S.S. Sabres Sinking

A few weeks ago, the view from the top of the Northeast Division was clear, it was similar to being on a cruise ship for the Buffalo Sabres, wining and dining with the best foods, drinks, and dancing. It was a 5 star event, and the Sabres were starting to garner attention around the NHL.

After all, the Sabres boasted a Veniza trophy candidate in Ryan Miller, a top rookie defenceman named Tyler Myers, and one of the best coaches in the NHL, Lindy Ruff. Plus, the Sabres have a lot of young forwards on the roster, and in the system. In addition, you just had to think Thomas Vanek would break out and return to his 40 goal form. The lead in the division was 10+ points. The feeling of 2005-2006 was starting to creep back into the Sabres fans' consciousness.

Could this be a magical year in the Queen City?

Fast forward to tonight, February 10th, 2010. The Sabres did not take well to California, perhaps the inclement weather disappointed them in losses to Anaheim, Los Angeles, and San Jose. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow last week in Pennsylvania, perhaps the Sabres did as well. Miller is showing wear. Thomas has become 'Thomas Vanish'. Patrick Lalime is well....Lalime. Getting shutout at...the Blue Jackets?!! And couple that with the Ottawa Senators ripping off 12 wins in their last 13 games and just like magic, the Sabres and Senators are tied with 72 points to lead the 'NorthLeast' division.

What is a Sabres fan to make of this? Is the magic gone? Is this a slump? Is Ryan Miller worn out? Is the defense showing more holes then a pound of swiss cheese? Should the Sabres have stepped up to the plate for Ilya Kovalchuk? So many questions...so little answers...

As for now, the Olympic break cannot come here soon enough for the Sabres, and not just for the team, but for the fans as well.

Will GM Darcy Regier 'go for it', or stick with the plan and let the young players like Tyler Ennis, Chris Butler, and Zach Kassian develop, just to name a few?

The right answer cannot be given, but a decision better be made soon, because the Sabres 2009-2010 ship has hit the iceberg.

Stars acquire Lehtonen, Turco Era about to close

Earlier tonight, the rumors that Kari Lehtonen would be coming to Big D finally came to fruition. The Stars acquired the oft-injured Finnish goalie from Atlanta for D prospect Ivan Vishnevskiy and a 2010 fourth round pick. Full credit to Atlanta writer Chris Vivlamore on breaking the story over on Twitter.

As he also noted in a story for AJC, the 26 year-old Lehtonen who Atlanta tabbed with their '02 No.1 pick (2nd overall) was the franchise's all-time leader in wins (94), games played (204) and shutouts (14). In '06-07, he won a career best 34 games in 68 appearances, posting a 2.79 GAA, .912 save percentage and four shutouts helping the Thrashers to their only postseason. However, it was brief as they were swept by the Rangers. Since the breakout season, he's struggled with injuries including back surgery during preseason which sidelined him until a late January conditioning stint in the AHL. With Hotlanta having Johan Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec, he became the odd man out.

“As the season went on, we had two guys that proved they were capable of carrying the load,” GM Don Waddell explained while also adding,. “ … One hundred percent (Hedberg and Pavelec) are doing a good job for us.”

Vivlamore also notes that combined with the blockbuster trade that sent Ilya Kovalchuk to the Devils, there are only four members left from that playoff team (Hedberg, Slava Kozlov, Jim Slater and Eric Boulton).
While the Thrashers revamp with Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, Patrice Cormier and Vishnevskiy, it looks like the end of the Marty Turco Era in Dallas.

For almost a decade, the unpredictable yet fun netminder has been with career Star Mike Modano the face of the franchise. The 34 year-old who Dallas selected in the fifth round back in 1994 out of the University of Michigan has had a stellar career establishing franchise marks for games (498), victories (257), shutouts (39), minutes played (28,456) and assists with all three coming this season, which speaks to his uncanny nature to keep play moving turning defense into offense.

Turco supplanted Cup-winning netminder Ed Belfour after sharing duties. In his rookie year of '00-01, Marty posted a 13-6 record, three shutouts with a miniscule 1.90 GAA and .925 save percentage. Two years later in his first full season as starter, his 1.72 GAA became a modern NHL record which Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff broke the following season ('03-04) by posting a 1.69 GAA. That same year, Turco followed it up by getting into a career best 73 games winning over half (37) while posting a 1.98 GAA, .913 save percentage and recording a career high nine shutouts. However, he lost out on the Vezina to Devil great Martin Brodeur. Despite an impressive resume that also included a 41-win season ('05-06), Turco has never won the award. It could be argued that he could have but the same might be said for San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov, who was edged by Brodeur two years ago.

If this is it for Turco who made 37 saves in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Blackhawks, he's had a tremendous Dallas Star career guiding them to five postseasons including a Western Conference Final six-game defeat to Cup champ Detroit in '07-08. It was that Spring and a gut wrenching seven-game first round loss to Vancouver the year before in which his series record three shutouts weren't enough at least put a halt to the criticism that he couldn't perform when it counted. With Lehtonen coming and Alex Auld also still around to backup, his likely destination is Philadelphia where the Flyers could be pinning their hopes on him with Ray Emery probably requiring hip surgery.

How did his opponent Kris Versteeg, who netted the shootout winner- characterize him?

"Turco, he’s a heck of a goaltender. You don’t want to do too much in the shootout. Go down and keep it simple.”

Including tonight, Turco's appeared in 42 games posting a 17-15-10 mark with a 2.73 GAA, .911 save percentage and three shutouts. The Stars' next game is Thursday in Calgary while the Flyers are scheduled to visit the Devils in the back half of a home-and-home if it's not postponed due to the blizzard. Figure it to get played with not much chance of rescheduling due to the Olympic Break and the remaining hectic sched the rest of the way. If Marty does wind up in the City of Brotherly Love, Scott Hartnell has been mentioned as a possible return. We'll just have to wait and see.

Sabres fall again in shootout to B's

The Sabres' woes continued at the hands of bitter rival Boston, who edged them in a shootout prevailing 3-2 at HSBC Arena tonight. David Krejci snapped a 1-1 tie in Round Four to give the B's their second consecutive win, tying the idle Flyers in points (61). However, they remained in ninth due to one more game played. Not bad considering Claude Julien's club had just ended a 10-game losing streak the other day.

Boston got superb goaltending for a second game in a row from rookie Tuukka Rask, who finished with a career high 43 saves and turned aside three of four Sabre shooters. Perhaps he's finally supplanted last year's Vezina winner Tim Thomas, who's been up and down all season. The 22 year-old Finn who posted a shutout to get his first win since 12/30/09- bested Ryan Miller (32 saves), who did all he could to allow his team to rally from a two-goal deficit. He allowed a pair of first period goals to former Sabre Daniel Paille, who played a big role in beating his former 'mates. Paille scored on a wraparound 4:51 in from Marc Savard and another ex-Sabre Miro Satan. Just over seven minutes later, he burned Buffalo again by neatly deflecting home booing target Zdeno Chara's left point shot for his ninth. Derek Morris added a secondary helper.

Despite outshooting Boston 17-11 in the first, Buffalo trailed 2-zip. That didn't deter them from coming out with a strong second to get the game tied. The Sabres took eight of the first nine shots, forcing Rask to come up with some tough saves. They couldn't beat him until a two-man advantage, which Derek Roy cashed in for his 13th at 4:35 to cut it to 2-1. After some sloppy passing, a nice pass play was started by Tim Connolly, who dished across for Jason Pominville who quickly fed Roy in the slot for a blast that went top shelf. It came following a scrap between Craig Rivet and Milan Lucic with the Bruin antagonist getting an extra two for a hook. A Steve Begin hold less than a minute later allowed Buffalo the opportunity to get back in it which they did on Roy's sixth PPG.

With the Sabres upping the ante, it got heated when Paul Gaustad's challenge was turned down by Chara, earning the Goose an unsportsmanlike minor. The fact the towering Boston captain backed down was yet another example of why the instigator needs to go. He certainly can throw 'em but opted to say no, earning a power play which Buffalo killed off. Rookie Tyler Myers tied it with 75 seconds left bringing the crowd to their feet by taking a Gaustad feed and beating Rask with a wrister for his eighth. He'd later leave the game late in regulation following a blocked shot taken to the neck but skated off on his own.

Though they outshot the B's 12-8 in a very exciting third that saw both teams go for it, Boston had the better chances but couldn't beat Miller who wasn't allowing anymore at least during the hockey portion. However, Rask was every bit as good forcing it to overtime where both netminders made great stops. On the first shift, Miller slid across to his right to deny a two-on-one. But Rask cameback with two tough stops through traffic including a rebound he got with his goalstick. The Bruins couldn't cash in on a 4-on-3 power play drawn by Michael Ryder with Miller turning away Dennis Wideman twice and the Buffalo PK doing the rest. Before time expired, Wideman sent one more shot on Miller which he repelled taking it to the shootout.

In Round One, Pominville (five-hole) and Marco Sturm (forehand deke shortside) traded goals. Nobody scored in the next two frames sending it to extras where Rask stoned Drew Stafford setting the stage for Krejci to be the hero. He obliged by beating Miller with a quick snapper handing Buffalo a fifth straight defeat. With the point, the Sabres remained atop the Northeast due to two fewer games played than Ottawa, who cameback from two to post a 3-2 home win over Calgary. Both clubs have 72 points.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Daniel Paille, Bos (2 goals versus former team)
2nd Star-Ryan Miller, Buf (32 saves)
1st Star-Tuukka Rask, Bos (career high 43 saves, stopped 3 of 4 shooters for 2nd win in row)

Ranger prospect Chris Kreider Makes SC

In case you missed it last night, Ranger prospect Chris Kreider, who the club selected in the first round last year made Sports Center. His highlight reel goal was the No.1 play in BC's 4-3 win over BU in the Bean Pot final. A rarity for hockey. Well deserved for the kid who impressed scoring six goals in helping Team USA win the WJC alongside NYR prospects Derek Stepan and Ryan Bourque.

Only a freshman, Kreider has picked it up lately scoring five goals over the past five games. Indeed, the center/left wing with blazing speed, a great shot and good size is someone for Ranger fans to get excited about. He's carried over some of the fine play we saw with Team USA. Nice to see.

Carter Hit On Salmela

In the Devils' 3-2 loss to the Flyers, what will get plenty of attention is Jeff Carter's hit that injured defenseman Anssi Salmela after he scored shorthanded in the first period. In reviewing it, the first angle looked worse with him catching the reacquired D a little late after he'd released the puck. The debate is whether it was cheap. In Carter's defense, he was coming hard on the backcheck and seemed to be making a hockey play. However, it doesn't look good. Especially on a team synonymous for these types of hits. Mike Richards had one earlier on Dominic Moore who was concussed.

Fortunately, Salmela who was taken off on a stretcher only suffered a fractured broken nose and some missing teeth. Good news for the Devils, whose blueline was weakened in the Ilya Kovalchuk deal. Puck Daddy's Sean Leahy has more on the controversial play:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Devils-Salmela-taken-off-on-stretcher-after-hit?urn=nhl,218397

Carter hit on Salmela

In the Devils' 3-2 loss to the Flyers, what will get plenty of attention is Jeff Carter's hit that injured defenseman Anssi Salmela after he scored shorthanded 61 seconds into the second period. In reviewing it, the first angle looked worse with him catching the reacquired D a little late after he'd released the puck.

The debate is whether it was cheap. In Carter's defense, he was coming hard on the backcheck and seemed to be making a hockey play. However, it doesn't look good. Especially on a team synonymous for these types of hits. Mike Richards had one earlier on David Booth who was concussed and finally just returned. Fortunately, Salmela, who was taken off on a stretcher only suffered a fractured broken nose and some missing teeth. Good news for the Devils, whose blueline was weakened in the Ilya Kovalchuk deal. Puck Daddy's Sean Leahy has more on the controversial play.

Devils show no guts - again

During the second period with the Devils leading the Flyers 2-0 and seemingly in control Joe Beninati (announcing the game on VERSUS with ex-Flyer Keith Jones) stated how the Devils become like a boa constrictor with a lead and generally praised our defensive work as well as Jacques Lemaire's coaching. Joe, have you watched this team over the last month? In particular the last week where the Devils had blown two two-goal leads?!

Well, make it three now as the Devils piled up yet another embarrassing, ignominious defeat losing 3-2 to the Flyers in Philadelphia in yet another game that shows how this team has had no guts for three straight years now. It wasn't even just blowing the lead which entailed giving up two goals in the final two minutes of the second period and a third-period power play goal where our slow skaters were once again stuck on the ice while the speedy Flyers danced around them all night. It's really become tiresome to bag on the Devils' defense, which clearly isn't any good. And tonight Martin Brodeur couldn't be blamed on any of the goals at all.

Still, what irked me the most about this game was early in the second period. After Zach Parise's fluke power play goal off of Chris Pronger's skate gave the Devils a 1-0 lead in the first period - and more shockingly a power play goal! - the Devils were shorthanded to begin the second period. That proved to be no problem when Anssi Salmela channeled Bobby Orr with a great rush from center ice, deking out Mike Richards and beating Michael Leighton with a wrister at 1:01...just before he got blindsided by the Flyers' Jeff Carter, leaving Salmela prone on the ice for five minutes being taken off on a stretcher, the second Devils' player in the last month to leave a game that way.

Unlike Ryan Wilson's hit on Patrik Elias though, I didn't think this one was totally clean. Yes, I grant that Salmela had his head down but Carter also went out of his way to target it from behind, when Salmela was close to the goal in a situation where you really should be playing the puck or the pass unless your intent is to injure. Plus his elbow moved big-time after the hit though you couldn't actually tell from the replay whether his elbow or shoulder made the contact. I didn't even think it was a particularly late hit even though the puck was in the net by the time Carter clocked the Devils' defenseman (who's been a revelation in his three games back with the team). Still, I thought the Devils should have made Carter answer the bell the way they did Wilson after a totally clean hit when Mark Fraser challenged him. Nobody so much as touched Carter the remainder of the game, even though earlier on Bryce Salvador had no problem dropping them with Daniel Carcillo after hitting the Flyers' winger along the boards.

Makes you wonder about the logic of dressing two supposed fighters (as Lemaire did for a third straight game), when neither actually play hockey or fight. Andrew Peters had a grand total of forty-two seconds of icetime, this time without the excuse of shedding his uniform and getting ejected. Plus without Salmela in the lineup - early word is he fractured his nose and lost several teeth - Lemaire leaned even more on the slow and slower defensive tandem of Colin White and Mike Mottau. The scary part is that Andy Greene was the only mobile defenseman left in the lineup without Salmela, so it's not like he could play all sixty minutes.

Of course, our familiar woes came back to bite us once again. Our ineffective power play was just one for seven, even though the undisciplined Flyers gave us as many opportunities as we usually get in a week. Parise's 26th goal, at 7:00 of the first period was by his own admission pure luck, with Patrik Elias and Greene getting assists. Salmela's shorthanded goal sixty-one seconds into the middle period was assisted by Travis Zajac (who actually led the team in icetime with 25:21) and Jamie Langenbrunner, who again looked like he should have been in a sickbed despite the secondary assist. After that however, the offense fired blanks against the Flyers' second string goaltender and despite giving up their fair share of shots the defense still had control of the game with about two minutes left in the second period.

Then the roof caved in once again. A typically lazy shift by Brian Rolston and Rob Niedermayer (guess it runs in the family, eh?) led to the Flyers getting a chance, with James Van Riemsdyk somehow beating Martin Brodeur one-on-four by using Greene as a screen in front for a wrister that got the Flyers going at 18:24. Just seventy-two seconds later came the tying goal when Scott Hartnell and the aforementioned Carter got a two-on-one with Mottau as the one defenseman. Mismatch much? To add insult to injury, Mottau couldn't prevent Hartnell's pass to Carter and he completed a productive second period with a knockout at the beginning that completely changed our defense and a devastating goal at the end. I said game over at that point.

Indeed it was although it took the Flyers a while to actually get the winning goal in the third, and they had to kill off another power play first which was an easy task against us of course. Having Ilya Kovalchuk play entire power plays doesn't help, especially when he can't rush the puck up ice because he's conserving energy (and when he does carry the puck in he does it very well) although what happened to Lemaire's supposed special teams genius?! His Wild units always were among the top PP and PK units in the league even with mediocre offensive talent overall, but the Devils' PP has been an unmitigated disaster since the New Year, with or without Lou Lamoriello's latest acquisition - who's been pointless in two straight and has actually been outplayed by the less heralded import from the Thrashers...Salmela.

After another ineffective power play came another powerless penalty kill. Or more accurately slow, slower and slowest struck again as the White-Mottau defensive pairing of hell and the just as slow forward tandem of Jay Pandolfo and Niedermayer all looked like they were standing still as the Flyers expertly and quickly passed the puck around, finally resulting in a Richards goal at 12:02. Even after the Flyers finally took the lead, there were still more ignominies to come. Leighton robbed Elias late in the period and after a final boarding penalty by Kimmo Timonen with just 1:52 remaining, the Devils couldn't even get quality chances on that power play. Even after pulling Brodeur with about a minute remaining for an extra attacker, with Kovalchuk narrowly missing the net just before the horn sounded on another head-banging Devils defeat.

I'm getting really tired of these post-mortems. The good news is the Devils go back home Wednesday and I plan on being in attendance. Our home games with me in the stands have been about the only times we've won in the last few weeks (14-1 since early November to be exact). The bad news is we're supposed to get another storm of all storms on Wednesday so me and my friend might get snowed in. And worse, this team has shown almost no signs of life at all over the last month plus now, even after the trade to end all trades. What's next to spark the team? Lemaire's not getting fired, he and Lamoriello are too alike in the way they think although usually a coach firing is the next step for our GM.

Apparently all that's left is to hope the team comes back from the Olympics recharged, but with Brodeur, Parise, Langenbrunner, Elias and Kovalchuk all playing in Vancouver that's a mixed bag. There's no time for Lamoriello to see how the team will gel post-Olympics since the trade deadline is literally days after the players get back in March. If I was going to point to one bright spot? For years I've been complaining how the Devils go balls to the wall in situations where they really don't have to and aside from the usual overplaying of Brodeur, really they've taken off since the end of December for the most part. Even our few wins have been sloppy. Maybe this is our year to coast for a while, like the Pens did until February last year and then turn it on in the playoffs?

Of course I could just be reaching and we're really at Defcon One...
BoNY Three Stars:

1. Jeff Carter (goal)
2. Mike Richards (goal, -1)
3. Martin Brodeur (34/37 saves)

Did you say Super Bowl?!?!?!?!?!

Who needs the Super Bowl when you got the best two players in the sport and their respective teams going at it in what was a classic. Or as Doc Emrick justifiably noted along with NBC sidekicks Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury, this was a playoff game played between the Penguins and Capitals who didn't give an inch. The amazing aspect of Alex Ovechkin's Caps' riveting come from behind 5-4 overtime win over Sidney Crosby's Pens is I only caught the tail end after missing the opening 40, signifying how special both were and how truly blessed we are to have these guys playing our game.

I'll readily admit that I thought it was a bit much with heavy snow making travel so hectic for the Pens that they had to alter plans just to get there so the NBC noon game could go on as scheduled. However, big props to the NHL for getting this one right because this was spectacular. On Super Bowl Sunday, I just wonder how well they did ratings-wise. It's the kind of game that can really attract new fans, scoring big for the league. If only hockey drew better than their beloved golf which they immediately cut to following the exciting conclusion that saw a nicked up Ovechkin rifle one off the post that Mike Knuble swept home for the winner that extended Washington's win streak to 14. Three shy of the league mark ironically held by the Pens (March 9-April 10, 1993).

How well are the Caps playing? Against the defending champs who ended their season last year, they climbed out of a 4-1 hole to keep the streak alive. The Pens built the lead thanks to a first period pair from Crosby, who with No.'s 38 & 39 matched his career high set back in his rookie year ('05-06). Sandwiched around Jordan Staal's deuce, Ovechkin scored the first of three. Despite missing nine games, the electrifying Russian leads the league with 42 goals, 86 points and a +41 rating. Entering his fifth season, he was only a career plus-19. As great as Sid The Kid is playing along with Henrik Sedin, it looks like Ovie could become the first player to win the Hart three straight years since The Great One, who won a record eight straight ('79-80 thru '86-87). Wayne Gretzky owns a record nine MVPs. Amazingly, Super Mario won just three.

Still trailing late in the second, one of the Caps' role players Eric Fehr put home his own rebound slicing it to two. Ovechkin took over from there scoring twice and setting up Knuble's power play decider. He started it by whistling a backhand rebound past Marc-Andre Fleury at 6:51 from Tom "Orr" Poti and best kept secret Nicklas Backstrom. With the crowd going nuts as furious action went end to end, Ovechkin took an innocent hit to the hip that bothered him. With Emrick and Co. noting that something was wrong after he limped off the bench for a shift, Alexander The Great silenced the trio by getting his hat trick off a faceoff, sending a plethora of hats onto the ice.

Following the delay which probably irked Crosby (flashback reference), an absolutely dreadful call by ref Tim Peel- who somehow confused a composite plastic stick break into a Jeff Schultz phantom slash- handed the Pens a power play. However, they couldn't take advantage of the break thanks to a couple of big saves from Jose Theodore and some strong penalty killing, especially Matt Bradley. Pittsburgh still got momentum off it generating a few chances with Evgeni Malkin dangerous. Theodore quietly made a few timely stops to force OT.

In it, nothing was decided until Brooks Orpik foolishly high-sticked Alexander Semin, handing the Caps the only chance they needed to end it. Off a faceoff win, Backstrom patiently passed to Mike Green who dished across for an Ovechkin sizzler which rang off the post and right to Knuble, who earlier took a Fleury whack but still steered home his 21st with 2:21 remaining. It sent the packed home crowd into a frenzy and touched off a celebration as Washington continued to roll. Their 41 wins and 88 points pace the league. Three better than West-leading San Jose. The only question is can they bring home the franchise's first Stanley Cup with Theodore (31 saves) sharing the load with rooks Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth. While Varlamov remains out, both Theodore and Neuvirth have held down the forte. What happens when he returns? Guess that's for Bruce Boudreau to decide. Regardless, they're going to be a handful to beat in a seven-game series.

The Super Bowl is a couple of hours away between the Saints and Colts. But at least in our book, the real one already took place. America. Please take note.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Mike Knuble, Wsh (PP OT winner, assist, 17 PIM)
2nd Star-Sidney Crosby, Pit (2 goals-38th and 39th tie career high)
1st Star-Alexander Ovechkin, Wsh (hat trick-league leading 40, 41, 42 plus assist)

Colton Orr KOs Matt Carkner in Round Three

Colton Orr with a KO of Matt Carkner in Round Three between the two tough guys last night during the Leafs' 5-0 whitewashing that put a screeching halt to the Sens' franchise record 11-game win streak. Orrsie improved to 2-1 leaving Carkner woozy. Hope he'll be alright.

Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski had more on it mentioning that the two bitter Canadian rivals meet twice more both in Ottawa on March 6 and 16. Hopefully, they'll dance again.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Fight-Video-Carkner-Orr-III-keeps-the-KO-s-comi?urn=nhl,218068

Henrik backstops Rangers past Hudson rival

For two weeks during what's been a poor stretch that saw his struggling team drop seven of eight entering tonight, Henrik Lundqvist had also been substandard, bringing a six-game losing streak into the latest installment of the Battle Of Hudson. However, with his favorite opponent staring across in the other goal, he transformed from Queen Henry to King Henrik in backstopping the Rangers past the Devils 3-1 at what was a chaotic MSG atmosphere.

If it's true I didn't have any confidence headed into this game due to the Devs' big addition Anssi Salmela Ilya Kovalchuk, perhaps I overlooked our goalie's history versus the great opposite No.30 Martin Brodeur. We all get how great MB30 is with almost every record plus the hardware (3 Cups, 4 Vezinas, Olympic gold which Henrik also has). We also fully grasp how intense this rivalry is bringing out the best in our flawed roster against one of the East's top contenders for Lord Stanley. Especially with Ranger killer Patrik Elias coincidentally returning. Whenever he faces the guys wearing white, black and Satanic red, Lundqvist elevates his game to where it should be for his hefty salary ($6.875 million). Saturday was no different with the 27 year-old Swede finishing with 41 saves, including 19 of 20 in a predictable late Devil onslaught.

“I just tried to battle the last two weeks,” explained the winning netminder who improved to 17-6-5 all-time versus the Devils. “I have been working hard. It was an intense game, fun to play in and big relief to get a win at home. It is a big one for us to get, in a lot of ways.”

“Their goalie was great,” Devil coach Jacques Lemaire said after having no qualms with his club's effort even if they were a little exposed in a dreadful second period. “He was there at the right moments. When there were great chances, he made the save.”

Unlike Thursday's ugly line (6 GA on 32 shots) in which he couldn't make the big save against a scary Caps' team, Lundqvist found his 'A' game turning Devil after Devil away while his team settled down from a shaky start. It wasn't shocking to see the Devils come out quickly. Especially off such a miraculous comeback Friday victimizing Toronto. With Elias finally back from a concussion after missing 10 games, Lemaire loaded up his top two lines, reforming ZZ Popp while sandwiching Dainius Zubrus between Elias and Kovalchuk. They had the Rangers on their heels getting seven of the game's first nine shots. However, they couldn't beat Lundqvist. Shots wound up 10-7 with the Blueshirts coming on late, missing a few chances on a jittery Brodeur who left rebounds.

In between, it certainly didn't lack entertainment from the all too predictable brutal officiating on both sides (missed hi-stick, phantom call, 3 missed bench minors) to a couple of fun scraps between Devil heavy Andrew Peters and newly acquired Brandon Prust. Facing a mountain of a man, Prust did alright even throwing down Peters in the rematch. The ex-Sabre has come under criticism (from Hasan and plenty of Devil worshippers) for being a slug. Basically, he's their Donald Brashear. At least, he fought twice but still took an undisciplined misconduct during the second fight.

If there was a pivotal moment, Lundqvist's glove save on two bit Devil scrub Rob Niedermayer shorthanded in the final minute could be classified as that. Even if he stinks, it was a quality chance with the game still scoreless. Henrik was just getting warmed up, later flat out robbing Peters of all people with a quick glove following a Sean Avery turnover. It's no secret that our goalie's biggest weakness is high glove and the Devils tried, tried and tried to expose it. It would be a theme all night.

The Rangers got into early penalty trouble in the second with Jokinen (hook) and Tinman (delay of game which douche stood and cheered) handing the Devs a great opportunity to go ahead. With only 16 seconds of a five-on-three, Lemaire predictably took his timeout. However, it backfired when frequent Hasan target Brian Rolston failed to keep the puck in. Instead, the Ranger PK killed the remaining minor and swung the momentum. Before Niedermayer hooked one of our players, they finally started attacking with in particular, the Brandon Dubinsky-Jokinen-Ryan Callahan line wreaking havoc. In just their second game together, they dominated shifts utilizing their size and speed to generate opportunities.

After failing miserably on two power plays in which the shorthanded Devs forced Lundqvist to make a couple of tough stops, the Blueshirts finally struck thanks to a brilliant Mike Del Zotto seam pass which led directly to Marian Gaborik's team high 35th. In front of his net, he threaded the needle to Callahan, who cruised down the right wing before dishing back to the 19 year-old freshman at the right point. Instead of shooting, he passed down low for Callahan, who then dished across for an easy Gaborik tap-in. Tic-tac-toe. Ranger goal. It was the fifth PPG over two games.

Carrying momentum, they made it two straight only 56 ticks later thanks to a great individual effort from true captain Callahan, who stripped Mike Mottau of the puck and then fired past Brodeur unassisted for his 15th. With a crowd that featured plenty of Devil jerseys mixed in suddenly getting on favorite target, "Marrrrrrtttty, Marrrrrrtttty, Marrrrrtttty," Lemaire made a strange decision sending his fourth line out versus the Ranger one that still featured Chris Drury. He may be a shell of the player, but is still better than anyone the Devils had out. Perhaps, the vet coach outsmarted himself thinking Peters could have Round Three with Prust which would've gotten both tossed. Wouldn't you know it? It blew up with Drury making him pay by scoring his ninth from an effective Matt Gilroy- who played one of his better games- and Prust, who earned his first point as a Ranger.

“Obviously, everybody in the room gets pretty jacked up playing against the Devils,” Callahan noted. “I think Hank was. When you know he is on his game, we’re going to have a great chance to win. It was uplifting to see Hank play like that.”

Suddenly, they led 3-zip striking for all three in 2:39. New Jersey had played the night before and looked a little lagged, losing battles. A little shell shocked, they then allowed a clean Dubinsky breakaway. With the place ready to explode, he couldn't beat Brodeur, who just got a piece of it. Look. They scored five the other night and already had three in un-Rangeresque fashion. You didn't expect to really run away from the Devils. These games are never over. So, when they couldn't reach four, I knew the third would be like a Chinese fire drill.

Sure enough, New Jersey controlled most of it outshooting the Rangers by a dozen (20-8). Yes. John Tortorella sat back a little too much. But when opportunities arose, they still forechecked with the aforementioned Dubi-Jokester-Cally line putting together a whale of a shift that lasted almost 90 seconds to cheers. When they weren't out, the ice was tilted with our Hostess Twinkie D finally remembering who they were. Well, it was a combo. The Devils kept firing on Lundqvist from every angle but he kept turning them away, making a few more large saves including a gem on Mottau, who had one labeled. Just amazing stuff. Of course, I didn't play him figuring Marty and the Devs would prevail. When he wasn't robbing unlikely targets, Henrik was plenty good enough to deny Kovalchuk (8 SOG), Elias, Langenbrunner and Zach Parise. The dangerous quartet combined for nearly half (20 of 41) their total.

In a game where he deserved his third shutout, it wasn't to be as Zubrus ended the bid when he took an Elias feed in the slot and beat Lundqvist at 11:11, cutting it to 3-1 with lots of hockey left. As normally happens, the pesky Devils swarmed his crease trying everything to pull off another miracle. But our goalie ain't Jonas Gustavsson. Oddly enough, with Jiggy getting a second consecutive shutout in a Leaf 5-0 pasting of the Sens, you wonder why Ron Wilson didn't start him Friday. The Leafs' win in fitting tribute to Brendan Burke has them and the Candy Canes only 10 out. Could that extra two prove costly? Speaking of Burke, why didn't the Rangers have a moment of silence? No class.

Still up two, the Rangers were pretty disciplined. While they continued to lead, the douche in our section wearing a second rate blank Devil jersey continued to talk smack, using the lame "3 Cups" and "9th/10th seed" crap. If we hadn't made the postseason the past four years, fine. We know our team sucks. I don't know about other fans but our section has some of the most knowledgable/passionate fans who get it. This is a very flawed roster which needs fixing. Aside from the penalties, Jokinen has looked good. In the four years this team's seen the Spring, they've advanced to the second round twice with the only shot blown by Tom Renney at the end of Game Five versus Buffalo. Anyone with a clue realizes that making the playoffs is counterproductive because it allows Dolan to believe it's a success. The East blows! Plus if they get in, it lets Slats off the hook for the upteenth time. So, talking redundant crap doesn't bother us because unlike Kool Aid drinkers like Joe Micheletti (fyi that 'Shuddup Micheletti chant in 409 was epic), we're thinking Big Picture. I only want to make it if we can seriously compete for the hardware. Hopefully, Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Ryan McDonagh and Evgeny Grachev continue to develop. A word of advice for Spicoli who probably couldn't name half the '03 Devil roster. Next time, find better material. When you don't even know 'your team' has won the same amount of series post-lockout, you're a fraud.

Now, to the Avery/Kovalchuk shenanigans. It's already been discussed at length on Twitter and I had a friendly debate with @stevelepore over the matter. Apparently, @seanaverydotcom talked smack to the former Hotlanta star who lost his cool shoving his stick into him. A repeat offence also done during a first round sweep in 2007. Both received matching double minors (roughing) with 2:16 left, meaning Avery did his job. Look. We know he tries to goad opponents. Unlike Brodeur in the 1-0 epic last time out, Kovalchuk admittedly lost discipline then throwing punches. When your team's trailing late, you can't do that. His selfish play which was cheap and should merit a fine or suspension (oh it won't bc of double standard) hurt his team. They eventually got a late six-on-four thanks to waste of space Wade Redden's second minor but the Rangers did a great job blocking shots with usual suspects Callahan and Drury killing off the clock.

As for Lemaire's gripe that trash talk be penalized, ha. How much fun should be taken out? At the end of the day, they're just words. Actions speak louder. If Kovalchuk wants to win in the playoffs, he has to show better composure.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Brandon Prust, NYR (assist for 1st Ranger Pt, 10 PIM in six shifts-4:18)
2nd Star-Ryan Callahan, NYR (PPG decider, assist, 5 SOG, 6 hits, 2 blocked shots in 22:22)
1st Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (41 saves incl.19/20 in 3rd to snap personal 6-gm losing streak)

And hell has frozen over!

Danius Zubrus has scored on the great Lundqvist with oh, 8:43 to go? Cue the bronx cheer as we cut it to 3-1.

I know, I know I'm setting myself up for major crow-eating if a miracle happens tonight but I really don't see it. Although at least the Devils came out more intense in the third period and are finally shooting at more than 2/9ths of the net.

Here we go again...

So much for momentum as the Devils again crap the bed early and in about as much time as they scored three goals last night, gave up three tonight in the second period (within 2:39 to be precise) to break a scoreless tie. Unlike last night there will be no miracle comeback though, not considering this franchise is totally psyched out by the pad wonder known as Henrik Lundqvist. What will be his career GAA against us now after he gets yet another shutout, 1.40? Disgusting. He could lose ten in a row, give up four goals every game and still pitch a shutout against us the next night. It's a wonder we even won two games against this team this year although one of them Lundqvist actually got a shutout in.

Obviously the book is to go glove side on Puffy Pads, everyone including Patrik Elias (who went there for the shootout winner a few weeks back) knows that. But like a pitcher in baseball, you just can't throw the same pitch over and over again without varying it up, or the batter will be able to cheat and lay off it or hit it. So far we must have gone glove-side like ten times and it's barely halfway through the game, including some opportunities where we shot wide glove side instead of going where there was room far side.

Of course our shooters aren't alone in stupidity tonight, our power play is just as clueless as ever. Against a team that gave up 900 power play goals the other night we couldn't even gain the zone. And when we got a miniscule five-on-three for like twenty seconds I said to myself, ****ing Lemaire's going to take a timeout, he can't help it. Sure enough he did, regular as clockwork, and the Devils failed to even get a shot on net despite winning the faceoff thanks to the spectacularly bad keep of the zone by (who else?) Brian Rolston. And that timeout would have proved handy later when the Rangers scored twice in rapid succession. Instead, the Rangers were able to build off that momentum and score a third goal when Chris Drury - who's now listed as a fourth liner?! - beat Martin Brodeur with a weak floater at 9:59 and the crowd loved every second of it.

Stupidity's ran amok tonight, from Andrew Peters risking an instigator by dropping the gloves too soon for his second fight of the first period with Brandon Prust, to Bryce Salvador leaving the front of the net before the Rangers' first goal on the power play where Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik worked a nice two-on-one in front of Andy Greene, with Gaborik getting the easiest tap-in goal of his career and finally Mike Mottau's predictable killer turnover before Callahan scored through a screen just 56 seconds after Gaborik's goal.

And not to leave out the refs, who did their best to ruin the game before the Devils managed that all by themselves. They were so bad in the first period they should have been fired on the spot! Not only did they miss a first-minute high stick on Zach Parise which drew blood (yes it was incidental contact but you must have control of your stick) but the two penalties they called on the Devils were among the worst I've ever seen. There was basically no contact on either play and on the second one Michael Roszival either dove or was tripped by the invisible man to draw a call behind him. Not that it was all one-way, as they missed an obvious too many men on the ice by us - even Chico Resch admitted that - but as I said earlier also could have thumbed Peters for an instigator instead of giving him a useless ten-minute misconduct.

Oy...the Olympic break can't come soon enough for this team who while they haven't been as terrible as they've been in a lot of games once again have come out totally flat mentally. And things don't get any easier this week with the Flyers coming up twice, an improving Predators team on Friday at the Rock and finally a trip to our tormentors Carolina on Saturday before finally everyone will break for the Olympics.

The Great Escape

For nearly fifty-seven minutes last night, the Devils' response to the Ilya Kovalchuk trade was one big dud. In all the hoopla over the Devils' biggest acquisition in a long time, it was easy to forget this team was 3-6-1 in its last ten games coming in, having been shut out in four of its last twelve games and just 2 for its last 37 on the power play during the last fourteen. Even adding Kovalchuk and having him assist on Danius Zubrus's first-period goal wasn't enough to push the Devils through their malaise, as they gave up three goals in the second period and generally looked bad in all phases despite outshooting the Leafs for the majority of the night. Many in the crowd (including me) booed at the end of the second, and things weren't looking much better in the third when the Leafs trapped us to oblivion.

Then, IT happened.

It being one of the most insane finishes you could possibly script. Heck, this script was too ridiculous even for Hollywood. First, Dean McAmmond of all people roofed a backhander with 3:04 left to put a jolt of adrenaline into the team. Then with a two-man advantage thanks to a power play and an empty net, Travis Zajac rifled home a slapshot with just 44 seconds left, tying the game and sending the diehards who stayed into a frenzy. And for the topper of all toppers, with the game headed surely to overtime - the one and only Jay Pandolfo (?!) scored on a rebound of a Mike Mottau shot at 19:41 to complete an unfathomable, impossible trifecta as the Devils scored a stunning 4-3 win over the Maple Leafs to close out their three game 'series' with a bang.

Nothing I'd seen in the first fifty-seven minutes suggested you could even dream about such a finish. Then again, before the game I thought the Devils would curb-stomp the Leafs much the way they did to us Tuesday on an adrenaline high after their recent big acquisitions - Dion Phaneuf and Jean-Sebastian Giguere. The latter - as usual - chickened out of playing in New Jersey (where he was psyched out during the '03 Finals), or at least it appeared that way. There's no other rational explanation for Ron Wilson to bench Giggy off a shutout against us just three days ago. Also not playing was Patrik Elias, who isn't quite ready to come off IR just yet conditioning-wise though he should be ready soon enough.

Of course, GM Lou Lamoriello made sure Kovalchuk played, personally meeting the star winger and fellow acquisition Anssi Salmela in Washington to escort them back to Jersey. Although last night's crowd fell short of a sellout, the lower bowl was packed during warmups of everyone wanting to get their first look at the NHL's leading goalscorer since 2001 in a Devils jersey. I tried to take pictures myself, and managed to at least get a decent one of Kovy and Zach Parise (above), with Andrew Peters and the eventual first star - Pando - in the background.

Despite the typically late arriving crowd, it was an electric atmosphere. While he wasn't introduced with the starting lineup, Kovalchuk was wildly cheered during his first shift on the ice and steadily throughout after that. Early on, the Devils justified the crowd's optimism when Kovalchuk got his first point as a Devil at 13:20, centering a pass in front that deflected off a skate and towards Zubrus, whose Bobby Orr-esque (re: flying through the air) goal was so pretty I inially thought Parise had scored it. 8 and 9 can look pretty similar sometimes after all - just ask Steve Cangelosi haha. However, Zubrus has been showing lately that if you put him with elite talent it brings out the best in him, just as it did when he was having 60-point seasons in Washington riding shotgun with Alex Ovechkin. Jamie Langenbrunner also assisted on Zubrus's fourth goal of the season.

As is his wont though, Jacques Lemaire didn't leave the Zubrus-Kovy-Langenbrunner line together too long. In fact, after about midway through the first I'm not sure any line got more than two shifts consecutively, other than the Pandolfo-Rob Niedermayer tandem which remained constant. Our offense ground to a halt from that point for the most part, but the Devils still held that 1-0 lead during the first intermission. I figured if Kovalchuk scored at any point the roof would blow off the Rock.

Instead of the roof blowing off, it caved in during the second period...helped in no small part by inconsistent reffereeing. After letting everything (sans an obvious tripping on Francois Beauchemin) go during the first period, they called four minor penalties in under six minutes during the second period, three on the Devils. Toronto turned two of those power plays into goals, first when Tomas Kaberle fired an off-balance floater from the point that got past Martin Brodeur at 3:39, then Lee Stempniak squeezed one through Brodeur's pads at 10:23. Even though both were PP goals I still felt they could have been stopped, the second in particular which was just an unscreened soft wrister from near the faceoff circle. Finally, at 16:09 Rickard Wallin scored after a sloppy turnover from Langenbrunner led to a wide-open wrister from point-blank range.

Combined with general sloppiness, the teams' recent play and the dissapointment over the response to the Kovalchuk trade they received scattered boos during the second intermission. I'm not one to boo for the sake of it or at the first little sign of trouble, but I thought they deserved it by then. In retrospect, maybe I was too harsh - not because of the comeback, but because I forgot about the team's flu bug. Langenbrunner, in particular really annoyed me last night. In addition to his turnover on the goal, he had a few others in the game as well as failing to get his stick on the ice when Kovalchuk found him wide open for what could have been an automatic goal. It wasn't till I got home that I remembered the captain had sat out the third period of Tuesday's game due to flu symptoms though. And in the end he wound up with over twenty minutes played, two assists and a +2. Not bad for an off night.

Between the flu (which also affected Andy Greene), replacing Oduya in the lineup with the 'other' new acquisition Anssi Salmela and Paul Martin still being on IR, the defense was a mish-mash last night. Mike Mottau led the team in icetime with 22:02, which would make you cringe on first glance until you realize Greene's minutes were down because of illness, and you really can't overplay Bryce Salvador or Colin White cause they would break down. Lemaire handled things the only way he could - especially with another game tonight as well - even giving Salmela twenty minutes and Mark Fraser fifteen plus. I actually didn't think the defense was a big issue last night, as they only gave up twenty shots overall though the PK coverage was lacking, as the Leafs went 2-4 on the power play.

Offensively, however the team was flat as a pancake. Sure, they tried too hard to feed Kovalchuk at times and he tried too hard to fit in opting to pass instead of shoot. Somewhat amusingly, Kovalchuk wound up with fewer shots on net than Salmela - Salmela had two and Kovy one, though Kovy had one rifle on the point during a power play expertly blocked by Fredrik Sjostrom. Lemaire using a bingo ball cage to help determine his lines didn't help either, but I'm not going to get on the coach for obsessive line-juggling till like mid-March. After all, it worked early in the year and you need to use the regular season to get everyone used to playing with each other in my mind. Still, it would be nice to find consistent combinations once everyone gets healthy (which hasn't happened yet).

With everything going against us, people started to file out with several minutes left. Thankfully one of them was this obese guy who sat in front of me taking up three seats while snoring - yes snoring! - for the majority of the night. Are you kidding me?! Who in their right mind goes to a hockey game just to sleep through most of it? I realize it wasn't all that exciting for 56+ minutes but come on now. Even one of the fans who has a horn and came down to sit by me couldn't keep this guy awake. After that guy left, a season-ticket holder who sits at the end of my row also had enough and was starting to put his jacket on and leave but right as he stood up, McAmmond scored. Talk about good timing...he sat down after that and enjoyed the rest of the game, in his jacket and all!

Even when McAmmond scored his third of the season after assists from Mottau and Vladimir Zharkov (who was one of the few to have a good game last night, though he also missed a wide-open net for what would have been his first-ever NHL goal), I couldn't get all that excited. I stood but gave more of a sarcastic clap than anything else and figured the late, futile rally was coming. It wasn't until Zubrus drew a penalty on Alexander Ponikarovsky at 17:38 that I believed a comeback could be possible. While the power play again looked ineffective at first, the season ticket holder who sits next to me was wondering when Lemaire would pull Brodeur for an extra attacker. That wouldn't happen until fifty seconds remained, and I agree with that strategy on the power play, you want to delay giving the Leafs a free shot at an empty net as long as possible with no icing on the penalty kill.

Finally, with Brodeur pulled the unlikeliest offensive force of the comeback - McAmmond - found a wide-open Zajac in position for him to rifle a suddenly formidable slapshot past Jonas Gustavsson, and that finally got me excited and sent the rest of the crowd into a frenzy. With the offensive players having played the majority of the prior two and a half minutes in the game, Pandolfo and Nieds came on the ice, seemingly to assure overtime. However they weren't just playing not to lose now - they were playing to win. Pando chipped the puck in the zone and Mottau eventually fired a slapshot that rebounded to Pando in front, and he put it home with just nineteen seconds remaining. While everyone else was going berserk, I was just standing there, jaw dropped. I absolutely couldn't believe this. As I texted two friends after the game, I felt like I died and was in bizarro world.

To be honest though, it was about freaking time we did that to another team. Usually over the last year plus we've been on the floor after having the rug pulled out from under us - starting with Game 7 and continuing with losing two-goal leads late in both our prior home games. And while I was still in stunned mode after the final horn, it felt like the good ol' days at the CAA with people chanting 'Let's Go Devils!' on the way out of the stadium and even into the walkway going towards Newark Penn, with many fellow Devil fans randomly telling me 'nice game, eh?'

Well, it was a spectacular three minutes that made the first fifty-seven more than worth it anyway!

BoNY Three Stars:

1. Dean McAmmond (goal, assist, +1)
2. Ilya Kovalchuk (two assists, 21:43 TOI)
3. Jay Pandolfo (game-winning goal, +1, 5 SOG)

Mike Knuble tic-tac-toe goal 2/4/10

I'm only posting this because I am amped and want to show how pathetic the Ranger D is. Plus I also felt like revealing what actual passing looked like. Plus Mike Knuble scored his 20th. But we traded him for Rob freaking Dimaio.

Warning: If you aren't going to tonight's Hell sentencing, find something better to do. This is friendly advice for the human heart.

RIP Brendan Burke

I don't know what else to say other than our deepest sympathies go out to Brian Burke and the rest of his family who lost son Brendan Burke to a fatal car accident tonight. Per Globe & Mail's James Mirtle, the Toronto Maple Leafs released a statement approximately 22 minutes ago following the club's defeat to New Jersey. More details just came out on the two vehicle accident in poor snowy conditions that claimed the lives of Brendan Burke and Mark A. Reedy while injuring others.


Only 21, Burke was an inspirational story whose strong message when he came out of the closet should always be remembered. ESPN's John Buccigross had a wonderfully touching piece two months ago on Brendan and his very strong relationship with Dad and the rest of a loving family who always supported him. It is an extremely sad night for the hockey world. Best wishes to the Burke and Reedy families as they mourn the tragic losses.

"Brendan is an incredible kid. He and I are incredibly close, even for brothers. In most families, the older brother overshadows the younger brother, but not ours. We went to the same high school and people there still refer to me as "Brendan's brother."

He's exceptionally smart, funny, motivated, successful and happy. He has an incredible way with people.

There's a genuine kindness about him that really resonates with people. It's a gift I'm very jealous of." -- Patrick Burke, Brendan's brother, now a scout with the Philadelphia Flyers

RIP Brendan Burke 

A Weird Wish

Is it okay to pray for a blizzard tomorrow?

Alexander The Great

Not only did Alexander Ovechkin score this momentum shifting goal to cut it to 5-4 with just 8.5 seconds remaining in the second period of the Caps' come from behind 6-5 Garden win over the Rangers. But he did it in fine style reaching a milestone by recording his 500th career point. The man is amazing.

Kovalchuk madness overshadows wild Ranger loss to Ovechkin Caps

It would be impossible not to start what was a bizarre night at The Garden featuring 11 goals including the latest Alex Ovechkin magic trick without mentioning the Ilya Kovalchuk madness that took place during the first period. While the high flying Caps and new look Rangers were keeping fans out of their seats in one of the most unpredictable games ever, there was the much discussed Kovalchuk about to be traded out of Hotlanta to the sweepstakes/madness winner Devils. Something I was keeping track of over on Twitter while trying to pay attention to a game Washington came back to take 6-5 for their 12th straight win.

While the big Devil acquisition played out as had been widely speculated, the game on the ice was as much an enigma. Olli Jokinen's Ranger home debut had a bit of everything ranging from his first point 8:58 in on Ryan Callahan's power play redirect to his first goal as a Blueshirt in a roller coaster second period that saw each club score three times while also earning a hat trick of minor penalties with the potent Caps burning the Jokester twice. While the loss of discipline put a damper on things, the 31 year-old big pivot acquired from Calgary still had a good home debut that saw him pace everyone with seven shots plus the goal and helper.

“It’s disappointing,” the new Ranger said while donning his trademark No.12. “We’ve got to find a way to stay out of the penalty box. That was the difference. Our power play was good. We scored five goals at home. We should be able to win.

“Everybody knows where we’re at in the standings. We’ve got to treat every game like a playoff game.”

In his first game- a 2-1 loss to the original team that drafted him LA- Jokinen centered the top line with Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal. Last night, he played on the second line with Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky, who had success together. Perhaps the keystone coach will even use common sense and keep them in synch. Don't count on it.

The Rangers came out strong getting 10 of the first 11 shots, testing a shaky Jose Theodore who still made a couple of nice saves from in tight keeping it scoreless. For some reason, his team looked discombulated getting outplayed severely and outshot 18-6. Normally, a power play means nothing for our team. But on this night, they made it count connecting on four-of-six. As I tweeted, it wasn't a misprint. It didn't take long for Callahan to get position in front and steer home a Jokinen drive for his 14th, giving the Blueshirts a rare lead. Dubinsky netted the secondary. Despite getting just six shots, the Caps put one by Henrik Lundqvist when Boyd Gordon finished off a mad scramble to tie it. But before the goal was announced, 10 seconds later Gaborik set up Prospal for the first of two, restoring the lead. Marc Staal added a helper padding his career best total to 22 points in Year Three.

Meanwhile, Twitter was nuts with everyone confirming that Kovalchuk was going to New Jersey. By 7:30, I'd pretty much told our whole section with of course some expected cynicism of whether it was really true. Who would the players be going back? All we knew was Johnny Oduya and Nicklas Bergfors were definites with the other half centering around a prospect and a first round pick. The original rumor started by of all people Denis Potvin produced quite a thread on NJDevs. For a while, the prospect seemed to be Nick Palmieri but when a deal of this magnitude gets completed, you had to figure that aspect could change. Hasan's completely right about all the different scenarios tossed out about who it was, ranging from Swedish tandem Jacob Josefson and Mattias Tedenby to even David Clarkson's name being mentioned as part of the trade. By the second period, it turned out to be troubled center Patrice Cormier, who if he overcomes his discipline issues could evolve into a good two-way player.

As a Ranger fan, I couldn't help thinking how Lou had done it again. Holding onto his best two prospects with last year's first rounder Josefson making Cormier expendable. It's a great deal for the Devils but a little odd in that for as lethal a finisher as Kovalchuk is, he's also known to take shifts off and forger the defensive side. Vital components under Jacques Lemaire. Will it work? Only time will tell. It sure bolsters the Devs' offense and power play. Imagine a series against the Caps. Yowser.

While a wild second ensued with the teams combining for six goals, so much of the discussion centered around Kovalchuk winding up on our hated rival. What did the Devils give up to could Kovalchuk fit in and is it enough to vault them over the Caps, Pens and Sabres. Hell. Ottawa won again. So, they won't be any picnic either. Don't discount the Flyers but it's extremely odd that they weren't in on Kovy. It was almost like the stars were aligned for the Devils to swoop in and get the Atlanta superstar because the Bruins, Kings and Rangers all dropped out. As those thoughts were floating around, a flying Ovechkin got the scoring fest started by skating around the net to groans at Michal Rozsival for not hitting him (seri---ous---ly) with the electrifying Russian helping set up Mike Knuble's 20th with Nicklas Backstrom also assisting for one of his five points. For as much as we talk about Ovie, man is Backstrom impressive. He absolutely owned in this game, eventually netting the power play winner.

The first of three Jokinen minors (a slash) resulted in Ovechkin releasing a halitzer over Lundqvist's frozen left glove for his 37th tying Sidney Crosby for second. Backstrom got the lone helper for the Caps' first lead. A loss of discipline though nearly derailed them handing the Rangers three straight power plays including a near full two-man advantage. First, Jokinen connected for his first in our colors rifling one by Theodore to tie it. Prospal and Mike Del Zotto assisted. A delay of game and trip three seconds apart led to Prospal slamming home his second of the game from Callahan and Gaborik 40 seconds after they'd tied it. Things got worse for the Caps when Alex Semin went to the box for a trip. Astonishingly, the Blueshirts made them pay again when Dubinsky backhanded a Matt Gilroy rebound past Theodore for a 5-3 lead with 72 seconds left in the period. Even the MSG personnel downstairs couldn't believe they scored three in a row to surge in front by two.

Perhaps it also left John Tortorella in shock because he foolishly stuck out Rozsival and Wade Redden for the period's final shift against Ovechkin. How clueless can you be? Of all the baffling decisions including the ridiculous five forwards on a power play in a scoreles game that allowed LA to tally shorthanded two nights prior, this was the most illogical move he's ever made. And then he has the gall afterwards to talk discipline and how what resulted turned the game around. Get the hell out already! Can't we just have a normal coach? What transpired was one of the most amazing plays by such a physically gifted player. Taking a pass just outside the blueline from Backstrom, here came Ovechkin spinning around Rozsival who was just abused and then seemingly off balance while falling to the ice, he onehanded a shot off Lundqvist's pads and over his shoulder for a stunning goal that made it 5-4 with 8.5 ticks left. They'll be showing it on highlight reels for quite a while. In a nutshell, it demonstrated how pathetic our D is and also again sadly showed Henrik allowing a backbreaking goal. I like our goalie and he is good but read the difference between what he said and Bruce Boudreau concluded:

“It’s easy to start questioning your game when you let in six goals, but I don’t think I played that bad. It was just a really tough game. They find ways to create big scoring chances. They don’t shoot that much, but they find openings.”

“Even though they took a lead, we knew we would score. Lundqvist didn’t look as sharp as he has against us in the past.”

If that isn't a ringing indictment, my name is Peter Pan. Was Lundqvist serious? He was awful. I get that he has no help in front of him but that is just weaaaaak. You have royally sucked lately and are killing my fantasy team. How about manning up. For the salary he gets which is sadly too much thanks to Savior, how about coming up with a momentum turning save to stem the tide for a change?

Following the second period six-goal bonanza that featured a combined 32 shots (Wsh-18, NYR-14) with four PPG, the better team finally won out scoring the only two goals in the third. Tom Poti, who absolutely sucked here, made like Bobby Orr, scoring the tying power play goal 59 seconds in even though I swear Tomas Fleischmann tipped it in. The period saw our team shorthanded five times, including a dopey penalty by Dubinsky that killed any hopes of a comeback. In between, a struggling Lundqvist flopped to the ice like a fish and never recovered allowing Backstrom to blast home the winner. Fleischmann and Knuble, who wasn't good enough to play here registered assists.

On a night where All-Star defenseman Mike Green served the final game of a three-game suspension, Poti shined even faking out out entire D with an Orr-esque end-to-end rush that he nearly completed. If not for a lunging Lundqvist with a helpless teammate forced to take a penalty, this would've been jaw dropping. The jokes I made about how he never could've pulled that off here or taken that open point shot were easy punchlines. Now, he's a world beater. Just wait till Rozsival leaves.

The Caps outshot the Rangers 8-6 with Theodore still making a nice lunging save in the last few minutes to preserve it. Our entire D stunk. Rozsival was dreadful but at least got a takeaway from Ovie before the predictable fall from grace. Redden was a turnover machine all night and almost got victimized by Matt Bradley again. But this time Lundqvist denied his backhand deke. Dan Girardi hardly competed. Can we please get rid of this guy? I know he is loved but god, he is so overrated. They should just trade him. Staal at least tried because he always does. Del Zotto was probably our best notching a helper and logging big minutes. But it's trial by fire for the teenager. And Matt Gilroy just sucks. Another Hobey jinx. Oh. He's a good skater with solid puckhandling skills who can jump in but he is really soft. What did they teach at BU? I know he used to be a forward but come on.

Aside from the abysmal night that badly exposed our blueline, I already trashed Lundqvist and the coach, who hardly used Sean Avery with Brandon Prust, Enver Lisin, Artem Anisimov and Brian Boyle glued to the bench. Tort's coaching is so puzzling. He insists on starting Drury on the fourth line but then switches it up anyway while hardly giving the secondary guys enough ice. That can kill chemistry because those are your character guys who probably can't comprehend what their roles are. I'm past the point already.

Yes, Sather sucks. Dolan blows. But Tortorella is not the answer either. I like that he at least doesn't pull any punches. But if things don't change, he must go. Case closed. And what is there to look forward to? Kovalchuk and Parise scoring at will against us Saturday with Devil fans cheering in our building. From zero goals to probably 10.Can they just end the season already? You know the stuck up security guard who barked at us like children to sit in our seats prefers that. How screwed up can you get? Ever hear of fun?
Well, at least Saturday assuming it doesn't snow will be regardless.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Vinny Prospal, NYR (2 goals, 2 assists for season high 4 Pts)
2nd Star-Tom Poti, Wsh (PPG, 3 SOG in 26:36)
1st Star-Nicklas Backstrom, Wsh (PPG, 4 assists for matching season best 5 Pts)

Anatomy of a blockbuster

Now that I can exhale, it has been a wild two days with the rumors of Ilya Kovalchuk coming to the Devils starting after a seemingly innocuous and wild comment from of all people ex-Islanders great Denis Potvin on NHL Live, when he stated matter-of-factly that Kovalchuk would be traded to the Devils. That started the internet rumor mill churning, and maybe a few hours after that a reliable poster on HF Boards who owns a bar and deals with Devil and Ranger players on a frequent basis reported that a Kovalchuk trade was imminent and was pretty much spot-on with the details as it turned out.

It was about that point that I started to believe that this might be possible. Especially when I heard said poster correctly predicted the Olli Jokinen trade and other local signings before they happened. Still, you can never tell. It was just a couple years ago after all that Lou Lamoriello supposedly had a deal for the Thrashers' Marian Hossa nearly done, but the Penguins swooped in at the last minute and trumped our offer. With the amount of teams that could have trumped our bid like the Blackhawks, Kings, Flyers and teams crazy enough to sell the farm like the Rangers and Canadiens, it was impossible to fully believe this would happen.

So it was a long day and a half between those rumors and the connsumation of the trade. In between there was all sorts of wild speculation, from the Rangers being heavily involved to the Kings, Blackhawks and Bruins being front-runners as well with other teams like the Flyers mentioned. During all that though, the whispers about the Devils being the ones to make this trade were by far the loudest. Especially when it was reported that either the Thrashers' GM Don Waddell or assistant Rick Dudley was in attendance for the Devils' last two home games as well as the second Lowell-Hartford game at the Rock last night (won by Hartford 3-2 in OT). Not to mention the news that Kovalchuk had rejected a $100 million plus offer from the Thrashers, which was obviously Waddell's way of greasing the skids for a trade out of town.

Finally, just a couple hours ago at around 7 PM all indications were that a deal would be announced within the hour but still no word...finally at 7:30 word filtered down that it was indeed the Devils who would be acquiring the NHL's overall leading goalscorer since 2001-02. In typical Devils fashion however, speculation ran rampant over who would be going the other way. I heard what must have been fifteen different versions of the trade reported in the next hour. The only one that made me cringe was David Clarkson being involved, I didn't think the Devils could afford to lose that type of player but fortunately those rumors proved false. Not to mention the prospect we gave back seemed to change by the minute. First it was Matthais Tedenby, then Nick Palmeri and finally Patrice Cormier.

In the end however, the initial rumor actually proved to be fairly accurate with the two principals - defenseman Johnny Oduya and wing Nicklas Bergfors going to Atlanta along with a prospect and a 1st rounder, plus a swap of second-rounders. One of the few things that changed from the first report was the prospect involved. Initially it was Palmeri, but it turned out to be Cormier. Plus the second rounder swap - favorable to us - was also a late addition, something I found out almost before I published this. And seemingly at the last minute (I thought it was a joke the first time I heard), Atlanta added in a player they acquired from us just last year...the immortal Anssi Salmela. But hey, we do need defensive depth now after losing Oduya. Whether Salmela fills that depth himself or plugs in the hole at Lowell while one of their defensemen comes up remains unclear at this hour.

So what does acquiring Kovalchuk mean for the Devils? Yes, it's the 'sexy' move we typically shy away from and he won't be around past this year in all likelihood but man, it does make this Devils team suddenly a lot more formidable. Just picture a top three lines of Kovalchuk-Elias-Rolston, Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner, Nieds-Zubrus-Clarkson. That actually becomes an offense to be reckoned with. Maybe not on the level of the top four or five offensive teams but more than enough to compete. No longer can teams shadow the Parise line exclusively, heck the PZL boys might actually become the second line!

Of course you have to give up something to get something, and we gave from our defense certainly. Though I wasn't Oduya's biggest fan, our defense was leaky even with him and now without him that just means either Lou will still need to make another trade or at least one of the kids is going to have to step up. Presuming Paul Martin doesn't have a third setback on his arm, the defense at least includes him, Andy Greene, Bryce Salvador and Colin White. That's a pretty serviceable top four and Mike Mottau can hopefully regain his form of the past two seasons playing fewer minutes on the back pairing. At least one youngster will have to step up though as presently constituted. Whether it's Mark Fraser (whose icetime has been going way down recently), Matthew Corrente or Tyler Eckford, hopefully over the last third of the season at least one of them - or Salmela - makes a jump into the everyday lineup the way White did during the 2000 season.

And yes losing Bergfors might hurt down the road, but he wasn't going to help this year - witness his own declining icetime and production - plus the jury's still out on him after all. He might become a good player (think Ales Hemsky or better) or he might become an Ales Kotalik-like tease. Cormier being included in the deal was somewhat of a surprise, given his suspension from junior hockey for the rest of this season after a dirty elbow that left some poor kid having convulsions on the ice. Still, Cormier is only 19 or 20 and had some trade value left despite the incident from his skill level and being the captain on Canada's junior team. Hopefully for the embattled Thrasher fans those two young players turn into something, but they could rue getting Oduya, who hasn't looked like an NHL defenseman without Martin around. Of course he could be fine if he gets paired with Zach Bogosian, or not.

One thing's for sure, nobody's talking about the Devils' 2-8 record in their last ten games now. It's going to be electric at the Rock tomorrow, especially if Kovy does make it in town for his Devil debut. I'm so excited I couldn't wait to see Kovalchuk in a Devils uni, I had to lift this photoshopped picture from NJDevs and HF (above)! Well actually I was looking for another one but I couldn't find it so this one'll have to do for now.

UPDATE: Kovy and Salmela will both be in the Devils' lineup tomorrow against the Maple Leafs. So take that Brian Burke, you made your big acquisitions before our second game, now it's our turn to energize our fanbase!

And Kovalchuk goes to...the Devils?!

Apparently so, it's now being reported on all the major sites like TSN, USA Today and Bob McKenzie's twitter, among others...and the internet whispers that had been growing over the last couple days of the Devils being heavily involved in this for once actually came true! More as it develops (and after I pick my jaw up off the floor), starting with who actually went to Atlanta - the rumors involved Nicklas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, one other prospect and a high pick but that's unconfirmed as of yet.

Buffalo Senator'd again

A day later, Sabre fans might be pondering why their team can't beat Ottawa. In what amounted to an important divisional showdown at HSBC Arena last night, they were Senator'd again. With two big points up for grabs facing a red hot team chasing them for the Northeast, Buffalo fell to their bitter rival 4-2, allowing the Sens to pull within three. It was the Sabres' second consecutive tough loss. They also fell to the Pens 5-4 the other night, victimized by a Sidney Crosby hat trick.

For Lindy Ruff's club, the good news is they still are in first with two games at hand. The bad is that with their franchise record 10th straight win, Ottawa has now beaten the Sabres eight times in a row. In four meetings this season, Buffalo has gotten only a brownie point and been outscored 13-7 discounting Alex Kovalev's Dec.26 shootout decider. There are two games left with both coming in the final three weeks of the season, including an April 10 road match on the second to last day. Hopefully by then, they'll have found a remedy for the Sens' dominance.

What made yesterday's latest defeat exasperating was that Buffalo once again fought back from a two-goal deficit to tie it thanks to goals 27 seconds apart from Andrej Sekera and Tim Connolly, pumping up the crowd. One thing about this team, no matter how they're playing, they never give up. Case in point, the Pens' got four straight Monday but Ryan Miller slammed the door, allowing Jason Pominville to make it too close for comfort. With their franchise netminder on the bench, they came real close to tying it. The same can be echoed following Sabre killer Daniel Alfredsson's stunning go-ahead marker with just a minute to spare off a great pass by rookie D Erik Karlsson. Even in full scramble mode, Ruff's club nearly forced overtime with Paul Gaustad or as Sabre faithful refer to him as Moose was denied by Brian Elliott.

That kind of fighting spirit is a winning trait which could bode well. If only they hadn't fallen into the trap a second straight game of getting into a wide open run n' gun. Against the super skilled Pens, the fall from grace was predictable. To both teams' credit last night, they went for it playing the kind of firewagon hockey that keeps you on the edge of your seat. That style doesn't suit this Sabre team, who must get back to tightening it up around Miller's net. Something they realize.

“One minute left—we can’t let that guy stand all alone on the backdoor,” a frustrated Henrik Tallinder expressed. “It stings.”

“We battled hard in the third to get back in it,” Ruff said. “The best description is we just found another way to lose a game.”

After outshooting their feisty opponent 13-5 in the opening stanza, the Sabres gave up a combined 32 shots the final 40 minutes. Sure. They fired 23 themselves but that's way too many for a team that prides itself on D, making Miller's life easier. When they're playing a gritty, physical in your face style, that's when these Sabres excel. Precisely the recipe they'll need against those Sens and the rest of the way.

It's there for the taking.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Daniel Alfredsson, Ott (GW w/60 seconds left plus ENG)
2nd Star-Brian Elliott, Ott (34 saves for 8th consecutive win-allowed 2 or fewer in every start)
1st Star-Jason Spezza, Ott (2 goals extends scoring streak to 7 straight-8-1-9)