Battle Of Hudson

It’s been three days since the Rangers posted a hard earned 1-0 shutout of the Devils Sunday. Now, with a couple of days off and a visit to the Verizon Center to face the Caps fresh off a 3-2 win over those Devs, the Blueshirts must be careful not to take their opponents lightly tonight.

Under new coach Bruce Boudreau, Washington has played better posting a 5-3-1 mark. They’ve won three of their last four and should be as feisty as ever against New York.

The Rangers already took the first couple of games of the regular season series at MSG. However, it’s little secret that in recent years, they have struggled in DC.

In order to maintain the momentum they got against their first place Atlantic rivals, they must show up with the same work ethic for 60 minutes.

Former Cap Jaromir Jagr enters without a point in his last four with a minus-seven rating. The 36 year-old Czech leader of his team must pick it up. The good news he did play better against New Jersey. So maybe it’s just a matter of time before he starts scoring again.

We’ll find out how No.68 and his teammates fare tonight.

The other night after I had returned from The Garden of the Rangers’ latest victory over the Hudson rival Devils courtesy of King Henrik’s second 1-0 blanking of New Jersey, I couldn’t help but notice the wacky boxscore between the Blues and Avalanche:

On the strength of sniper Milan Hejduk’s hat trick and six points, the Avs prevailed in an old fashioned 1980’s style shootout (no not the damn skill competition) 9-5.

Yes! You read correctly and probably did the same double and triple take I did when I saw it.

The polar opposite of one of the more tactical games between the Blueshirts and Devs which predictably had few scoring chances where each Vezina contending netminder just had to stay focused when called upon. In particular Henrik Lundqvist who saw only 17 shots the entire night.

Now, crazy as it might sound, I figured out in my head the combined score of the first half of games between the bitter Lincoln Tunnel enemies:

Rangers vs Devils (Games 1-4 2007-08 reg. season): 12

Yes! The two Atlantic division foes have actually combined to score two fewer goals than was the case in one unpredictable Western Conference match-up between Joel Quenneville’s Avalanche and his former club- currently coached by Jack Adams candidate Andy Murray.

Now, I’m not implying anything here. Just mesmerized by the ridiculous difference between one contest and four games between close rivals.

You might wonder why I am even bothering bringing this up.

For a couple of reasons:

1.It demonstrates why the league erred in its latest new schedule set to begin next season with two less rivalry games between divisional opponents. We’ll get to a little quick point after too.

2.It is true that the game Sunday lacked a lot of chances. Now, as everyone’s favorite writer Larry Brooks pointed out, the Rangers and Devils possess two of the elite goalies in the game. Let’s just cut to the chase here: Lundqvist and Martin Brodeur are the best netminders in the Eastern Conference and outside of maybe Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo, the best that the NHL has to offer.

Here’s the point which is open to debate. Why would these two teams play such conservative styles?!?!?!?!?! They have great goalies. Wouldn’t you want to go for it a little more and take some chances once in a while? I’m not advocating a wide open style where players are irresponsible in the other end. Not in the least. The good teams know how to play defense and backcheck. But it would be nice to see a little more aggressiveness. After all, it’s not like each team doesn’t have skilled players who are supposed to put the biscuit in the basket.

NJ- Parise, Gionta, Elias, Langenbrunner, Zajac, Zubrus

NYR- Jagr, Shanahan, Straka, Prucha, Gomez, Rozsival

It would just be nice to see one of our own BONY goalies be forced to stand on their head from time to time. There are different kinds of games and that’s understood. Especially lowscoring ones. I had a buddy who called me to wish a belated Happy Birthday and called him back and we discussed the game between the second intermission.

He made it a point to talk about how exciting the Pens’ 2-1 shootout victory was over the Canucks. Now, you might say, ‘Well there was only two goals scored in that.’

He raved about there being more end to end rushes and many scoring chances which had to keep each goalie on their toes.

And that’s the point I’m trying to push here. That there can be very exciting 1-0 or 2-1 games. It all depends on the style.

Lastly, I will say that both teams the other night played extremely hard. The players had to fight for every inch of the ice. So it wasn’t a bad game. It was good. All we’re advocating here is that from a fans’ standpoint, it could’ve been even better!

Now onto our earlier comment about the schedule:

I agree that it’s nice for fans to see the other conference at least once. To get a chance to catch a Kopitar, Phaneuf, Getzlaf, Perry, Luongo, Iginla, Nash, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Kane or Toews is worth the price of admission.

Here’s my only gripe. This is a part I don’t like for next year:

A.Divisional games: 6 each totaling 24
B.Other conf. opponents: 4 each totaling 40

That is inexcusable. You’re telling me it makes sense to play 16 more games against other divisions. We’re talking only about a quarter of the schedule against your own division.

Why not subtract a game from one division (ie play 3 each against the Southeast and 4 each against the Northeast)

Here’s the total:

vs Northeast- 20
vs Southeast- 15

That’s 35 games. Now what if they went back to 8 against the rest of the division. Where does that leave us?

vs div. foes- 32
vs rest of Con- 35

Total 67

Well, would you look at that?!?!?!??! 67 GAMES PEOPLE!!!!! No Leafs fans. It’s not aimed at your team. So relax. 😉

That would mean you’d have the remaining 15 games against the opposite conference.

Now, wouldn’t this schedule idea be the best of everything and give the fans more of what they want?

The choice is yours. I think I’ve made my point here.

Hope you’ll enjoyed it!

I don’t know about you, but I loved tonight’s Rangers v Devils game. The final score was 1-0 Rangers, in overtime, off of a Brendan Shanahan one-timer a mere 30 seconds into the extra frame. Fedor Tyutin and Scott Gomez got the assists. Henrik Lundqvist was his old self in the shutout.

It wasn’t that the game was played overly well, but both teams played with a lot of heart. There was a lot of passion, some good back and forth action, some terrific saves and some bone crunching hits. It was good hockey all around.

The Rangers didn’t look like a team that had lost three straight. The Devils, however, played extremely well, but their winning streak came to an end. Martin Brodeur made some big saves, robbing Petr Prucha with a brilliant glove save, stoning Gomez on numerous opportunities and keeping Jaromir Jagr in check. Lundqvist stopped Zack Parise in the opening seconds, and Jamie Langenbrunner later on in the game. Colin White laid a few good shots, one big one on Marcel Hossa, and Ryan Hollweg was his usual self.

All in all, it was a great hockey game. The Rangers are back on the ice on Wednesday night against the Washington Capitals, 7 pm on FSN NY. I won’t be around until pre-game, it’s finals time here. Enjoy the beginning of the week. Relish in this if you’re a Ranger fan. Hopefully this jumpstarts us back to the caliber of play that we are capable of.

The Rangers hope to snap their losing streak, while snapping the Devils’ winning streak in this evening’s game. The Devils have won a ridiculous nine in a row, while the Rangers have had poor showings in three staight losses.

The lineup for the Rangers will probably remain the same as Friday’s game against Atlanta, as no call ups were made. The lone exception will be Henrik Lundqvist back in net, as expected.

In Hartford related news, Nigel Dawes continues to tear up the AHL, with five more points last night. In 12 games with the ‘Pack this season, Dawes has recorded 23 points. Greg Moore also recorded a hat trick last night, bringing his goal total up 14 in 24 games. One of Moore’s goals may actually go to Dawes after being reviewed, giving Dawes a franchise record six points on the night.

Should be a tough one tonight at 5:00. Let’s see if the Rangers can get back on track.

Mike Sillinger’s two-man advantage goal in overtime with just over 27 ticks left was the difference as the Islanders snapped their five-game winless skid (0-4-1) with a 3-2 win in Tampa Saturday night.

There was a Bill Guerin sighting as the Fishstick team captain finally scored. Ironically, it was the first time he tallied since another Isles’ win over the Lightning over a month ago.

Andy Hilbert scored the other Islander goal as they overcame a two-goal night from Brad Richards to get a much needed victory, getting to 30 points and remaining just four behind the first place Devils and a couple behind the logjam for second between the Flyers, Rangers and suddenly resurgent Penguins who won again for the fourth straight time 2-1 over Vancouver in a shootout.

Later today at MSG, the slumping Rangers play host to the sizzling Devils as they put their nine-game win streak on the line and try to pickup their first win in the season series. The Blueshirts took the first three (two in regulation).

Look for Henrik Lundqvist to return in goal for the Blueshirts who have dropped three in succession.

Hopefully, it will be a good game.

Lenny, in case you didn’t catch the game, the effort was better than the past two games. However, even in a tightly contested game, the Rangers got nothing out of it because of Kozlov’s surprising wrister which beat Valiquette thru a screen. It’s definitely one which fooled the backup and might have surprised him.

However, he did play well. Don’t be fooled by the SOG (34-21 Rangers). The Thrashers had many odd-man rushes and great chances which tells you that the Rangers aren’t all there right now. They’re a fragile team which could be very bad timing for tomorrow.

Jagr did show some semblance of life hitting a post and skating better. But at the end of the night, once again the Ranger leader wasn’t on the scoresheet. There have been too many instances where that’s happened. They’re not paying him to just show up. But to score and setup teammates.

He and Straka also were again guilty of not getting back for one-time Blueshirt Pascal Dupuis’ tying marker off a two-on-one.

Whatever the reason, this team misses Sean Avery badly. They are average at best without the pest.

I found it rather amusing that Jonathan Coachman kept referring to Atlanta as Hotlanta on MSGNY, so I had to incorporate it into a recap. I was unable to see any of the game, since I did not get MSG2 here. From what I am reading today, Jaromir Jagr was off his game, Stephen Valiquette played well, but let in a few softies, and Garnett Excelby had his way with Marcel Hossa.

Having not seen the game, I don’t know if the effort was better than previous games. I do know that if the effort is not there on Sunday, we will take a beating like the Sabres took against the Kings the other night. (8-2 if anyone didn’t catch that, 7 goals in the first 30 minutes of the game for the Kings)

Tom Renney hasn’t called anyone up for the struggling Rangers, but didn’t rule it out. You have to imagine Nigel Dawes would be the lucky recipient, as he has been dominant since his demotion.

As much as the Rangers have been struggling, the Devils have been surging. Winners of nine straight, they will surely be on top of their game against the Rangers. The defensive presence of Colin White was surely missed, as they are undefeated since his return to the lineup eight games ago. The Rangers will have to muster up all the offense they can, clamp down defensively and play a solid 60 minutes of hockey. Hopefully the days off have helped Henrik Lundqvist rest up and refocus and he will be back to his solid net minding ability.

If any lineup changes happen, I’ll update this post. If not, I’ll check in pre-game tomorrow. Should be a good one tomorrow.

The Rangers take on the Thrashers tonight after back to back games where they played like the Charlotte Checkers. Stephen Valiquette will be in net for the Rangers, who have been outscored 10-2 over the last two games. The break gives Henrik Lundqvist some time off before Sunday’s tilt against the Devils.

Colton Orr may also not be in the lineup tonight, as he was still suffering from some blurred vision and a swollen eye from his fight last night with Wade Belak. If he can’t go, which will be decided at pre-game warm ups, Jason Strudwick will move up to the fourth line, Paul Mara will be reinserted into the lineup and play with Marc Staal or Marek Malik as the third defense pairing. A Malik-Mara pairing doesn’t really excite me, but Staal has played better with Michal Rozsival.

Tom Renney also said that depending how tonight’s game goes, a call up tomorrow is possible. With the lack of production from Ryan Callahan, Marcel Hossa and Petr Prucha, their jobs could be in jeopardy right now. They all play a fantastic hardworking game, but they are not producing. If the top lines were scoring though, this wouldn’t be a problem. We’ll see how they come out against the revamped Atlanta Thrashers.

Since the game is on MSG2, I won’t know if I can see the game until moments before puck drop. Enjoy the game and I’ll check in later.