Rangers vs Isles tonight in the Colisseum: LIVE

"We won our last game. If we win again today, that's 2 in a row. If we win again tomorrow, that's what they call a winning streak..... It has happened before."
- Lou Brown, Major League II

I think this was the pregame pep talk Tort gave they boys.

1st Period
Rangers goal- Rangers dump the puck deep into the Isles zone, and both Gomez and Naslund forecheck from opposite sides. The Isle's defender makes a panic pass behind him up the boards right to Nikolai Zherdev. Zherdev coasts in and fires one by Danis through a Gomez screen.

2 guys forechecking= increased pressure = Tortorella goal.

Observations
- There is a clear energy in the crowd and on the ice whenever Avery is out there. The pace is much faster and the inexperienced Isles are visibly scared. Apparently Bruno Gervais never got the memo that Avery was in the lineup tonight. YOU DON'T SKATE WITH YOUR HEAD DOWN BRUNO. Avery gave him a powerful reminder.

- The Rangers now have 3 good defensive pairings. 3 lefties and 3 righties. 3 Offensive d-men paired with 3 defensive D-men. Mara and Rozsival never have to be on the ice together. This pleases me.

- The team has Avery's back. Blake Comeau gives a couple cheap shots to Avery and the other 4 Rangers jump in and start a scrum. Great way to make the vagabond winger feel like he has a home.

- End of the first. 1-0 Rangers

2nd Period

Isle's Goal: McAmmond gets the puck in his own end and moves it through the neutral zone. Both Rangers defensemen collapse on McAmmond and he hits Blake Comeau streaking down the left wing. Comeau gets behind the D and slips one through Hank. Game tied at 1-1.

-Antropov with a golden opportunity to answer quickly and retake the lead and he demostrates great patience by waiting and gets Danis to the ground. He then procedes to hit the crossbar. I think this is a microcosm of Antropov's skill set. Shows some promise but in the end frustrating.

Ranger's POWER PLAY Goal: With the Rangers on the power play because of a Trent Hunter trip, the Rangers capitalize. Tortorella has a power play philosophy called weak side shooting. Basically its hold the puck on one side and once the defense shifts, get it quickly to the other and blast away before the D can get back into position. After a couple weak side rockets on net, Antropov gets the puck on the wing and gives it the Drury at the point. Drury rockets one through a Dubinsky and Redden screen and Danis never had a chance. Rangers now have 5 power play goals over their last 7 games.

Forward and defenseman screening in front of the net = Tortorella goal. Two thus far on the night.

- Callahan, Dubinksy, and Korpikoski are all very much Tortorella type players. Lost of hustle, lots of crashing the net, lots of solid passing. I wouldn't be surprised if Tortorella told Sather that those three weren't allowed to be moved yesterday.

- I've never seen Hank use his stick so much in a game to chip pucks away. He's cleared like 5-6 pucks already that were trickling out front.

-The Rangers have been sacrificing their bodies a ton this game. Tons of shot blocking and diving to get into the passing lanes.

End of 2 and Rangers up 2-1

3rd Period
Rangers Goal: Andy Hilbert collides with Dean McAmmond in the offensive end and both fall down. Zherdev picks up the puck and streaks down ice with Gomez next to him and Naslund trailing. Zherdev peaks back over his shoulder to Naslund and Martinek takes the bait. Zherdev hits Gomez in stride and flicks it into the back of the net.

Isle's collision (Freaking Hilarious) + 3 on 1 = No Tort goal. 3-1 Rangers.

- On the power play I don't want my 6'6" 230 forward on the wing. I want him camped out in front on the net screening like a sumo wrestler. Tort needs to tell Antropov to get himself out front.

Isle's Goal: Jack Hillen and Blake Comeau play give and go up and down the ice. Hillen uses his speed to cut to the net and sneaks one through Hank's pads for his first NHL goal. 3-2 Rangers.

- Blake Comeau looks like he wants to claim that C on his chest that Guerin left behind. He has been vocal all game and has stepped his game up. And remember this, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

- Every time Rozsival gets the puck at the point, he takes longer than Russ Tyler in the Mighty Ducks shooting the knuckle puck to get a shot off. BLAST AWAY MICHAL.

- The Rangers are not playing scared hockey like they did over the last month and sitting on the 1 goal lead. It's refreshing to see them still attacking the net and not taking the proverbial knee.

- Is there anything more nerve racking than the puck staying in your zone for more than 1 minute? It felt like the Rangers couldn't clear the zone forever and I was ready for a goal against or a stupid penalty. Luckily we averted disaster.

Ranger's POWER PLAY Goal: Thank you Radek Martinek. Isle's turn it over behind the net and Drury gets the puck out to Naslund. Naslund winds up to fire and breaks his stick. Radek Martinek goes to deflect it to the side and instead deflects it over the shoulder of Danis. I'll take it. To be fair, Duby was in the front screening and Danis had no chance to react to a soft deflection.

Power play + broken stick + dumb luck+ a screen out front: These things never happened under Renney, hence: Tort goal. 4-2 Rangers. 3 Tort goals on the night.

- Kyle Okposo is going to be that pain in the ass player that always seems to be around the puck in the years to come. Experience will help him get to the right place at the right time. Right now he's just about half a step away from being potent.

- I'm willing to bet Tort has some sort of rule that each defenseman needs to wind up and let one fire at least once a game. Tons of shooting from the point from the Rangers blueliners.

GAME OVER: RANGERS WIN 4-2...
- Hank with 28 saves in a very solid effort
- 1st Rangers road win since January 16th at Chicago
- Rangers record with Avery in the lineup: 51-23-13
- Rangers 10 goals over the last 2 games... Woohoo

Tort Goal Update Total
Tort Goals -7
Non Tort Goals- 3

And to take this full circle... If we win on Sunday, that's what they call a winning streak... It has happened before.

Guerin Pittsburgh Bound?

According to a plethora of sites tonight, New York Islanders captain Bill Guerin was pulled off the ice prior to their game against the Sabres.

This clearly tells me that a deal has been reached. The question now is where is Billy-G heading?

It was long believed that Boston and Montreal were the clear-cut leaders in this deal, but Spector believes otherwise.

According to Spector's blog on FoxSports.com, he believes the Penguins, Panthers and Hurricanes are the current leaders.

Here is his explanation of how he came to that conclusion:

"Flyers? They're very deep up front and appear to be seeking depth on the blueline. Montreal? Their need appears to be for a scoring center. Rangers? Would the Isles actually peddle Guerin to their rival despite being out of the playoff race? Sabres? They're already deep at right wing.

Florida and Carolina could use more depth at right wing, while the Penguins - despite their recent acquisition of Chris Kunitz - might want a more seasoned right winger for Sidney Crosby's line."

For his full take, click here.

Now as for my take on this potential trade, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

If we gave up a roster player for him and it's not named Hal Gill, I don't like the deal. Maybe Miroslav Satan or Ruslan Fedotenko, but outside of those three I won't be a happy Pens fan.

Spector seems to think that the deal in place is Guerin for an early round pick. Perhaps a second rounder? If it's a first rounder, that's way to high of a price for a rental player the Pens most likely won't be able to re-sign. Let's also keep in mind this is assuming the Penguins make it into the playoffs.

If it's for a third-rounder, I'd live with it.

I do think he Pens are missing some valuable veteran presence in the locker room. They also lack a grit and feisty attitude they had from guys like Jarkko Ruutu, Georges Laraque and Gary "Chuck Norris" Roberts last season.

From that perspective, Guerin is a guy I would most certainly want. Is he the goal scorer that should be on Sidney Crosby's line? I don't tend to think so.

I'm still holding out for a "Holy @#%!" moment from the trade deadline where we land someone like Milan Hejduk for a bag of pucks, but that's probably not happening either. He is less money than Guerin and has clearly proven that he can put the puck in the net. Send the Avs a second-rounder for Hejduk, see if I care. I'll be jumping for joy like the annoying kid you never liked when he gets a date with amazingly attractive woman. The rest of you understand why he's jumping up and down and want to hurt him for it.

I was that guy last year when we got Judas.

Give me another moment like that this season Shero, just don't clean house to pull it off.

I don't know that a top line of Kunitz - Crosby - Guerrin is the answer to the Pens problems, though it is an improvement over what they have rotated around Sid all season. In that respect, it's an upgrade.

From what I saw of last night's game against Chicago, which will be broken down a little more in depth tomorrow along with the game against Dallas, Kunitz and Jordan Staal seemed to click pretty well right off the bat. So maybe Dan Bylsma will put a line of Kunitz - Crosby - Staal together? I say try it, doesn't seem to me like it takes Sid long to figure out his winger's tendencies and gel with them accordingly.

In any event, the world should know the fate of Guerin in the coming hours. Who knows, maybe Spector is wrong and the his hometown Bruins bring him in after all.

Stay tuned.

Pens Continue To Lose To The NHL's Worst

I was able to get the day off today to sit home and torture myself with some more Penguins hockey.

The Penguins fired Michel Therrien last night and new interim head coach Dan Bylsma will be behind the bench today. Bylsma gets the call up from Wilkes-Barre Scranton. If the Penguins don't come out flying, I don't know what will motivate them.

As for today's opponent, we cannot lose this game. The Islanders are clearly the worst team in the league with a 16-36-6 record for 38 points and are currently on a five-game losing streak.

The Penguins (27-25-5) absolutely cannot lose this game today. I know the Islanders give us fits at times, but if we have any chance of making the playoffs, this is a must win.

1st Period

19:12 - Hal Gill is back in the lineup tonight. Wonder who the odd man out is.

18:59: The red light is on behind Marc-Andre Fleury for no reason. Bad wiring I guess, but still not a good sign.

18:14 - And we now have our first post hit on Fleury. Not a good start.

15:28 - Pens still look sluggish. Passes aren't crisp, they're trying to skate through all five Isles to get to the net instead of chipping it deep.

15:20 - Looks like Mark Eaton is the odd man out tonight on defense. Could it be because of his 1.33 accumulation in the Hal Gill Quotient on Saturday?

14:33 - Isles announcers just said "Gill was a healthy scratch in Toronto on Saturday night in a move that flummoxed a bunch of guys on the team."

Could it be that he's been one of the worst defensemen on the team this season? I say it's about time he got benched. Might wake the sleeping giant for once.

12:41 - Pens get a couple shots on net from odd angles. Maybe Bylsma re-educated them about the old adage "When in doubt, throw it on net?"

10:58 - I'm a bit perplexed why Eric Godard and Miroslav Satan are playing on the top line with Sidney Crosby today so far. Can we please try Jordan Staal, Pascal Dupuis and Crosby at center? Please?

10:30 - Tyler Kennedy dances into the zone on a 2-on-1 with Staal. Staal has an open net and hits Radek Martinek in the skate in the crease and the puck goes over the net and wide. Sigh.

9:26 - 1-0 Islanders - Backdoor pass from Sean Bergenheim to Chris Campoli goes off his skate and in. Kris Letang has the puck go off his skate on a failed pass break-up attempt and the resulting carom hits Campoli and goes in. Goal is under review. After about 20 seconds of review, the goal counts.

7:30 - Announcers are finally noticing that the Pens still look flat. To me they're just s flat as they were in Toronto, so this could be a long afternoon.

6:01 - Penalty call on Tim Jackman for holding. Let's send out the newly revamped PP unit with Sergei Gonchar. Pens haven't scored on nine straight PP chances.

1:54 - Evgeni Malkin blows one by Joey MacDonald on a great individual effort to get 1-on-1 with Jack Hillen. Malkin puts a little toe drag move on Hillen and rips in low short-side to record his 25th goal of the season. Malkin poked the puck free at the point in our own end and blazed into the neutral zone to pick up the puck and score. Good stuff.

End of period and the Isles announcers are talking about rumors they're hearing about Ray Shero wanting to bring Colby Armstrong back to the Burgh. I'd gladly take him back as I was rather sad to see him go in the first place. He won't be the guy to score a ton of goals, but his reckless abandon and will to win is sorely missed on this team right now.

Islanders lead in shots 12-10 and it looked like maybe the Malkin goal got the Pens legs moving a little bit more. Time will tell of course, but at least it's tied after one.

Video Highlights Courtesy Of NHL.com


Getting back to my proposed Staal-Sid-Dupuis line for a sec. Dupuis wins the puck in the corners at an alarming rate and finds Sid on the wall. Sid then passes to the other wing or to the point.

That was the formula last season when Judas was the other wing and it worked quite well. That's the scheme when Malkin gets bumped to the top line. We know Staal can score, so why not try it?

Second Period

Somehow I missed that Tom Fitzgerald is now an assistant coach for the Pens. I like this move very much because he was a penalty killing machine during his NHL days and maybe he'll get our PK unit to become respectable again.

16:40 - New line for Crosby. Ruslan Fedotenko - Sid - Dupuis. Come on Bylsma you're two-thirds of the way to the magic combo.

11:59 - Pace to the period has picked up considerably from what it was in the first. Crosby attempts a wraparound on MacDonald, but he's up to the task.

11:40 - Pens trail shots 14-12 for the game. Both teams with two shots in the period, but it feels like there's been more chances for the Penguins to this point.

9:16 - Bill Thomas just misses Kennedy on a backdoor pass for an easy goal, Gonchar steps up to hold the puck in the zone and misses leading to a 3-on-1 the other way. Somehow Brooks Orpik breaks it up on a nice defensive effort.

8:19 - Orpik was just out with Ryan Whitney. Not sure if this is going to be a permanent thing or not, but the combo of Whitney/Letang has been awful for the last two games so if it is, hats off to Bylsma. The Pens could also be going with five defensemen and just leaving Gill on the bench. Either way, good call.

7:40 - Scratch the whole Whitney not playing with Letang. First shift after the tv timeout, those two are back together.

6:44 - 2-1 Islanders - Frans Nielsen slams home a rebound on a shot from Andy Hilbert. Looks like Letang is the man to blame for not clearing his man out. Whitney was nowhere to be found either so this will need further review by me to see what exactly went wrong. Either way, this soft defense in front of the net must stop ASAP.

After review, Whitney was also to blame for being a little out of position down low. Both get half of a point's blame.

4:01 - Pens going on the PP after Petr Sykora got mauled by Mark Streit while trying to get to a fat rebound by MacDonald.

2:53 - 2-2 Tie - Wow, what a pass by Crosby who finds Whitney creeping into the slot on the weak-side who rips it to the shelf over MacDonald, who had zero chance to stop it. Looks like he's trying to make up for the awful defense he's played of late.

Side note, Gonchar gets his first point on the season on the powerplay goal.

1:42 - Pens going back on the powerplay again after Kyle Okposo tugs on Letang's jersey in the offensive end. I'll take it. Another late goal for us would be huge.

:09 - Major scrum in front of the net leads to some pushing and shoving and punches thrown. MacDonald is being restrained by Gonchar and Fleury is standing inches from the blueline in anticipation of heading down to the other end to even things up. The refs get control of the situation and Malkin gets a roughing penalty as a result.

We end the second period tied at 2. The Islanders will have a shortened powerplay early in the third due to Malkin's minor penalty. Penguins lead shots 20-19, not a bad turnaround from the first. Let's hope they come out and continue to put the puck on net.

I think the scrum is what this team needed. All five guys on the ice were in there standing up for one another with Fleury set to make a break for it as well. That's the type of team-first mentality that has been missing of late.

Just had this exchange with Gopher:

"You realize you have to beat the isles to move up in the standings right?"

"Yes, but it's more than that. We have to beat them to keep any shred of self respect we have left."

Third Period

18:20 - Pens get a couple decent chances while shorthanded to basically kill of the penalty to Malkin.

16:16 - Gonchar loses his stick and Fleury makes a solid pad save. John Sim crashes right through him and knocks the net off. Another scrum ensues. Things are starting to get very heated on the ice.

14:10 - The Pens forecheck looks 100x better than it has all game long. There's two guys on the puck at all times and as a result, they're creating scoring chances. This is just one of those little things they haven't been doing.

11:34 - Staal just singlehandedly broke up three huge chances for the Isles down low with some stellar backchecking and effort. Take notes boys, that's how it's supposed to be done.

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8:46 - Nielsen blows on Gill in the corner and sends the big man down. Nothing happens as a result, but it's worth noting.

3:50 - Pens are getting a ton of chances down low followed by one stellar chance by Hilbert that just misses. These teams don't appear to be playing for overtime at all.

1:33 - The line of Kennedy - Staal - Matt Cooke has been dominating the Islanders in the third. Getting chances left and right and Staal has played a fantastic game today. He's probably the best player on the ice in this game.

End Of The Third Period

We are heading to overtime with the worst team in the league. On the positive side, we get a much needed point in the standings, but that crucial second point is what we really need.

4:14 - Whitney stoned on a 2-on-1 with Fedotenko. we play on.

:48 - What a pace to this overtime! End to end action, but the Pens have had the best chances so far. Dupuis was inches from ending this on a feed from Crosby. Later, Crosby gets 1-on-1 and rifles one off MacDonald's shoulder.

We are heading to a shootout and I need to catch my breath.

Islanders will shoot first.

Nielsen makes a very nice move and flips it over Fleury. 1-0 Islanders

Sykora goes wide at a very slow pace and uncorks a slapper from the hashmarks and buries it, 1-1.

Jeff Tambellini rips one from beyond the hashmarks over the glove. The shot seemed to catch Fleury off-guard. 2-1 Islanders.

Malkin loses control of the puck and doesn't get a shot off. Still 2-1.

Okposo loses the handle as well meaning it's all on Crosby to keep us alive.

Crosby dekes MacDonald into the ice, but can't get the puck up over the outstretched pad. Pens lose to the worst team in the league and I need a drink.

Up next are the Montreal Canadiens where we put our two-game losing streak against some of the worst teams in the league on the line. Maybe we can get Blysma his first win against a playoff team.


Here's the latest standings in the Hall Gill Quotient:

Kris Letang - 2.84
Ryan Whitney - 2.5
Hal Gill - 1.34
Mark Eaton - 1.33
Sergei Gonchar - 1.0
Marc-Andre Fleury - .83
Jordan Staal - .5
Bill Thomas - .33
Pascal Dupuis - .33

Free Agency - Eastern Conference

What a ride!

In just two days we've seen contenders become pretenders and vice verse. All I can say is that I'm sure glad I'm not an Islanders, Devils, or Sabres fan. Here's my list of winners and losers from the first couple days.

New York Islanders
What were they thinking putting Garth Snow in charge? Any doubts that this was a bad move were horribly shattered in the last couple weeks. Someone needs to buy him a copy of "How to be a GM in the NHL" and fast.

First, they buy out Yashin in a move that appeared to free up the money necessary to re-sign Jason Blake and last minute addition at the trade deadline, Ryan Smyth. How wrong they were. Blake headed north to Toronto to join Vesa Toskala and after a fierce bidding war, Smyth went to the Avs. Just to add insult to injury, Tom Poti left for the Caps.

Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres meanwhile stood back and watched their two co-captains from last season bolt within hours. Daniel Briere became the latest addition in the Flyers' hopes of a return to glory after being the worst team in the league in 06/07. Kimmo Timmonen and Jason Smith should help as well.

New York Rangers
The Rangers stunned most of the hockey world by signing both Chris Drury and Scott Gomez for over $7 million each. I'll admit, I laughed at the Gomez deal. Yes he's a good player, but 13 goals last season for a guy who has cracked the 20 goal mark only once in his career? That should be illegal.

These signings now put a potential squeeze on the budget with still having to sign Prucha, Lundqvist, Avery and veteran Brendan Shanahan.

What remains to be seen with the Blueshirts is how their defense will be. There's no doubt that they just fully upgraded their offense, but history has proven that defense wins championships. With guys like Marek Malik and Fedor Tyutin, fans still hold their breath. Now if the Rangers could play the whole game on the powerplay, I'll retract the previous statement.

New Jersey Devils
The Devils were big losers as well. I'll try to leave out the fact that I loathe their unbearably boring playing style and how Marty Brodeur gets way too much hype. Again, yes he's a good player but you could put a pylon in net and it'd win a majority of the games the Devils do.

Anyway, losing Brian Rafalski to the Red Wings and the aforementioned Gomez to the division rival Rangers has got to hurt. Rafalski was a rock on defense even after having an off year last season. The did however bring in replacements in Danius Zubrus (4G 4A in 19 games with Buffalo in 06/07) and Karel Rachunek. Zubrus could turn out to be a solid player, but the Devils will struggle to fill the void Rafalski.

Boston Bruins
Boston still will have issues next season as the still lack a core on defense. Chara is fine and dandy, but he seems to be wanting to put up Bob Probert penalty minutes. He got beaten badly all the time last season, but if he stays out of the box and the Bruins are on the powerplay all the time he can unload the heavy slapper.

One question they seemed to answer is in net. Getting Manny Fernandez from Minnesota is a vast upgrade over Tim Thomas. I'm going to apply the Patrick Roy rule here. Roy was arguably the best goalie of all time, but in his final days in Montreal where he had zero defense to speak of, he was garbage. A goalie truly is only as good as his defense, so I'm going to call this move a push until they get someone who can help out on D.

Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pens meanwhile lost out on two guys, but quickly signed two others. Reports said that GM Ray Shero was going hard after Scott Hannan and Paul Kariya. To make up for it the Pens signed hard-nosed defenseman Daryl Sydor and sniper Petr Sykora. Both of these moves should help out drastically. The Pens lacked another top 4 d-man last season and it showed in the playoffs along with the lack of experience. Sydor and shot-block artist Mark Eaton will compliment each other nicely.

The Sykora signing brings a different aspect to the Pens. Sykora has shown that he can score goals in bunches. Twice in his career he's lit the lamp over 30 times, but while his production trailed off over the last couple years he has championship experience to bring to the kids. Also and most importantly, this move will allow for Rookie of the Year Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal to return to their natural center positions.

Montreal Canadiens

Two words: Roman Hamrlik. This move prety much assures me that fantasy hockey stud Sheldon Souray won't be back, but Hamrlik is a decent replacement. Also the addition of veteran forward Brian Smolinski should add some depth up front. One fact still remains, the Canadiens do not want to have a meltdown like last season where they watch the playoffs from home. With what has happened in the division already, they may have just pushed themselves into the playoff picture.

Once things calm down and the season draws near, I'll take a look at each division and give predictions for standings and playoffs. Stay tuned, up next free agency in the Western Conference. Look out Nashville, I'm coming for you.