Folks, if you’re interested, Ranger defenseman Jason Strudwick is keeping a playoff blog. It’s pretty darn good and one we recommend.
The defenseman isn’t eligible for the playoffs but did a solid job down the stretch filling in after coming back over from Switzerland.
Check out his thoughts or even send him a question. Believe it or not, actor Michael Rappaport had one answered in the last entry:
Brendan Shanahan talked with Mike and the Mad Dog this afternoon. Enjoy:
http://wfan.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=619026
Here’s Doc Emrick’s Weekly Audio Commentary:
http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/nhl/mike_emrick/20070412_20k.wax
I don’t mind that all 3 New York teams were on the same night. But seriously, 5 times in their first round series, playing on the same day is ridiculous.
It’s hard enough to follow every game with 2 going on at the time, but 4 at the same time, 3 with teams in your local area that you at least somewhat care about?
It especially hurts the road teams on FSN. The Devils will switch places with the Isles on FSN 2 when they head to Tampa and New York comes home. This hurts a lot of fans’ abilities to watch playoff games.
I didn’t mind it happening once, but 4-5 times is absolutely ludicrous.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2007-04-12-hiestand-mnf_N.htm
From Michael “Hockey-Hater” Hiestand at USA Today:
Eventually, the NHL might want to try replacing playoff games with Sidney Crosby skating around by himself.
Saturday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Penguins star will be on NBC — which will have a “Crosby-cam” on him full time. The move has the Canadian Broadcasting Company seeing red. It pays the NHL $65 million a year in TV rights fees and wanted Pittsburgh-Ottawa on its prime-time Hockey Night in Canada. Instead, it got Tampa Bay-New Jersey so NBC, which pays no rights fee, would get hockey’s big star.
The rationale: Canadians already like hockey, while the league needs any help it can get with its microscopic U.S. TV ratings, which are slightly less tiny when Crosby appears. NBC averages 1.1% of U.S. households for games with Crosby and 0.8% without him. Versus attracted 0.19% of U.S. cable TV households with Crosby on, compared to its 0.13% overall NHL average.
NBC producer Sam Flood says the pregame show will cover “the Crosby mania” in Canada. Canadians who can’t get NBC will at least get Crosby snippets online: NBC will take Crosby-cam shots from the game’s third period and let its studio analysts analyze that footage on nbcsports.com.
San Jose – Nashville game 2 should be interesting. Jonathan Cheechoo skated today and will be a game time decision.
Vancouver-Dallas game 2 has a chance of being dull, just because the teams are likely still very tired from the game two days ago. That’s at 9:00 pm on VERSUS, with Hockey Central at 8:30.
Minnesota-Anaheim. I spoke to Greg Wyshynski on Thursday, he and I agree that after seeing this Anaheim team play, they might be able to make some noise in this thing. That’s on CI at 10:30, Joined in Progress on VERSUS after Stars-Nucks.
2 goals for Parise, Elias, Gionta and Raffy all cash in and the Devils with a decent win, although a little undisciplined for my taste, 5-3. They take Game 1, but you don’t get the feeling that they dented the psychies of this Tampa team.
Marty showed up big time in the 3rd period. That save on St. Louis will be on all the highlight reels when he retires.
The Devils offense looked dominant at times. The Madden line look discombobulated on the O, but they had bigger things to worry about. The EGGs and the ZZ Top line looked great, capitalizing on turnovers and turning them into goals.
Game 2, I would have to say is a must-win for both teams. The Devils really need to nail it in that the Lightning aren’t getting anywhere in this series.
Isles lose 4-1 in Buffalo, didn’t see too much of it. But it just looks like Buffalo was the better team.
Psh, Derek and his special guests. Hope you’ll join him tonight at Midnight.
As the Devils are about to wrap up a 5-3 home win over Tampa, who ever would’ve believed that those two teams would play as undisciplined as they did compared to Atlanta and the Rangers?
That’s why you can sometimes toss stats out the window. Need proof? Last night’s marathon 4 OT win by the Canucks (5-4) over Dallas is. The two teams combined to score 12 total goals during their regular season series.
Playoffs are a completely different animal. And as I say that, the Sabres are ahead by two on the Fishsticks thanks to the 2nd of the night by Chris Drury.
As Steve noted earlier, if you want to catch our analysis on the night’s action and other playoff stuff, check us out later tonight at midnight.
I’ll also be joined by a special guest. So stay tuned!
It took almost 10 years. Technically, the Rangers’ last playoff victory was May 18, 1997- a Game Two win over the Flyers in the ECF which featured a Wayne Gretzky hat trick. The final one of the brilliant Great One’s career.
It was just as exciting as I always envisioned. Of course they had to make it nerve wracking when Thomas Pock took only the second minor of the night which in itself speaks volumes about how much more playoff ready this team is compared to last year. And so with 71 seconds left, the Thrashers pulled Kari Lehtonen for an extra attacker. But the Rangers would dig deep and not allow a desperate Atlanta squad to steal a ‘W’ they earned with brilliant play from Jaromir Jagr, Michael Nylander and share will from Petr Prucha and Ryan Callahan.
I can’t tell you how unbelievable it was to see them win! They played a solid road game and got the job done. Home ice is now theirs for the time being.
So what must they do on Saturday at 3 PM? Play physical against the Thrashers and continue to be disciplined like tonight.
See ya’ll later!
Aaron Asham has tied it at 1 for the Isles in Buffalo, great 2-on-1 between him and JBlake.
Devils lead 3-2, still playing pretty well, but have to stay outta the box in the 3rd and keep Madden and Pando on Lecavalier and St. Louis.
Rangers are up 4-3 on ATL.
For a complete wrap-up and analysis of tonight’s action, plus a preview of what’s to come check out Derek’s “Hard Hits” show tonight at midnight:
Both teams are up 2-1. Parise and Elias for the Devs, St. Louis for TB. Jagr and Roszival for the Rags, Eric Belanger for ATL.
Isles-Sabres scoreless so far.
So far, the Devils appear to be the dominant team whenever Lecavalier and St. Louis are off the ice, as I predicted. Impossible to judge based on one period, but both our scoring lines came ready to play and appear dominant at times (Particularly the Zajac line).
If the Devs stay out of the box, they will win this game. Oduya took 2 penalties to give Tampa the 5 on 3, which St. Louis cashed in on the 2nd one on an absolute scorcher. 2 somewhat weak goals for Holmqvist, he doesn’t look quite ready for this.
We shall see. Stay tuned and keep looking for updates here at BoNY.
hasan4978
Derek
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