Battle Of Hudson

7:21 PM WHAT A START! The Leafs pour it on the Habs. Other scores early:
7:01 PM Here’s the previous results this season for MTL-TOR.

Game 1 – 10/7 at TOR: 3-2 Habs
Game 2 – 10/28 at MTL: 5-4 Leafs in OT
Game 3 – 11/11 at TOR: 5-1 Leafs
Game 4 – 12/2 at MTL: 4-3 Habs
Game 5 – 1/27 at TOR: 4-1 Leafs
Game 6 – 2/26 at MTL: 5-4 Habs
Game 7 – 3/17 at MTL: 3-2 Habs

So there you go, things seem stacked up against TOR tonight, but they’re gonna have to pull one out at home.

Other 7:00 PM games
Florida – Carolina: Meaningless
Ottawa – Boston: Sens must win for home ice.
Tampa-Atlanta: All about seeding tonight.
Anaheim-CBJ: Anaheim must win.

7:00 PM Here we go folks. Bob Cole and Harry Neale will have the call.

6:58 PM Interesting to watch CBC News. This is how the other half lives I suppose.

6:47 PM So we turn our attention to Montreal and Toronto. VANCITY will play Dallas most likely on Wednesday.

6:45 PM Confirmed Playoff Matchup List: Pittsburgh-Ottawa, Vancouver-Dallas, Minnesota-Anaheim, San Jose-Nashville.

6:43 PM Thornton will go to the box for either a hook or a trip, Power Play for Vancouver. Vancouver has won the Northwest Division regardless. VANCOUVER SCORES! Two deflections, VANcity clinches the 3rd seed.

6:41 PM Overtime beginning momentarily.

6:40 PM 18 seconds left, San Jose has iced it, Offensive Zone faceoff for VAN.

6:39 PM CHEECHOO SCORES! On a riccochet in front Jonathan Cheechoo ties the game 3-3. We’re likely headed for OOOOOOOOVERTIME.

6:38 PM Thornton is back. Emppty net, less than a minute.

6:37 PM Cooke is back, but Thornton is not. 1:00 to go.

6:34 SJ is close to killing off a big penalty on Thornton for boarding on Cooke. Cooke was roughed up pretty bad. Thornton is out as well. They’ve killed it off.

6:31 PM Kevin Bieksa scores and it’s 3-2 VanCity. Michalek and Thornton scored for SJ. 2-2 LA-PHX

6:15 PM I’m back, we’re tied at 2 in SJ, and 45 minutes till MTL-ToR.

4:47 PM 1st Intermission, 2-0 Canucks. I’m going to take a break at this point, I’m not sure when I’m going to be back but it WILL be before the Canadiens-Habs game at 7:00 PM. I promise. Don’t be surprised if you hear from Derek before then too.

4:34 PM Good pace to this one, you can tell these teams want it bad.

4:18 PM Pyatt’s 23rd from Salo and D.Sedin at 4:38. 2-0.

4:17 PM Bieksa and Morrison get the Asssist on Cooke’s goal, and they SCORE again. Taylor Pyatt tips Sami Salo’s shot after Michalek loses the stick. 2-0 Vancity.

4:13 PM Matt Cooke SCORES! Kevin Bieksa went to the net (btw, Bieksa is the NHL’s most underrated player) and Cooke backhanded the rebound home. 1-0 VanCity. 10th of the year for Cookie.

4:13 PM Michalek and Thornton had early chances, and Thornton’s hit on Danny Sedin is the first of the game.

4:11 PM Hopefully this broadcast is a smooth one. HNIC’s “Alternate” or #3 Game have had a history of being a little sketchy.

4:10 PM I’m picking San Jose for this one. 4-2 Sharks at the end. Let’s put out what’s on the line today in this one. If San Jose wins and Anaheim loses, San Jose will win the Pacific Division and get the #2 seed in the postseason. If both teams win and Nashville loses, the Sharks will be #4 and the Preds #5 for that 1st-Round Series.

For Vancouver, if they win, they win the Northwest, if they lose and Minnesota beats St. Louis tonight, Minnesota moves ahead in the Northwest, but VanCity has 1 more after tonight’s game.

Buffalo’s win today clinched the President’s Trophy, rendering tomorrow’s NBC telecast completely meaningless.

4:03 PM Jim Hughsson and Drew Remenda calling VAN-SJ on CBC.

3:55 PM Time for game 2 of our quadruple-header. Vancouver at San Jose on Hockey Night in Canada. Head to Canucks and Beyond for Alanah’s pre-game. Enjoy.

3:44 PM What a performance by these Islanders today. Ted Nolan kept preaching this message: “Don’t think, just play.” and they certainly did that. They just went to work and made a case for them to be in this postseason. Wonder how much higher they’d be if DUnham hadn’t sniffed the ice when DiPi went down?

3:31 PM Ryan Smyth gets an empty netter and the Islanders have done their job. Final Score: 4-2. Detroit routs Chicago, Buffalo beats Washington. Head to Canucks and Beyond for some pregame notes from Alanah and will be back in 20 minutes!

3:28 PM It’s not over yet. Carter scores and it’s 3-2.

Editor Note: It was Richards who got that shorty on an awesome display of skill undressing Witt and Hill before backhanding one off the bar and in. Unreal. If it’s on YouTube check it out. The Isles nearly blew it. Still can’t believe they let Stefan Ruzicka walk in like that. Lucky Dubi bailed them out before Poti’s empty netter.

3:21 PM The Isles just ran 5 minutes off the clock without a stoppage. 3:48 to go in Philadelphia, 3-1 Isles. Former Isle Jeff Hamilton makes it 7-2 Detroit’s lead goes down to 5 again. Buffalo still up 2-0.

3:13 PM At the Joe, Patrick Sharp and Andreas Lilja had an OK scrap with a couple of haymakers thrown. 4-on-4 right now in Philly.

3:09PM Isles back to the PWR PLAY. We’re halfway through the 3rd right now and the Isles appear to be holding on. We will be taking a short sabbatical in between the 1PM games and the Canucks-Sharks, but we’ll return ’round 3:55 PM.

3:02 PM Isles kill off the 5 vs. 3. Just a note, Mikael Samuelsson has 5 points today for Detroit.

2:59 PM Isles are on a 5-on-3 as Upshall goes off.

2:57 PM We’re back for the 3rd, Isles are on the PWR Play. TO remind you, it’s 3-1 Isles, 7-1 Wings, 2-0 Sabres as we begin the 3rd.

2:40 PM 7-1 Detroit. What sucks even more is that Chicago has to play on Sunday. I’d certainly just wanna pack it in after this disaster. Everything’s at the intermission at this point. So we’ll take a short break.

2:36 PM Despite being outplayed late, the Isles take a 3-1 lead to the locker room with 20 minutes left to play.

2:32 PM Gagne scores on a PP for Flyers. 3-1 Isles. No.40 for Gagne. Remember when people said Forsberg made him? Not anymore. That goal was all Gagne cutting in and scoring on a nifty backhand. It was also a career milestone as it was his 200th career goal. Congrats. Isles nearly get it back but Niittymaki stops Yashin.

2:26 PM 6-0 for Detroit.

2:25 PM 7-2 O’s lead the Yanks now. Heh.


2:22 PM Nice goal by Park. Epitome of hard work. He was a member of that Wild team in ’03 which made that run to the WCF before being swept out by Anaheim. The Isles are looking good here. They’ve stepped up. P.S. The Blackhawks suck. It’s Groundhog Day in Chicago every year for that once proud Original Six franchise.

2:18 PM RICHARD PARK SCORES! 3-0 Isles, on gritty play by Park and muscles a backhander past a diving Alex Picard and Nittymakki.

2:14 PM This is 5-0 Detroit. Calder has 2 against his former team.

2:09 PM Philly kills it off this time.

2:07 PM 4-0 Detroit, Tomas Holmstrom’s 30th.

2:06 PM Another Philly penalty. A cross-check on Ruzicka

2:05 PM YASHIN SCORES! Another fireball from an Islander forward. Poti and Blake on the assist at 1:10 on the Power Play. Yashin’s 18th.

2:03 PM Isles on the Power Play again.

1:59 PM 2nd Period has started in Detroit, getting close in Philly and DC.

1:55 PM – Yea, I thought Steve Trachsel was still a Met.

1:51 PM- So we just flipped to YES Network to get a Yankee update and the boos are out in the Bronx. It’s 5-2 Orioles already and they’re only in the 2nd. Guess Kei Igawa’s debut didn’t go as planned. Oh well. Btw the Yanks made another error. That’s 7 in 4 games. Steve, you’re a Mets fan. Any thoughts?

1:47 PM- All three games are at the end of 1 period. Here are the scores:

Isles lead Flyers 1-0 on Satan’s 27th.
Sabres lead Caps 2-0- Roy with No.20 and Connolly is now credited with his 1st.
Red Wings ahead of the Hawks 3-0- Markov, Samuelsson and Calder for Detroit.

Random thought. Who’s worse? The Hawks or Caps.

1:44 PM- Dubielewicz makes one crucial stop and the Flyers miss a rebound wide. Just as I’m about to say they get the job done, Dubi makes one last save as the buzzer sounded on a tricky backhand. The Isles had no shots the final 8+ minutes. Shots are 11-8 Philly. If I’m Nolan, I’m not satisfied. His club needs more desperation in the next period.

1:42 PM- Dubi robs Jones on the doorstep but the Flyers go on the power play with under 2:00 left to play in the first. This is a must kill for the Fishsticks.

1:34 PM- Not much doing on this Fishsticks PP. They really haven’t taken advantage of some chances since taking the lead. It could comeback to haunt them.

1:32 PM- Islanders on their 2nd PP. 7:15 left in the first.

1:28 PM Calder scores. 3-0 Wings.

1:26 PM – Connolly sets up Paille. The Sabres lead the Caps 2-0. It’s Tim Connolly’s first game back from a concussion which kept him out the first 80.

1:24PM 2-0 Detroit. Samuelsson scores.

1:23 PM Note that all of my posts will be in black or red, all of Derek’s will be in blue.

1:22 PM Yashin hits the crossbar. 1-0 Buffalo on Roy’s goal, and 1-0 Detroit on Markov’s goal.

1:20 PM Satan Goal from Bergeron and Blake at 3:30 on PP.

1:12 PM– Randy Jones takes a hooking penalty giving the Fishsticks an early power play less than 2:00 in. Can they cash in?

1:17 PM- Miro Satan scores to put the Isles in front 1-0 on a slapper from the right hash. The Isles power play looked great. This team looks ready. What else would you expect from a Ted Nolan club?

Smyth gets the first chance on a wraparound but Niittymaki stops him. Isles came out sharp. But now it’s ragged play which favors the Flyers. Upshall just missed.

Do you have any predictions?

It would be nice if they drop the puck already on this dreadful Flyer season. But we both agree they should be better this Fall.

Greetings puck fans! And welcome to what usually is a very exciting final NHL weekend. The best part is that as Steve has already documented, there are a bunch of games with playoff implications. I think what I like most is that when you look at today’s schedule, it starts less than an hour from now and doesn’t conclude until probably 1 in the morning out on the East coast. That’s 12 straight hours of hockey.

Plenty will be on the line today. The Islanders will attempt to continue their last ditch effort to squeak in the postseason when they battle the Flyers at Wachovia Center. Faceoff is 1:08. The key for them is fairly simple:

1.Dubi Dubi Doo- Third string goalie Wade Dubielewicz must continue to be razor sharp.
2.Dynamic Duo- Leading scorer Jason Blake and key acquisition Ryan Smyth must have big days.
3.Get A Lead- Whenever you’re playing a dangerous opponent, the best ingredient is to get the jump. The Flyers have nothing to play for other than pride. But as myself and Steve would attest, John Stevens’ club has not mailed it in. Just ask both our clubs.

While that game is taking place, the Sabres will continue their run at a first ever President’s Trophy when they visit Washington in the nation’s capital. Lindy Ruff’s club is getting healthy at the right time. Dangerous scorer Maxim Afinogenov just returned the other night and recorded an assist in their 4-2 home win over Boston. They are currently tied with the Red Wings for the most points in the NHL with 111. Detroit will be playing their final game of the regular season when they play host to Chicago in an Original Six match-up. Ironically, it takes place at the same time. So how can the Sabres clinch first overall and home ice advantage throughout the entire postseason? Here’s how:

A.A win today and a Detroit OT/SO loss.
B.A Detroit regulation loss would also get the job done due to the wins tiebreaker. Buffalo has three more wins with an NHL best 52.
C.If both teams win, that also would work because each team would have 113 points with the tiebreaker going to Buffalo.
D.If Detroit wins and Buffalo loses in regulation, the Sabres will need to beat the Flyers in the NBC game tomorrow.
E.If Detroit wins and Sabres get one point today, they’ll need at least one tomorrow to secure home ice.

At 4 PM, there are two games taking place. One is a lottery battle between the Kings and Coyotes as Wayne Gretzky coaches against his former team. Not exactly what he probably thought he’d be doing 14 years after getting LA to the Finals before falling to Montreal.

The other game has much more significance as it involves two Western contenders who are still competing for divisions and higher seeding. The Sharks host the Canucks at HP Pavilion. San Jose trails Anaheim for the Pacific by two points with each team playing their final game today. The Sharks need a win and a Ducks regulation loss in Columbus to win the Pacific and vault from fifth seed on the road all the way to second seed starting the playoffs at home. San Jose holds the wins tiebreaker (51-47 entering today).

For the Canucks, they know a win or at least two combined points in their final two games will lock up the Northwest. They lead the Wild by one point entering today. Minnesota takes on St. Louis in its last game at 8 tonight. Jacques Lemaire’s club would have to win that and hope the Canucks only get a point this weekend to take the division. In the event the two teams somehow wind up with the same amount of points and wins which is possible (Vancouver leads 48-47) it would go to the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Wild won the series taking five out of the eight games. So they would get the nod.

The most exciting game will take place tonight at 7 when a classic all Canadian Original Six rivalry is renewed when Montreal visits Toronto in a HNIC showdown. It’s being billed as “The GAME!” Two bitter rivals north of the border will do battle with the stakes through the roof. The winner could clinch the final playoff berth in the East. For the Canadiens, it’s simple. Win and they’re in. They enter with 90 points, one ahead of the Leafs. They also know that if the game went to OT insuring a point, the Leafs would be eliminated no matter what happened because at best, Toronto could only finish tied with Montreal getting to 91. The problem is they don’t have three fewer wins. In the event this game is tied late in the third, look for Andrew Raycroft to be on the bench as they’ll be aiming for a regulation win to give themselves a chance.

In order for the Leafs to make it, they need to win in regulation tonight and root for an Islander loss. They’ll know when the puck drops if the Fishsticks were eliminated. The Islanders conclude the regular season tomorrow afternoon at New Jersey. Paul Maurice’s club and probably all of Canada except Ryan Smyth lovers are praying it won’t have any significance.

Also in action tonight will be the Rangers when they visit Pittsburgh. A win or at least a point would insure the sixth seed and a date with the Southeast champion Thrashers. The puck drops half an hour after Atlanta and Tampa Bay faceoff at Philips Arena. Meanwhile, for Sidney Crosby and Company, they already know who they’re playing in Ottawa. The question is who will get the conference’s fourth seed and home ice? Both enter tied with 103 points but the Sens hold one more win. They’ll be facing off in Beantown. The Pens will be keeping a close eye on the scoreboard.

The final big two games start an hour apart. The Avs who have continued to play marvelous hockey will host the Predators at 9 ET/6 PT tonight. Trailing eighth place Calgary for the West’s final spot, they know they must win to have any sort of chance. They’ll need the red hot Milan Hejduk to continue his surge. The sniper is coming off a hat trick in a win over Vancouver. He’s up to 34 goals. Joe Sakic has been brilliant as well as has rookie Paul Stastny and netminder Peter Budaj during an unreal 13-1-2 stretch to get them within three of the Flames entering tonight.

The Flames are hosting bitter Alberta rival Edmonton an hour later knowing they need to win to clinch. If the Avs win and Calgary doesn’t, it’s going to come down to a winner take all showdown tomorrow in Denver. But sizzling captain Jarome Iginla and Kristian Huselius don’t want that to happen because they’ve struggled against the Avs all season.

We’ll be on the edge of our seat all day!

The puck is about to drop in the City of Brotherly Love. It’s time!

1:17 PM Satan Scores!! A howitzer from the top circle and the Isles lead 1-0 on the PP.

1:07 PM Nittymaki is in net for Philly.

1:02 PM Billy Jaffe to Howie Rose: “Go back to baseball!”

1:00 PM – Here we go…!!!

12:57 PM – Dubliewicz got his first NHL win in Philadelphia, so possibly a good omen for the Icelanders today.

12:48 PM – No offense to Coyotes-Kings, but THE game at 4:00 p.m. will be Canucks-Sharks. Dubliewicz is in goal for NYI today.

12:46 PM – The 1:00 p.m. games today are and will be followed in this order:
1. NY Islanders – Philadelphia
2. Buffalo – Washington
3. Chicago – Detroit

12:44 PM – Watching the Isles Pregame at the moment. Ted Nolan “There’s no room for error anymore…let’s just worry about doing well”.

11:38 PM – So it’s begun, we’ve gotten the live blog started. Were an hour and 22 minutes away from the great Saturday hockey showdown. Or…something. I’ll be here all day, Derek may chip in every now and then and we may have some guests once in a while. Stick around, leave comments and questions, and I’ll answer them during breaks between action.

Let’s play a little game called comparison right here. We’re going to take a look at the stats of Pavel Datsyuk every year he’s been in the league, then, we’ll do the same with Scott Gomez, since that year of 2001-02.

Pavel Datsyuk, #13, C, Detroit
2001-02 Season: In 70 Games, 11 Goals, 24 Assists, 35 Points
2002-03 Season: In 64 Games, 12 Goals, 39 Assists, 51 Points
2003-04 Season: In 75 Games, 30 Goals, 38 Assists, 68 Points
2005-06 Season: In 75 Games, 28 Goals, 59 Assists, 87 Points
2006-07 Season: In 78 Games, 27 Goals, 60 Assists, 87 Points

Contract: 7 Years, A Shitload per year.

Now let’s look at Gomer since 01-02

Scott Gomez, #23, C, New Jersey
2001-02 Season: In 76 Games, 10 Goals, 38 Assists, 48 Points
2002-03 Season: In 80 Games, 13 Goals, 42 Assists, 55 Points
2003-04 Season: In 80 Games, 14 Goals, 56 Assists, 70 Points
2005-06 Season: In 82 Games, 33 Goals, 51 Assists, 84 Points
2006-07 Season: In 71 Games, 13 Goals, 47 Assists, 60 Points

Contract: TBD

An Announcement:

I will be LiveBlogging all day tomorrow here on this site. Any info you need to know about the games going on here at BoNY.

Here are all the games that matter tomorrow.

1:00 PM
Isles vs. Philadelphia – FSNY and inHD
Why It Matters: The Isles need to win (and pray for help from Toronto) to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Buffalo vs. Washington
Why It Matters: Buffalo will keep the inside track to the President’s Trophy with a win.

Chicago vs. Detroit
Why It Matters: If Buffalo loses, Detroit still has a shot at the President’s Trophy.

4:00 PM
Vancouver vs. San Jose
Why It Matters: San Jose can win a division title with a win and an Anaheim loss. If Anaheim wins tonight in Dallas (1-0 Ducks in the 3rd), then San Jose can claim home ice in Round 1 against Nashville if they win and the Predators lose

7:00 PM
Montreal vs. Toronto
Why It Matters: The game of the year folks. If you can find a way to watch it, then do so. Montreal wins, they are in. If Toronto wins in OT, Montreal is in. If Toronto wins in regulation, they are in if the Isles lose to the Flyers. If the Isles win and Toronto wins in regulation, we wait for tomorrow, when the Isles play the Devs.

Tampa Bay vs. Atlanta, Pittsburgh vs. Rags, Sens-Bruins
Why It Matters: If Tampa wins and the Rags lose, we get Devils-Rags and Tampa-Thrash in Round 1. If the Rangers win, we get Tampa-Devs and Thrash-Rags. Senators win, they get home ice advantage, if they lose and the Pens win, Pittsburgh will host Ottawa.

Nashville vs. Colorado
Why It Matters: If Colorado wins, they are alive, if they lose, they are dead. If Calgary wins or loses in OT, they are dead. Nashville battles for home ice.

Edmonton vs. Calgary
Why It Matters: A chance for CGY to finish it, at home, against their Albertan rivals. A point would do it.

Before we start, I penned this song in case we play the Blueshirts in Round 1. It’s a parody, I’m sure all of you know of what song:

Shanahan,
You don’t have to put on the red light
Those days are over
You’ll be scoreless at the end of the night.

Shanahan,
You don’t have to wear that dress tonight.
Leave the women’s clothing to your friends,
I don’t care if you think it’s righ.

Shanahan,
you won’t be able to put on the red light,
Shanahan,
you won’t have to put on the red light.

Sorry folks.

What a great way to clinch! You want to talk about digging deep and showing the same kind of resolve this team has shown in being the best Eastern team since that deadline pickup of Paul Mara. Who would’ve ever believed a swap of Aaron Ward for the ex-Bruin would add up to 13-2-4 and 94 points with a game to go?

I’ll admit that I was one of those outspoken critics who believed this team should sell at the deadline because I didn’t think they had this in them. But all that changed on February 27th when ironically enough they beat the Canadiens to start this impressive run which saw them climb from out of nowhere to sixth in the East- clinching a second consecutive postseason berth with an equally impressive 3-1 win over those Habs in what was an electric atmosphere in the Rangers’ final regular season home game.

I will say there’s one thing I’ll agree on with a buddy of mine Brian who lives out in Anaheim. This all really started with an unlikely late third period comeback against the Blues with JD in the house. It was a game they were badly outplayed in for the first 40 minutes. But somehow, when key pickup and the most underrated player (to hell with the whiny bitches who voted him overrated- they don’t know jack) Sean Avery wristed one upstairs following a Karel Rachunek PP blast, they found themselves tied and in overtime. And it would go to a shootout and Jaromir Jagr would extend it before they pulled it out on one last Steve Valiquette save. Yes, the emergency backup helped turn the season around, setting the stage for that home-and-home sweep of the Islanders in a run which would see the Blueshirts lose only twice more in regulation.

I’ve never been happier to be wrong in my life. Tom Renney’s staff and those players including invaluable ones like Thomas Pock (who has improved leaps and bounds), Jason Strudwick (thanks Jason for filling in for Fedor Tyutin who btw looked sharp in his return last night), Colton Orr, Ryan Hollweg, Blair Betts, deserving winner and Masterton candidate Steven McDonald AwardJed Ortmeyer, Avery and of course the two impressive recalls from Hartford Daniel Girardi (Ranger fan club ROY) and Ryan “All Hustle” Callahan.

It was also nice to see Renney realize his folly by putting Petr Prucha back in for Orr and what happened? Well, if you saw then it was only too fitting that the most underrated forward on this team ripped one from the right wing past Jaroslav Halak early setting the tone with No.21. Imagine if he hadn’t been jerked around all year? That Czech who started out slowly might’ve made it back-to-back 30 goal seasons. Not bad for a guy who saw Brendan Shanahan take up a lot of his PP time and ice.

What I liked most about tonight’s effort is you never got a sense the Canadiens could win. They got some help from the refs late to break up Henrik Lundqvist’s shutout bid on Sheldon Souray’s two-man advantage blast. And got a last minute chance thanks to Big Bird’s boo boo dumping the puck in the stands to boos. He’s a clutz. But he did score his second Thursday night and was steady before that mindboggling play. Still, I think most would say they could’ve done w/o that final frantic 73 seconds. But the penalty killers who hustled all night got in the lanes and blocked shots and made Lundqvist’s night of 25 stops routine. Yeah, the King was good as he has been in helping turnaround his and the club’s season. He’s been brilliant for three months now.

Jaromir Jagr also stepped up and ripped home his 30th to make it 15th straight seasons with at least 30. He was setup by who else but top playmaking pivot Michael Nylander. Shanahan also notched a helper. It concluded a dominant shift for No.68 and Co. Nylander btw who we criticized last month has also played his best hockey down the stretch, setting a new career high with 26 goals in Tuesday’s shootout loss to the Fishsticks. He has really stepped it up with JJ. In our book, as much as No.92 can drive us nuts at times with his circling and overpassing, he has earned a new contract. Look for him to be re-signed and continue to team with Jagr until the captain’s deal runs out in 2009.

Dominating the action, when Marek Malik scores, you know it’s your night. He took an Avery feed and then ripped one past Halak late in the second to pretty much seal it.

Though Souray would blast home No.26 to cut it to 3-1, the Blueshirts never stopped battling. Only the way it was called near the end where Habs were allowed to tackle our players made it interesting. But whatever.

The bottom line is they got the job done and made a statement. This team will not be pushed around by anyone and will take on all comers. Whether it’s the Devils, Thrashers or even the Lightning, I don’t care. If the Rangers continue to play the solid fundamental hockey they have with Henrik hot and Jagr and Nylander clicking and Shanahan regaining his touch and the underrated Matt Cullen meshing with Prucha and Callahan, then this team can give someone a run for their money.

In concluding, I must say Habs fans are diehard. They had about 30 there in one section with a Go Habs Go flag and chants. Those fans live, eat and breathe puck. Saturday night against Toronto on HNIC should be one hell of a game. And you know every Islander fan will be watching intently on the scoreboard as they take on the Flyers knowing their team is very much alive. Something tells me the Isles are going to make it. I don’t know why. But if the Habs don’t win that one outright, they’d only have 91 points. Two Isles wins against the Flyers and at the Devils would get them to 92. And yes, they’d be in. Go figure. You have to give credit to Ted Nolan.

As for the Rangers and the lame interview with Shanny and even lamer “We want the Cup” chants from some fans. Being that it’s the first time in a decade this Original Six franchise has made the playoff consecutive years, let’s first get a playoff win. Then go from there. The playoffs are nice after what’s been an emotional rollercoaster ride. But they are only part of the goal. Let’s remember that!

I want two points against Pittsburgh and I want that six seed. I want to finish as hot as possible. Let’s go in with all the momentum and then let the chips fall where they may.

Enjoy the weekend!

Congratulations Marty. You have another record, and you continue your ascent to the pantheon of the greatest goaltenders of all time.

Devils win 3-2 tonight, and Marty makes it a memorable performance. 34 saves, many of them fantastic. Once again Marty, you are the best that I will probably ever see. Keep winning those games.

Oh, and Jersey Jim Dowd earned himself a 4th-line slot in the playoffs tonight, scoring the huge game-winner. See Derek? You give the man some ice time, you get some production from him.

——————————————————————-
The Rangers win tonight, and finally – can I say it? – clinch a spot in the post-season and move up to 6th in the Conference. They take it 3-1. Petr Prucha returns, and big shocker, scores for Tom Renney’s team.
———————————————————————
The Icelanders took their chance to get back in the race by beating the 9th-place Leafs 5-2. A huge win on the Island, this team came together big time. Jason Blake got #40 for NYI.

So here’s what’s gotta happen for the Isles to get in:

They must win Saturday afternoon (1:00 P.M., FSN NY) against the Flyers. That is a must. They must also win Sunday afternoon (3:30 PM, FSN NY) against the Devs. These must happen before they can get any help, they must help themselves.

The Leafs must then beat the Canadiens on Saturday (7:00 PM, CBC) in regulation time. If the Habs get a point in that game, the Isles are done.

There’s your story. Enjoy the night.