Battle Of Hudson

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

Word out of Rangerland is that Sean Avery suffered a grade 2 shoulder separation and will be sidelined for four weeks. Big loss for the Rangers, who will most likely replace him on the second line with Marcel Hossa for the short term, and if that does not work you will see Nigel Dawes make his season debut with the big club. The Rangers play the Senators again on Saturday and you have to believe Neil will be the target of a Ryan Hollweg and Colton Orr hit or two.

Sean Avery suffered a sprained shoulder on the questionable hit from Chris Neil tonight. He’ll be re-evaluated tomorrow and see what happens from there. If he is indeed out for an extended period of time, Marcel Hossa will step back into the starting lineup, and if an extra forward is needed, Nigel Dawes would be recalled from Hartford.

I’m hoping the league takes a look at the hit. I don’t think a suspension is warranted, but a fine is in order. It was obvious that Neil was headhunting on the play. I didn’t see the elbow that some people saw, but I did see a borderline charge on a guy without the puck. His hit was the “hit to hurt” approach that Commissioner Gary Bettman warned Ryan Hollweg about earlier in the week. It’s a shame Colton Orr didn’t step up and knock Neil out. Here’s to hoping Avery has a speedy recovery.

Thank you Comcast, I really needed 2 feeds of the Isles-Sabres, instead of the Devils.

Madden gets 2, the second one somewhat flukey, Andy Greene (!!) and Mike Mottau (!) get the other 2 goals.

Kevin Weekes made 32 saves, including a ridonculous 20 of 21 in the 1st Period. He was deservedly named the 1st star of the game.

19,250 in Sunrise tonight. Adding Florida to a list that inclused Tampa Bay, the Islanders Carolina and Phoenix (and doesn’t include Detroit or Colorado) of teams that sold out their home opener.

Devils move to 1-1, and head to Ottawa for what will be an interesting early barometer against the Senators, who knocked out the Devils in the 2nd Round of last year’s post-season.

I’m giving this a shot. I’ll be here making updates on the game every few minutes or so. This is my first shot at this so feel free to let me know what I’m doing right and wrong.

7:20 – Sloppy opening few minutes for the Rangers. Bad hooking penalty, sloppy defense by Roszival and a terrible line change has led to a 2-0 Ottawa lead only 6 minutes in.

7:25 – Big, hard hit by Neil on Avery leads to a 2 minute penalty for elbowing, but Avery went right to the locker room favoring his left shoulder.

7:40 – Good shift by Prucha and Callahan, who are being centered by Blair Betts. I like Betts, but he doesn’t belong on the third line. Hollweg was double-shifted, moving up into Avery’s spot. Strudwick shows again that he is a leader and challenges Neil. Good fight, Neil left with blood under his left eye and mouth. Hooking penalty to the notorious Marek Malik.

7:48 – End of period one. Lundqvist robbed Heatley at the end with a marvelous glove save. Still no word on Avery, which is forcing Renney to do some line juggling. Much better ending 14 minutes. Perry Pearn just said they would be going with 11 forwards for the rest of the game.

8:05 – Start of period two. Excellent puck movement and control by the Rangers is countered by Ottawa. Lundqvist makes some excellent saves. Still no word on Avery.

8:09 – Left shoulder injury to Avery – will not return. Bad break for the Blueshirts.

8:20 – Bad call on Shannahan. Henrik Lundqvist continues to be the best Ranger on the ice. Prucha is playing his heart out as well. Fedor Tyutin just rocketed one off the post.

8:24 – Excellent shift again by the 4th line. If Ryan Hollweg can find some sort of offensive ability like he had in Hartford, he will be much more valuable to this team than he already is. Brandon Dubinski might be making them better, but he really needs to be on the third line.

8:37 – Second intermission. Much better second period for the Rangers. Lundqvist had to make some big saves, and Martin Gerber saved the Senators as well on several occasions. Looks like we need a little third period magic again down 2-0. After looking at Neil’s hit over and over, it looks like the elbow was on the follow through, but the shoulder was at Avery’s head. Avery had his head down, and there was a little bit of air between Neil’s skates and the ice. Borderline hit, you can argue it was clean and you can argue it was dirty.

9:00 – Strong defense by Ottawa right now. Jagr can’t find any space and the Rangers are having difficulty getting into the offensive zone. Ottawa is also doing a great job of blocking shots. Jason Strudwick, save for a few positioning follies in the first, is playing a strong defensive game. Neil took a run at Peter Prucha away from the play. Orr needs to step in sometime real soon. He almost took Prucha’s head off.

9:10 – Both goalies are putting on a clinic. The Rangers have been much more offensive as we approach the halfway point of the period. Another power play for the Rangers coming up on a slashing call to Mezaros. Dubinski was just playing on a line with Jagr and Straka. Gomez is now on with Shannahan, Jagr, Drury and Roszival. We need one here.

9:17 – Gerber is the star of this game. Hands down. No message sent to Neil, and in the final 5 minutes of the game, you have to imagine it’s not going to happen. Too bad.

9:21 – Give the second star of the game to the entire Ottawa defense. I haven’t seen this many blocked shots in a while.

9:30 – Game over. 2-0 Ottawa. Ottawa moves to 3-0. Rangers 1-1. Gerber made 35 saves in the shutout. Anyone watching the game could see that the Senators did a brilliant job shutting down Jagr, and Prucha was the best forward on the ice. He hustled to every puck, made some decent plays off the puck and absorbed some punishing hits. Gerber, Alfredson, Lundqvist were the stars of the game, deservedly so. Rangers next play the Islanders on Wednesday night.

According to Steve Zipay, it looks like Paul Mara will be a healthy scratch tonight against Ottawa. Jason Strudwick will skate along side of Marc Staal as the third defense pairing. Marcel Hossa and Thomas Pock will be the other healthy scratches for the Rangers, and despite some thought about moving him up to the third line, Blair Betts will remain between Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg. I would personally like to see Hossa back in the lineup on the top line, pushing Avery down to the third line where I think he is better suited, but that would mean losing Dubinski. I would like to see how the kid fairs against a tough opponent first though, so let’s see how he does tonight. Back later with more updates.

Expect Madden and Pandolfo to reunite at some point tonight with Asham on a line.

Kevin Weekes may get the start in goal.

Sheldon Brookbank and Richard Matvichuk might get a chance tonight instead of Oduya and Mottau (Hopefully).

Prediction: Devils 4, Panthers 2

Tony Kornheiser’s pick to win Lords Stanley Cup opened the season trying to run n’ gun with the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres opened the scoring on a Jaroslav Spacek PP tally from the point that I don’t think Dipietro ever saw. Josef Vasicek would net his first as an Islander on a delayed call after a cross ice pass that yielded a wide open net. A trailing Derek Roy would then take a Maxim Afinogenov pass and put the Sabres up again. Ruslan Fedotenko would roof a shot past Ryan Miller after Billy Guerin muffed a stuff attempt and the puck squirted to Ruslan in the slot, Mrs Hilary Duff would get his first point as an Isle on the secondary assist. The Islanders man advantage which has been money so far as they added another goal, when Chris Campoli snuck in behind the Sabres D or lack thereof and one timed a Ruslan Fedotenko past Ryan Miller for a 3-2 lead. The lead would not last as Drew Stafford undressed Marc Andre Bergeron en route to slipping a puck past Ricky D to knot it at 3 at the end of the first.

(A quick memo to Garth Snow…Just start drafting anyone who plays their college hockey for the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota. Zack Parise, Jonathan Toews, Travis Zajac and Drew Stafford all went there and they are all going to be studs in the pros, not to mention T.J. Oshie and Hobey Baker Winner Ryan Duncan will be in the show soon enough. Did I mention the Isles could’ve had Parise back in the 2003 draft?)

After a nifty bit of puck movement Mike Comrie slips his first Islanders goal past a sprawling Ryan Miller on a feed from playmaker Ruslan Fedotenko. Normally a team would try to keep the lead, but the Islanders are sticking to tonight’s no defence rule and Thomas Vanek sneaks behind the D and rips a slapshot past Dipietro from about three feet out, 4 all. This is firewagon hockey at its best folks. I am casting my vote to see this for all remaining Islander games. 5-4 Isles, Comrie scores on a breakaway of his own. The Buffalo Sabres have thrown the concept of defending their goal out the window. Comrie chipped a puck past a pylon, sorry that was Toni Lydman, and then beat Miller top shizzy. Fantasy owners everywhere are scrambling to pick up the trio of Comrie, Fedotenko, and Guerin.

(Side note #2, the Yanks are screwed. Damon just struck out and Mariano is not coming out to pitch the bottom of the 11^th. At least this will distract the NY media from covering the Mets collapse.)

The Isles sustain some pressure and as a result Vanek took a penaly trying to stop a Miro Satan scorring op. On the ensuing PP the Isles dodge a bullet after Ricky D stops a 2 on 1 and Trent Hunter adds another man up tally off of a scramble in front. Having Sutton and Gervais on the point for the second power play unit is just a bad idea Ted, lets try to get Berard signed and Meyer waived or Gervais sent down, mmmkkk? The defensive liability that is Andy Sutton takes a penalty late in the third and the Isles successfully kill off the man advantage to secure the 6-4 final.

It was an entertaining game to watch from a fans perspective but you can bet both Nolan and Lindy are going to have the boys on lockdown for the rematch tomorrow night in Uniondale. As the game wore on the Isles improved while the Sabres began to struggle, looks like the leadership and maturity paid dividends tonight which is good to see. Overall it was nice to see the Fedotenko, Guerin, and Comrie trio come together and the powerplay click, but the defense looked suspect at best and there is a lot of work to be done there. At the end of the day though, I’d be more worried if I was a Sabre Fan. Puck drops tomorrow night at 7 p.m. sharp for the rematch.

For the second year in a row, the Rangers scored on their first shot of the game. Michael Rozsival scored from Chris Drury and Jaromir Jagr just 37 seconds into the game. Then the Rangers fell asleep for the next 39:23. For some reason, they could not solve the Florida defense and couldn’t get anything established offensively. After goals by Brett McLean and Nathan Horton, the Rangers trailed 2-1 going into the third.

It must of been one hell of an intermission speech by Renney and the rest of the coaching staff, because the Blueshirts came out flying in the third period. Peter Prucha ties the game at 2-2 from Marek Malik 6:07 into the period. Chris Drury banged in the game winner at 8:46 from Jagr and Malik, Ryan Callahan scored unassisted 12 seconds later, and Martin Strake rounded out the scoring at 13:02 from Malik and Drury to give the Rangers a 5-2 victory.

Lundqvist was tested early and often, turning aside 27 shots, looking incredible more than a few times.

Other positives in the game:

– Marc Staal looked like he fit right in, right away.
– The combination of Prucha and Callahan is a lot of fun to watch.
– Hollweg – Betts – Orr produced some offensive chances, got the crowd going, and stayed away from any questionable penalties.
– Tyutin threw his body around, as did Girardi. That pairing was really solid.
– Malik looked great. Yes. I just said that.

Some things to work on before Ottawa on Saturday night:

– A little more chemistry needs to be produced with all of the lines. Granted, this won’t occur in the first week, but there were some points tonight where it was get to the blue line, turn the puck over, scramble defensively, repeat.

– Brandon Dubinski was almost unheard of in the third period. Betts shifted up to play with Prucha and Callahan, and that worked, but if Dubinski is on the team, he’s of no use playing on the 4th line.

Feel free to share your thoughts. I’ll check back in on Saturday.