Battle Of Hudson

I actually thought it was a lot of fun. Great amount of speed and pace, while there were some penalities to be sure, it never quite slowed down how good this one was.

Do not mistake the stat sheets in this one, Marty did play well in the 2nd and 3rd, including a fantastic glove save in the final stanza.

Jamie Langenbrunner and Jay Pandolfo scored for the Devs. Jamie is well on his way to a career high in goals (23 in 97-98 with Dallas) with his 18th of the year, and quite possibly a career high in points (55 in the ’03 Cup Year) after getting #40 of the season tonight. For Jay, goal #8, puts him well on the way for his 4th double-digit goal season.

Right now, one would figure that NJ will have at least 4 20 goal scorers (Elias, Langs, Gio and Zach) and possibly a 5th if Gomer were to go on a tear the last 2 months.

The trivia question: When was the last year the Devils had 4 20-goal scorers? The 01-02 team, which had 5 20-goalers (Elias, Niewendyk, Holik, Sykora, and Arnott)

See you all tomorrow. The Devils continue their homestand with a nationally televised game on Sunday vs. Tampa. More info on where you can watch that on Saturday.

You just had two stations broadcast the Islanders-Devils game and it just concluded. So, go to Hockey Night New York Live directly after the 2-0 Brodeur shutout of the Fishsticks in an intense playoff race, right? Not if you’re them. I don’t get it. Instead, they go to that silly MSG NY show and lead with Eddy Curry and baseball. Say what?

Being that you had the hockey on and it’s the only two metro area teams on your stations that played tonight, the hockey show should come first over this nonsense.

But I guess after one year where they went ga ga over the puck stuff and bent over backwards to give us a lot of good coverage, those days are over.

It’s into a shootout now at Wachovia 4-4 with the Pens. The Flyers rallied from two down in the third to tie thanks to Forsberg’s magic resulting in goals by Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble with the goalie pulled.

In OT, it should be noted that Pens’ netminder Marc-Andre Fleury stood on his head robbing the Flyers at least 4-5 times of getting their first home win since November 24.

So, what will happen? Let’s find out as we blog it live:

First up is the Pens’ Erik Christensen…I’ll say he scores. He’s pretty good.

And Christensen is denied by Niittymaki with a quick pad. So I’m wrong.

Up for the Flyers is Jeff Carter…no chance for a prediction. But his move sucked. Never even got a shot. No score after 1 frame.

Now Malkin…hits the right post. So the Flyers sure have a chance here.

Here comes the man of the hour Forsberg…went to his usual move and had Fleury beat the way he had Corey “Stamp” Hirsch beat but off the post. No score after two.

Now Crosby…score. Beats Niitty inside the bar. For those wondering, he didn’t have a point in the game but put the Pens up in the shootout.

Can Gagne extend it? What do you think? Of course not. Fleury shuts the five-hole and NHL Siberia loses once again at home. That’s 13 straight losses at home. Good god. If ever there was a game they were going to win, it was this one. But apparently, the hockey Gods weren’t aligned.

And so the sizzling Pens continue their playoff drive. Who wants’em?

Meanwhile in what’s supposed to be a good game at CAA, it’s 1-0 Devils for seemingly ever. There has been no energy in this building from what I’ve caught. And plenty of seats available. And now Selke Candidate Jay Pandolfo seals it with the Devils’ second shorthanded goal of the season. A brilliant give-and-go with partner in crime John Madden. Only the second the playoff-desperate Isles have given up. A crusher, right? Nah. There was no way they were scoring on Brodeur and getting thru that brick wall of a D anyway. It will go down as Brodeur’s 10th shutout. Can they just get to 105 already so we can have the silly old age debate?

Is back. Four more points tonight. So will he stay in Philly or will they get a King’s ransom for Foppa at the deadline? It’s less than three weeks away now. Find out.

For those who were wondering what Chico was talking about on the telecast, our very own Mike “Doc” Emrick is up again for a New York region Emmy for Outstanding On-Camera Talent: Sports Play-By-Play. Doc won the award in 1997 and 2004 as well, and has some stiff competition:

Marv Albert – New Jersey Nets
Michael Kay – New York Yankees
Mike Breen – New York Knicks
Sam Rosen – New York Rangers

For anyone interested, the analyst competition is between Jim Kaat, JD and Ron Darling.The awards will be handed out on April 1st at the Mariott in Times Square.

Good luck to Doc.

So you’re veteran defenseman Darius Kasparaitis, who has cleared waivers probably ending your Ranger career. How do you feel? Well, I’m sure deep down, it has to hurt. But true to this warrior’s character, he has been a good teammate down with the Hartford Wolf Pack.

How do we know? According to Outside The Garden’s pack attack, Kaspar rented a bus and invited his entire team to watch the Super Bowl at his house. That’s about as nice a story as you’ll see.

A lot of players might sulk in a similar situation. But not Kaspar. Good for him.

Barnaby’s Career Likely Done: It is sad to note that it looks like Matthew Barnaby’s career is over. Due to a concussion suffered a month ago, according to The Dallas News, he might retire. According to what was said, he has occasionally lost sight in his left eye due to the concussion. It would be a disappointing end to a nice career. The former goon worked hard enough with his first team in Buffalo to evolve into a solid third liner who could chip in offensively as well as drop the gloves while providing energy. Barny wasn’t popular with everyone. But the 13-plus year NHLer did pretty good for himself. In 834 career games, the 33 year-old Ottawa native finished with 113 goals, 187 assists for 300 total points. Not bad considering he amassed over 2500 penalty minutes and countless scraps playing for seven teams (Buf, Pit, TB, NYR, Col, Chi, Dal).

If it is the end of the road for the always chatty Barnaby, we wish him a full recovery and the very best regarding his future.

In a recent entry I made yesterday, I wondered if there would be any extensive NHL Draft coverage for Rounds 2 thru 7 which is to take place on a Saturday on June 23rd in Columbus from 10 AM Eastern time till it concludes. With Versus only committed to airing the all important first round in primetime the night before, it looked like curious viewers in the U.S. would have to rely on the internet to find out who their teams will select for the final six rounds. While that is technically true, there is a way to see those rounds if you are fortunate enough to have a high speed connection.

Here was NHL Network’s response:

NHL Network said…

Hey there. Just wanted to update you on something that wasn’t part of the press release yesterday. The NHL Network will be carrying live coverage of the draft on Saturday, unfortunately it’s not available in the US yet. But…we will be streaming it live to NHL.com

6:16 AM

I’d like to personally thank this person for providing us with such a thrifty response. This information is very valuable and gives us an update on the situation regarding the network, which we hope will be made available in The States soon.

It shows that this place is being read by someone important and that we’re actually being heard.

I hope that in the future, we’ll be able to provide more answers like the one we got this morning.

Now onto a point regarding sensational Pens’ rookie Jordan Staal. If you’ve watched the former No.2 overall selection closely, then you know how brilliant this 18 year-old phenom out of Thunder Bay Ontario is. He just recorded his 20th goal of the season on the power play by going to the net and finding a rebound against Philadelphia. It came a few minutes after he had a goal wiped out due to incidental contact between defenseman Ryan Whitney and goalie Antero Niittymaki. I was 50/50 on it because Whitney was shoved in by a Flyer. But the call was made. It didn’t have any impact on Staal as he gave his team the lead anyway.

How good is he? He might just be better than older brother Eric which is saying a lot considering how brilliant he was last year for the Cup champion Hurricanes. The 22 year-old older brother has come back to earth after a bustout 45 goal, 100 point season. He still has 23 goals and 48 points. Ironically, Eric was also a former second overall pick in 2003 and has evolved into a very good hockey player. So the two brothers have something in common. But what can’t be overlooked is how much poise the younger Jordan has demonstrated time and time again this year. A solid overall player who is a rock defensively to the point where he is a dangerous puck hawk on the Pens’ penalty killing unit, tallying five shorthanded goals which still paces the league. Give Michel Therrien and his staff a lot of credit. They started out Staal primarily on the third line and PK units and allowed him to work his way up. Now, he can play second line if needed and gets PP time. There isn’t anything this guy can’t do. How responsible is he defensively? Only NHL leading scorer Sidney Crosby has a better plus/minus (+13) on the Pens than his +12. His 20 goals give them three 20-goal scorers all 20 and under.

For about two months now, Hockey Night In Canada’s Don “Grapes” Cherry has been raving about Staal’s play, insisting if he got the minutes Evgeni Malkin and Anze Kopitar got that he’d be a Calder Trophy candidate. The fact that Malkin is more mature (almost three years older) and polished explains his rookie-leading production of 26 goals, 33 assists for 59 points. Now remember that Malkin is responsible in his end. But he’s only plus-three. Interesting.

The more I watch Staal, the more I agree with Cherry about how good a player he is. If the Pens make the playoffs, nobody will want them in the first round. Just imagine how scary they’ll be a couple of years from now.

As I watch some of this Islanders-Devils game, it becomes more obvious how bad these new NHL rules have been. Tacky calls already were made on two Islanders. And then you have Chico Resch agreeing because of the replays. Minor stuff such as what Randy Robitaille and Jason Blake did shouldn’t be penalties. Would you care to take a wild guess what they both were? Fyi…just to prove a point, Sergei Brylin did the exact same thing later in the period and nothing was called.

So Mark Messier wants to be the next Ranger GM according to an Edmonton newspaper report the other day. That was news to Dumb and Dumber President and GM Glen Sather, who after commenting on the story to the Toronto Sun opted to use the lame MSG policy and refusing to discuss it with local beat writers. Nice. And then he wants to know why he’s so hated.

Interesting to note that an animated host Joe McDonald basically called out all three executives who run the locals, referring to them as “condescensing jerks” during the opening segment of our NY Hockey Report show last night. He seems to believe that’s part of the reason attendance and ratings have dropped in the metro area. I’m not sure I agree. But can see his point. If you want to listen, the archive is below:

NY Hockey Report

This was written by my broadcast partner Joe McDonald courtesy of The Fourth Period after Martin Brodeur backstopped the Devils to a 3-2 shootout triumph over the Rangers last night at Continental Airlines Arena. It’s worth the read. So please check it out:

Martin Brodeur

Islanders get a big win with Rick DiPietro’s fifth shutout of the season in a 2-0 win over the Flyers at The Coliseum. Viktor Kozlov (19) and Miroslav Satan (18) tallied while team captain Alexei Yashin sat out his second straight. The Isles (59 pts) pulled within two of eighth place Carolina and one behind ninth Toronto.

Sabres take their second straight with a big 3-2 victory over Ottawa at HSBC Arena. Super soph Thomas Vanek tallied twice including the game-winner with less than five minutes remaining. Martin Biron won for the third time in four, propelling first place Buffalo to a six point conference lead over the Devils.

Derek, c’mon, the draft was practically at night, what 5, 6 o clock last year? It can’t be more than an hour, 2 hours later.

My problem is, are Devs fans to be welcomed to the Meadowlands?

As for the NHL Network, I’ve heard the studios are in DC and they will launch on at least Comcast (and Potentially 25 Million homes, mind you) in April for the playoffs. It will reportedly be 90% NHL Net Canada programming, but much more game coverage than the Canadian channel.

It can’t get any more confusing regarding the league’s direction, it does. How else can you explain this?

2007 NHL ENTRY DRAFT TO BE HELD OVER TWO DAYS
The 2007 NHL Entry Draft will be held over two days, on Friday, June 22 and Saturday, June 23, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, the National Hockey League announced today. The first round will be conducted Friday night and broadcast live on VERSUS in the United States and TSN and RDS in Canada, beginning at 7 p.m., ET. Rounds two through seven will take place Saturday and start at 10 a.m., ET.

So much for having draft parties. What was so bad about having it on a Saturday at noon? The diehards want to see that first round and will tune in. But why change to a Friday night during the summer? It makes no sense. But then again, does anything ever make sense?

I think the worst aspect is scheduling Rounds 2-7 from 10 AM on the next day. I guess there’s no coverage of it. What’s the point of having Versus if they’re not going to go that extra mile to give extensive coverage? This point has been driven home way too much already by myself, Steve and sensible writers who cover the sport. I am still wondering what good having the games on Versus thru 2011 is going to do. Are they going to make some improvements which will include more coverage? A pregame show would be a good first step. So would an interactive one hour NHL highlight reel show. Remember Cool Shots? That worked. It was half an hour and was a decent tune in. You had some cool features and it showed the players off the ice which is always nice for the fans. I think Steve already covered how he would improve the coverage a few days ago. We can only dream that that will become a reality.

I also have a question regarding The NHL Network. You remember that, right? What is the latest on when this network is going to be available across The States? And wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of agreement in place to make it available on Versus or am I not remembering correctly? I’d really like to know what’s going on with this because if you’re not going to give enough coverage on Versus, the NHL Network is a must for puck fans.

Now to two things:

1.Congratulations to Phil Housley on being honored by the Sabres prior to their game against Ottawa. He was inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame. In his first seven-plus seasons of a brilliant 21-year career, the former 1982 sixth overall selection made the team out of High School and went on to establish a club record for Buffalo blueliners with 558 points (ranks 5th in Sabre history). For more on his career which saw the American finish with 1,232 points, nhl.com ran a special feature commemorating the honor:

Housley Enters Sabre HOF

2.ESPN’s John Buccigross had an interesting column this week on how to improve the game. Some of it is pretty controversial but the former NHL2Nite studio host backs up his points well and raises some good issues. Here was his take on the current state of the game:

Bucci’s Extreme NHL Makeover

And with that, I have to get ready for tonight’s NY Hockey Report. I’m sure Joe and myself will discuss the Rangers’ struggles. Gary will be calling in at some point live from the Islander game. They host the Flyers. Home team beware. The road team usually prevails.

You can tune into the show live tonight from 8:05 – 9 PM by going to the allinbroadcasting site and clicking on the NY Hockey Report link.

NY Hockey Report