The New Jersey Devils lost home-ice advantage Friday, and they lost their captain in the process. Game Two of their series against the Hurricanes went to Carolina in overtime. That leveled the series at a game apiece, and Game Three is Sunday night in Raleigh.
In a set of first round playoff series that look, at least on paper, to be more competitive than usual, the most hard-fought battle might be the one between the Devils and the Hurricanes. The teams entered the postseason at opposite ends of the spectrum -- the Devils waded through March like they were wearing cement boots, while the Hurricanes, despite losing their last two of the season, finished remarkably hot.
Tom Gulitti is the Devils beat writer for the Bergen Record and, as the voice of Fire & Ice, one of the best beat bloggers in the league. He took some time out to speak with FanHouse about the Devils and their first-round matchup.
Devils 3, Rangers 0:Scott Clemmensen has been fantastic for the Devils this season in the absence of Martin Brodeur, and on Monday night he registered his first shutout in New Jersey's 3-0 win over the Rangers.
Zach Parise picked up a pair of goals for the Devils, while Bobby Holik scored what proved to be the game-winner midway through the second period.
Some teams like to use the free agency period to bring in new blood. The New Jersey Devils are not "some teams." With new faces popping up in new places all over the league today, the Devils turned the clock back to happier times by reaching deals with two UFAs, former Devils Brian Rolston and Bobby Holik.
Rolston is a nice pick-up (I guess I should say, "reacquisition") for the Devils. He's coming off of a 31-goal year in Minnesota and was on a lot of shopping lists today, with the Lightning even trading for his rights a few days ago in an attempt to lock him down before the deadline. The four-year/$20.5 million deal is probably a bit long, but with today's insanity it really doesn't seem that bad.
Holik is a different story. He's been downright brutal in three seasons with the Thrashers and isn't even worth the $2.5 million New Jersey is paying him. Apparently the chance to re-unite the late 1990s powerhouse Devils' team was just too much for Lou Lamoreillo to pass up.
Robert "Bobby" Holik is known for two things: (1) Being a hard-nosed defensive center in the mold of Joel Otto, and (2) being one of the most overpaid players in NHL history.
It speaks to the stupidity and desperation for SIZE that certain NHL GM's were convinced to part with mega millions for a 2nd-3rd line center just because he was 6'4" 230lbs. Never mind the fact that the guy had only three seasons where he put up more than 60 points, and never put up a 30-goal season, Holik somehow managed to earn more money than most small countries, as we can see in his salary history.
Sources tell TSN that the New York Rangers will have to pay former Ranger and current Atlanta Thrashers forward Bobby Holik $3.5 million over a contract dispute in 2004-2005.
Because of the lockout that wiped out the 2004-2005 season, the Rangers argued that Holik needed to play to earn his signing bonus.
An arbitrator disagreed and made the ruling in favor of Holik.
Let's not forget that the Rangers bought out the last two years of his contract, so he was getting even more money not to play for the Ranger$.
If you were to vote for the greatest New York Rangers player of all time, who would you choose? Mark Messier, Mike Richter, Ron "Donkey Schlong" DuGuay? Wayne Gretzky, even with his short tenure?
All good players, yes, but none of them could possibly compare to Brian Leetch, who easily gets my pick as THE #1 player in Gotham's history. Not only was Leetch one of the best defensemen of all-time, but he was the classy face of the league's prime-time franchise. While Messier, and his massive ego, got the press, it was Leetch's fine play the drove the Rangers' Stanley Cup machine.
When we talk about what it means to be a New York Ranger, Brian Leetch is the player who exemplifies that model," Rangers president and general manager Glen Sather said. "There is no higher honor to grant Brian than to have his number raised to the rafters of Madison Square Garden."
Now, I really have to disagree with Sather about Leetch being the 'model' of the Rangers franchise. Given the Rangers' 50+ year Stanley Cup drought prior to their big win in 1994, and their long playoff drought not long afterward, Leetch is anything, in my opinion, like the 'typical' New York Rangers player. While Leetch worked his ass off and carried himself with class and dignity, the modern New York Rangers have been sullied by divas like Jaromir Jagr, or well-paid under-performing dudes like Chris Drury, Bobby Holik, and Eric Lindros.
No, Brian Leetch was the rare New York Ranger that wasn't blinded by the bright lights of Broadway, and the Rangers' players ought to look up at Leetch's #2 and try to emulate the former Rangers great.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
Since firing Bob "Goon-it-up-for-me-Boyahs!" Hartley after a horrendous 0-6 start to the season, Don Waddell's Atlanta Thrashers have clawed their way back towards respectability. With their knocking off the Red-and-Black hot (and Conference-leading) Ottawa Senators, they may have just given notice that the playoffs are not such a crazy idea for Peachtree Street this May. The win last night raised the Thrash to a tie for 3rd in the "Southleast", just 6 points behind the Hurricanes and smack in the middle of the mother of all hockey logjams that is the lower echelon of the Eastern Conference where 10 teams are within 5 points of each other.
At this point the Eastern Conference looks like the Republican Primary polling for New Hampshire. Teams like the Thrashers and Sabres are making strong moves to get themselves back into the hunt, while others like Toronto survive by constantly making it to OT for their pity points.
If Atlanta is serious about making the playoffs they have to tighten up defensively, especially on special teams, which are still atrocious as they were last season. Owners of the worst goal differential in the East and the 3rd worst penalty kill and power play, if their collective attention to detail improves so will their positioning in the playoff race. A look inside the numbers on a month to month basis bears out that they just might be doing that.
It was a brief run indeed for the Atlanta Thrashers, but a giant step forward for the organization. Now, if they'll just have the courage to do what the Columbus Dinner Jackets did and fire their Don, as in Waddell, and bring in some people who really know how to build a winning team they'll be onto something. You don't throw away as much of the future as Waddell did just to get swept by a lower seed in the 1st round without consequences, or, at least, you shouldn't. But, we'll see if Waddell can convince the ownership in Atlanta that the current team in Blueland really isn't the 2nd coming of the pre-lockout St. Louis Blues.
So, one series is over and for the Rangers the waiting begins, 2 more were pushed to 3-1 with the Sabres and Sharks itching to join them. While the first OT game in the East pulled the Devils even with the Lightning, that series has all the markings of a 7 game slugfest.
Points of Interest:
For a guy that can't land on the scoresheet without a superhuman effort, Mike Grier gets a lot of press. I think the world of him as a hockey player, but there's no anticipation at all anymore when he's on a breakaway. 1st star, game 3, 3rd star, last night. The Bay Area press understands playoff hockey.
I think it's safe to say that Bobby Holik was not too pleased with Kari Lehtonen. For the commenter yesterday who took exception to my crack about the Thrash's locker room, here's this tidbit from Steve Ovadia. Based on how much better they played in front of Hedberg, one should look squarely at Bob Hartley as well as Waddell. They weren't prepared for the playoffs. Period.
The NHL actually protected the goal crease last night, too bad it happened late in the Isles/Sabres game and caused some controversy. The right call was made. The goalie can't be pushed into the net. Now, the Isles certainly have a case based on inconsistent application of the rules, but not on the text of the rulebook itself.
Regardless of the outcome, the Islanders continue to play very impressively. Yashin even showed up last night. I guess being called out by the entire hockey world finally did the trick. I'm sure Nolan is taking notes.
Jason Pominville has been completely invisible for the Sabres, playing so bad actually that he's been dragging down Briere and Hecht 5 on 5. The goal he scored late last night was the kind of work that netted him 34 during the regular season and ousted Ottawa last year.
Evgeni Nabokov is the only goalie in the playoffs whose team is leading their series and has less than a .900 Sv%, while guys like Turco and Basckstrom are standing on their heads and losing.
I'll try after each night's action to burp up my observations (fair or otherwise) on the evening's events. Tonight's schedule was dominated by the Eastern Conference, and while all but one of Day One's games were one-goal affairs, on Day Two it was the exact reverse, with two certified blowouts, one team constantly playing catchup and another frantically failing to tie it in the dying seconds.
After 2 days, eight teams are one step closer to the Cup while the others are still on the starting line. While one defenseman celebrated a birthday (not his first) along with his franchise's first playoff game (at home no less), another (see picture at right) celebrated his first two playoff goals and his franchise's first step towards lifting a city's sports curse which spans six decades.
Points of Interest:
First things first, I watched very little of the Red Wings and the Flames, just enough to see that Calgary was not prepared to play tonight.
Atlanta and the Rangers came out with a ton of energy, even if they looked like they were skating on mud and not ice. That game had great pace and a ton of hitting, regardless.
The Rangers had a tough time dealing with the Dupuis/Holik/Larsen line. Those guys skated hard, outworked whichever line they played against and hit everything they could get within 0.44 seconds of. They accounted for 2 of the Hotlanta goals.
The last two minutes of that game were certfiably nail-biting, but the Thrash have got to stop trying to pick corners in that scenario. If they had forced Lundqvist to make more saves and they might have sent the game to OT on a garbage rebound.
The Isles had no gameplan for the Vanek/Roy/Afinogenov line, even though the rest of their plan was pretty darn effective. Good news for Sabres fans, Max looks like he's willing to take a hit this season. While this line was not on the score sheet they had at least three completely dominant shifts unlike anything I've seen yet so far.
Chris Drury was in a zone unlike I've seen from him in a Buffalo sweater. For a guy who looked concussed coming down the stretch, tonight was some other kind of animal.
Bob McKensie noted this week that he doesn't think the Devils have 'another gear.' Their performance tonight was eerily reminiscent of their regular season. Tampa, with even average goaltending, can beat these guys.
Offense: Adding Tkachuk gave the Thrashers a legitimate 2nd scoring line and slightly better top-end talent than the Rangers, but key players lack playoff experience. The Rangers have the far better road power play and guys like Jagr, Cullen and Shanahan who have won it all before. The Thrashers will get their opportunities to score. The question is can the Rangers find seocndary scoring behind the Jagr line 5 on 5. A task that falls to Matt Cullen and Sean Avery. Edge: Neither.
Defense: The Rangers have the edge in the most important category for defense, Goals Allowed, as well as Goal Differential and Penalty Killing. But, in watching the Thrashers since the deadline, the acquisition of Alexei Zhitnik has helped stabilize and give depth to their defense corps. The Rangers defense has been improving steadily and should be healthy when the series starts. The checking unit featuring Holik and Belanger will match up against the Jagr line. If they can contain that line and stay out of the box the Thrash have a good chance. Edge: Rangers, slightly
Goaltending: The difference between Atlanta this season and last is Kari Lehtonen, who has finally provided stable, consistent netminding for the first time in the history of this franchise. Henrik Lundqvist has been one of the top 3 goalies in the league in the past 3 months after a slow start and injury problems. Edge: Rangers
Prediction: Atlanta enters with just 3 more points than the Rangers, who have been getting better game to game since the Trade Deadline. Atlanta still feels like a work in progress, not hitting on all cylinders coming into the playoffs. Fun series to watch, lots of skating and hitting. The Rangers bring more intangibles to the series, while the Thrashers have the better playoff head coach in Bob Hartley. Bottom line: Rangers in 6 because of Lundqvist.
For more on Atlanta check out these blogs here, here and here. To get a wider perspective on the Rangers look here, here and here.
The New Jersey Devils lost home-ice advantage Friday, and they lost their captain in the process. Game Two of their series against the Hurricanes went to Carolina in overtime. That leveled the series at a game apiece, and Game Three is Sunday night in Raleigh.
Some teams like to use the free agency period to bring in new blood. The New Jersey Devils are not "some teams." With new faces popping up in new places all over the league today, the Devils turned the clock back to happier times 
Robert "Bobby" Holik is known for two things: (1) Being a hard-nosed defensive center in the mold of Joel Otto, and (2) being one of the most overpaid players in NHL history.
If you were to vote for the greatest New York Rangers player of all time, who would you choose? Mark Messier, Mike Richter, Ron "Donkey Schlong" DuGuay? Wayne Gretzky, even with his short tenure?
It was a brief run indeed for the Atlanta Thrashers, but a giant step forward for the organization. Now, if they'll just have the courage to do what the Columbus Dinner Jackets did and fire their Don, as in Waddell, and bring in some people who really know how to build a winning team they'll be onto something. You don't throw away as much of the future as Waddell did just to get swept by a lower seed in the 1st round without consequences, or, at least, you shouldn't. But, we'll see if Waddell can convince the ownership in Atlanta that the current team in Blueland really isn't the 2nd coming of the pre-lockout St. Louis Blues. 
I'll try after each night's action to burp up my observations (fair or otherwise) on the evening's events. Tonight's schedule was dominated by the Eastern Conference, and while all but one of Day One's games were one-goal affairs, on Day Two it was the exact reverse, with two certified blowouts, one team constantly playing catchup and another frantically failing to tie it in the dying seconds. 
