Notes From a Night of Hockey - 11/26

Buffalo 3 - NY Rangers 2 (OT)
In the battle for New York supremacy, the Sabres had the edge by virtue of a Chris Drury goal in the extra frame. "Battle for New York Supremacy", by the way, is a completely contrived way for me to try to make this game seem more interesting than it actually was. Half the time, I forget that Buffalo and the Big Apple are in the same country, let alone the same state. I once took a trip to Toronto, and at a rest stop on the Canadian side of the border, there was still a newspaper clipping hanging on the wall with a picture of Brett Hull's skate in the crease in 1999.

Anaheim 5 - Calgary 3
Remember Ilya Bryzgalov? The Anaheim Ducks certainly don't. After leading the then Mighty-in-name-only Ducks to the Conference championship, he's been pretty much a non-entity, playing second fiddle to J.S. Giguere's heartwarming comeback. Now, he's inactive with the ever-present "lower body injury" and with Anaheim in the second of back-to-back games, they turned to rookie Michael Wall. Needless to say, Bryzgalov wasn't missed.

Tampa Bay 3 - Ottawa 1
If the New York Rangers have taught us anything, it is that when you have no real viable option at goaltender, always go with the guy whose name has a "u" in disguise (Johan Holmqvist had 22 saves to lead the Lightning over the Senators). It is a little reported fact that one of Ken Hitchcock's first moves as the new coach of the Blue Jackets was to try and trade for Edmonton's Daniel Tjarnqvist, who, despite being, technically, a defenseman, has the added bonus of the silent "j".

Notes from a Night of Hockey - 10/05/06

New York Rangers 5 - Washington Capitals 2
If the Rangers play an early season game the same day both NY baseball teams have playoff games, does it make a sound? Brendan Shanahan scored his 599th and 600th career goals to lead New York in their opening night victory. Jaromir Jagr added a goal (just thirty seconds into the game) and an assist as well and the Rangers showed why many experts are (inexplicably) picking them to do big things this year. Last year's Rookie of the Year Alex Ovechkin was pretty silent, but Alex #2, Alexander Semin, provided a money shot (sorry) in his return to the Capitals after spending two years in Russia.

Toronto Maple Leafs 6 - Ottawa Senators 0
"[The Leafs] are likely to have trouble scoring goals all year." Who said that? Darcy "The Sparkplug" Tucker lead a suddenly potent Maple Leafs offense with two power play goals to go with Chad "The Firestarter" Kilger's two tallies. Captain Mats Sundin also contributed a goal and an assist as the Leafs incited an early season goaltending controversy in Ottawa, with Ray Emery coming on to relieve Martin Gerber and giving up just one goal in a little over a period of work.

Pittsburgh Penguins 4 - Philadelphia Flyers 0
Round One of the Battle of Pennsylvania goes to Pittsburgh in convincing fashion. Day One of the Battle of the Sophmore Superstars goes to Sidney Crosby, who recorded a goal and an assist. Michel Oullet also had the one and one, and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (no relation to Theo) had forty saves in a shutout performance. New Pens owner Jim Balsillie (pronounced "Ball-Silly") (I hope) was in attendance. The Philadelphia power play unit, apparently, was not.

Chicago Blackhawks 8 - Nashville Predators 6
I have nothing to say about this. I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that this game ended with a score of 8-6. That's more goals than the total of runs in the Mets and Yankees playoff games combined.

Other Scores:
Vancouver 3 - Detroit 1
Tampa Bay 3 - Atlanta 2 (SO)
Minnesota 3 - Colorado 2 (SO)
Edmonton 3 - Calgary 1
Phoenix 6 - NY Islanders 3
San Jose 5 - St. Louis 4 (OT)

NHL Preview: New York Rangers

Today brings the eight installment of our series previewing the fast approaching NHL season. Today, DefDude gives you the skinny on the New York Rangers and does an astoundingly good job of containing his scathing vitriol towards Jaromir Jagr. (Me? Not so much, apparently.)

Well, that was shocking, to say the least. After dumping the high-priced free agent approach that led to 8 consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs, the Rangers were poised to fall to the very bottom of the barrel in 2005-06. With a questionable-at-best goaltending situation and a shallow, one-man offense, most experts were picking the Rangers to be comparable only to the Washington Capitals for season long futility. Then Henrik Lundqvist decided “Yea, I’m a rookie, but I’m also Swedish, so the rules obviously don’t apply to me,” and decided to go become not only the best goaltender in the Rangers organization, but one of the top five goaltenders in the league, and the Rangers suddenly went from a crappy young team to a halfway decent young team. Then something really crazy happened: Jaromir Jagr, completely surrounded by fellow Czechs, forgot that he was playing for an NHL franchise and not his home country, so he figured it’d be ok if he actually skated hard and gave a shit every, ya know, third shift or so, and then the Rangers went from being a halfway decent young team to the surprisingly good Czech National Veteran-Led team that won the Atlantic division…and then Jagr realized he was in the NHL, refused to show up for the playoffs, and the Rangers were steamrolled by the Devils in one of the most pathetic showings by a 3rd seed in the history of the current playoff format. (Biff's Note: Nothing compared to the 2nd seeded '99-'00 Capitals. Not that I'm bitter about that or anything.)

So where does that leave the Rangers for this year? Well, Lundqvist should only be better, and the addition of 40-goal scorer Brendan Shanahan gives the Rangers a suddenly potent second line that will make it much more difficult for opponents to key in merely on Jagr’s line (Not that that tactic worked out so well for opponents last season). But in the end, this team’s fortunes will depend on which Jagr decides to show up for opening night and beyond: The motivated, dominating vintage version who barely missed out on the Art Ross and Hart trophies as the NHL’s leading scorer and MVP, respectively, or the lazy, disinterested one who played two seasons for Washington and one playoff series for the Rangers lasts season. If it’s the former, you can expect another uncontested Atlantic division title, and depending on how well the defense comes along, a distinctly possible ECF berth. If it is the latter, however, Rangers fans can expect to see something eerily similar to that which they were accustomed before the lockout……a putting green come May.

To follow all the exciting developments on the isle of Manhattan, check out Blueshirts on Broadway or Broadway Blue (they're creative up there in the Big Apple, no?).

And then there were 14

You can go ahead and file the New York Rangers and the Dallas Stars under the file heading "Stick a fork in them, because they are done."

Zeke?

A story that's not getting alot of notice in the media, as near as I can tell: A former New York Rangers' cheerleader filed a sex-descrimination lawsuit against the Rangers roughly two years ago. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet ruled that the suit could go to trial. It's certainly something to keep an eye on.

It also begs an important question: Cheerleaders? At hockey games? I know this is nothing new. Smaller franchises like the Carolina Hurricanes started this nonsense. But the Rangers? One of the NHL's original six franchises? Why?