-and-home like the games against the Bruins, that would make more sense. Give both fanbases a chance to see a rivalry formulate.

4.Rookie Nicklas Backstrom continues to play extremely well on the resurgent Caps who now are over .500 and just three points behind first place Carolina and the eighth seeded Islanders. The former 2006 Caps’ fourth overall selection became the first rookie in league history to record back-to-back four assist games. He assisted on four Washington goals in a come from behind 6-5 shootout win over Pittsburgh last night. With nine goals and a team-leading 31 helpers, his 40 points place him second to only Chicago rookie forward Patrick Kane, who has 45 points (12-33-45).

Backstrom’s strong play along with NHL-leading goalscorer Alexander Ovechkin (38 goals), the reemergence of Alexander Semin (5 goals in last four contests) and Mike Green (14-16-30; 14 pts in last 10 GP) have Bruce Boudreau’s Caps thinking playoffs.

5.Now that John Ferguson, Jr.’s finally been giving his walking papers in Toronto, when does the Original Six franchise realize their problems are a lot more than just one executive???

6.Can anyone think of any good reason how Mats Sundin was passed over for the East?

7.If he gets the Bruins in the playoffs despite no Patrice Bergeron and other regulars out, does former Devil coach Claude Julien win the Jack Adams?

8.Tomas Vokoun’s a good goalie but he’s not better than Florida captain Olli Jokinen.

9.Remember when Bill Guerin was a bad move for the Islanders? How’s that turning out?

10.Speaking of which, Dainius Zubrus: 47 games, seven goals. He’s still got another five years left on his deal in New Jersey. Somehow, the Devils are still winning games. Brodeur and first-year coach Brent Sutter are the biggest reasons why.

The Rangers kick off a two game series against the Atlanta Thrashers tonight at 7pm. Both games will be played at home for the Rangers, who badly need the four points. In order to achieve that, Tom Renney has changed three of the four lines.

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

These lines do look good on paper, and I’m curious as to how they will work out. Sean Avery is a playmaker who will provide some physicality to the first line, be able to retreat on defense and feed Jaromir Jagr and Scott Gomez. Maybe a grinder is what the top line needs.

Brandon Dubinsky gets moved up to the second line and is kept with Nigel Dawes. Him and Dawes seem to have developed some chemistry, which is nice to see. Both of them will also be able to feed Brendan Shanahan to get the shot off.

Chris Drury being paired with Martin Straka also makes sense to me. Straka can feed Drury who can hopefully start scoring 7 million dollars worth of goals. Petr Prucha adds to the speed and can finish and pass as well.

The fourth line remains the same, and rightfully so. The defense is changed a little also though.

Tyutin – Girardi
Roszival – Malik
Strudwick – Staal

Both Marek Malik and Jason Strudwick in the game makes me a little nervous. Besides the god awful giveaway at the end of Sunday’s game, Paul Mara has been playing much better of late. Maybe it’s an eye opener for him, and he’ll come back better. Maybe Glen Sather can try to move him or Malik at the deadline and bring in someone of equal talent that may click with Marc Staal or Michal Roszival.

Should be interesting to see how these lines work out. I’ll weigh in later on.

The New York Rangers dropped another game on Sunday to the same Boston Bruins that beat them 24 hours earlier. The only difference with Sunday’s loss was that the Rangers didn’t pick up a point in the standings.

Lackluster play and inability to get pucks past Tim Thomas translated into a 3-1 loss for the home team. Brandon Dubinsky scored the lone goal for the Blueshirts, with under a minute to play. Henrik Lundqvist looked a little shakey at times, and the offense stuggled getting anything going. The defense looked a little better, with Marek Malik back on the bench in favor of Jason Strudwick.

The big story after the game was that Tom Renney was openly upset with the team’s play, something that hasn’t been seen all season. Brendan Shanahan was non-existant in the team’s last 20 minutes of play, being sat down to rest his various injuries.

Renney has stated that while he is disappointed in the team’s play, he feels that the players on the team now are the players that he will win with. I have to agree. It’s hard to imagine a team with Scott Gomez, Martin Straka, Jaromir Jagr, Shanahan, Chris Drury, Petr Prucha and Sean Avery not putting pucks in the net. If I were head coach of the Rangers, I would shake some things up, maybe to look like this:

The top line seems to be going now that Straka is healthy again, so leave that line alone. The second line is the line that’s struggling. For whatever reason, Drury has not hit his stride yet in New York. Maybe playing with Shanahan has made him feel like he has to dish the puck off more rather than shoot it. Brandon Dubinsky’s play of late has been stellar. Bump him up during his hot play and let him center Shanahan and Avery. Move Drury down to the third line and let him add some defense to a line that is mediocre defensively. Prucha and Dawes will benefit with Drury at the center, possibly creating more scoring opportunities. Fourth line remains the same as well. So to sum it up in a pretty little chart:

Straka – Gomez – Jagr

Shanahan – Dubinsky – Avery

Dawes – Drury – Prucha

Orr – Betts – Hollweg

The only thing I don’t like about this scenario is that it is breaking up a line that seems to have found some chemistry in Dawes, Dubinsky and Prucha. One thing being thrown around is to move Drury back over to wing, but he has been our best faceoff man recently. If he were to move to wing, Avery would probably shift back to center, and he is not as good in the circle as Drury.

One thing that is evident is our need for another solid defenseman. Jason Strudwick and Marek Malik rotating isn’t so bad, but it isn’t ideal. I don’t have any surefire solutions, and the only name that comes to mind is the expensive Mathieu Schneider. He will undoubtedly cost us in players and in salary, but would be great to have on the back line. Maybe we can find a solid d-man in someone no one would imagine. The top four are fine, and Paul Mara paired with a mediocre player isn’t bad. I just want someone extremely defensive.

We will see what happens with this team in the coming weeks. Tomorrow and Thursday we take on another team that we should beat easily, if we show up. Atlanta is a good team, but not nearly as good as we have the potential to be. I’ll check in with an update mid-day or early evening.

The game of hockey isn’t always about statistics. Sometimes, it’s about great players elevating their games to lead their team to victory.

Precisely the type of quality game Pens’ star forward Evgeni Malkin had in their 2-0 road shutout of the Canadiens on Hockey Night In Canada (HNIC). Without top star Sidney Crosby (ankle sprain), the 21 year-old Russian who won the Calder last season dominated the action in all facets. He might not have lit up the scoreboard in his team’s bounceback victory to pull in front of the idle Devils for the Atlantic Division lead but the former 2004 first overall selection controlled the play in all three zones.

He also had a couple of tremendous plays which started in his own end and almost led to goals if not for some splendid goaltending by Montreal’s Cristobal Huet. The first such play took place in the opening stanza when Malkin took a puck and then worked a give-and-go with Petr Sykora before going around Andrei Markov and flipping a backhand saucer pass to a cutting Sergei Gonchar. But a sprawling Huet thwarted the chance.

Even though the Pens didn’t score on the play, the breathtaking end-to-end rush was replayed a few times on the HNIC feed as the broadcasters gushed.

On another shift, Malkin threaded the needle from his own blueline to string Sykora for a breakaway. Only two unreal Huet stops kept the puck out.

This was the kind of plays you’d expect from a player as physically gifted as the 21 year-old Malkin. However, it was his defensive prowess which helped seal the victory for his team.

With the desperate Habs pulling Huet for an extra attacker and under 60 ticks left, Malkin made two great defensive reads. First, he broke up a pass at center ice to interrupt a Montreal rush. The second play, he outraced a Canadien to a Sykora pass gliding by before flipping a backhand into a vacated net with 12.4 seconds remaining.

On a night when backup goalie Dany Sabourin was splendid in swatting aside all 31 Montreal shots for a shutout giving Ty Conklin the night off, it was Malkin who was his team’s best player. Or as the ‘casters noted, “Best player on the ice all game.”

A night before when his linemate went down, he promised to step up. Malkin shifted back to his natural position of center logging big minutes (22:57 TOI) and didn’t miss a beat. This was a statement game by a very talented player.

One who will continue to assume the leadership role with Sid The Kid out.

It took 65 minutes and a shootout, but the Boston Bruins won this afternoon in Boston, 3-2. The game wasn’t very offensive minded, saw few big hits and had plenty of weak penalties. All in all, let’s hope tomorrow’s rematch back in New York is a little more exciting.

Scott Gomez and Jaromir Jagr scored in regulation for the Rangers and Chuck Kobesew tallied twice for the B’s. Phil Kessel and Zdeno Chara scored in the shootout, Chara’s in the form of a slapshot from about 15 feet out in front of Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist stopped 25 shots in regulation time, while Tim Thomas stopped 36 shots.

This was the first half of a weekend back to back, home and home matchup between the two teams. Tomorrow’s matinee is on NBC, as they look to bring back the NHL game of the week. This is good news for the league, as several people may be tuning into NBC early to catch some early NFL shows, and could catch the tail end of a hockey game. The national exposure will be good, but we will undoubtedly be forced to sit through seemingly endless numbers of Tag body spray commercials, and play by play will not be done by Sam Rosen and Joe Michelletti.

The effort was close to being all there today, but the potential to be better is still there. The defense looked slow and out matched on several different occasions today. Maybe a minor move to bring in a little more competition than Jason Strudwick should be looked into. Maybe take a chance on Duvie Westcott, if only for another body, or bring up someone like David Liffiton or Ivan Baranka. Either way, the defense was better with Marc Staal playing with Michal Roszival, but with Marek Malik in the lineup, there’s no way I’d like to see him playing with either Paul Mara or one of Fedor Tyutin or Dan Girardi.

As was seen today, Brendan Shanahan didn’t receive any kind of penalty from the league regarding his cross check at the end of the Buffalo game. I thought it could have, and should have been a penalty, but that’s it. There was no intent to injure, and it wasn’t done on purpose. It was reckless and a minor penalty was all that was warrented.

Tomorrow will be busy for me as I have the Rangers at 12:30 and then the Giants vs the Packers. I also have to pack up to head back to school on Monday, so chances are good that I may not make it onto the computer until Monday night for a recap. I’ll check in and update with anything pressing or if I have a free few minutes. Enjoy the hockey games, go Giants and cross your fingers for a San Diego upset. Until Monday…