Battle Of Hudson

Devils and Pens tonight on FSN NY and WFAN at 7:30 PM. NHL Network in the US will broadcast the game.

Colin White and Paul Martin “may” play tonight. If so, the Devils will be much more adept on Defense, and perhaps more confident on the offensive side.

Aaron Asham also may play tonight. If so…OK.

For the Penguins tonight, they have to balance the lineups and get offense outside the Crosby line.

The Devils have to stop Crosby. I don’t care what Sutter wants, Madden’s line and White (If he plays) should be against Crosby on every possible shift.

I feel confident in my team tonight. No, really.

Marty will start tonight for NJD.

In what can only be described as a head-scratcher of a move, the Rangers demoted Nigel Dawes to Hartford today. Tom Renney issued a statement saying, for the most part, that Dawes needed to be more of a two way player. Renney said he was looking for consistency from the second highest scorer on the team. To fill his slot, Greg Moore was recalled from Hartford.

Moore will play alongside Petr Prucha and Chris Drury tomorrow night as the Rangers’ third line. Also up from Hartford is Ivan Baranka. Baranka is up incase Jason Strudwick can’t play tomorrow. Strudwick took a shot off the leg last night and did not play much of the third period. If he can’t go, Baranka will slide in next to Paul Mara as the third pairing.

The Dawes demotion is most likely a precursor to Martin Straka and Ryan Callahan coming back. Straka will most like shift back to the top line, with Brandon Dubinsky and Jaromir Jagr, and Callahan will take Moore’s spot with Drury and Prucha. While Marcel Hossa is a valuable two way player, you have to imagine that his lack of offensive ability will ultimately spell the end of him as a regular player while everyone is healthy. Either that or he gets stashed on the fourth line, and we lose Ryan Hollweg or Colton Orr.

What would you do? I think the demotion of Dawes was unwarranted, but there is so much depth right now that he is unfortunately expendable. It shouldn’t be too long before he gets another call with the big club, or in maybe a more likely scenario, he is traded. We’ll see.

The NYR home game vs. the Dallas Stars this Sunday at 1PM will air on WOR, Channel 9.

Throwback. Cool idea for the Rangers. A December game against Phoenix, and two additional Knicks games will also air on what is now MyNetworkTV 9.

I would’ve tuned in if I weren’t working the Giants on Sunday. Should be an interesting watch for Rangers fans.

My apologies for not having anything in game or immediately post game. It’s a busy time for me right now, but it will calm down in a couple of weeks. Anyways, about the game.

The Islanders created a lot more scoring chances from where I was sitting, and Henrik Lundqvist was great. Besides the opening minute of the second period where the Rangers took a collective 15 seconds off, they played pretty good hockey. Rick DiPietro robbed Jaromir Jagr in the third, and made a couple of other crucial saves throughout the night, but he was not tested to badly.

Michael Rozsival scored for the Rangers, shorthanded. I can’t be happier about the defense scoring all of these goals, but the offense needs to score as well. In order to score, you need to shoot, and that was something that the Rangers just weren’t doing last night. Scott Gomez goes coast to coast and then pulls up to pass, and it’s all for naught. Marcel Hossa skates through the slot with no one in front of him but doesn’t shoot because he’s on his backhand. They should all be on the ice right now blasting pucks on net from everywhere on the ice.

Rangers are back in action tomorrow night. I’ll be around a lot more often the next three games, so I’ll check in later.

Might be worth a shot if you speak the language…

http://www.puckupdate.com/archives/2007_11_18-2007_11_24.html#002248

There’s a little more than six hours until the drop of the puck at what should be an energized Garden tonight when the Rangers play host to the hated Islanders.

What makes this rivalry so special is its intensity. Not just the players on the ice for each respective team but the passionate fans who add so much to these games. Whenever Ranger and Islander fans get together for a game, you never know what to expect. But sometimes, the hatred can go too far and boil over even in the stands which many know all too well.

It was during one of last year’s games at MSG (one the Rangers pulled out) that that evidence was on display when a drunk Isles’ fan said a few too many things to a couple of Blueshirt fans which led to a fight and a couple of spectators being tossed out. That it literally happened right in front of me was all too scary.

I’m a true believer that these types of incidents could be avoided entirely if the paying customers who go just had a little more mutual respect for one another. These are the teams that we support. It’s not like we’re players competing against each other every shift where emotions sometimes run too high and lead to scraps. That’s what Colton Orr and Chris Simon are for along with Hollweg, Strudwick, Witt and Sutton.

A lot of times, it’s the alcohol that leads to such ugly stuff which usually takes away from what’s happening on the ice.

These games are about as good as it gets in this league. Like any bitter rivalry, the battles in the corners are a little more intense which usually makes for fairly competitive and entertaining games.

So far, the Islanders have prevailed in the first two games of the 2007-08 season series winning both by the narrowest of margins- a goal both in regulation. The 2-1 and 3-2 scores are reflective of how close these contests can be. With many coming down to the final close call at the buzzer.

Lately, the Fishsticks have had the better of the rivalry bringing an 8-1-2 recent record into tonight’s big battle. In fact, they’ve taken four of the past five on Broadway dating back to last season. So, the Blueshirts have plenty of incentive to defend their own turf.

Both teams are playing well coming in with the Islanders winning five of seven and the Rangers putting a season high five-game winning streak on the line.

The Rangers (12-7-1) lead the Atlantic with 25 points while the Islanders (10-6-0) enter in third five behind despite playing four fewer games. Got to love those schedule makers!

Figure both starting netminders Rick DiPietro and Henrik Lundqvist to be in goal. Lately, DiPi has been brilliant in these games. The King is having a great year. So it should be a fun goalie battle.

In order for the Blueshirts to win, they must play aggressively and win the battles along the boards. Use their speed well to attack a slower but mean Fishstick D. On the other side, they can’t allow the Isles to get their aggressive forecheck going. They are extremely effective down low at generating chances.

The team who can consistently pin the opposite side in their own end will most likely wind up with the two points.

Special teams could also come into play. The Islanders have a pretty potent power play while the Rangers have a solid penalty killing unit. The Ranger PP is still not great and can be attacked shorthanded. They must get it righted soon before it starts affecting end results.

It should be another great battle!

Congratulations to Martin Brodeur on finally becoming just the second NHL netminder to win 500 for a career, trailing only childhood idol Patrick Roy! He might be on the opposing side and an Oscar Award winning embellisher at times but this is a very classy team oriented athlete who has a great attitude.

As someone who covered him a few times, he was always there win or lose. And more often than not as evidenced by the three Stanley Cups, Olympic Gold and three Vezinas, Marty came out on top. His great desire and extreme work ethic have helped him have an outstanding career which is why when it ends, the likeable Montreal native is going into the Hockey Hall up in Toronto.

Glad it also came at the expense of the Cryers. Especially in their building. That must’ve been rough.

Enjoy your hockey night!

Marty gets big wins against the Failures. Period. Exclamation point.

Congrats to Marty, and the Devils, who got off the snide tonight with a 6-2 victory at the ATM in South Philadelphia. I was unable to watch, so I’ll post the point-getters tonight…

DEVILS:
Parise: 1 G, 2 A
Elias (!): 1 G, 1 A
Zubrus: 1 G, 1 A
Gionta: 1 G, 1 A
Rachunek: 1 G
Pandolfo: 1 G
Greene: 1 A
Zajac: 1 A
Oduya: 1 A

Brodeur: 26 Saves

PHILADELPHIA:
Richards: 1 G, 1 A
Upshall: 1 G, 1 A
Timonen: 1 A
Knuble: 1 A

Biron: 18 Saves

Confused? Let me clear it up. Michael Roszival, Dan Girardi and Jason Strudwick (!) scored for the Rangers tonight to give them a 4-3 win in overtime against the Penguins. Roszival had a pair, including a short handed goal, and Strudwick’s was the game winner in overtime (!!) off of a rush with Paul Mara. Pretty unbelievable right? Well, Ryan Hollweg also cracked the scoresheet with an assist on Roszival’s first goal. Marc Staal, Sean Avery, Petr Prucha, Brandon Dubinsky, Fedor Tyutin and Scott Gomez also picked up assists on the night. Every Ranger defenseman made the scoresheet tonight, which is quite the feat.

For the Penguins, Sidney Crosby was most of the offense, and he single handedly controlled the first period. He had a goal and an assist on the night. Petr Sykora and Maxime Talbot scored the other goals for Pittsburgh.

After the first period, when the Rangers were down 2-0, is when the Blueshirts remembered that they should be playing hockey. After a slow start in the first, they answered with three goals in the second. The rest of the game was fairly even with a weird bounce off of Colton Orr’s skate to main reason for Sykora’s third period goal to tie it up at 3-3. Overtime was only 1:40 old when Mara slid the puck over to Strudwick, who deposited it into the open cage.

Not much to really dissect tonight. Other than the first period, the Rangers played good hockey. I said in the beginning of the season that playing all 60 minutes was crucial to a successful season, and up until tonight they had been doing that. They were bailed out tonight, and that just goes to show how well this team is going right now.

A couple of other quick hits:

Martin Straka and Ryan Callahan were said to be a week or so away for the Rangers. No timetable on Marek Malik.

The players need to start policing the checking from behind, in my opinion. There have been way too many instances this year with players being boarded and injured. Over the last several games, Chris Drury and Dubinsky have been hit hard from behind, but both escaped unscathed. Dubinsky even got up and fought Tuumo Ruutu tonight, which takes guts. It’s sad what happened to Patrice Bergeron, who may not play hockey again this year, or ever. Erik Cole is also seriously injured. The league needs to increase the penalties for boarding, maybe to an automatic five minutes. I realize sometimes it is accidental, but too many times it looks like the player has plenty of time to pull back, and doesn’t. Until the league does something, enforcers like Orr need to step up and challenge anyone who boards a teammate. Just my opinion.

Also, while as a Ranger fan I am forced to despise Martin Brodeur, congratulations to him for winning his 500th game. Patrick Roy is now the only goaltender with more wins, with 551.

The Rangers are off tomorrow before Monday’s tilt against the Islanders. If anything breaks before then, I’ll let you know. If not, talk to you all on Monday.

It wasn’t their best game but when one considers that it was a back-to-back situation with the second game against the hated Flyers at an energized Wachovia Center, you have to admire the Rangers’ perseverance as they were able to capture their fourth straight in an exciting 4-3 shootout victory last night.

The difference was the accurate shooting of sniper Brendan Shanahan whose laser past Martin Biron’s outstretched glove was enough for the Blueshirts to prevail because as expected, Henrik Lundqvist was unbeatable in the skills competition- repelling all three Flyer shooters who came his way including a calm stack of the pads on Scottie Upshall’s bid to keep it going.

It allowed Tom Renney’s club to pull into a first place tie with those same Flyers and become the first road foe to come out with a ‘W’ in the City of Brotherly Love. Philly had been a perfect 6-0 entering the action packed contest which was played on the edge.

There’s certainly much to like even if top scorer Jaromir Jagr was held off the scoresheet. When the now red hot Scott Gomez who was flying all night notched two helpers on nifty transition goals by Fedor Tyutin and Shanahan, it was continued success for the ex-Devil pivot who apparently has finally grown more comfortable anchoring the ever dangerous Line One B with equally speedy pest Sean Avery and Shanny, who is starting to find the back of the net finally.

Though the power play fizzled and they couldn’t hold two third period leads, it was also nice to see Petr Prucha stepping into one for his second of the season breaking a long goal drought since the season’s opening week.

You also certainly got the feeling that the next six battles between these bitter rivals are going to be riveting hockey played on the edge. Both seem to be separating themselves from the pack in an ultra competitive Atlantic.

I loved the intensity. Who didn’t enjoy a very good scrap between Orr and Cote? Maybe only Bettman Inc!

And with the predictable scrums with each team exchanging words before faceoffs, it told you how much this still early game meant to both clubs.

There’s certainly a lot to like right now if you’re a Ranger fan. The team is finally clicking and it helps explain why they’ve turned the corner and have now won eight of nine as they enter Pittsburgh tomorrow before returning home Monday to host most hated nemesis Islanders.

Let’s see if they can keep it going!

Blue and Orange make their first journey to The Rock tonight.

Lineups:

Parise-Zajac-Langenbruner
Zubrus-Elias-Gionta
Pandolfo-Madden-Clarkson
Brylin-Pelley-Asham.

Greene-Rachunek
Vishnevski-Brookbank
Oduya-Mottau

Brodeur
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