Battle Of Hudson

The Rangers pulled out a 4-3 shootout victory over the Flyers last night to pull even with Philly atop the Atlantic Division. It was the Rangers’ eighth win in the last ten games, and it was Philly’s first loss on home ice all year.

The Flyers got regulation goals from Jim Dowd, Daniel Briere and Denis Tolpeko (first NHL goal) while the Rangers got goals from Fedor Tyutin (50th NHL point), Brendan Shanahan and Petr Prucha. Scott Gomez extended his point scoring streak with a pair of assists, Sean Avery chipped in a pair as well and Chris Drury assist on the Prucha goal. Shanahan scored the game winner in the shootout again, after Marcel Hossa was stopped on the first attempt. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 20 of 23 shots in regulation and overtime, and all three shootout attempts. Marty Biron stopped 26 of 29 in the four periods, and was only beaten by Shanahan in the shootout.

The game was blacked out for Buffalo vs Ottawa, which I was hoping would be a good game at least. It wasn’t, as Buffalo isn’t the same team without Drury and Briere and those Buffalo announcers drive me crazy. I don’t have much to go by as highlights on Sportscenter were also very limited. From what I heard, the Rangers started slow, then kicked into a new gear about halfway through the first period and didn’t slow down, creating a very entertaining game. Other than that, I cannot offer too much else. I’ll be able to see tomorrow night’s game against the Penguins though.

In other news, Ryan Callahan is now listed as day to day as he just has to get used to the new knee brace and recondition himself. I offered it before, but who goes when he comes back? Does he sit? Or does someone like Hossa get bumped? Maybe Ryan Hollweg or Colton Orr goes, even though that line has been very impressive and is doing a great job at what they’re supposed to do, shutdown the line they’re against and energize the team and crowd? If that happens, who gets stashed on the fourth line? Prucha? It’s a bad situation, but a good one at the same time. Better to have too much depth than not enough depth.

I say create a rotation. Rotate Hossa, Callahan and maybe Prucha in and out of the lineup until injury strikes, someone goes in a slump or something unforeseen happens. Keep players fresh. If Shanahan needs a game off, give it to him. Put Callahan in on the second line and he can chip in where Shanahan took off. It’s not ideal, but the team is playing so well, it’s hard to sit anyone permanently.

Also, Avery was featured in People magazine this week. He is listed as one of People’s sexiest men alive, sharing the honor with celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Patrick Dempsey, Ben Affleck and others. I am going to stop talking about sexy men now, but there is a video interview on People’s page located here: http://www.people.com/people/package/video/0,,20154290_20154496_20159873,00.html
It’s not a bad interview so enjoy.

See you back here tomorrow night.

Ive been away for a few days and seemed to have missed the Tucker-Avery nonsense as well as the Islanders not being able to capitalize on the opportunity to regain first place with a lowly loss to the Flyers. A game in which Marc Andre Bergeron did something stupid [and something he has been noted doing a lot before the Isles picked him up a year ago] and tried to pinch a little too deep in the offensive zone, thus creating a bad 2 on 1 situation in which Mike Richards scored a shorthanded goal to seal the game.

Anyway, now that I am done with that garbage, we travel to Pittsburgh tonight to face off with the Penguins in a game that I hope Miro Satan is salivating at. There’s a few teams out there that Miro really love to play against, one of them being the Devils [check his track record, or better yet his shootout % against them] and the other is Pittsburgh. Last season he lit the lamp numerous times against Crosby and Co and the last time these two teams met, Miro put the game winner in the back of the net once again. The Isles need a win tonight to stay one point behind the second place Rangers and keep the Devils from sneaking past them for third.

The Isles will be without their captain, Bill Guerin tonight who is still suffering from blurred vision after being hit in the eye with a puck two games ago. Sean Bergenheim will be taking his spot in the lineup and Mike Sillinger may be given the “C” for this game.

Brian Berard has been practicing and should be able to play tonight. that leaves an extra defenseman who will be scratched. [Most likely Bergeron] Forward Ben Walter has been sent to Bridgeport so to make room for Berard on the roster. Walter played very well in his short sty here centering a line of Chris Simon and Tim Jackman.

Now onto two things that disgust me. We re-signed Freddy Meyer….WHY? and even worse, we sent Sean Bates down to Bridgeport for conditioning, meaning he’ll be back up to play with the Isles in a week…..WHY?

In related news, the last time Bridgeport played Hershey, they had a huge brawl and one of their leading scorers’ Blake Comeau, ended up in two fights. One was against resident tough guy Louis Robitaille. Comeau has no right going up against a guy like Robitaille but stood in there like a champ. I bring all this up because Bridgeport goes into Hershey on Saturday and there still a lot of bad blood in the air. Lots of guys got thrown out of the game, guys were fighting all over the arena and guys were still fighting in the runways afterwards. Sean Bates plays his first game Saturday in Hershey. $50 for whatever Hershey player takes him out. We dont want him here on the Island. Go away!

The Rangers defeated the Devils last night, denying Martin Brodeur of his 500th win. In a game that saw Jamie Langenbrunner return to action, and score on his first shift to open the game, the Devils had little else to cheer about. Nigel Dawes scored less than 90 seconds later, followed by goals by Brandon Dubinsky, Jaromir Jagr and Marc Staal got his first of his career. Brian Gianta scored in the third period to bring the Devils within two, but it was not enough.

Couple of quick notes:

Marc Staal continues to improve. He’s taking the body well, becoming more and more confident with the puck and letting go some nice shots.

Tom Renney has so much confidence in the fourth line that they ended the game against the Devils top line. The Rangers’ checking line is staying out of the penalty box, pinning opponents in their own zones and even generating scoring opportunities. It’s great to see.

The Rangers have a huge problem when Martin Staka and Ryan Callahan return. Who do you sit? Dawes who has four goals? Dubinsky, who has created a great chemisty with Jagr? Unfortunately, I can see Marcel Hossa getting a seat on the bench, and possibly Petr Prucha. Unless they bump Ryan Hollweg or Colton Orr and then bury someone on the fourth line. We’ll see what happens.

The Rangers jump right back into action tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers. It should be another good game. This is the time of year that school owns my life and I will be forced to watch the game later on tonight again, but I’ll post in the morning. Enjoy.

I’ll be out in Newark tonight, so we’ll see how this goes tonight. The Devils gotta get production from (supposedly) Jamie Langenbrunner and his linemates Parise and Zajac, and then balance the attack between Elias’ line and Madden’s line, get some solid shifts from the 4th line and hope for the best against the Rangers’ forward attack.

I’ll see you in Newark!

From NHL PR Dep’t:

TORONTO (November 13, 2007) –

The New York Rangers organization has been fined $25,000, the Toronto Maple Leafs $10,000; the Rangers Sean Avery fined $2,500 and the Maple Leafs Darcy Tucker $1,000 for their actions in the pre-game warm-up in NHL Game #236 on Nov. 10.

“The unprofessional conduct of Avery in initiating this altercation, less than a week after being involved in an incident in the pre-game warm-up against New Jersey, is the basis for this discipline,” said NHL Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. “Tucker also bears some responsibility for his inappropriate response. Both organizations must also be held accountable for the players’ actions.”

Team fine money goes to the NHL Foundation; player fine money goes to the NHL Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

As fellow blogger Steve has already reported, Sean Avery was called to Toronto today to speak with Commissioner Colin Campbell and the rest of the disciplinary team to decide if a suspension is warranted for Avery’s actions on Saturday night.

As noted, Toronto’s Howard Berger said that Avery started the ruckus after a comment about Jason Blake’s bout with Leukemia. Brendan Shanahan has voiced his opinion on the matter, saying that Avery would not have said anything of that sort, and that while Avery’s antics are sometimes seen as classless, he wouldn’t stoop that low. Even Toronto’s head coach Paul Maurice said he had no problem with Avery’s antics before the game, so something seems fishy. It was originally reported that a fellow Ranger had said that even he “wanted to strangle” Avery at that point, but come on, who doesn’t want to strangle Sean Avery sometimes.

Avery will not be suspended, and Greg Moore who was called up as an insurance policy, has been sent back down to Hartford. Avery will likely be fined, even though it is coming mainly from reputation and he said, she said nonsense.

The Rangers and Devils square off tomorrow night as Martin Brodeur looks for win number 500. Should be a good one tomorrow as Avery will surely be looking to release some steam.

The FAN 590 in Toronto’s Howard Berger claimed that Sean Avery’s brewhaha was started by making comments about leukemia-sufferer Jason Blake. Sean is going to sue Berger for libel according to the NY Post:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11132007/sports/rangers/avery__i_was_libeled_821477.htm