Tomas Surovy played 126 games in the NHL, scoring 27 goals over parts of three seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He hasn't suited up in North America since the 2005-06 campaign, and has spent the past three years playing for Lulea HF and Linkoping HC of the Swedish Elite League.
He's also representing his native Slovakia at the World Championships in Switzerland. Why is this relevant? Because during Saturday's 8-0 loss to the Czech Republic, Surovy had a meltdown of sorts and took out his frustrations on teammate Jaroslav Halak. Video after the jump.
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.
Exactly 1,230 regular season games have been played. We're down to the best eight teams in each conference. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday night with four series lid-lifters.
In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins rallied from a bit of a swoon around the All-Star Break to easily win the top seed. Even if you subscribe to the idea of Boston being favored because of their strong overall record, there are no sure things in these here playoffs. Who will threaten to knock the Bruins off their pedestal?
Welcome to the Garden State. If you look to your left, you can see the Devils collapsing. Don't pay it any mind. It's just a bit of history repeating.
New Jersey's team has lost five in a row and six of their last seven. A team which not too long ago appeared not only a safe bet to take the East's No. 1 seed but represent it in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Devils now hold a tenuous divisional lead over the Flyers and could even, at worst, open the first round on the road. If you're a Devils fan, the most frightening part of all of this is that this slump mirrors last season's finish.
The Devils have lost five in a row, and face possibly the East's hottest team, the Penguins, tonight in Pittsburgh. If that weren't enough of an uphill battle, they'll be missing their second-leading scorer, Patrik Elias, who didn't participate in morning practice and is suffering the vague "lower body injury." He missed a game against the Flyers on March 23 because of muscle tightness in his legs. [Fire & Ice]
Brodeur, you may have heard, set the NHL's all-time wins record, but it wasn't the only record broken on the night. With an assist on Brian Gionta's shorthanded, game-winning goal, Elias surpassed John MacLean with his 702nd career point, making him the leading scorer in franchise history ("I was very excited. I think you could see that in me right away," he would comment later). That the players' two careers dovetailed, leading them both to milestone moments on the same night, is pretty remarkable considering the paths both players took to get here.
On Saturday night in Montreal, all eyes were on hometown pride Martin Brodeur -- friends, family, random people from random encounters who probably remember him better than he remembers them. Yet if Brodeur felt any of those pairs of eyes on him in particular, they surely belonged to Patrick Roy. With Brodeur's childhood hero watching, the Devils goalkeeper tied Roy's all-time record with his 551st career win, nudging the great over to create more room atop the scroll of iconic backstops in hockey's rich history.
Brodeur's supporters, meanwhile, will point out that this season he's playing behind a Devils defense corps with the solidity of wet single-ply toilet tissue and, overall, a squad in the midst of a frustrating transition under Coach Brent Sutter. With his team playing inconsistent hockey -- and on some nights, that's putting it kindly -- the first-year NHL head coach has blasted the Devils' old ways and publicly criticized veteran players like Patrik Elias that have underperformed this season.
But would Sutter ever turn his ire to Brodeur, the team's biggest star and its unquestioned soul? And if so, what would be the consequences?
With 2 goals and an assist last night against the Boston Bruins, Thomas Vanek entered a very select group of players. As long as he does not go -5 in the Sabres last two games, Vanek will be the first player to score 40 goals, assist on 40 others and be a +40 or better since both Joe Sakic and Patrik Elias did it in the 2001-02 season. His stats currently are a well-balanced, 42-40-82, +44 in just under 17 minutes a game.
Watching his growth over this season has been one of the interesting sub-plots in the Sabres run atop the Eastern Conference. As someone who dominated at every level of play previous to the NHL, it was quite the blow to Vanek when Lindy Ruff benched him for much of the last 2 rounds of the playoffs last year. His committment and work ethic were the negative things brought up about him at the draft table and conditioning was definitely an impediment to Vanek's play last season.
To his credit he got Ruff's message that what he had done previously was not good enough and he would have to become faster and better conditioned if he wanted to be counted on in the big situations. He came to camp at least 10 pounds lighter and yet stronger. As this season has gone on he's improved his body positioning and protects the puck much better than he did last year. He's a fixture in front of the net, deadly with either the deflection or cleaning up the garbage. He now looks like an intense player, paying attention to the details of the game.
Welcome to the Garden State. If you look to your left, you can see the Devils collapsing. Don't pay it any mind. It's just a bit of history repeating.
NEWARK, N.J. -- As we wrap up 
With 
With 2 goals and an assist last night against the Boston Bruins, Thomas Vanek entered a very select group of players. As long as he does not go -5 in the Sabres last two games, Vanek will be the first player to score 40 goals, assist on 40 others and be a +40 or better since both Joe Sakic and Patrik Elias did it in the 2001-02 season. His stats currently are a well-balanced, 42-40-82, +44 in just under 17 minutes a game.
