The Battle of NY: Part Deux

It was the goalie show last night as the Islanders defeated the Rangers 3-2 at the Coliseum. Rick DiPietro and Henrik Lundqvist played well and kept their teams in the game. The first period was a little slow but the ending was just right as the Isles celebrated their victory with an on ice salute to the fans since after all, "we're all Islanders."

This is what Islanders fans have been wanting to see for a while. A team that never gives up and plays hard for a full 60 minutes. There have been 2 come from behind victories in a row and the Islanders are really starting to gel into a pretty good team. These last 2 victories are reminiscent of the Islanders during the tenure of Al Arbour, the former coach who was celebrated last Saturday night for coaching his 1,500th game. Maybe he has something to do with their play, maybe not. Either way, it can never hurt to have a legend of Al Arbour's stature behind the bench.

Hopefully there is no "Rangers Letdown" on Saturday night against the Devils. Contrary to popular belief, (or at least the belief of my fellow ranting blogger), the Islanders do not just play hard against the Rangers. At least, not anymore. Ted Nolan has his troops ready to play every night. He has done an amazing job with this team which as of now is in a tie for first in the Atlantic Division with the Flyers. They even have a game at hand. (I promise, this is the last time I will mention games at hand until March or April).

Certainly Worth a King’s Ransom

This off-season the Rangers signed two big-time free agents in Chris Drury and Scott Gomez to shore up their center position, which was exposed as a weakness during last years playoffs. However, things have not worked out for the blueshirts so far, as their offense ranks among the lowest in the NHL. They would be dead in the water, if not for the nightly, spectactular play of third-year goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

With a line-up that produced Jagr-30g, Shanahan-29g, Drury-37g, Gomez-47a, Prucha-22g, Straka-29g and Avery-18g last year, the Rangers worried that their defense wouldn't be able to keep up with this powerful lineup. But in fact, it is the steady play of the defense and specifically Lundqvist, who have enabled the Rangers to be 4-1 in their last 5 games to reach the mediocre .500 mark. The defense is playing well, allowing only 1.77 goals a game, but Lundqvist's play is making up for any defensive miscues and shortcomings.

After last year's All-Star break, Lundqvist had among the best GAA and save percentages in the league and was almost single-handledly responsible for the Rangers surge to making the playoffs. Picking-up where he left-off last year, Lundqvist is 4th in the NHL in GAA (1.61), 5th in Save % (.939), 2nd in Shutouts (3) and tied for 5th in wins (6). In the Rangers last 8 games, Lundqvist's only allowed 6 goals.

The one-thing King Henrik has done, is stabilize a rotissierre position that has plagued the Rangers since 1997. For the 7-year period the Rangers failed to qualify for the playoffs, they were criticized for spending on “high-priced, fat-cat free-agents,” which was absolutely true. But that is NOT why they failed to make the playoffs all those years. Anyone who closely follows the Rangers, will tell you it was because of their goalie situation. After 1997, Mike Richter was on the decline as he had, in succession, reconstructive surgery on one knee, reconstuctive surgery on the other knee, and two severe concussions that would eventually end his career. Because he was such a popular figure with the franchise and won a Stanley Cup a few years earlier, they never looked to replace him, only plug-in guys till he came back. THAT was the Rangers biggest mistake, because his fill-ins in those 7 years were: Dan Cloutier, Kirk McLean, Guy Hebert, Jamie McLennan, Dan Blackburn, Jussi Markkanen, Jason Labarbera and Mike Dunham. Not exactly top-flight replacements. If Richter had not retired because of the concussions, he might have played into his late 30's -early 40's, like Ed Belfour, Curtis Joseph, Dominic Hasek, etc...and Lundqvist might not have gotten his chance in 2005.

This past off-season, Lundqvist gave the Rangers a hometown discount and signed a 1-year, $4.25 million deal, so they could manuever under the NHL salary cap. But as of Jan. 1, he will be able to negotiate a new contract with the team, and as his record for the past 2 years indicate, he will be able to ask for a king's ransom. After reviewing the list of goalies over the past 7 years, the Rangers would be wise to lock him up long-term to make sure they never go through another 7-year playoff drought again. Lundqvist, like Leetch and Richter before him, is a talented homegrown player who wants to stay a Ranger and thanks to his excellent play the last few years, is going to be a very rich man soon.


As Mel Brooks said in his movie, The History of the World, Part 1, "It's good to be the KIng."

11/1/07 Islanders 4 - Lightning 0: Fun Night at the Old Barn

In my long awaited and triumphant (sort of) debut, I have the pleasure of reviewing the Islanders' impressive 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning last night at the Nassau Coliseum.

The Islanders started off a little slow in the first period and did not put much pressure on Lightning goalie Marc Denis until 13:29 when Bill Guerin scored the first goal of the game. Mike Sillinger and Rick DiPietro got the assists after "DP" almost took the head off of Andy Hilbert while trying to make the pass. The Rick also made a few big saves including a nice glove save off of the stick of Jan Hlavac.

Sean Bergenheim had one good shift and then was missing for the rest of the game. He was called for an apparent boarding penalty that looked pretty innocent. He was then hit by Brad Lukowich who was then called for roughing. Bergie left the game with a mystery injury that coach Ted Nolan described as "one of those mysterious things that happen in a hockey game." I really hope that it was not a veiled attempt to hide his benching. My one knock on Ted Nolan is that he does not give the kids a chance to prove themselves. Bergenheim got very little ice time and he and his line had a good shift. I hope he is ok and this was not a benching.

Which brings me to the main motivation I have for writing this piece this morning. Let me start off by saying that I think Andy Hilbert is a decent young player. He plays a pretty good defensive game and is effective on the PK. However, how many times do we need to see him hitting the post? (that's if he even gets his shot anywhere close to the net.) Hilbert had quite a few opportunities, including one where he was 1 on 1 with a clear shot at the net and shot the puck over the net, almost clearing the glass. His supporters will say that he once scored 19 goals playing with Sidney Crosby. Jack the chimpanzee from MVP: Most Valuable Primate could have scored that much playing with Crosby. Hilbert hustles every shift and that is commendable but he shot not be getting that much ice time while Sean Bergenheim sits on the bench and Jeff Tambellini rots away in Bridgeport.

Enough of the ranting, let's end on a positive note....

The Islanders had a nice ceremony before the game commemorating Mike Sillinger's 1,000th NHL game. He was presented with a framed jersey with 1,000 on the back, along with a silver stick autographed by the team and matching Rolex watches for him and his wife.

The Isles played a good game and saluted the fans afterwards, because after all, We're All Islanders. It was a fun night at that old barn on Hempstead Turnpike.

Talkin' Bout My Generation

Every generation, no matter which one you're from, always thinks it's better than all the rest. It's human nature. We point to problems and find faults with older and newer generations, while claiming how fun we had it, especially growing up as kids. While our parents had "kick-the-can, hide-and-seek and tag," how can that compare to electric football, rod hockey or baseball cards? With today's generation, Playstation and Xbox are mind numbing and breeding a generation of couch potatos.

But thanks to the wonderful world of Ebay, it's now possible to search for your lost treasures that were either broken or thrown out by your mother. When I first joined Ebay, I started with the basics: old comic books, football magazines, old movies and board games. Then I tried something harder, NFL player stamps that were given out by Sunoco gas stations in 1972. Each NFL team had 24 players and you pasted them in an album the way your mother did when she got stamps from the grocery store. Ebay had them. Next were missing electric football men. Ebay had them. It was time to try the big one. In 1971, my parents had gotten me the "greatest Christmas present of all-time," a Brad Park endorsed New York Rangers rod hockey table, made by Coleco. My friends, family and I played that game so much, the life expectancy probably was a 1/4 of what it was supposed to be. It took a long time, but I finally found that exact game a few years ago.

After fixing it up, there was a letdown, because now I had no-one to play against. My kids tried, but it was too BORING for them. Of course it was. No explosions or killings. Plus, they couldn't control or spin the rods, since Xbox controllers only allow teens to use their thumb and pointer finger. So, by chance, I brought it in to work. I found out there were plenty of friends, around my age, who had played it as kids and we started playing games during lunch. My fellow contributor to this blog, Hockeyman96 and I even custom-made Ranger and Islander "all-star" teams to go against one another. My Ranger team: Tikkanen, Messier, Duguay, Leetch, Park and Giacomin has taken his Islander team: Bossy, Trottier, LaFontaine, Potvin, Jonsson and DiPietro a few times, but when he subs-in goalie Kelly Hrudey, it's a whole different story.

If I was born 30 years prior, maybe kick-the-can would be the greatest thing or if I was born 30 years later, killing 200 warriors in WarCraft the ultimate. But I'm satisfied with my time period in history and now concentrate on all the stuff I STILL have to find on Ebay.

It's human nature.

I want my M...T....Versus

I've been debating and debating for the longest time, should I splurge and upgrade my cablevision package to finally get the Versus channel or should I stand firm on my stance of not giving James Dolan and Cablevision one more nickel. What should I do?

When the NHL came back from the lockout in ’05, they didn't re-up with ESPN, instead taking a few more dollars from the inconspicuous OLN network, now known as Versus. For a lot of hockey fans across America, Versus was not even available on most cablevision systems and fans screamed about losing the little hockey they had. First- and second-round playoff games in ’05 and ’06 were divied-up between Versus and NBC, and if you didn't have Versus, you missed those games.

For the past 2 seasons, I've put up with the few, couple of games that I couldn't get when my team was playing on Versus, but it was extremely hard once the playoffs started. I grew solice in the fact that other fans across the country were in the same predicament, but started to open up a little about upgrading my TV package.

I have had the lowest cable package (basic family) for the rough cost of $47 a month, for the last 18 years. Since I still used an old, analog box, I was told that to finally get Versus, I had to upgrade to their “IO” digital package and would cost an extra $9.95 a month. I have always gotten ESPN and ESPN2 as part of that package, but within the last 5 years thru numerous lawsuits and rulings, Cablevision has added MSG, YES, FSN and SNY to the basic family package AT NO CHARGE and with NO CONVERSION to “IO.” Why are they now charging me to get a few hockey games during the year and a handful of playoff games. MSG, YES, FSN and SNY give me Ranger, Knick, Yankee, Islander, Devil, Net and Met games all year-round at NO EXTRA CHARGE, but Cablevision wants me to pony up $10 a month to watch a few hockey games in a 2 or 3 month span!

I know Cablevision wants everyone to eventually go to “IO”, but if I have major league networks already, charging me extra for a MINOR league network is not enough incentive to make the switch. I'm not interested in all the OTHER CHANNELS I would get if I switched. Again, if you gave me MSG and YES for free, why can't I have rinky-dink Versus for free?

My common sense says that it's not worth it, but everytime an Islander/Ranger game is broadcast on Versus, it starts the debate all over again. I know I'll miss some good games, but it's the principle that counts, right?

What should I do?

Heart, But NO Head

Halloween is still a month away, but there was a scary incident at tonight's Islander-Ranger game in Uniondale. No, the Nassau Coliseum wasn't putting on a haunted house or anything, but true Islanders fans had to be aghast at what Rick DiPietro did during a second period melee. After a scoreless first period, things started to get chippy between the two bitter rivals, as penalties mounted for both sides. First, it was a high-stick by Ryan Hollweg, then Colton Orr, Andy Sutton, Brandon Dubinsky, Andy Hilbert and Thomas Pock for fighting, Trent Hunter, then Aaron Johnson for high-sticking.

But the real horror happened when all 5 position players were locked up and DiPietro got involved in a 2-on-1. Rangers goalie Al Montoya skated down to the melee, and DiPietro, flipping off his mask, goaded Montoya into a fight! As I'm watching this live, thru the Islanders OnlineTV, the announcer even stated that "Montoya still has his mask on and looks like he wants NO PART OF THIS!" Does DiPietro remember what almost happened to the Islanders playoff chances when he went down and was lost with an "upper body injury?" What would've happened if Montoya got one punch to DiPietro's head or they both fall and DiPietro hits his head on the ice? Anyone who's had a concussion will tell you, once you've had one, they're easier and easier to get. Everyone knows that DiPietro is tough and has heart, but he just isn't very smart to get involved in a fight when he received 2 concussions within a weeks time last year. Especially in a meaningless preseason game! I'll bet Ted Nolan wanted to jump on the ice himself and drag DiPietro away.

If you're an Islander Fan, you have to be concerned of the mentality DiPietro exudes. Last year, while out with the injury, he defiantly stated he "would do the same thing again," and tonight, as he's being escorted off the ice, raised his finger, like the number one, to the delight of the raucous crowd. What did he mean to the crowd, one more concussion and my season's over? It's not the 7th game of the Cup finals!

You know that Nolan and his coaches will pull DiPietro aside and ask him what in the world was he thinking. With all the re-tooling and new players on the team, maybe it could be a good season for the Islanders. But if your franchise goalie gets a severe concussion in a pre-season fight and misses half the season, is it worth the cheers you throw at him now as he's leaving the ice, Islander fans?

Now THAT'S a scary thought.