Battle Of Hudson

I’d like to give a welcome to our newest member Ray.

Updating the locals, the Caps are on the board and trail the Isles 2-1 in the third.

NYI- Bergenheim, Guerin
Wsh- Ovechkin

The Rangers trail the Thrashers still 3-0 in the third. Make it 4-0. How’s that Malik scratch looking now? Think this team could actually show up? Paging Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. Paging Jagr who has no shots and has been invisible. Paging anyone?

NYR- None (1 even strength goal in last nine periods) guessing that’s not good
Atl- Dupuis, Kozlov, White, Little

The Devils trail the Flyers by the same margin with the third just ahead.

NJ- None despite 27 shots to 13 edge.
Phi- Richards, Kapanen, Dowd (yes really)

Other games:

Boston leads Tampa 2-1.

TB- Richards
Bos- Schaefer, Sturm

Florida and Toronto are tied 2-2.

Fla- Olesz, Booth
Tor- McCabe, Blake

Ottawa leads the Canadiens 3-2.

Mtl- Latendresse, Ryder
Ott- Redden, Foligno (1st of NHL career), Heatley (NHL leading 7th)

Kings-Flames just underway.

Oilers-Coyotes later.

Wings-Sharks later.

Say a hi, hello and welcome to Ray Calderon of IslesEnforcers.com, who agreed to come over here in place of Rob after he left. Ray will be an invaluable asset to our team, giving us Isles news and notes. If you enjoy sites like hockeyfights.com, you’ll enjoy IslesEnforcers.com

Good road period from the Devils.

Derek, the puck was not obscured it was clearly loose in the crease, and the THREE Pens defenders in the way of Fleury did more to hurt than Gionta did.

Gionta’s is not a cheap player, not compared to guys like Avery. The fact is Fleury fell on his own accord.

8:45 -Still 3-0 Thrashers. It seems like the Rangers always run into the hot goalie. Bottom line is the defense is full of holes. Tyutin and Girardi are a great combination but even they will falter sometimes. Roszival is playing a bad game, as is Pock. Pock we can chalk up to rust, Roszy has no excuse. They need to get on the same page and the offense needs to build some chemistry. Pronto.

8:23 – Apparently if you are skating backwards with the puck over the blueline, the linesman can rule it onsides. I had no idea of that rule. Learn something new everyday.

8:20 – 3-0 Atlanta. Todd White was extremely offsides, but the Rangers are playing sloppy, sloppy defense. I said in the beginning of the year if they were going to be successful, the defense needed to be better than last year. That is not the case so far this season, but especially not this game. The offense is playing well, we just haven’t buried any.

7:45 – End of period one. 2-0 Atlanta. Pascal Dupuis and Slava Kozlov scored for the Thrashers, who came out playing hard, and the Rangers were flat. Good news for the Rangers is they had a lot of opportunities. Bad news is so did Atlanta. They have to tighten up defensively and put some through on Hedberg the rest of the way out.

Update 7:35 – Kari Lethonen is out of goal and Johan Hedberg is in. Sam and Joe are saying it is a groin injury, which is good news for the Rangers. Thomas Pock has a lot of rust right now, and is a disaster waiting to happen.

The Rangers and Thrashers are squaring off right now on MSG and the hungry Thrashers are already off to a 2-0 lead.

Thomas Pock lost his stick on the first goal, failing to recover in time. The second goal was scored on a 5 on 3 power play, which was a very questionable call on Ryan Callahan, and a really weak interference call on Petr Prucha. The Thrashers have come out flying, and it has taken a little over 10 minutes for the Rangers to wake up.

Nigel Dawes looks great so far, and Tyutin and Girardi are the 1st pairing on defense. I’ll update again in a bit.

To come out flat against the only winless team in hockey who already axed their coach?

Two Atlanta goals. Undisciplined penalties and no defensive coverage.

Ranger fans have always wanted Marek Malik scratched. It should be an easy win, right?

Steve, Gionta is a cheap player. He intentionally went into Fleury and the goalie had no chance. How could you not see that? Why no reply on the other points to the view being obscured?

Let’s just say you’re wearing your team colors and leave it at that. Back to the game.

Lehtonen who looked razor sharp is out after robbing a couple of Blueshirts. He left with an injury. Hedberg who has played well in the past against the Rangers at Phillips Arena is in.

Still 2-0. Nearly three as they allowed Brian Little to break in untouched.

Will Ranger fans blame Malik? Stay tuned.

The Islanders face off with the Capitals in mere minutes and Aaron Johnson, whom the Islanders signed in the offseason to vie for one of the last defense positions, and has been a healthy scratch in every game this season, will play his first game tonight.

Johnson will not be playing defense but playing wing with Chris Simon and Richard Park. Johnson has played a handful of games on offense last season with Columbus. Mark Andre Bergeron who is apparently in Ted Nolans doghouse, will be a healthy scratch tonight as well as Darryl Bootland.

The best news the New York Rangers’ fans have heard in a long time was announced today. Marek Malik will be a healthy scratch tonight in favor of Thomas Pock. Pock will play alongside Roszival on top unit, although it can now be debated that Fedor Tyutin and Dan Girardi are the top defense pairing in New York. Malik needed a day off to compose himself, and Pock deserves a look. I don’t expect this move to be permanent though. Jaromir Jagr and Malik are friends, Tom Renney has a thing for sticking with the veterans, and Pock is in no way a top defenseman.

Also, as said yesterday, Nigel Dawes will be skating with Jagr and Scott Gomez tonight. What’s interesting is what will happen if Dawes clicks with them. Marcel Hossa is very expendable, so Dawes can have his spot if he is producing, although I am really not ready to give up on Hossa. The big problem arises when Sean Avery comes back. Avery is a different player than everyone else on the roster. Does Dawes sit when he comes back? Do we lose someone else? Or is someone stashed away on the 4th line, like Prucha or Callahan? These questions are a couple of weeks away from needing answers but it’s still not a bad idea to think about them now.

I’ll check in period by period during tonight’s game against the Thrashers.

Derek, if you watch the video, you’re absolutely incorrect. If you watch the video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yz-QhWFOdFg) you’ll see that Fleury either falls on his own accord or is tripped by his own defenseman. Gionta went looking for the puck in the crease and got pushed into Fleury.

It’s a good goal.

First off, let me just start by saying that Brian Gionta is one of the sneakiest players in the league. He gets away with plenty in front of the net. While the Devil sniper is a very good player, he’s a notorious hacker who takes full advantage of the rules which basically put defensemen at attacking forwards’ mercy. Want a comparison? See former Devil Pat Verbeek who went onto a great career.

Officials have begun to pick up on the gritty Rochester native’s agitating style by calling him for more of those slashes. Maybe just once he’ll finally get nailed for goalie interference. He’s always in front of the net on that edge pushing the envelope.

It’s my stance that he wasn’t pushed in by anyone last night. He skated directly in the crease and nudged Marc-Andre Fleury and then Ryan Whitney went after him like any good defenseman would. The same way Colin White would’ve if the same thing had happened to Martin Brodeur. Think the Devils miss him? Their defense is as soft as tissue paper without White around. His absence due to an eye injury is a big reason why teams are scoring at will and not paying any price. They’ve made up for it the past couple of games by scoring 11 goals against poor defensive teams.

Now, let’s go back to the play in question which was ruled a goal. How is a goalie supposed to stop the puck nevermind see it when he’s down on the ice with Gionta on top of him there? He has no chance of making a save in that position which I believe is in the rulebook. That’s why it never should’ve counted.

What’s even more appalling was new WFAN Devils’ color analyst Sherry Ross’ take on it between intermission. Opting just to discuss how the puck was loose which was true while neglecting to mention Gionta’s role in crucial play. Why else did she think an animate Fleury shoved the net at the official for? Hint: It had nothing to do with the puck being loose. If you want to be an objective analyst, do us a favor and discuss every detail next time.

To rule that a goal seems illogical. There’s absolutely no way either LaRue or Morton could’ve seen the puck. In that case, it should’ve been whistled dead immediately. From my vantage point watching this controversial play, I couldn’t tell where it was.

How are those two refs going to see the puck in that pile with all those battles taking place in the crease? The view had to be obscured which is why the decision didn’t make much sense.

My main feeling on this game is that the Pens got screwed out of a point. If they were smart, they’d send a copy to the league and put it up for immediate review. You have to wonder what the guys up north were thinking watching that second period. Do you think it was discussed?

I’d love to find out.

What’s written here is coming from as passionate a puck fan out there. This isn’t about an archrival benefiting from questionable decisions. It’s about the integrity of the game. This could’ve happened to any team. I was witness to one of the worst called playoff games last Spring yet the Rangers overcame it to prevail. However, there’s no way the game would’ve needed three OT’s to decide without some very poor judgments by the two referees.

As a fan of the sport, I believe I speak for many when I say that when I attend or watch a game on TV, I don’t want to notice the stripes. That task is becoming more and more difficult lately. Part of it is the strict enforcement of the rules where they’re calling every phantom hook. Another aspect of it is that some of the refs up here clearly aren’t capable of making proper calls. You’d think the league would start to take notice how the standard has dropped the past few years since going to the two ref system.

They haven’t done enough. What becomes clearer is that there aren’t enough good officials for all these games. It’s like running a competitive HS Basketball League with D officials who have never been on big games before. There’s bound to be some loss of control and controversies which doesn’t bode well for the players or coaches. It impacts everybody.

I want to see what the league does after this latest incident. I’d like to believe they’ll take a hard close look and put LaRue and his lost partner on notice.

It’s high time!

Derek, I’ll level with you that the officiating was awful, and it does sour what was a great game and an even better win. But there’s not a chance that was an interference call.

And you mention Chico, and he’s not ever known for agreeing with something that happened to a goaltender. Ever. Regardless of team being played for.

Anywho, onto the recap.

After some early 1st Period chances from the Penguins that were stopped artfully by goalkeeper Martin Brodeur (Whom, despite the score, saw a return to form, and perhaps only Malkin’s goal in the 2nd he might be blamed for) the Devils set to the attack, and it was that legendary offensive duo known as Madden and Pandolfo – with a little help from sparkplug David Clarkson (Who saw his own reflection 15 years from now in Gary Roberts on many occasions). On an early attack about 6 minutes in, Clarkson attempted a wrap-around that instead directed towards Pando in a good shooting position, and he ripped one top shelf past Fleury to make it 1-0.

The Madden-Pando-Clarkson combo struck again later in the period, as Pandolfo entered the Pittsburgh zone, dropped it to Madden, who said “Bitch, get out ‘da way” to Marc-Andre Fleury and just ripped one to the twine. At 9:58, it was NJD 2-0.

The Pens then nailed home 3 straight on deflections from Maxime Talbot and Gary Roberts, followed by a biting, knuckling slapper from Sergei Gonchar, that may have hit Karel Rachunek. Brodeur was much better than in Atlanta, but I think maybe a rest in Thursday at the Wachoff Center is a good thing for the Islanders and Rags next week.

It was then that Zach Parise got the first of his three assists on the night with a slap pass to Travis Zajac, who half-shot, half-angled the puck past Fleury. Parise and Zajac ain’t the future, they’re the present.

It was later in the period that things got crazy. Ridiculously, six consecutive calls on the Penguins. Including a very controversial one where Malkin and JStaal broke in 2-on-Goalie and Malkin scored, and only after the play did a penalty for too many men get called. Morton and LaRue should absolutely be suspended for this, but not for what happened next.

Brian Gionta went to the net as usual, and parise took a shot that I believe went off the boards and through the crease and stayed loose, even on my awful television, you could clearly see the puck was untouched. Gionta was pushed into the net. Three Pens around the goal, none of them close the puck, all battling Gionta and their own netminder to find it. Travis Zajac found it and potted his second of the game.

The Penguins got justice with a 5-on-3 later in the period which Malkin cashed in on, clever pass from Sid the distinguished diving Lady, and the game tied at 4 headed to the third.

Midway third period. Elias a great bank pass away from Crosby, finds Zach Parise cross-ice, he sends it across where Aaron Asham, of all people, finds it on the tape and puts it home for his second of the season, and Parise’s 3rd helper of the night, 7th of the year – quickly becoming the Devil answer to Jason Spezza. It was 5-4 and would stay that way the rest of the game.

We’ll look further into this one tomorrow folks.