Battle Of Hudson

With one game left tonight that won’t affect positioning (Carolina and Tampa are locked in 6th and 7th, they’re locked in a 4-4 barnburner in Raleigh) it’s time we took a good luck at the Eastern Conference Playoff Picture.

The Sabres lead the Devils in the East by 7 points, and Montreal for the division by 11 after tonight’s loss to the Habs in Montreal. They are fairly safe but have 3 left to play against New Jersey so even if they keep playing to the standard they do there’s still a chance that NJ or Atlanta (8 back) could catch them.

Let’s look at the Atlantic Division. Devils lead the 2nd place Rangers by 13 points, with 3 remaining between the teams. Unless the Rangers make a big move at the deadline (which may happen) you can’t see them as a logistic threat if the Devils take at least 2 of the final 3 games with the Blueshirts.

New York is in a 3-way tie for 8th with Pittsburgh and Toronto. The Pens thrashed the Laffs 8-2 at the Igloo tonight. Of all 3 teams, I count on the Rangers to take the final spot, but never count out that young Penguin team.

Of course, if it were only a 3-way tie, it’d be so simple. Instead, if Tampa loses, you have a count of 8 teams, within 6 points of eachother, fighting for two spots. Tampa, Rags, Laffs, Boston, Pens, Isles, Caps and Panthers all have hope at the All-Star break. A 5 game win streak puts you in 7th, a 5-game loser puts you in 14th possibly. Everyone but Philly is in it, and boy will it be a fun 3 month rush to the finish.

I saw about 12 seconds of OT and the shootout of today’s game (Damn you, all day bowling tournament!) and pretty much guessed the Devs must’ve pulled one out the ass today. Sounded pretty lackluster. Gio ties it and gets the SO Winner.

Will be a quiet week until Tuesday-Wednesday, then quiet till Friday. Expect new uniform talk sometime this week.

OTT-BOS on Yahoo and Comcast tonite. enjoy.

Rangers forward Brendan Shanahan was named Captain of the East for next week’s All Star Game in Dallas. It’s quite an honor for the popular 37 year-old right wing who’s put together a nice debut season so far on Broadway. The eight-time All Star is currently tied for the club lead in goals (24) with Martin Straka and ranks first in power play goals (12). His 46 points (24-22-46) are fourth on the team behind Jaromir Jagr, Straka and Michael Nylander.

Though he’s struggled to finish lately, Shanny has been a solid soldier for the team and become their emotional leader. He doesn’t take shifts off and has even contributed some solid penalty killing, notching one of the club’s six shorthanded goals in a win over the Devils. It would be ashame if the team failed to make the postseason because the 600 goal member certainly has done his part.

Now, let’s address what Coach Tom Renney’s proposed lines are for tomorrow’s home matinee against Atlanta before they get a week off:

Straka-Nylander-Jagr
Cullen-Krog-Shanahan
Hossa-Betts-Ortmeyer
Prucha-Hollweg-Ward

It’s hard to fathom that 31 year-old waiver pickup Jason Krog is being deployed as the team’s second line center. He’s not that good. In 191 career games, the British Columbia native has 19 goals and 37 assists for 56 points. On what basis is he anchoring the second line? His best season came with Anaheim four years ago when he tallied 25 points (10-15-25) in 67 contests in 2002-03. The only full season he’s played came the following year when he took part in 80 games for the Ducks registering six goals and 12 helpers for 18 points. This season in 16 games with the Thrashers and Rangers, he has four points. All four came with his former club who he’ll face Saturday in the third match-up between the teams.

Truthfully, I have nothing against Krog. He’s a nice player but should never be depicted in a scoring role which speaks to how misguided the Rangers are. So how would I do things? Isn’t it about time the coach grew a pair and broke up his only reliable scoring line at even strength and spread the wealth? Before anyone goes nuts, I’m going to give a primary example of a rival club doing the exact same thing last year which wound up saving their season. Yes, the Devils under the guidance of their genius Team President and GM Lou Lamoriello broke up the EGG line and placed struggling rookie Zach Parise on it in place of Patrik Elias, who dropped to the second line to play with Sergei Brylin and Jamie Langenbrunner. The gutsy move by Lamoriello paid off as Parise regained his confidence by finding instant chemistry with American linemates Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta while Elias and Langenbrunner worked with Brylin to give the team two scoring lines.

So why then can’t Renney try a similar formula? Here are two different ideas I’d look into:

Straka-Nylander-Hossa
Shanahan-Cullen-Jagr
Ortmeyer-Betts-Prucha
Hollweg-Krog-Ward

Prucha-Straka-Jagr
Cullen-Nylander-Shanahan
Hossa-Betts-Ortmeyer
Hollweg-Krog-Ward

If this organization had any guts, they’d recall Nigel Dawes and team him with Shanahan and Cullen. Dawes never really got a fair look. It’s worth noting that in the couple of games he got to play with Nylander and Ward, he didn’t look out of place. I also believe Jarkko Immonen should be here. It’s a joke that he’s wasting away in Hartford. But what would you expect?

If you missed our show the other night, you missed some fireworks between myself and host Joe McDonald in the final seg. The hot topic was what else but the Rangers inability as an organization to give prospects a fair shake. I believe they don’t do enough to put some of these guys (Immonen, Dawes, Callahan, etc) in the best possible situation. Joe took the other side. It definitely was heated from about the 45th minute to the buzzer!

Aside from that, I flew solo the first two segs as our other cohost Gary Harding was out sick and Patrick Hickey Jr was unavailable. So I discussed the Devils win over the Rangers along with the Isles’ troubles along with the crazy Eastern playoff race, etc.

This was a really good show to do. I hope ya’ll check it out. And that also includes some of my critics out there who were upset with what I had to say after the 1-0 defeat. Well take a listen to what I had to say about your team and your goalie:

http://www.broadcastmonsters.com/NewyorkHockey/nyhockey011707.asx

http://www.broadcastmonsters.com/NewyorkHockey/nyhockey011707.asx

http://www.broadcastmonsters.com/NewyorkHockey/nyhockey011707.asx

Link up and check us out. I’d love to hear back from some of you diehard puck fans out there. I also want to apologize for not getting to some of my All Star topics and other stuff for the final seg due to Joe’s arrival. I promise that we’ll try to get that in there during next Wednesday’s show.

Derek

One thing I forgot to include aside from that memorable 1992 shootout goal victimizing former Ranger prospect Corey Hirsch in Lillehammer (became a stamp which to this day the failed netminder is probably still protesting in his bedroom) is how well Peter Forsberg performed in the playoffs. While he has been one of the best performers during the regular season, Peter The Great has always raised his game under the spotlight. In his illustrious postseason career, Foppa has tallied 61 goals along with 101 assists for 162 points in just 139 games. The Swedish sensation has been one of the most special players to ever play in the NHL. Unless he is dealt to a playoff contender at next month’s deadline, it looks like he won’t see the postseason for the first time in his career. Hopefully for NHL fans, 2006 won’t be his last showing.

In my last post, I said that the Isles, Bruins and Pens were in a three-way tie for ninth in the East with 48 points. But due to Toronto’s 3-2 win in Florida, that vaulted the Leafs into a tie for eighth with the Rangers. So that would put the aformentioned teams in a three-way tie for 10th in the unpredictable Eastern Conference. The Caps also with their 5-2 victory at Carolina are up to 47 points and are seeded 13th despite only being three out of the final spot. Florida meanwhile remains six off the pace ranking 14th with 44 points while NHL Siberia Philly is 30th in the league with only 26 points.

How bad are the Flyers? They’re so bad that they’re still 12 behind the 29th ranked Kings who just signed the ageless Sean Burke. Are you kidding?!?!?!?!?! He’s got to be 100 years old in hockey terms. What the heck are they doing over there? They have Mathieu Garon, Dan Cloutier and Jason LaBarbera toiling in the minors. And also didn’t they recall someone named Barry Brust? And then that former Japanese pick Yutaka Fukufuji debuted in the past week. They have some promise up front thanks to the young trio of Alexander Frolov, Slovenian rookie Anze Kopitar and emerging star Michael Cammalleri. But this team’s goaltending is a mess. Why carry so many vets? May as well let Fukufuji get his chance and split time with Garon. I never understood the Cloutier move from the beginning other than it had Marc Crawford’s fingerprints
all over it since he coached Clouts in Vancouver. But Sean Burke??? Say it ain’t so!

And speaking of that, the Flyers only have three wins on home ice all season. They have an NHL worst 31 losses and have allowed 178 goals. They should be the frontrunner for the first overall pick this summer. Knowing their luck, they’ll lose out to someone else or botch it altogether.

Meanwhile, the broken down Peter Forsberg recorded an assist in only his 30th game this season. It was the 600th assist of his brilliant NHL career. For the season, he has 27 points (8-19-27) in just 30 contests while missing 16 thanks to an assortment of injuries. The man his home country refers to as Foppa has had a marvelous career. Part of both Stanley Cups in Colorado, the Swedish star has been everything advertised since he first entered the league as a starry eyed rookie back in 1995 with the then Quebec Nordiques. It’s a pity what’s become of his career. All the injuries have taken its toll.

Amazingly, the 33 year-old former sixth overall 1991 selection of ironically the Flyers before being packaged to Quebec along with an assortment of others (Ricci, Duchesne, Huffman, Hextall, Simon, Baumgartner) for Eric Lindros has only taken part in a full season once, accomplishing it back in only his second season when the Avalanche won their first Cup. During it, he was brilliant putting up 30 goals along with career bests in helpers (86) and points (116). In helping the Avs sweep the Panthers, Foppa was 10-11-21 in 22 postseason games back in 1996. During the Avs’ 2001 Cup run, he played only the first two rounds getting into 11 games totaling 14 points before watching captain Joe Sakic carry the team on his back to its second championship.

After spending his first nine seasons with the Quebec/Colorado franchise, he signed with the Flyers two years ago after the lockout was finally settled. In his debut season in The City of Brotherly Love, he amassed 75 points (19-56-75) in just 60 games. Despite his club falling in humiliating fashion at home in a first round Game 6 blowout loss to Buffalo, Forsberg did his part putting up eight points (4-4-8) while playing through injury. After expecting not to return until this year, his rehab went ahead of schedule allowing him to return earlier this season. But his health is still a daily issue. Playing with discomfort in his ankle, he had orthodox fitted into his skates just so he could feel comfortable.

Still though, the former 2002-03 Hart recipient is a shell of himself these days which often leaves us wondering if he’s going to take some serious time off after the season or even call it quits. It would be ashame if a man of this stature was forced to retire. This is one of the best talents in our era and we’ve been fortunate to watch him night in and night out. It’s very sad that he now plays on such a dismal team. During his 11-year career, he’s produced 243 goals, 600 assists for 843 total points in only 670 games. Ridiculous numbers which translate to 1.26 points-per-game for his career. Only the all-time greats such as Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Bobby Orr have him beat. Ironically, the player he was traded for Lindros had had a similar career, except without winning a Cup in large part due to the Devils along with an injury plagued career. The Big E who now resides in Dallas has 863 points in 747 career games (1.16) to fall off from a career average which one was at 1.36. In many ways their careers have paralleled each other. But Forsberg can still put up around a point-per-game while Lindros is still capable of good production. These are two of the best superstars of the last two decades.

Just imagine if they had been fully healthy for their entire careers. We’ll never know.

Of course it would Steve. It only makes too much sense.

Didn’t watch much puck action tonight. So I’ll just tell you what I caught. I saw the Isles snap their losing streak thanks to third period goals by Mike Sillinger and Andy Hilbert in a 4-2 victory over the Siberia of the NHL, Philadelphia. The win was much needed as it was the Isles’ final game before the All Star break and put them at 48 points, just two back of the eighth seeded Rangers.

Meanwhile in Beantown, Phil Kessel’s second shootout winner of the season lifted the Bruins to an exciting 5-4 win over the Penguins. It was made possible by Marc Savard’s tying goal with 6:22 remaining in regulation. However, the story was Pens’ netminder Marc-Andre Fleury, who finished with 40 saves to get his defensively challenged team a point. He made several ridiculous stops in the final 2:00 just to force OT. It continued in OT when he robbed a couple of Bruins of sure goals. This was some splendid goaltending. Unfortunately, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby couldn’t pick him up in the shootout which was tied at one apiece entering Round 4. After Sergei Gonchar was turned away by Hannu Toivonen, Kessel went in and deked Fleury to the forehand tucking the puck in for the winner. It put the Bruins in a four-way tie with the Islanders, Pens and Leafs for ninth in the conference.

Kind of tells you all you need to know abot this wacky Eastern Conference race where the only givens at this point are division leaders Buffalo and New Jersey. I am not ready to include Atlanta because they are only five ahead of Hurricanes and could fall back making things more interesting in their quest to qualify for their first postseason.

I did catch the tail end of the Devils’ 3-2 shootout loss at the hands of the seventh seeded Lightning, who pulled two points ahead of the Rangers with their sixth win in seven thanks to Brad Richards’ heroics (2 goals and shootout winner). After Paul Martin notched his first with less than 10 minutes left in regulation on a power play, the Devils had a golden opportunity to win it late in OT but couldn’t take advantage of a crucial man-advantage forcing the shootout. In it, Richards gave his team the lead by beating Martin Brodeur top shelf to the stick side. A perfect shot. After Martin St. Louis’ circus backhand shot failed, New Jersey captain Patrik Elias tried his crazy move to the backhand and had Johan Holmqvist faked out but couldn’t tuck it in to force another round. So the Devils settled for one point to increase their division lead to 11 points over the Blueshirts.

12,689 my ass. Take away the 1 or the 9 from that and you have the right attendance.

Scoring Summary
1st Period
New Jersey – Jay Pandolfo (!) – 7th of the Season, from Madden and Brylin, at 1:58
2nd Period
Tampa Bay – Brad Richards – 17th of the Season, from Ranger at 4:57
Tampa Bay – Brad Richards (Pwr Play) – 2nd of the Game, 18th of the Season, from Boyle and St. Louis, at 19:56
3rd Period
New Jersey – Paul Martin (!!) (Pwr Play) – 1st of the Season, from Parise and Rafalski, at 12:50
Shootout
Tampa Bay – Brad Richards

Another undeserved point from the Devils tonight. It seems everytime we go to a shootout, we’ve had to fight to tie the game, and we seem as a club too tired to go through with it. We’ve just been so lackluster in the shootout lately.

To be fair Tampa played well. Not as well as Doc and Chico would have you think (what was up with that?) but still, they deserve skills competition point. The feed from Ranger to Richards was sweet. We seem to be vulnerable to the long pass (see Malkin, Evgeni) and that’s concerning.

We got the point, the lead over New York (Light Blue and Red) is up to 11, and were inching closer to Buffalo with time (and games against) to possibly catch them.

The problem is not that Versus isn’t known enough, it’s that VERSUS is the Bull Riding network, not the Hockey Network.

We need the NHL Network to emerge in the US, and ESPN to return on some basis.

The highest rated hockey game of the 90’s was the NHL All-Star Game in San Jose, it got about a 4.1 in Saturday on primetime. That’s better than the top rated Saturday shows get in the year 2007. The idea of All-Star Saturday night is one worth thinking about.

That All Star jersey looks pretty good on Sid The Kid Steve. But I definitely still prefer the old classic jersey from the early 90’s. I think the best ones were around ’94 to ’97. They just were really cool. Maybe it’s cause I liked the colors better.

I don’t have time to find an image now as I got some stuff to tend to. But maybe later I will just so you can see.

I noticed that you listed the AS Game for next Wednesday on Versus. And that right there is the dilemma for this league. Versus by all accounts is the official NHL network. The problem is that not everyone either gets it or can find it. Now just imagine for a second a primetime event featuring all our biggest stars but being aired on national TV on NBC. Just think about how much better this kind of national exposure would be for a league which hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire since returning. Picture it. People watching our best players and noticing how great these guys are. Think that wouldn’t draw new fans?

While you have time to think about it, I’ll just post a couple of quick thoughts regarding a couple of hot topics:

1.The Rangers are kidding themselves if they believe the answer is on their roster. Jason freaking Krog won’t solve the lack of scoring balance. Neither will any chaotic line combination Tom Renney tries. His worst move had to be putting Petr Prucha on the fourth line with Ryan Hollweg and Colton Orr. Why do I suddenly feel like I’m in a time machine? Hello McFly! Think! I argued with Joe McDonald in the final segment of our NY Hockey Report about the Rangers mishandling of prospects such as Nigel Dawes, Jarkko Immonen, Ryan Callahan, etc. He basically concluded that either they’re not ready or not that good. But how will we really know if the organization continues to barely give them a shot? And by that I mean freaking 7-8 minutes of ice-time won’t cut it. The lack of scoring from the third and fourth lines has been well documented. The biggest problem as I see it is they went into this season with too many vets taking up spots. They have too many salaries committed and their hands are tied. I blame the organization. They’re all talk. Just once I’d like to see them back up what they say about turning to Hartford if things don’t improve. If that means missing the postseason, I’m all for it. I don’t want to see them swept out again in embarassing fashion. It’s time for them to wake up!

2.There was a lot of talk about what I said here apparently in regards to the Devils. I’m not changing my tune. There was little entertainment value in that game. If not for my brother, I’d have turned it off. A couple of coaches in our area have referred to playing them like a game of chess. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. Look. There’s nothing wrong with how the Devils play. They play a very strict system and are well schooled defensively. They capitalize on mistakes. When you combine how they play and toss in the best goalie in the game Martin Brodeur, it makes playing them miserable. When Brodeur basically admitted in the postgame the other night that his team allows him to see every shot, he knew. It definitely helps. It doesn’t take away from the MVP season he’s putting together. If the season ended today, I’d vote for him over Sidney Crosby. This isn’t about me being anti-Devil. If a player on their team performs, I give them credit. Naturally though, I dislike the Devils with a passion. To be honest, I am sick and tired of losing to them. It would just be nice if one day the Rangers turned the tables on them. But I don’t see it happening anytime soon. That’s where the frustration comes from.

And with that, I’ll see ya’ll later.