Battle Of Hudson

Good news for US hockey fans who love HNIC, the NHL Center Ice free preview rolls into town January 8-14, and on January 13, Hockey Day in Canada will be completely covered by Center Ice.

That and another cool feature of Center Ice is seeing all three NBC feeds when they air their first game 1/13.

Enjoy!

Well Atlanta won tonight, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it. MSG 2 was unavailable in my Comcast area. I would’ve had to purchase half a season of Center Ice just to watch it (Don’t ask).

Parise with both Devil goals, he head to X-mas break tied with Gio as the Devils leading twine-tickler.

Merry Christmas, raise a pint of egg nog to Derek for helping out, all of you for reading, and to the Devils in 1st at the Christmas break :).

If you thought the last loss to Florida was bad, boy were you in for something tonight. At least they had a two-goal lead after two periods in that one before falling apart. In the final game before the two day Christmas break, the Rangers managed to outdo themselves by blowing a 3-0 two period cushion at Tampa in utterly amazing fashion.

After a finally healthy Henrik Lundqvist opened the door by giving up a weak sharp angle power play goal to Dan Boyle to cut it to 3-1 1:02 in, the self destruction was underway when Boyle rebounded home a Nikita Alexeev shot 1:27 later to suddenly cut it to one thanks to an awful Thomas Pock turnover. Just what was Pock doing on this play? He looked every bit like a weak extra defenseman who was repeatedly healthy scratched by the coaching staff because they were afraid to play him. Maybe they knew. But since he’s returned in place of Marek Malik (groin), Pock has looked dreadful. Is this because they destroyed his confidence or because he just really is this bad in his end? I’m a little too alarmed to find out.

Once Boyle’s second goal was scored so quickly, I just knew there was no way the Rangers were going to win. They are so fragile and predictable it’s actually sad. Once the first sign of trouble starts, this team morphs into the seven Ranger teams from 1997-04 which you knew had no chance of making the playoffs. So embarrassing are they that if they had a three-goal lead with 10:00 left, it wouldn’t be safe. They cough up the puck routinely and turn into the NHL version of the Tinman. For those wondering who that is in football terms, it’s Peyton Manning every January. Until further notice, Alex Rodriguez has that dubious distinction in baseball.

Back to this sadsack bunch and the latest third period collapse. So how quickly was that 3-0 lead gone you wonder? It took Tampa Bay just 5:56 to tie it after Vincent Lecavalier used the miniscule Martin St. Louis (screen) to blast a slapper by Lundqvist for the Lightning’s second PPG in 4:54. Now I want you depressed and probably intoxicated Ranger fans to consider something about this. In the first period, the Rangers headed to the penalty box three consecutive times but weren’t scored upon. So what happened two periods later to change the outcome? The fact that this team is so schizo they might just be suffering from Multiple Personality Syndrome. Everything can be perfect for two periods just like the last two games. But then it all pinballs downward and spirals out of control.

It’s not like clueless Coach Tom Renney didn’t try to stop the Lightning momentum. He burned his timeout after Boyle’s second goal. But in what’s now becoming a trend uncommon with last year’s grittier bunch, this soft team which skates on eggshells didn’t respond. Once it was knotted, you knew it wouldn’t be going to a shootout like a similar game in St. Pete last year. That team had heart and tried. This one doesn’t and looks lost once things turn on them. So was it any shock when a Ranger turnover at the Tampa blueline resulted in Boyle turning on the jets and then surprising Lundqvist by ripping one from inside the blueline past him for his first career hat trick? Now I’m going to say this. Boyle is a skilled defenseman. But there’s no way he should be able to score on that shot which was equally as brutal as that softie Kevin Weekes allowed to the Isles’ Jason Blake last Tuesday to kill the team’s momentum. Weekes has repeatedly gotten killed by many fans for uneven goalkeeping. And sometimes, it’s true like the Isle debacle. But the Florida game wasn’t the case.

Lundqvist for every good game he’s had in his second year has had his share of bad ones. Tonight was another mindboggling performance from the 24 year-old Swedish gold medallist which begs the question if his mind really is on hockey or on banging as many puck bunnies as possible and living off that unreal rookie season. In one breath, King Henrik can make every big save and be splendid as he was at Dallas a couple of weeks ago or even in the first two periods against Tampa before the walls caved in. In the next breath, he leaves a lot to be desired. What’s his story? And I don’t want to hear about the flu that kept him out. He looked so zoned in the first two periods that this should’ve been a cakewalk. A year ago it was. Nothing is certain anymore. Is the D bad? Naturally it is and puts a lot of stress on either netminder. But Lundqvist clearly has the talent and is a superior goalie to Weekes. That’s what makes it exasperating.

Aside from whatever’s going on there, has anyone seen Jaromir Jagr lately? He might be out on the ice and tries at times. But there are also shifts which makes you wonder where the team captain’s head is at. His body language was so awful on one shift with the game tied that it gave me the impression he’s had it with this team. And if that’s the case, then the Blueshirts are doomed. Jagr just isn’t dominating the way he should. I saw a heck of a lot more effort from Martin Straka (PPG, assist) and the returning Michael Nylander (assist). Ironically, Jagr had no points and only two shots on goal. That’s usually an indicator that he’s not there.

So, what else is wrong with this club? Jarkko Immonen went from playing 11-12 minutes to centering a fourth line and hardly seeing the ice. What did he do to deserve this? Nothing. Darius Kasparaitis was so slow that Renney barely played him if the ice-time is correct on the usually unreliable yahoo site. Can someone explain to me what Ryan Hollweg was doing playing with Matt Cullen and Brendan Shanahan? I’m all for giving Hollweg a chance but why over Immonen, who showed good chemistry with those two? It makes no sense. Does anything Renney does make sense this year? Don’t answer it. You might get sick and puke your eggnog all over the place.

Does anyone realize that if Lou Lamoriello was this team’s GM, Renney would have been axed after tonight? That’s what stinks about being a Ranger fan. Other teams are more serious and don’t tolerate such mediocrity and inexplicable play. So how long will this joke of an organization give Renney’s staff to turn this sinking ship around? If they don’t win any of their remaining games in this calendar year, the coach has to go. This team is showing no signs of snapping out of it and it’s looking eerily similar to last Spring’s epic collapse which culminated with blowing the Atlantic and being swept out by the Devils in embarrassing fashion.

So, what should be done? I have no idea anymore. But I am going to leave you with this. When the team was up three, I didn’t get excited. Maybe because I knew what could still happen against the explosive Lightning. This team is a classic tease. They get your hopes up and then drag you right through the mud.

Does anyone know what this pathetic team deserves for Christmas outside of a lot of coal in their stockings? Exactly.

Enjoy the next two days off because they’re bound to be a lot better than tonight. Merry Christmas!!!!!

New Jersey (19-12-3, 41 PTS, 1st Atlantic Division, 3rd Eastern Conference) vs. Atlanta ( 20-10-6, 46 PTS, 1st Southeast Division, 2nd Eastern Conference)
7:00 PM
Phillips Arena
TV: MSG 2/FSNY 2 (Check MSG.com for Channel Listings)
Radio: WFAN 660

Last We Met:

Tuesday at The Swamp. Marian Hossa scores 2 shorties and a shootout goal, Marty is weak, Oduya gets 1st NHL goal, but Thrash win 4-3.

Next Meeting: January 12th in The Swamp.

Leading Scorers
Devils
#26 Patrik Elias 13-19-32
#14 Brian Gionta 14-13-27
#15 Jamie Langenbrunner 14-13-27
#9 Zach Parise 12-14-26
#23 Scott Gomez 4-20-24

Atlanta
#18 Marian Hossa 24*-22-46
#17 Ilya Kovalchuk 19-21-40
#13 Slava Kozlov 12-27-39
#19 Scott Mellanby 7-12-19
#9 Glenn Metropolit 6-10-16

Goaltenders
Devils
#30 Martin Brodeur 19-11-2, 2.15, .923%
#40 Scott Clemmensen 0-1-1, 3.60, .878%

Atlanta
#30 Kari Lehtonen 15-7-6, 2.86, .908%
#1 Johan Hedberg 5-3-0, 3.01, .886%

*-League Leader

Game Analysis:

This is a pretty big game for NJ. The second half of back-to-back nights at the rink, two in a row on the road, and facing the East’s second best team, who beat them in a shootout in a game they could’ve easily won, make this a litmus test of New Jerseyan character. Make no mistake, Atlanta is very good, and can score from anywhere in the offensive zone, but NJ can beat this team. The problem is, they won’t score 4 again tonight because they never do well offensively after they play well on the O the game before. So it’ll be up to the defense.

Key Players

Devils
Marty Brodeur
Marty had a very mediocre game on Tuesday vs. the Thrashers. The 2nd Hossa goal to tie the game and both shootout goals were very stoppable shots. After a great tilt Friday where he shut down Ovie and the Caps, he needs to kick it up a notch for his 2nd try at Atlanta.

Atlanta
Penalty Killers

The Devils have 6 players with 3 or more power play goals (ATL has 4) and can come at you from a number of different angles on the power play. The Thrashers defense, despite Lehtonen’s brilliance at times, can be very porous. Vitaly Vishnevski, like on Tuesday, we’ll be key in stopping New Jersey from racking up PPGs.

Prediction: Devils 3, Thrashers 2

Also Tonight…

Rangers are in Tampa on FSN and HDNet. Expect Gameday from Derek. Do you really think it’s fair to the Devils and Islanders that the Rags get FSN, and the Devils and Isles fans are forced to search for ancillary channels?

Islanders are hosting Columbus on FSN 2.

In afternoon hockey, Philly hosts Ottawa at the ATM. Live Webcast on Comcast.net for subscribers at 1:00 PM.

Original 6 Alert: Montreal-Boston at the “Garden”.

Ovie makes his Hockey Night in Canada season debut in Toronto.

Carolina and Florida have a Southeast sizzler.

Zambonis fans take notice of this lyric: “I call her at six, cause I got the tix, to see the Sabres vs. the St. Louis Blues. It’s gonna be great, a real dream date, cuz she’s got a mullet too!”

LA Queens are in Nashville.

Wings and Wild finish their home and home.

The Oil are in Dallas.

The now CONTENDING Hawks are in Denver vs. the Avs.

Ducks quack along to Phoenix.

Flames and Sharkies battle on HNIC.

So c’mon, across the USA, it’s a hockey party tonight!

Scoring Summary
1st Period – Nothing
2nd Period
Devils – Travis Zajac (PP) – 7th of the Season, from Parise and Brylin, at 5:31.
Washington – Chris Clark – 13th of the Season, from Zubrus and Semin, at 8:49.
Devils – Patrik Elias – 13th of the Season, from Lukowich and Rafalski, at 18:54.
3rd Period
Devils – Brian Gionta – 14th of the Season, from Gomez and Elias, at 4:51.
Devils – Zach Parise – 12th of the Season, from Brylin and Martin, at 9:52

Game Recap:

I missed most of this one, so I’ll recap the goals, as they were available to me through NHL.com’s “Highlight Machine”. First up, after a scoreless first, Travis Zajac got a sweet pass from Zach Parise right in front. He whiffed at the first chance, battled goalie Brent Johnson to the post and finally knocked it in, 1-0 Devs.

Chris Clark answered for the Capitals. Their CAPtain got a third rebound after Marty had stopped him once, then came across for a whiff-job from Dainius Zubrus, and it came back across to Clark and a diving Marty could not get to it, 1-1.

Patrik Elias answered to that with a deflection goal late in the 2nd stanza. It all started on one of those long rushes that Scott Gomez is known for making, he then sent a pass back for Brian Rafalski, who fed a cross to Brad Lukowich, who shot one toward the net that OUR CAPTAIN deflected to the roof. 2-1.

The Devils pulled away in the third, and Brian Gionta, tonight’s key player in Devils GameDay, finally scored again. Coming in on a 2-on-1 with Gomez, Gionta decided to take it himself. He pulled it to the backhand down-low and beat Johnson on the long side. 3-1.

Finally, the Devs scoring ended with a goal from Zach Parise. THE ZACH walked in down the right wing and simply rifled a wrister to the top right corner. Brent Johnson really never had a chance on one of those plays that makes you think THE ZACH can be a 40-goal scorer someday. 4-1 Final.

Also in the NHL, the Islanders lost 5-1 to Carolina. The clear problem for New York tonight was the rebounds, as every goal (except Scott Walker’s on a DiPi giveaway) was on a 2nd or 3rd or 4th chance.

The Isles are in Carolina to take on the Hurricanes. More on that in Devils PostScript.

Vancouver goes back to back nights as they visit Columbus

Minnesota battles with Detroit

In an Original 6 beatdown, Toronto vs. Chicago.

New Jersey (18-12-3, 39 PTS, 2nd Atlantic Division, 5th Eastern Conference) vs. Washington (15-11-7, 37 PTS, 2nd Southeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference)
7:00 PM
Verizon Center
FSN NY 2 (Head to MSG.com for channel listings)
WFAN 660 AM

Injuries
New Jersey: Cam Janssen (Shoulder, Out for 13th Game), Richard Matvichuk (Back, Out for 33rd Game)

Washington: QUESTIONABLE TONIGHT: RW Matt Bradley (Hand), LW Donald Brashear (Undisclosed), D John Erskine (Foot). IR: RW Richard Zednik (Groin)

Last We Met:

March 10, 2006: Sergei Brylin scores the game winner as NJ beats the Caps 4-3 at the Verizon Center.

Next Time:
Will be next week, Dec. 29, at the Meadowlands.

Leading Scorers

New Jersey
#26 Patrik Elias 12-18-30
#15 Jamie Langenbrunner 14-13-27
#14 Brian Gionta 13-13-26
#9 Zach Parise 11-13-24
#23 Scott Gomez 4-19-23

Washington
#8 Alexander Ovechkin 23-22-45
#28 Alexander Semin 14-15-29
#9 Dianius Zubrus 13-16-29
#17 Chris Clark 12-14-26
#18 Matt Pettinger 10-7-17

Goaltenders

New Jersey
#30 Martin Broduer 18-11-2, 2.19, .920%
#40 Scott Clemmensen 0-1-1, 3.60, .878%

Washington
#37 Olaf Kolzig 11-8-4, 3.16, .911%
#1 Brent Johnson 4-3-3, 3.10, .908%

Players to Watch
New Jersey: Brian Gionta
When is the last time Brian scored a goal? C’mon, I’ll give you a couple seconds to think….Bam! Time’s up! It was was the Buffalo game on Versus 10 days and 5 games ago. When’s the last one that wasn’t a deflection? December 1st vs. the Penguins. The rocket from Rochester has to wake up now before the schedule is tough again.

Washington: Alexander Semin

The Capitals always are in need of secondary scoring behind that guy, what-his-vechkin? Anyway, as you saw in the scoring leaders, Semin is in 2nd in Washington scoring, 16 points behind Ovie. His and Dainius Zubrus’ contributions will be key to this game and the Caps entire run through the second half.

Game Analysis

It’s weird to think that at Christmas, the Devils have only a two-point advantage coming into this 1st meeting of the season. This’ll be an interesting battle of unappreciated teams. Washington and NJ are both teams with poor attendance and great players. Not that that really matters, but I’m still trying to come up with catchy “battle” nicknames (A la Daryl Reaugh calling Red Wings-Blue Jackets a “Central Division Cockfight”). Anyway, expect the Devils to frustrate this young team by using Madden and Pando to shutdown Ovechkin, which I said before, makes it key for guys like Semin and Zubrus and Clark to chip in. Should be interesting, but expect two NJ points. PREDICTION: Devils 3, Capitals 1

Over the past decade, there have been plenty of long nights where I just couldn’t contain how much disdain and disillusionment I felt for the team I root for. Tonight is just another of those nights which makes me wonder why I am a Ranger fan.

I honestly don’t know what to say about tonight’s dreadful third period which saw every Ranger who was out there lose battle after battle and allow three unanswered goals to a bad Florida Panthers team to drop number four in a row. Usually, after such a defeat, I’d be saying every bad word I can think of. But what’s the point of getting worked up over such a heartless team? They are the most unphysical hockey club I have ever seen. Forget the fact the officials made a terrible call penalizing only Petr Prucha for roughing when two Panthers assaulted him. This bunch isn’t worth complaining over even when they have such a call go against them. What did it matter anyway? The power play was something like 1-for-10 and Eddie “The Eagle” Belfour had a throwback night which brought back visions of his last Vezina in a Blackhawk jersey.

On a night when call-up Brad Isbister actually scored a PPG off a deflection and played just the type of spunky game they brought him up for, it didn’t matter. Neither did it when there was a Jason Ward sighting. Playing alongside Jaromir Jagr and Prucha, Ward netted his first goal in 26 games. So two bit players who you wouldn’t expect to score did but got zero support. Some of that was due in large part to Belfour, who stoned Shanahan and Prucha repeatedly down the stretch to give Florida a split of the four games. By virtue of a shootout loss, the Panthers won the season series. And really, that’s all that needs to be said. If you can’t beat that undisciplined team three of four, then you aren’t good and definitely don’t deserve to make the playoffs.

That describes how I feel about this Blueskirt team. They’re the polar opposite of last year’s team. A club which did all the little things and overachieved. They didn’t take periods off. They worked hard and also made the opposition work for their goals. Not anymore. I am still trying to figure out what Fedor Tyutin was doing on the last two Florida goals. Then again, that’s how pathetic this Ranger team is.

There could be a lot more said about tonight. But what’s the point? So disappointed am I that I no longer have the desire to go to any of the remaining home games our family has tickets for. Oh. Make no mistake. I’ll be there. But if you think I’m going to wear a Ranger jersey and cheer like a maniac, forget it. It’s not happening. And the reason is quite simple. Because Cablevision owner Jim Dolan doesn’t get it. On an appearance with Mike and The Mad Dog, he praised this Ranger club and termed them “a great product.” And that right there is what’s wrong. It wasn’t that they were a “great team.” It’s all about entertainment with Dolan. As long as fans continue to go, he’s happy. And btw…if this joke of a team somehow makes the playoffs, tickets are going up next year again. Screwing over more paying customers and loyal fans to a fault who would die to see this team actually play like one. Does anyone actually think this soft team could beat anyone in a playoff series? They’d be lucky if they got one game.

At this point, I am not sure making the playoffs is worth it. Until the philosophy changes at the Garden, it will be business as usual. I never thought that when the Islanders hired and fired Neil Smith and replaced him with Garth Snow that they would be so much easier to respect. At the time, everyone laughed at them. Who’s laughing now? The standings say the Rangers are three points better than the Islanders. Sometimes, stats lie.

If anyone cares, the next Ranger game is at Tampa Bay. I remember last year looking forward to watching games. Now, it feels eerily similar to the 1997-04 Era. This team is heartless. They take it out of you. I honestly would rather do something else than watch them on Saturday cause I just fear another embarrassing moment.

Sports sometimes can be tough. Between the Rangers and Giants, I’m not sure which team is worse. I guess it’s the Giants cause of the audacity of some of the star players who act like it’s their God given right to win and act like a bunch of jackasses. But make no mistake about it. The Rangers also came in with high expectations. To say I am underwhelmed is an understatement.

Merry Christmas.

Rags are in Sunrise to take the Panthers.

VanCity is in Bahston.

Kansas, er, Houston, I mean, PITTSBURGH is in Atlanta as Crosby/Malkin meets Kovy/Hossa.

Philly meets Monteal (Simulcast on Comcast.net for subscribers)

Tampa rematches first-round foes in Ottawa.

Kings and Blues. Bleh. How did NBC get stuck with a rematch of this on January 13th ?(more below)

Sabres-Predators should be an interesting matchup.

Round it out with Dallas at the Shark Tank.

Anyway, on NBC, keep an eye on the Dallas-Philly NFL broadcast (5 PM, 12/25) for some considerable NHL promo time, featuring Sid the Kid (Who will be in more than 60% of American homes 1/13, 2PM).

Good evening and good hockey.

The Star Ledger has the story.http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-10/116667947929040.xml?starledger?ntop&coll=1

Can’t wait to head to “The Rock”. I know Derek’s ready to call it “The Prude” though.