Battle Of Hudson

Both the Rangers and Islanders suffered costly losses tonight. Up two after a strong first period up north, the Rangers imploded in a dreadful second giving up five consecutive goals to fall behind 5-2. Though they got two in the third, it wasn’t enough to come all the way back as they dropped one to the Canadiens 6-4- snapping their season high five-game win streak.

Meanwhile, the Islanders dropped one at home to the Devils 3-2 in a game they never led. The loss was their second straight and leaves them in dire straits heading into a difficult final six-game stretch which includes games against Buffalo, Ottawa, the Rangers, Leafs, Flyers and Devils. With No.1 goalie Rick DiPietro uncertain due to postconcussion symptoms probably stemming from a dirty play by Ranger pest Sean Avery and then a puck to the mask by Jaromir Jagr Sunday which probably reinjured the netminder, the Fishsticks will need backup Mike Dunham to come up big. They’ll also need to score a lot of goals.

Congrats to the Pens on qualifying for their first postseason in six years (five seasons). They fought back from two down to post a 4-3 win at Washington. The win enabled them to keep pace with the Devils, who clinched a playoff spot for the 10th straight season Tuesday night in Long Island. Tied for first with 98 points, the Devs still hold two tiebreakers over the Pens with one extra game left.

For more on the breakdown of the battle for the final three playoff spots, please check out the remaining schedules for the six teams vying at Hitting Back.

There is one game on the schedule Wednesday night which has implications as Carolina visits the Flyers. The Canes find themselves in a three-way tie for ninth with the Leafs and Isles. All three know their work will be cut out for them in trailing eighth by two points and seventh by three. It should be a wild ride to the finish!

People are probably wondering what I think about this deal. In case you haven’t heard, here’s the basic details:

-9 National Games of the Week
-Flex Scheduling. NHL picks 3 games for each broadcast window at least, NBC picks 1 game 13 days prior.
-All games in HD.
-Playoffs are the same.

I think it’s worth a shot, you know? We’ve gone with the old formula (3 Regional Games) for years. There going to put it in a timeslot on Sunday, and air the games.

Bravo.

Tonight, Devils-Islanders on VERSUS at 7:30. Doc, Brian Engblom and Chris Simpson with the call. Devils will make Dunham look like Roy tonight.

TSN reports that Rick DiPietro is suffering Post Concussion Syndrome and is out indefinitely. A reliable source on the HFBOARDS says that he is out at least for the remainder of the regular season.

With the difficult level of competition the Isles face in their remaining schedule, the Fat Lady is now singing. Turn out the lights, this party is over.

Let’s hope DP can shake this thing and be okay for next season.

A fun chance to see how the other half lives tonight at 7 on VERSUS and VSHD.

Joe Beninati, Darren Eliot and Billy Jaffe (!) have the call.

I can’t really term that weak for two reasons:

A.It was a 4-on-3.
B.It was a deflection in front.

It’s awfully difficult to kill DiPi on that. If that’s how we’re going to be, then I guess Marty’s rebound on one of the Panthers’ goals sucked. Maybe he’s wearing down. 😉

P.S. The Avs announcer is a maniac. The Canucks scored two straight to go up 3-1. Then the Avs scored and he went berserk going, “Scoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

He sounded like he might jump out of his body. Does he really still believe they’re making it over Calgary? :-\

Considering Nylander’s goal was one that could’ve happened at even strength or not –a really weak one there — I’d say the onus is on the dark blue and orange.

Rob, you can complain all you want. Personally, I don’t care one bit. Not when your team had 10 power plays including two 5-on-3’s and couldn’t beat our goalie.

I bet you weren’t upset when the fans howled until they got that holding call on Big Bird with about 4 minutes to go in regulation. I don’t see how Sean Hill or any Fishstick fan can have any beef with the call made in overtime. Not when Jagr was held for as long as he was and kept skating until they were forced to make the call.

Bottom line: Despite carrying the majority of the play to the Rangers in a game they desperately needed to win due to the first playoff tiebreaker, the Islanders only managed to beat Henrik Lundqvist once on an Alexei Yashin redirect.

To be fair, both goalies were outstanding all day (Slick Rick DiPietro had 32 saves) and so were the respective penalty killing units. There was plenty of passion exhibited in one of the best rivalries of what was a very exciting game. One team came away with two points and the other with one.

The Rangers’ fifth straight win enabled them to pass the Lightning in the standings for sixth with 87 points. They lead Tampa by a point with each club having six games remaining. Meanwhile, the Islanders tied Carolina and Montreal for eighth. All three clubs have 84 points with the defending champion Hurricanes and Isles holding a valuable game at hand (seven left for each) on the Canadiens. Meanwhile, with their 4-1 home win over Buffalo, the Maple Leafs still lurk behind in 11th with 82 points- two points off the pace with seven to play.

Anything can happen. Ultimately, both the area locals will have to continue to play solid hockey down the stretch if they want to make the playoff cut. The Blueshirts have now beaten the Islanders by a 2-1 score three straight times after losing the first four in the series. The two bitter rivals have one game left which will take place at Nassau Coliseum on April 3rd.

Now for one other bit on the Ranger netminder who has carried his team for over two months back into the playoff picture. With 34 more saves today, Lundqvist continued to roll. He reduced his GAA to 2.30 and lifted his save percentage to .917. Is it time for the Ranger netminder to get some Vezina consideration? Only if he keeps up the sizzling play and gets his team safely into the postseason for a second straight year.

The likeable Swedish goalie had an interesting comment after the big win:

“I want to play in a game where every save means the difference in winning or losing. I love 2-1 games. I hate 6-5 games. It’s challenging, and you know you have to stay focused.“

Indicative of how locked in the 25 year-old is on the task at hand.

Well, it was a great game again today between the Isles and Rangers. Both goalies were great. But, and my Ranger fan blogger will disagree with this of course, the Refs gave the Rangers the game. Now on the surface, one can look at the box score and think Rob has lost his mind – the Isles had more power plays than the Rags. True, but to make that call on Hill in OT, when the stick was between Jagr’s legs for about a second before Hill dropped his stick is just plain lame. I don’t even think Jagr knew the stick was there. It certainly sisn’t affect his skating with the puck. It would have been a weak call in a pre-season game, never mind OT of a very significant game. But I should be used to it by now. It has been happening for years.

Other than that, great game by both teams. Tightly played game, good D coverage on both sides and DP and Lund were great. Well, we have one more crack at the RagRefs. Hopefully the game will mean something. Oh anyone catch our favorite dirty player last week? Hollweg had another patented cheapo boarding a la the one against Simon. But this time he was penalized. One day some one is going to knock the daylights out of him and I am looking forward to it.

Should be an exciting stretch run. The Isles have a very tough schedule the rest of the way. I think it will be difficult for them to make the playoffs, but not impossible. They have played very well in the past three games and are back to their pre-trade deadline form, mainly due to the D stepping up and playing much tighter of late. It will probably come down to DP needing to be almost perfect over the next two weeks.

Fasten your seat belts….

For calling out the unresponsible media for jumping on the bandwagon of banning fighting. The Golden Brett was right on with everything he said regarding why fights need to stay in the game of hockey. It’s a matter of pride and is still a way to settle things properly without the unnecessary cheapshots we see way too much of these days. Hull called out Jordin Tootoo’s sucker punch saying there’s no place in the game for that or other dirty stuff which crosses the line.

Hull called out the lack of respect and made a valid point that it’s not fights that need to go but the players who can’t play the game the right way.

Cheers to you Brett! You get it!

A poll was conducted via yahoo regarding fighting. Which do you think we voted for?