Battle Of Hudson

NOTE: Tonight’s game will be telecast on MSG2. For MSG2 channel listings, see:
http://www.nyoverflow.com/a.html. Due to Time Warner Cable policy, the MSG2 broadcast is not available to Time Warner subscribers who receive Devils broadcasts on FSNY, which is also airing tonight’s game.

And that right there is why I loathe Jim Dolan. This guy is just a creep. Go play your harmonica and take your jazz elsewhere!

Now I have to put up with Chico Resch. Get ready for some Chico Resch-isms during a crucial game between the Rangers and Devils at The Swamp:

“Doc, look at that play by MARTY!!!!! NOBODY DOES THAT BETTER! NOB—-ODDY!!!!!!!”

“Oh my! What a play by Zach Pariseeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!”

I just hope if Henrik makes as big a save, he goes equally as over the top. Chico isn’t really as bad as some other color analysts. Sure, he can go a little overboard sometimes which is what makes him an easy target here for some good old natured fun. But truthfully, he has a lot of passion for the game and shows it. That’s why despite my criticisms, I like the guy. He’s a pro.

I still wish they could make this game available on MSG. But so be it. It won’t have any impact on what happens.

My three keys to a Ranger victory tonight might surprise some. So let’s get to it:

1.Petr Prucha must score. He hasn’t had a good season. But elevated to the 2nd line, he needs to find the back of the net. Something he did last year and had some success against Brodeur. He’ll be vital on the top PP unit too.

2.Marcel Hossa. Hossa is playing the best hockey of his career since being moved up to the Jagr line with Straka. Given that No.68 will have 2-3 guys on him, it should leave Hossa wide open. He must continue to shoot the puck.

3.Discipline. Obviously whenever you play the Devils, you must play smart hockey. Sean Avery must get underneath the skin of them and particularly Brodeur by distracting him. You know there are going to be some good battles in these next two games. I believe Lundqvist can match Brodeur. He’s playing the best hockey of his young career. It’s who gets more power plays which could determine who comes out on top.

It should be interesting to see what happens the next two games. For the Blueshirts, no matter the competition, they must get three points out of these next two contests. Both teams will most likely be shorthanded. The Rangers without Brendan Shanahan (concussion) and Marek Malik (shoulder). The Devils might be without Brian Gionta (groin) and Colin White (hand). So it evens out. It just comes down to who steps up more. Every point is huge for the Rangers in this frenetic playoff chase. It’s make or break!

Boston outplays Philly 6-3 at the ATM in Pennsylvania tonight. Boston now has 60 points, not far from the Rangers and Montreal and the logjam at 8th. They play one of the members of that logjam, Toronto, next.

For years, I have said the instigator must be done away with because it doesn’t allow for enforcers to stick up for their teammates.

This was covered in detail at today’s GM Meetings and could lead to a rule change:

Instigator On GM’s Minds

What a fantastic game and win for the Islanders. 2 huge points and 2 huge missed points for Pittsburgh. Sillinger scores with less than a minute to go in this one, and NYI takes it 6-5.

Definitely 10 best games of the year.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

7. CAR – 67 PTS, 21 Games Left
8. NYI – 66 PTS, 22 Games Left
—————–
9. TOR – 66 PTS, 23 Games Left
10. MTL – 66 PTS, 21 Games Left
11. NYR – 63 PTS, 23 Games Left
12. BOS – 58 PTS, 25 Games Left

The only reason I put Boston in the mix is because they have two more games than the rest of the league to play. If Boston can beat Philly tonight, they’ll be in the race.

I didn’t see much of it but according to what I was told Marc-Andre Fleury was terrible. The streaky netminder gave up an awful goal to Mike Sillinger with 26 ticks remaining at a soldout Nassau Coliseum to hand the desperate Islanders a 6-5 win. Sillinger has been perhaps the Isles’ best pickup last summer. Didn’t Neil Smith sign him? Didn’t he sign all their key players except for Viktor Kozlov? If they make the playoffs, it will be because of Smith’s moves.

What made the Sillinger goal so stunning was how close Sidney Crosby was to winning the game by himself. The Isles couldn’t take him off the puck behind the net and even with Trent Hunter draped all over him, he nearly setup the winner. But Rick DiPietro got a pad on it and then the chaos ensued right after. A quick counter led to a basic two-on-two. Awfully played by the Pens as they backed up like most bad defensive teams do, they allowed Andy Hilbert to gain the zone and then feed Sillinger. Sillinger then used a Pen as a screen and fired a routine wrister which eluded Fleury’s glove into the back of the net touching off a huge celebration.

With time to spare, it wasn’t enough for Crosby to lead a miracle comeback. And so the Pens’ 16-game unbeaten streak in which they went 14-0-2 has finally come to an end. During it, they went from the playoff bubble to the top five and sliced a huge Devil lead into single digits, putting themselves back in the division race. Still five points out, this defeat will sting. But with three head-to-head match-ups left against the Devils, there’s still time for them to steal the division and vault Crosby over Martin Brodeur for the Hart. It says here that whoever wins the division, their star player will win league MVP. It’s really that simple.

For the Isles, the huge two points lifted them into a three-way tie for eighth place with Montreal and Toronto. They all have 66, three better than the Rangers’ 63. The Blueshirts will be in action tomorrow night when they visit CAA for the final time this season. They’ll probably be without Brendan Shanahan, who was released from St. Vincent’s Hospital yesterday after that horrible collision with Mike Knuble Saturday. Fortunately for the 600 goal member, nothing was wrong. Now it’s just a matter of recovering from the incident which actually finished Knuble’s season. It was the ex-Ranger who was able to limp off the ice on his own power while Shanahan lay motionless for 10 minutes. But Knuble broke an orbital bone and won’t return this season.

Speaking of Shanny, to show how much a team guy he is, he visited the Rangers before yesterday’s crucial tilt against Chicago. It had to be inspiring. The club posted a 2-1 victory. They’ll look to draw more inspiration tomorrow night against their nemesis in the first of a home and home which will decide the season series. The teams have split the points thus far with each sharing a shootout victory while prevailing once in the other’s building.

Regarding the Bruins-Flyers contest on Versus, I’m going to disagree with my partner because if you looked at the standings, Boston suddenly is up to 58 points and has games at hand on the teams in front of them. While it’s hard to imagine the Bruins making a run to get in, they do have something to play for and are coming off a huge shootout victory over the Sabres in which Tim Thomas was outstanding. The Flyers are also playing better hockey. They might be done but you’d never know it by how John Stevens’ club competes. They’re going to be a royal pain in the ass to play the rest of the season. And as you might attest, in more ways than one. The Broadstreet Bullies are back.

Isles hosting the Crosby Show at the Mausoleum. Game’s at 1, on FSNY, and available in HD where you get it.

Tonight, VERSUS has the Bruins and Flyers. Also available in HD. Don’t be surprised to hear the voice of the Devils and all things hockey, Mike Emrick calling the game. If not, then there’s really no reason whatsoever to watch this one.

Sometimes, you get some really entertaining ones on there. And this one was too freaking comical not to post here because this place can’t always be about hockey.

If you’ve ever seen the overplayed Fergie “Fergielicious” video, then you’ll appreciate this one. Enjoy:

Christmelicious

It was ugly but the shorthanded Rangers got the desired result: two points. Just take it and move on because they need every point they can get in this Eastern race. They got first period goals from Martin Straka (PPG) and the rejuvenated Marcel Hossa (5th in last seven) and then relied on solid goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist (21 saves) to get by the Blackhawks 2-1.

It was the first time the Rangers hosted Chicago since 2002. That should never happen between two Original Six teams. But that’s for another day.

Truthfully, this was a boring game. But also, let’s give credit to former Ottawa netminder Patrick Lalime for holding the Blueshirts to just two. Lalime really played well to keep his team in it and made several outstanding stops. All in all, he turned aside 27 of 29. His goaltending allowed his team to gain more confidence and they played better. Eventually, leading scorer Martin Havlat scored his 23rd with 1:15 left in the second when his centering feed banked in off Lundqvist. Havlat btw was outstanding in the final two periods. The former Sen was dangerous everytime he touched the puck and nearly tied it late when he abused Aaron Ward but Lundqvist stoned him to preserve a crucial Ranger win.

The Rangers (29-25-5) now have 63 points which puts them three behind eighth seeded Toronto. They’ll need to play better in a home and home series with the Devils with the first one at CAA Tuesday before the season series wraps up at The Garden Thursday. What they can at least be happy about is that Lundqvist showed no ill effects from that puck to the left shoulder yesterday. He was sharp as was Hossa. Jaromir Jagr and Straka again had good games. And Michael Nylander, Sean Avery and Petr Prucha looked good as well. But Matt Cullen, who setup Hossa’s winner was by far the most effective forward. He was everywhere and created chances. He looks much better lately.

Without Marek Malik, the D was a little shaky late in protecting the lead. But Thomas Pock wasn’t bad pairing alongside Michal Rozsival.

With Brendan Shanahan recovering from that scary collision at St. Vincent’s Hospital today before being released, enforcer Colton Orr was back in the lineup. He did take the only Ranger minor of the game with a high sticking penalty in the third but the team killed it off easily. Updating Shanahan’s condition, he doesn’t have any kind of neck injury. The question is did he suffer a concussion. His status will be updated during the week. The club will have to determine if he needs to be placed on the IR.

In other action, the Pens stayed hot with a 3-2 win over the Caps. Sidney Crosby picked up an assist to increase his league-leading total to 91 points. Pittsburgh is up to 73 points, just five behind New Jersey with a game at hand. They’re now 14-0-2 in their last 16.

The Habs nearly blew a three-goal third period in Columbus but held on thanks to Jaroslav Halak, who had a sparkling NHL debut to help the struggling club finally snap their six-game skid and tie the Leafs for eighth in the conference.

Here is the up to date Eastern race:

Pts GR
*1.Buffalo 83 23
*2.Devils 78 23
*3.Tampa 69 22
4.Pens 73 24
5.Sens 71 23
6.Atlanta 69 21
7.Carolina 67 21
8.Habs 66 21
9.Leafs 66 23
10.Isles 64 23
11.Rangers 63 23
12.Bruins 58 25
13.Florida 57 22
14.Caps 55 23
15.Flyers 40 24

*current division leader

Note: Wins are the first tiebreaker.

Islanders Acquire Marc-Andre Bergeron: In an attempt to shore up their blueline, the Islanders acquired defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron earlier today along with a 2008 third round pick from Edmonton in exchange for Russian defenseman Denis Grebeshkov. The 26 year-old Bergeron had eight goals and 16 assists totaling 24 points for the Oilers this season in 55 contests. He’ll run the Isles point on the power play. It’s a solid addition. The baffling aspect of this deal is how GM Garth Snow was also able to pry a third round pick in this deal when Grebeshkov is home playing in Russia for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. While he was former first round pick with LA, he’s only three years younger than Bergeron. Seems like a great trade for the Fishsticks.

What a goal that was by Johnny Madden. He is just something else. To think of what happened a week ago, and now, it’s back to business as usual.

I’m gonna tell you all why the Devils are exciting to watch to me. It’s the possibility of them bending. Breaking. Anything. We all want to see if they can just keep playing that way, and tonight they did.

They should entitle it “Sleepless In Nassau.” Well, if you’re a Fishstick fan, you probably would considering how boring and predictable their team’s latest game with the Devils has been. That’s cause they’ve seen this act before. Can anyone say Groundhog Day?

The Devils got goals from Ultimate Warrior John Madden (mask and all) and Sergei “Sarge” Brylin. Martin Brodeur has hardly had to work in this one (19 or 20 stops) for his 11th shutout. But hey. You have to give the goalie credit for staying awake. A lot of goalies would suffer mental lapses from not seeing much activity. But Brodeur somehow stays awake and is always sharp which is what makes him an all-time great.

For the Devils, the win extends their Atlantic lead back to seven over Pittsburgh and temporaily slices Buffalo’s lead to four. The Sabres were knotted with Boston three apiece entering the third up at HSBC.

For the Isles, it’s a lost opportunity to pickup points. Toronto was leading Edmonton 4-2 as Leafs captain Mats Sundin (2 goals) continues his brilliant play in the third and Carolina held a 4-2 edge over struggling Montreal with time winding down up north. But hey. The Fishsticks just can’t seem to figure out the Devils defense. It’s hard enough for them beating Brodeur. But they haven’t generated many good chances the last two times they’ve played the Devs. And it’s resulted in two shutout defeats.

So, what’s the good news for the Isles? They only face the sizzling Penguins in a special matinee on President’s Day. The Pens as has been documented haven’t lost in regulation since January 10. Good luck. Well at least they should be able to celebrate some goals in front of their fans.