Battle Of Hudson

Oct. 27 vs. Ottawa – SOLD OUT (Check Stubhub)
Oct. 31 vs. Tampa Bay – Lower & Upper Level Pairs Available, Mezzainine Available as well.
Nov. 2 vs.Toronto – Lower, Mezzanine and Upper Level Pairs Available
Nov. 5 vs. Pittsburgh – Lower, Limited Mezzanine and Limited Upper Level Pairs Available
Nov. 8 vs. Philadelphia – Lower, Limited Mezzanine and Limited Upper Level Pairs Available
Nov. 14 vs. NY Rangers – Limited Lower, Mezzanine (UPPER LEVEL SOLD OUT)
Nov. 16 vs. NY Islanders – Lower, Limited Mezzanine, Limited Upper Level
Nov. 28 vs. Dallas – Lower, Mezzanine, Limited Upper Level.

Full update later today.

Like the shift after scoring a big goal, following up a big win with another win is very important. A hockey-ism that the Islander Castaways seemed to forget last night against Toronto and one that I am sure Teddy Nolan is going to drill back into their minds before next game.

Back on Wednesday night in Uniondale the Isles put up a typical Nolan-esque performance to get their first win against the rival Rangers. Timely scoring from Marc-Andre Bergeron, a 5 on 3 tally from the newly signed Bryan Berard, and solid tending by Ricky D. secured the Isles 2 more points in the Atlantic division. I think both teams played very well and at times the Rangers controlled most of the play, but it looks as if the Rags are still having a little a bit of trouble getting everyone on the same page. As Isles fans this was a huge win against the Rangers after their off-season spending spree. But rest assured the Rangers already have November 6th marked on their calendars for the rematch.

I’d like to forget about the Islanders debacle last night against the Leafs and focus solely on the win against the Rangers but that would not be fair. It was a historic win for the Leafs and Mr. Sundin as the Swede became the all time points and goal leader for the storied original 6 franchise. The Leafs bounced back strong after a 7-1 drubbing by the ‘Canes and the Islanders never got on the charter flight to Toronto after the Rangers win on the previous night. Wade Dubielewicz had the pleasure of facing the offensive barrage and all of the blame cannot fall on Dubbie’s shoulders though; the forwards turned the puck over in the no-no zone around the Leafs offensive blue line and rarely put any pressure on the forecheck. The defence or lack there of, looked like a bad Pee-Wee team losing their men and swinging their purses in a feeble attempt to stop the Leafs attack.

Its an unnerving loss to say the least. Excuses can be used that everyone has a bad night or it was a factor of back to back games, even more so that it was after a tough win. Honestly though Ted Nolan does not strike me as the type of person who has the word “excuse” in his vocabulary and I fully expect the Isles to come out very strong against Philly on Saturday night. Until then, lets just keep enjoying this title while it still lasts, “Atlantic Division Leading New York Islanders.”

Let’s save this one for tomorrow, as the Devils fall 3-0 to Florida.

THE ROAD TO NEWARK
Game #: 4 of 9
Miles Taveled: 4,567.91

The Devils take on the Panthers again tonight. Marty will be in goal. Hopefully it’ll be on TV.

The Devils need to come out and sustain a good first period, and then worry about a full 60 minute game, because step one to playing the full 60 is playing a solid 20.

Prediction: Devils 5, Panthers 2. I’ll call it right here: Patrick Elias busts out tonight.

I’ll be here to keep those of you who are reading updated on the Rangers/Islanders game. Here is the lineup for the Rangers:

Hossa – Drury – Jagr
Straka – Gomez – Shannahan
Prucha – Betts – Callahan
Hollweg – Dubinski – Orr

Rozsival – Malik
Tyutin – Girardi
Strudwick – Staal

Lundqvist

I’ll check in on this post every few minutes. Enjoy the game.

7:15 – 3 minutes in and Ryan Hollweg takes a dumb penalty for tripping away from the play. He can’t do things like that and expect not to be scrutinized every now and then.

7:24 – Andy Sutton took a 2 minute holding penalty 6:45 in that the Islanders killed off. Lundqvist has been great so far, staving off 5 Islanders shots so far. One shot on goal on the PP for the Rangers, 2 total. Meanwhile, there are scrums after the whistle starting.

7:35 – Callahan and Fedotanko just took coincidental roughing minors. Drury has hit a post or crossbar, and Callahan had a good strip and shot before, but the Islanders controlled the beginning of this game. Rangers look to be waking up now.

7:38 – I don’t know how he did it but DiPietro just stopped Shannahan, a Betts rebound, and Shannahan again. That’s the pressure the Rangers need. Marc-Andre Fleury looks a little flat on defense right now. He was stripped by Callahan and just kind of stood there just now.

7:45 – Huge hit by Petr Prucha. Yup, Petr Prucha. It led to sustained pressure by the Rangers and that led to Berard hooking Callahan to the ice. Somehow the officials thought that Callahan embelished it, and gave him 2 for diving as well. I’m not a fan of the penalty and diving call. If it’s a dive, there shouldn’t be a penalty on the other guy. This might be a different case though, as it was clearly a hook.

7:50 – Tripping penalty to Witt, ridiculous holding the stick penalty to Shannahan after Sutton really hacked Shannahan’s stick and hands, leads to a 3 on 3 and a goal off the draw by Marc-Andre Bergeron. 1-0 Islanders after one full period. Back after intermission.

8:10 – Different Rangers team came out for the second period. Great offensive pressure leads to a Fedor Tyutin wrist shot goal at 2 and a half minutes in. Marcel Hossa may have gotten away with a boarding penalty. There was no replay but on first look it looked borderline. DiPietro just made a great save on Gomez and then Straka missed the net on a separate rush. Good pressure.

8:25 – This might be the most balanced lineup I have seen the Rangers put on the ice in a really long time. All 4 lines are being rolled, and for the most part controlling the play. The top 2 lines just pinned the Islanders down for the last 2 minutes just cycling and shooting. Ryan Hollweg even showed a brief glimpse of the offensive ability that he has, attempting to beat the Islanders defense 1 on 1. DiPietro coming up big right now.

8:30 – Shannahan and Betts both took penalties, leading to a Bryan Berard 5 on 3 power play goal. 2-1 Islanders.

8:33 – Delay of game penalty to Lundqvist for “handling the puck in the restricted area.” Forced the Rangers to kill off another 5 on 3.

8:42 – End of Period 2. 2-1 Islanders still. Good physical game so far. Should be a good third period.

9:06 – Kind of a slow start right now. Guerin just took a slashing penalty. Powerplay Rangers.

9:08 – Gervais goes for high sticking. 34 second 5 on 3 for the Rangers. Meanwhile, I still have no idea how Dan Girardi went undrafted. He continues to impress me.

9:12 – Whoa. A lot of action on the power play, but no goals. Shannahan teed up a few, Jagr took a few rips, Straka tried and Gomez had DiPietro down on the ice and couldn’t get the puck up from the side of the net and wound up putting it off the side bar and into DiPietro on the ice. Power play is over, 12 minutes even left.

9:16 – Boarding penalty to Roszival. 5 on 3 again. Tough hit, very easily could have been 2 minutes to Guerin for roughing Rosy afterwards, but it was a warrented 2 minutes. A lot of 5 on 3’s this game. Great save by Lundqvist.

9:21 – Rangers kill off the penalties and get a power play of their own when Guerin went for holding. Jagr came up short on a semi-breakaway, and then again off a great feed from Gomez.

9:37 – That’s the game. 2-1 Islanders. As much as I don’t like him, Brendon Witt did a great job shutting Jagr down. Dubinski is under utilized on the 4th line. He could add a little more than what Betts has been giving Callahan and Prucha. The defense was strong again, but I do kind of miss Mara on the point of the second power play unit. The way the defense is clicking though, I’d leave it alone. That’s all for tonight. Thanks for reading.

It is with great regret that I announce that 1 of our Islanders bloggers, Rob Fitzpatrick, is not going to be posting here at Battle of NY any longer.

He gave us a lot of good insight and commentary, and will be greatly missed.

Rob, we hope you visit the site again frequently.

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Tonight’s Rags – Crysles game will be on VERSUS at 7PM. You can watch a rerun of CAR-TOR from last night right now.

Joe Beninati, Ed Olczyk and Billy Jaffe have the call.

Tonight, the Atlantic leading New York Islanders (that has a nice ring to it, no?) take on their hated rivals from Gotham. I apologize for not posting on Monday but I was busy driving Freddy Meyer to the airport so he could get to Phoenix as soon as possible. With Meyer being claimed off waivers that made room for the Isles to sign Berard which is a huge addition. (Btw, must read about Berard) But with good news comes bad news as apparently John Sim is out with a knee injury for the remainder of the year. With the loss of Sim comes the call up of Jeff Tambellini from Bridgeport which in actuality could turn out to be a blessing in disguise if the former Wolverine can put up some points and play consistently.

Back to tonights tilt, we all know the history of these two clubs and what transpired in the preseason but it will be interesting to see some other things. Like how the Isles bounce back from their loss on Monday afternoon to the Caps and to see if Mike Comrie and the top line can keep up their scoring pace. On the other side for Ranger fans it will be interesting to see if the offensive additions can start gelling together here early in the season. Enjoy the game tonight Isles and Ranger fans, I’ll have a recap for you folks tomorrow.

Nigel Dawes’ time isn’t right now. It’s looking like Marcel Hossa will be penciled into his first regular season game on Wednesday when the Rangers travel to Long Island to take on the Islanders. Not only will he be in the lineup, but he’ll be skating on the top line with Drury and Jagr. Martin Straka will shift down into Avery’s place on the second line, leaving the third and fourth line in tact, which makes the most sense. Avery and Straka are similar players in that they play hard and look to make plays, so there shouldn’t be much problem adjusting for Gomez and Shannahan. Hossa also showed last year that he can be very beneficial to Jagr’s line. Let’s hope he can put up a few points, or at least help the others get some.

This is the first Atlantic Division game for both teams. The Atlantic Division might be the closest, most competitive division in the NHL this year, so even these points are huge right now. The Rangers have been linked to be favorites to make it to the Stanley Cup finals this year, the Devils are always good, the Penguins just keep getting better, the Islanders made a lot of changes and the Flyers got a lot better in the offseason. Should be good to see some intense, rivalry hockey so early in the season.

Yay, another game where the Devils didn’t show up at times.

The Devils fell to the reigning Eastern Conference Champions 4-2 this afternoon. Once again a game devoid of the Devils scoring anything resembling a “pretty goal” (But hey, that ain’t Devil hockey) and once again, a game where the Devils just came out and played an awful period.

Martin Brodeur, tragi-comically, played his best of the 2 he’s played so far, and probably did more yeoman’s work than Kevin Weekes did on Saturday in Sunrise. Some fantastic saves, and a worse goalie would’ve made this game far wider a margin.

WHO SHOWED UP: In addition to Brodeur, The Parise-Zajac-Gionta line. For all 60 minutes…still the only reason to hope for NJ on offense. Also kudos to Zubrus and Asham for setting up the Devs first goal. But Parise was out their for that as well.

WHO TRIED TOO HARD: Patrick Elias. We’re going to have a long talk about Patty soon. Even without the ‘C’, Patrick continues to frustrate himself and the Devil fanbase.

WHO JUST FLAT-OUT SUCKED: Paul Martin, Andy Greene and Karel Rachunek. The defense was horrid for most of this game.

WHO NEEDS TO FIGURE SOMETHING OUT: Brent Sutter. He’s gotta’ find the right combos for this team. Once he figured out the lines that worked for him, this team started to play.

Next for NJ: In Florida again? Well, ok. Thursday at 7:30 in Sunrise. See you then.

THE ROAD TO NEWARK
Game #: 3 of 9
Miles Traveled So Far: Approx. 2,970.79

Devils will get an early test from a Senators team that a lot of people are picking to come out of the East again. Not to mention, that whole, we-dumped-your-asses-in-5-games-last-year thing.

Keys to the Game:
-Forecheck, Forcheck, Forcheck. That was the Senator gameplan last season, while the Devils were completely passive. Give ’em a taste of their own medicine.

-Don’t overthink the whole “Holy Shit, Marty didn’t play the 2nd game of the year” thing. Marty’s back and will be solid, now keep Johnny Oduya away from the CA$H line.

-MAKE SURE THE GAME IS ON ALL CABLE OPERATORS! Unlike certain other games I could mention.

Projected Lines for tomorrow’s game:

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

Greene-Rachunek
Oduya-Martin
Vishnevski-Mottau