Battle Of Hudson

I didn’t see a lot of it but the Devils managed to lose at home to the Panthers. That’s like the Knicks losing to the Harlem Globetrotters. Even though if you’ve followed the Knicks at all, it actually could happen. But the Devs losing another bad Florida team who didn’t even start All-Star netminder Tomas Vokoun is inexcusable.

That might also be why frustrated first-year coach Brent Sutter came away shaking his head after his first place club blew a one-goal lead after two periods by permitting a couple of Panther goals in a 1:17 span. It was the first time in 2007-08 his team lost after holding a lead after 40 minutes were played.

It happened when ex-Ranger Radek Dvorak notched his fifth off a loose rebound in front just 2:28 into the final stanza to tie it. Another solid shift by Florida generated David Booth’s deciding tally 77 seconds later. Off a productive cycle, the second-year forward was positioned perfectly in front when a Ruslan Salei right point shot caromed off the back boards to him for his 13th.

The two quick goals were enough thanks to a 31 save effort from Anderson who stopped all seven Devil third period shots in notching only his second win in six starts this season. That included a key stop on the pesky Brian Gionta from about 15 feet out with about two and a half to go.

From there, the Panthers did a solid job outworking the normally gritty Devils by winning the puck battles along the boards. They didn’t allow a quality NHL club to generate the kind of chances they needed late to force overtime.

It all added up to a career milestone for veteran coach Jacques Martin who became the 10th coach to win his 500th NHL game behind the bench. Congrats go out to him. The 500 are the second most on the active list with only former Ranger (current Calgary) coach Mike Keenan having more.

“I’ve been very fortunate to work in this league, the best league in the world and to have some good players to coach,” a pleased Martin expressed to the Associated Press afterwards.

“Everybody was working hard tonight and it was good to see a turn for the better,” Anderson said of the comeback win. “It’s good to go against a future Hall of Famer, play head-to-head with him and get the win.”

Not surprisingly, the classy Brodeur took time out to praise his counterpart.

“After not playing many games, he made some big saves,” the future Hall of Famer pointed out. “This was a real bad loss for us. Up 1-0 in your building, you have to find a way to squeak it out.”

As FSNY color analyst Chico Resch always says, it certainly wasn’t Marty’s fault. In fact, this was one of the best games he’s played this season making several acrobatic highlight reel saves. Just ask Florida’s Richard Zednik, who was robbed point blank by a sprawling Brodeur at least three times in the first two stanzas.

It’s hard to say what was better. Brodeur’s unreal stop on Zednik during the first with an open net where he somehow kicked out the puck with his legs at the last split second. Or was it the two-save sequence in the second where he denied the struggling Panther once in front on a backhand and then somehow like a cat made an amazing left glove save as the crowd stirred ripping the puck away like a cat.

Amazing stuff from one of the all-time greats.

Judge for yourself:

Brodeur amazing in defeat

He might’ve been on the losing side in finishing with 25 saves but he’s never played better.

The Devs’ only offense came from resurgent second-year pivot Travis Zajac, who found a Jamie Langenbrunner rebound for his fifth goal in the last seven 70 seconds into the second.

The problem right now for New Jersey is that leading scorer Zach Parise has gone dry. As usual, the 23 year-old kid’s effort is there as he helped setup Zajac’s goal and got a few chances himself. The North Dakota product just isn’t burying his opportunities. He’s now 0-for-8 in 2008 with his last goal coming in a 5-2 road defeat to the Islanders on Dec.29.

If you go back further though, Parise’s goalscoring struggles are pretty evident. Since a two-goal four point night in a come from behind 4-3 home win over Boston, he’s lit the lamp only twice in the last 18 contests.

That’s just not enough from the Devs’ best threat around the net. Especially with normally reliable veteran forwards John Madden and Jay Pandolfo shelved due to injuries.

Sooner or later, you figure the law of averages will catch up and Parise will get some breaks because he certainly works hard enough. When they do, the Devils will be tougher to deal with in a pivotal stretch which sees them have 14 of the next 17 at The Prudential Center.

The good news for the Devs was they didn’t lose any ground in the division because the Pens were shutout by the Lightning 3-0 at home. Sidney Crosby left the game with a sprained ankle suffered in the first and previously unbeaten Ty Conklin was finally solved for three with ex-enforcer Andre Roy out of all people tallying once and setting up two other Bolts’ goals.

Pittsburgh’s record is 0-2-2 without Sid the Kid. They’re obviously not going to have the 2006-07 Hart recipient for a while. So, this is a huge loss.

“Sid is a big part of that team,” Vincent Lecavalier said after being held off the scoresheet and remaining in a three-way tie for the league lead in scoring with Crosby and Atlanta sniper Ilya Kovalchuk. “For them to win, someone else is going to have to lead, and I think (Evgeni) Malkin is going to have to do that.”

“Right now, since we lost our leader and our captain, I’m going to try my best and raise my game,” the second-year Russian star admitted after being kept off the scoresheet. “I’m going to try to do a little more.”

Malkin is the Pens’ second leading scorer with 52 points. He had been pretty hot lately with 12 goals and three helpers in the last 12 games before last night. The Pens will need the 2006-07 Calder winner to continue to step up.

The impact of Crosby’s injury won’t only be felt by his teammates but by the league as well due to the fact the All-Star Game is around the corner scheduled for Atlanta on January 27.

That’s just great. The game’s most popular player who easily was the leading vote getter seems certain to be unable to participate. Well, maybe that frees up a spot for his teammate Malkin, who should be going anyway.

The most important thing here is that No.87 recovers quickly in time to help his team get into the postseason for a second consecutive year. The last thing the league needs is a Pittsburgh second half collapse. Having the most marketable star player in the playoffs is very important. Especially for the game in the U.S. It would also help if rookie Patrick Kane somehow led a second half surge by Original Six Chicago. They won their second game in a row in a shootout over the Avs after a long winless streak.

And now for one final random thought on WFAN Devils’ radio play-by-play man Matt Loughlin. I like Matty a lot and have even worked with him when he was a studio host between intermissions. A role which suited the likeable studio anchor well. The Matt and The Maven segments were classic. Even if you hated the Devs, you watched to see what they would say. Steve Cangialosi is boring.

They need Loughlin back between periods because to be perfectly frank, he’s brutal to listen to calling these games. You can almost never tell what’s happening. If a goal’s about to be scored or if it’s a save. There’s almost no way to distinguish.

It’s not Matt’s fault because he’s an employee of the Devils and tries his best to make the games exciting. And because of his awkward style, it’s at the very least an interesting listen. Half the time I find myself chuckling at some of his calls.

He’s just not a natural play-by-play announcer. This falls on the Devil organization. For whatever reason only known to GM Lou Lamoriello, John Hennessey was let go a couple of years ago. I don’t really know what was wrong with the former River Rats’ playcaller but he definitely wasn’t as confusing as Loughlin.

Right now, the Devils have the worst radio broadcast in the entire league. It’s flat out embarrassing that this is what airs on WFAN in New York. Do the hockey fans a big favor and put Loughlin back with Stan Fischler and find a real broadcaster.

It’s for the best. Matt is just overmatched.

The Rangers played a 60 minute hockey game last night for the first time in a pretty long time. Facing off against a Buffalo Sabre team that is mired in their own slump, the Rangers came away with a much needed two points.

It was a solid effort up and down the lineup last night. Henrik Lundqvist had to be sharp and was for most of the night, Sean Avery and Brendan Shanahan looked like their injuries are close be being fully healed and the defense looked sharp again, even Marek Malik.

The top line has really clicked since Martin Straka returned. While they were held off the scoresheet, they created some decent chances and really moved and controlled the puck well for most of the game. The second line looked good behind a determined looking Sean Avery also. All of the offense came from the third line, though. Brandon Dubinsky scored the first goal from Petr Prucha and Nigel Dawes on a nice passing play, and the Prucha added a deflection goal off Paul Mara’s shot and Dubinsky’s faceoff win. Jason Pominville was the only Sabre to put one past Lundqvist.

With chemistry finally looking like it is kicking in, the Rangers’ goal of 96 points should be easily attainable. They sit in last place in the Atlantic Division with 49 points, but are only a three game winning streak out of first. With 35 games to play, 24 wins isn’t out of the question.

One thing of note to watch today is if the league does anything about a late third period cross check by Shanahan. He cross checked Clarke McArthur into the goal post in the closing minute, which resulted in an injury to McArthur and a public tirade by Lindy Ruff. The check was unnecessary and reckless, as Shanahan himself has said, but in his long, illustrious career Shanahan has never attempted to purposely injure another player. A fine if anything is all he should get, as the league is reviewing it today.

The Rangers are off now until a weekend home and home against the Bruins. I’ll keep you updated on anything that happens between now and then.

So if the Islanders could play the Rangers and the Devils and no one else, the NHL could just wrap up the cup and send it to Long Island. The Islander defeated the Devils last night for the fifth time this year. Yes I said the fith time. Bill Guerin solved Marty Brodeur twice and Mike Sillinger added another goal as the Islanders pull out yet another win 3-2 at The Rock.

The Islanders have defeated the Devils 5 times this season and the Rangers 3 times. That makes them 8-1 against them both. Now lets put this in perspective here, these are the Islanders. You know, that crappy team from Long Island with the worst arena in the entire NHL. The team that everyone always makes fun of, the team that everyone picks to come in last, and yes the team with Garth Snow as GM. But this scrappy bunch of players may not make the playoffs this season, while hockey will continue in Manhattan and Jersey, but to tell you the truth, Jersey should be ashamed of themselves. Or maybe you guys in Jersey should give Rick Dipietro a little more credit.

Like I said before, if the Islanders could play the Rangers and Devils all year around, just send the cup this way.

All hands will be on deck when the Rangers take on the Sabres at 7pm on MSG2 tonight. Brendan Shanahan, Sean Avery and Jaromir Jagr are all ready to go and will look to snap out of a skid that has made them losers in six of the last seven games.

Marcel Hossa, Greg Moore and Jason Strudwick will all be healthy scratches tonight. The first, third and fourth lines will all remain the same as the last two games, as will the defensive pairings. The second line will be Chris Drury centering Avery and Shanahan as it was before the two went down to injury. Henrik Lundqvist will also remain between the pipes.

Brandon Dubinsky and Marc Staal were both named to the Young Stars game, so congratulations to both of them.

Buffalo has been less than stellar so far this year, and may not have fully recovered after losing both of their top players to the free agent market in the offseason. The biggest test will be getting pucks past Ryan Miller. With the Rangers lacking in offense all season, they need to follow the same formula they tried in Pittsburgh of just firing pucks in on net and then follow up hard. With Avery back in the lineup, there will be more traffic in front I’m sure, but more players need to want to get their hands dirty around the crease.

I won’t be back until tomorrow, so enjoy the game.

No use going back to dwell on yet another 40 minute effort by the New York Rangers. It would be better to just look forward to tomorrow’s game at home against the Buffalo Sabres. (I wrote yesterday that the Rangers were continuing a homestand against the Penguins, which was incorrect. My bad.)

Some things to keep an eye on for the next 24 hours:

— Brendan Shanahan skated today at practice, and deemed himself ready for tomorrow’s game. Whether Tom Renney shares that feeling or not remains to be seen, and he will be a game-time decision tomorrow.

— Sean Avery also skated today. He shot some pucks and took some bumps. He also said he was ready to play tomorrow, but Renney has also said that he is a game-time decision tomorrow.

— While the re-entry to the lineup would undoubtedly create a log-jam on normal days, there may be one person coming out tomorrow. That person may be Jaromir Jagr. Renney said that Captain Jagr was really banged up from a couple of hits and blocking a shot (really? Jagr blocked a shot?) and may also be a game-time decision tomorrow. He was seen limping around the locker room today, and did not skate at all during practice.

So with Shanahan and Avery going in, Greg Moore is certain to be coming out. The second person coming out is more of a question mark. Nigel Dawes has been good enough to stay, but whether Renney thinks so is another story. Marcel Hossa would be the other candidate to ride the pine to make room for the others.

Tomorrow’s game also marks the first time that Chris Drury plays his former team. Should be interesting to see how he takes it. Back tomorrow before the game.

If this looks like some sort of complex mathematics formula, then yeah. Chances are it probably is.

Translation: Malkin scores three goals while Jagr scores only one. Ty Conklin makes clutch stops setting a new career high with 43 saves while Henrik Lundqvist allows cruddy rebounds like Malkin’s winner which “Franchise goalies” aren’t supposed to give up.

Not that we’re pinning this all on King Henrik who’s Dad is still sick which can’t be helping his concentration. His team failed to show for the first 20 and paid the price because when you face a hot goalie who’s as unconscious as Conklin is now, you’re not coming back from three down. Especially against him, Sid the Kid, Malkin and that team which looked a heck of a lot more organized than the Booshirts did.

Who cares if Jagr scored his fourth power play goal to break up the shutout midway through the third? Did anyone actually believe they’d get anything else by Conklin AKA the new Dominator (well at least for now anyway).

Think about that. Jagr has FOUR POWER PLAY GOALS. FOOOOOOOOUR! FOREEEEEEEEE!!!!!

The last word of course intentional because the way he’s not produced on the PP, they’ll be warming up the golf clubs at least two months earlier than anyone at 2 Penn Plaza expected.

I’ve lost faith. This team just doesn’t inspire much now.

37 games remaining. Will they wake up before it’s too late?!?!?!?!?!

Let them prove me wrong. Does anybody think this team even if they make it will do anything substantial this Spring? Not as long as No.68 is wearing the ‘C.’

I take back the Cup prediction. I must’ve been on something.

P.S. How is Malkin not on the All-Star team? This business of representing every team is a joke. We’re talking about a meaningless exhibition. That means the fans in Atlanta should get to see all the game’s brightest and best stars. Malkin is one of the best young players in the league and he won’t be there because the league has to make every team feel good. Bull shit.

I’m done.

The lack of effort in the first period by this team was pathetic. The Pens have improved quite a bit since the last time the Rangers played them. Hence, their 8-0-1 mark entering play needing a win to tie the Devils for a share of the division lead.


However, with the Blueshirts coming off a solid 4-1 home win over the Canadiens which was their first of 2008, you would’ve expected them to come out with a little more fire. There was just nothing! It was embarrassing. That’s one word to describe this team. Does anyone see it drastically changing when Sean Avery returns? I got news for ya. He’s not Superman and this isn’t last year.

I have my doubts. There’s zero consistency. Just look how easy the Pens’ three goals were. First one, Evgeni Malkin comes off the wall and nobody covers for Marek Malik as the second-year Russian snaps one past Henrik Lundqvist.

The second goal, Sidney Crosby breezes past Martin Straka and two D and then the great Henrik allows an awful rebound which an unchecked Malkin is allowed to stuff home for his second of the night. I think it was Marc Staal and Daniel Girardi who watched.

So, the Pens score two quick ones. Take a timeout. Right? Not Tom Renney! He’s lost it. Instead, let’s wait for this undisciplined team to take two straight penalties leading to a bomb of a one-timer from Sergei Gonchar off a 5-on-3. Oh. And the best part was the Pens wasted no time. Just like our great PP which passes and passes and passes…You’ll be seeing pucks overpassed in your nightmares if you root for the Rangers.

Still no timeout. Well, at least Colton Orr stood in there against the league’s toughest enforcer Georges Laraque on the game’s opening shift.

That was it. When Malik, who is the slowest skating defenseman on the team is the only blueliner skating with any purpose, you got issues.

This team is in serious trouble. Especially when Ted Nolan continues to squeeze whatever he can out of a hungrier Islander team which somehow got three points in Calgary and Vancouver and also beat Ottawa last night to stay a couple of points ahead of the Blueshirts for eighth with less games played.

When does the Ranger organization take notice? When do we hear anything from Glen Sather? I’m waiting.

The Rangers continue their homestand tonight at 7pm against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The game can be seen on Vs. The Rangers will need to continue and build upon the great play that got them a 4-1 win against the Montreal Canadians on Saturday night. Pittsburgh is 9-1-1 since their last game against New York, which New York won, and has gotten stellar play from surprise fill-in goaltender Ty Conklin.

The Rangers have played the Penguins well over the last couple of seasons, but tonight will still be a test. Sean Avery isn’t expected to be in the lineup, and Brendan Shanahan is questionable. A second line of Chris Drury, Marcel Hossa and Brendan Shanahan could be effective against the top line of Pittsburgh, as they can be defensive and yet still hammer the puck at the net. Conklin has stopped at least 35 shots on goal in five of his last seven games, so getting the puck at the net and crashing hard will be key.

John Dellapina of the Daily News has a good article online and in the paper today on the whole Marek Malik situation and why it just blew over. It’s a good read so head over to read it.

There is also a chance that the Rangers will be playing an outdoor game next season in Yankee Stadium. It’s a good idea, I just don’t want to see every team doing it. Same with playing overseas games. If it happens too much, it will start to lose the luster and excitement that a once a year event creates.

I’ll be away from the computer until just before game time, so I probably won’t be able to check in with line combos and whatnot. Expect the same lineup on Saturday, and if Shanny is back expect Greg Moore to sit and possibly be sent down. Enjoy the game.

The Rangers broke out the offensive power that everyone knows they have last night as they ended their five game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadians. Martin Straka, Chris Drury, Petr Prucha and Nigel Dawes recorded the goals, and Henrik Lundqvist was ten minutes shy of the shutout.

This is the kind of game that the Broadway Blueshirts are capable of playing any night of the week. They game a hard fought 60 minutes and everyone up and down the lineup looked comfortable, even everyone’s favorite Marek Malik.

Not much else to report. Ryan Callahan scored a goal in his first game back in Hartford and Sean Avery is getting close to returning. Brendan Shanahan should be ready to go for tomorrow’s game against the Penguins. Greg Moore will likely be the scratch tomorrow and Marcel Hossa could find himself on the bench when Avery returns.

I may not be around until late tomorrow. It’s my birthday and I may do some celebrating. I will record the game and weigh in on Tuesday though. Plans could change if there is a massive snowstorm, which is possible. Enjoy the football games today. Giants vs Cowboys at 4:30 should be some excellent football to watch.