Battle Of Hudson

The Rangers take on the Maple Leafs again tonight, but will be without Sean Avery. Radio announcers will probably take the time to think up the most ridiculous lines that Avery is yelling from the press box. No lineup changes are expected from the Rangers’ end, which means Marek Malik is still in with Michal Rozsival as Paul Mara continues to nurse his sore shoulder. The Rangers that played on Monday night will be left somewhere on the side of the Hudson River, one would hope, and they should come out flying tonight.

My posts for the next week may be limited to pre-games and possibly post-game wrapups. It’s final paper and exam time, which is putting a damper on everything from television to hockey to sleep. In the mean time, Derek continues to pop out posts for you all to enjoy, if you can keep up with him. At this rate, he’ll be covering every team in the NHL and doing the news and weather by this time next week. A big thanks to him for stepping up.

Enjoy the game, and I will do my best to get something out for you before the next game.

It’s all going the Devils’ way these days. On the night new coach Brent Sutter appropriately tabbed Jamie Langenbrunner the team’s eighth captain in their history, the Devils mounted a three-goal comeback to post a 4-3 overtime win and pull into a three-way first place tie with the Flyers and Rangers in a crowded Atlantic.

Once again, the catalyst was the Devs’ best player Zach Parise. This wiz kid just gets better and better every game. His two goals and assist carried New Jersey back from three down after one period of play.

Parise just has a knack for being in the right spot with the puck. Look no further than his first of the night via a man-advantage where he snuck one past Tim Thomas from a tough angle behind the net. It was the smart play because the Boston netminder was stopping every tough chance he saw. So the crafty kid did the wise thing and caught a break by surprising him.

If you thought that was good, the tying marker was one of the best examples of hand eye coordination I’ve ever seen. Sheldon Brookbank took a right point shot and with Parise with back turned bunted it down past a shocked Thomas to force OT with over five minutes left for his club-leading 14th. What a player!

How did the Islanders and Rangers and all those other teams pass this kid up again in 2003? He’s just amazing and is the offensive catalyst for this Devil club.

Sutter did the smart thing and stuck slumping winger Patrik Elias with Parise and Brian Gionta. The move paid dividends as the 31 year-old Czech tallied twice and notched a helper.

But no goal was bigger than Elias’ deciding one in OT. How was it created? How else? By the speedy Parise backing up the Boston D and then dropping a pass for a streaking Elias who used Andrew Alberts as a screen to fire past Boston backup Tuukka Rask for the winner.

Given how well Parise is playing, it’s hard to single out any other Devil and that includes Martin Brodeur, Langenbrunner, Gionta, Colin White and new December alternates John Madden and Paul Martin.

Parise is the man carrying this team. He’s the biggest reason the Devils aren’t dead and buried in a very competitive conference.

If only more players could play the game with his vigor.

While the first place Rangers were being handled by Carolina 4-0 over on Broadway, the Islanders were dropping another game; this time at home to the Bruins 3-1. It was their third consecutive defeat.

Over that span, they’ve been outscored 11-3 bringing to mind the scoring epidemic that’s stricken Ted Nolan’s club. While they’re still sitting eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 13-11-1 record good for 27 points, lack of offense has become a problem.

Team scoring leader Mike Comrie (8-12-20) has just two points in his last seven games and is now tied with slumping winger Trent Hunter (4-6-10) for a club worst minus-10.

After a promising start, Ruslan Fedotenko has gone in the tank. The former 2004 Bolts’ playoff hero hasn’t lit the lamp in eight straight and has only two helpers over that span. That just won’t cut it and explains why Tampa let him go.

Most discouraging has been the lack of production from team captain Bill Guerin. After a promising beginning, the 37 year-old veteran power forward hasn’t registered a point in the last 14 spanning over a month since he tallied a deciding marker in a rare win over Tampa Bay.

With just five goals and six assists for 11 points, Guerin is hurting his team big time. He hasn’t been the same since missing a couple of games due to injury. But still, it’s been a while now since he’s returned. It’s time for the emotional Isles’ leader to step up.

Meanwhile, Miroslav Satan continues to be streaky. The Slovak has good stretches and then suddenly disappears. Would it kill the ex-Sabre to be more consistent and show up on a nightly basis?

Veteran pivot Mike Sillinger (4-5-9) has slumped badly after a nice first season on Long Island.

About the only player who’s exceeded expectations up front is Josef Vasicek. He centers the Isles’ second line and has a team best nine goals including two shorthanded plus three assists and a respectable plus-four rating. The former Hurricane has never been known as a big finisher and needs just one more goal to match his output for the past couple of seasons with Carolina and Nashville.

His career best in goals came back in 2003-04 when he tallied 19 while also registering a career high 26 helpers and 45 points for the Canes during his fourth season.

The Fishsticks will continue to need that kind of production from the 27 year-old Czech.

But if they’re to hang around in the division and postseason race, they’ll need some of those other slumping players to rediscover their scoring touch.

Rick DiPietro can’t do it alone. He needs help.

You had to figure that the Hurricanes would come out flying in this game tonight at MSG. Especially after being thoroughly embarrassed by Buffalo 8-1 the other night.

That’s exactly what happened as Peter Laviolette’s first place club came in more determined and carried the play in a 4-0 shutout of the Rangers before a frustrated crowd who hardly saw a semblance of a scoring chance. A testament to just how sharp the Canes were throughout. They won all the battles to loose pucks and were extremely defensively sound which made it a lost cause for Tom Renney’s club which for some inexplicable reason wasn’t ready after two good efforts in a row.

Maybe they rested on their laurels and thought the struggling Canes wouldn’t come hard. Or maybe they just weren’t ready to play which is inexcusable. Especially in such a tight knit division and conference where you can easily go from top three seed to fighting for the final spot just like that.

Carolina was much sharper from the outside with their aggressive forecheck which helped generate two first period goals. Not surprisingly, ex-Ranger Matt Cullen was involved in both.

“It was fun to come in and get a win,” a pleased Cullen expressed to the AP later. “It’s important for us because we’ve sort of been struggling. It was important for us to have a good defensive game which was key to the whole night.”

Making his first return to Broadway after anchoring the third line in his only year here, the overlooked 31 year-old American notched a couple of more assists to hike his point total to 27 (6-21-27) which btw is more than any Ranger.

Think that has to do with the system he plays in? You don’t say. Some Ranger fans will have you believe that Renney is a great coach and that this team is perfect. When you see the kind of success Cullen is having back in his familiar spot with the more North American Canes, it clearly raises a question as to why the New York team doesn’t get more offense consistently.

After netting nine in their last two wins over the Islanders and Senators, Renney’s club had nothing. How was it possible that only the fourth line of Hollweg, Betts and Orr could show up ready to play while the other three lines did absolutely nothing?

Yes. It was the stonehand fourth line which worked very hard and generated the team’s best chances against Cam Ward who stopped all 28 for the easy shutout. That’s how uncompetitive the Blueshirts were. Almost every shot came from the outside with nobody in front to get to rebounds or deflect pucks.

“You’d like to think that we’re sort of mature enough as a team to recognize you’ve got to sort of maintain some equilibrium,” Renney lamented afterwards. “Tonight it just wasn’t there. There wasn’t sort of that synapse between the brain and feet. … They earned the win right from the drop of the puck, but we didn’t measure up as an opponent.”

Summing up the opening stanza in which the Canes got nine of the first 11 shots, rookie Brandon Dubinsky had two chances to clear the zone but made awful decisions which led directly to Cullen feeding an open Scott Walker who tucked the puck past Henrik Lundqvist to give Carolina a lead they would never relinquish.

Just when New York began to play a little better, a brutal shift at the conclusion of the stanza led to Cory Stillman’s first of the night with only 16 seconds remaining. With the top line unable to get the puck out, Justin Williams fed Stillman who centered the puck off a defenseman in front past Lundqvist for a two-goal lead.

The Rangers came out sharper in the second and dictated the play for several minutes with an aggressive cycle led by Jaromir Jagr. But they couldn’t find a way to get a puck past Ward and make it a contest despite an 11-5 SOG advantage.

The final stanza saw the Blueshirts flounder on a couple of power plays despite a few opportunities. But Michal Rozsival’s usually accurate one-timers sailed wide and then a setup for Jagr was flubbed by one of those moronic sticks which break way too easily. When are these players going to wake up and go back to wood?

Jagr’s miss led directly to the Carolina third goal as a streaking David Tanabe flew out of the box and into a breakaway wristing one past Lundqvist’s stick into the back of the net with 8:30 left sending most of the fans including myself to the exits.

Stillman would add his second of the night a couple of minutes later to complete the scoring.

It was that kind of game. You never got the impression the Rangers were ever in it or would come close to scoring. That’s how diligent the Canes were in every zone. They skated, scored, backchecked ferociously and played like a desperate team who had been read the riot act by a good coach after being routed.

I actually wasn’t too surprised by what transpired. Whenever you have a struggling team which is good coming in on the heels of a blowout, it usually becomes a trap game which is difficult to win.

It’s not the end of the world.

The Rangers must regroup and prepare for the Maple Leafs Thursday before heading to Atlanta the following night.

“It was a real stinker,” Shanahan said. “There was nothing good about this one.”

That’s about what kind of night it was. One to forget for sure.

Time to move on.

Sorry for the late post but the Rangers take on the Hurricanes in a few minutes. Matt Cullen makes his return to face the team he played for last season. Cullen is enjoying a fine season so far, and should challenge the Rangers for most of the night. Marc Staal also faces brother Eric Staal for the first time in their careers. Henrik Lundqvist will be in net against Cam Ward. The same lineup with be in for the Rangers as Saturday afternoon. I’ll check in later on. Enjoy the game.

Apparently, somebody forgot to tell Brian Gionta and the Devils that they weren’t supposed to be this good. Well, at least good enough to reel off seven in a row to get themselves right back in the Atlantic race tied with the Flyers just a couple of points behind the first place Rangers.

The royal pain in the ass Mighty Mite’s shootout goal stood up as the difference in a 3-2 home win over the Thrashers yesterday before a good crowd close to 15,000 at The Rock.

Gionta’s bread and butter backhand deke sparked his red hot team to another win as Martin Brodeur gloved Ilya Kovalchuk’s bid to keep the skills competition going.

“I just wanted to stay with him as long as I could, while he was going across the crease” Brodeur later said to the AP.

“He’s a good goalie, one of the best ever,” Kovalchuk admitted. “You need to be real good and real sharp to beat that guy. He moves quick from post to post so I tried to go high.”

We didn’t catch this one live as we were busy locked into a crucial NFC game between the Giants and Bears for our Giants Bits blog.

But just from watching the highlights, this looked like a very competitive and entertaining contest which could’ve gone either way.

Both Brodeur (23 stops) and Johan Hedberg (34 saves)made some stellar saves to give their respective teams at least a point before it got decided in the shootout.

The Thrashers got the scoring started in the first when Todd White one-timed home a Tobias Enstrom feed from behind the net for a power play goal with 5:09 left.

However, the Devils would get the equalizer in the final minute thanks to Sergei Brylin’s third in the slot 15 feet out off a broken play from Paul Martin and John Madden with just 51 ticks to go. From the yahoo highlight package, it looked like Madden might’ve gotten away with an undetected trip of a Thrasher near center ice which helped lead to the tying goal. It was hard to say if the Atlanta player lost an edge while competing for the puck or if Mad Dog’s stick really did trip him.

In any event, the two teams would be tied until that same Madden finished off a nice pass from Karel Rachunek for a tip-in to give his team the lead going into the third.

However, a determined Kovalchuk finally got the equalizer with 10:26 remaining when he one-timed a Bryan Little feed in the high slot past Brodeur for the Russian sniper’s league-leading 22nd. What a season he’s having.

Key saves by Hedberg and Brodeur from in close forced OT. In it, the best stop was made by the future Hall of Famer on Marian Hossa, who was setup and fired a laser of a wrister from about 25 feet out. But Marty read and gloved it harmlessly to help force the shootout which his team prevailed in.

He denied all three superb Atlanta shooters Slava Kozlov, Hossa and Kovalchuk to notch the victory. No small feat.

The Devils are now 14-10-2 with 30 points. A great recovery after a slow start where they went only 3-5-1 on that nine-game road trip. Brent Sutter and the coaching staff must be given some credit here for keeping it together.

They’ve played much better defensively since top defender Colin White and valuable two-way winger Jamie Langenbrunner have returned.

The only player who continues to not contribute is former captain Patrik Elias. You have to wonder what the heck is going on with the 31 year-old gifted Czech. It’s hard to get into the mind of a player and even harder to conclude that they’re not trying. That’s not the case. But the lack of production from someone who’s always been pretty reliable as a team leader is alarming.

Elias has only four goals and eight helpers for 12 points in 24 games this season with a team worst minus-six rating. It’s not like he hasn’t attempted shots. His 79 SOG rank third behind leading scorer Zach Parise (100) and Gionta (82).

The growing question is can New Jersey continue to win games without getting much in the scoring department from Elias?

They also have gotten just 13 points from sophomore Travis Zajac (4-9-13). But he centers their best line and the effort is never questioned. The former first rounder out of North Dakota makes smart decisions with the puck and generates plenty of chances. It’s probably a matter of time before a few bounce his way.

As for Brodeur, the Mr. Everything in net has turned his season around and now has 12 wins, a 2.29 GAA, .911 save percentage and two shutouts which tie him for second all-time with George Hainsworth for 94 regular season blankings- just nine behind Terry Sawchuk’s league record 103.

The 35 year-old franchise goalie has been a model of consistency during his 14-year career in backstopping the team to its three Stanley Cups while also winning the Vezina three times and Olympic Gold with his native country Canada in 2002.

With his team again being written off with the key departures of Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski, Brodeur continues to elevate his game to give his team a chance to remain competitive which is what they’ll be until No.30 retires.

That’s truly the mark of an all-time great.

Apparently, someone forgot to tell Wade Dubielewicz to stop a few pucks in the first period against the Thrashers in a dreadful 4-0 defeat at the Coliseum Saturday night.

The backup who was a hero last season in helping miraculously backstop the Isles into the postseason was predictably rusty in his first appearance since November 3 (3-2 win over Pit in relief). In just his second start of the year, the 28 year-old British Columbia native allowed four goals on 13 shots in a flat opening stanza for the home team including league leading goalscorer Ilya Kovalchuk’s 21st only 34 seconds in off a rush.

It wouldn’t get any better as Eric Boulton and Marian Hossa struck in a 50 second span before the halfway point of the first to put Atlanta up a trifecta. Slava Kozlov’s seventh closed out the scoring with 13 seconds left as the Thrashers improved to 12-7 under GM Don Waddell.

“It’s tough,” explained a disappointed Dubielewicz later to the AP. “It just feels like we got behind the 8-ball, and I got rattled out there a bit.“

The awful opening 20 minutes made it an easy night for returning Thrasher starting netminder Kari Lehtonen, who turned aside all 33 shots for a shutout.

“I thought we would be ready to play,” Islander coach Ted Nolan later thought.

“I was wrong. We just weren’t prepared right from the beginning. We
underestimated their team speed. They really took it to us the first 5-10
minutes of the game.”

Usually, the Fishsticks struggle after a Ranger game. But that’s when they win. This time, they were coming back to the Meadowbrook Parkway off a loss. So, one would’ve expected Nolan’s club to be ready to go. Instead, they dropped their second straight and fell to 13-10-1 remaining in fourth place in a tight Atlantic a point behind the idle Devils.

Part of the problem right now is that team captain Bill Guerin hasn’t been the same since an injury kept the veteran right winger out of a couple of games. With another scoreless night, the 37 year-old former New Jersey first round pick has been held without a point in 12 straight games. He’s been stuck on five goals and 11 points since tallying the deciding goal in a 4-0 shutout of Tampa exactly a month prior.

Given what’s expected out of the gritty power forward, the Isles’ captain must elevate his game and find the back of the net or the lack of scoring is going to become a team wide epidemic.

It’s little secret that the Islanders haven’t been scoring enough lately. They’re 5-6-1 in their last 12 and haven’t reached three goals in regulation or OT. That must change if Nolan’s gritty bunch is to stay in this ultra competitive division.

We’ll see if Guerin and Co. can get back on track.

Derek has done a fine wrap up at the end of his last post on the Rangers’ 5-2 win over the Senators tonight. Nice to see some offense from the Blueshirts. Ottawa is not this bad, so everyone they play right now needs to take advantage of this stretch of poor play.

I wanted to send a thank you out to Steve for giving me a chance to write on here day in and day out. I appreciate the chance he has given me to write about one of my passions on a daily basis. So, thank you Steve. Good luck to you, and thank you for creating an enjoyable blog for all to read. Hopefully you check up on it frequently, and when it starts pulling in millions of hits a day, you can say you were the founder. 🙂

I, too, will weigh in on the other teams every once in a while without stepping on anyone’s toes of course. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and have those snow shovels ready for anyone in the New York area. I’ve already gotten it upstate. Snow makes it really feel like hockey season.

As someone who was asked to be part of this site a year ago, it saddens me to see Steve Lepore leave our fine site. Over the year, he has put in a lot of time and devotion to turn this into a fun and worthwhile blog about the three locals.

We’ve seen it grow and added some excellent bloggers who share our passion for some of the best rivalries across the metro area.

I want to give a shout out to Steve for all his hard work to make this happen and to Dustin as well for the best ever logo you’ll ever find. Dustin is someone I also know off the board and is an extremely talented and creative individual.

As someone who enjoys what’s happened here, I’m not going anywhere and I hope all our other bloggers follow suit. I will make it my business to find a suitable replacement who bleeds Devils black and red. Until then, I’ll lend a hand in analyzing their games as well as the Rangers.

If anyone who browses this site has any suggestions, please feel free to email me at kovy274hart@aol.com.

Just cause the creator of the Battle of New York has decided to move on doesn’t mean what we have here is over with. Did someone say over?!?!?!?!?!?! NOTHING is over until we decide it is! Animal House reference. Got carried away. Love that movie. I feel we have plenty of work to still do to make this a fun place for our diehard legions of hockey fans to visit.

So let’s turn it up and give puck fans in New York and New Jersey the continued dedication our three teams deserve!

And with that, a kudos to Lenny for giving his take on the big Islander win. About damn time! And to think two miracles took place on 33rd and 7th the other night:

1.The Rangers doubled their quotient.
2.The Rangers defeated their most bitter rivals in regulation.

Maybe the well earned win should’ve been frozen in time like one of those Upper Deck hockey inserts. 😉

In all honesty though, it was an excellent effort by the boys as they outworked a weary Isles’ team who was playing its third game in four nights.

It was nice to see the captain Jaromir Jagr finally step up and play like it. With No.68 flying once again scoring for the third straight contest earlier today in their 5-2 victory at Ottawa to elevate to first place in the Atlantic, it looks like the 36 year-old Czech’s confidence is finally back which is great news for the Blueshirts (15-9-2).

You can’t overlook linemate and countryman Martin Straka’s importance in Jagr’s resurgence. A teammate of JJ’s for much of his career dating back to Pittsburgh, No.82 has always been a very smart complentary player who seems to know where Jagr is. He’s a faster skater too and a very underrated passer and playmaker who can get the attention of the D which creates necessary space for the future Hall of Famer.

The two have combined with impressive rookie pivot Brandon Dubinsky to formulate an effective top line which has speed, size and can forecheck opponents to death in the corners. You have to be impressed with Dubinsky’s on-ice awareness. He really seems to know where to go to make it work. Poise is the best word to describe the 21 year-old former second rounder’s game which isn’t lacking in physicality or two-way play either.

With Dubinsky fitting in, it’s allowed Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to center two other scoring lines giving the Rangers better balance. Plus the fourth line is showing it can take a regular shift and play effectively.

Nice to see Blair Betts finally get rewarded for his stellar defensive work by hitting the open net to seal the Rangers’ 5-2 win over the Sens.

Henrik Lundqvist (31 saves) withstood Ottawa’s challenge in the final stanza to notch yet another win and hold another opponent to two goals or less.

Hey. There was even a Marcel “Stonehands” Hossa sighting (2 helpers for first points in 19 games).

In his first game back, Marek “Big Bird” Malik was solid but unspectacular teaming with Michal Rozsival in 18:00 finishing plus-one. If he’s not noticeable, that’s usually a good thing. It means he didn’t make any glaring mistakes or panic with the puck.

Rookie Marc Staal still got almost 16:00 and worked very efficiently with the valuable Jason Strudwick as an injured Paul Mara sat out.

Things are certainly looking up.

This is hard for me to do.

I’m not going to waste words.

I’m leaving Battle of New York, the site I created.

I’ve decided it’s not what I want to be doing at this point. I just don’t have the material to keep it up day-to-day.

Until we get a new Devils blogger/Head Writer, visit 2ManAdvantage.com as often as you can for all things about the team I love.

Was my work at Battle successful? In my opinion, no. I don’t feel that I covered a team that I love sufficiently. Derek and the rest of our writers here may say differently, but I look at it that way.

Where am I going from here? Other than my weekly column at SportsFanMagazine.com, I have decided to start blogging over at KuklasKorner.com, with a blog called “Eye on the Media”, which will talk about all things NHL TV, Radio, Ads, Media and Blogs. Please check it out.

Thank you so much for reading.

I will see you soon.

-Steve Lepore