The More Things Change...

If you didn't know any better, you'd think Tom Renney was still coaching the Rangers.

Sure, there were moments that inspired you. Markus Naslund dropping the gloves with Ian White. Chris Drury, Michal Rozsival, and Wade Redden collaborating on a power play goal. Petr Prucha getting 15 minutes of ice time. But in the end, you got the same results you're used to getting - yet another shootout, and yet another loss against an eminently beatable opponent. A point is a point, but this probably should have been two.

After 62 games, the Rangers have won 31 games and lost 31, although eight of those losses came in overtime or the shootout. They have 20 games left, 14 of which are against the top ten in the Eastern Conference. Tomorrow night, the Rangers host Florida in what is not only a four-point game, but is the biggest game either team has played all year. Who would have ever thought that would be the case? If you're a Rangers fan, you hope John Tortorella can at least inspire a solid effort in back-to-back games; however, tomorrow's game will not be easy. The Rangers have to travel overnight from Toronto, while the Panthers are steaming after getting destroyed by Boston last night. Should be a good one.

Speaking of Toronto, how ridiculous is it that they played the Rangers at home tonight, but will be traveling to New York overnight to play the Islanders tomorrow? It makes no sense, at least if you choose to ignore the fact that the Knicks played at home tonight. Anyway, the Islanders probably deserved a little more than they got against Pittsburgh, losing 1-0 on a Petr Sykora goal with less than three minutes left. Yes, it's true that the Islanders didn't manage a shot on goal on the power play. But they also hit the crossbar twice, got some great saves from Yann Danis, and were more than up to the task for facing a reeling, Crosby-less Penguins team. However, as all good teams do, the Penguins answered the call with about five minutes left, finally turning the intensity up and shutting the door once they finally scored. It didn't help that the Islanders were extremely sloppy after allowing Sykora's goal, a telltale sign of a young, inexperienced team.

Watching the Pittsburgh Penguins, the defending Eastern Conference champions, celebrate their only goal against a 30th place team like they had just won the Stanley Cup was a bitter pill to swallow. Forget the whole race for the first overall pick for a second. This one hurt. This is the point we're at with these Islanders - they'll play well enough to be competitive, but more often than not will fall just short. The Isles are a somewhat respectable 5-7-1 since the All-Star Break, and they have a better chance than you might think at finishing the second half with a .500 record; of course, should this actually happen, you'll never see it mentioned once in any newspaper or on any talk show. The Islanders dug their grave long ago, and a lot of it has to do with Scott Gordon's stubborn refusal to bench Joey "12-24-4" MacDonald in favor of Yann "5-8-2" Danis. Nevertheless, each game is an opportunity for these Islanders, and there are 22 chances left to watch these young players learn and show the occasional flash of brilliance.

Two New York teams, two results we all saw coming. Both teams are back in action tomorrow night. The Rangers desperately need a win; the Islanders, on the other hand, are 16 points back of Toronto and can play as well as they'd like. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better night for New York hockey than this one.

The Reason I Don't Hate the Islanders...

Last year, I'll admit it, I hated the Islanders. They also beat the Rangers in a few games I was at (including a stinker at the Coliseum in the beginning of the year and a shootout in the Rangers last home game of the season), while this year I haven't been to any Rivalry games yet. They also had Ted Nolan, Chris Simon, Sean Hill, and Rick DiPietro. 

This year, all 3 are gone. Their replacements are first-time NHL coach Scott "Flash" Gordon (anyone see that video of him from Boston College in 1985?), Rangers cast-off Mitch Fritz (I mean, I guess he's the enforcer of the team, right?), someone who actually belongs in the NHL as a defenseman, and Joey MacDonald.

You can't really hate any of those guys. And to be honest, I never hated Nolan, but he did annoy me a lot, and I do like Gordon a lot better.

MacDonald is the main reason I don't hate them this year. He comes out to play every game, except that Boston game where he just collapsed. He also never complained about playing time in Boston or Detroit and he never complained about being stuck in the AHL last year because of the waiver wire.

Kudos to the NHL for giving him 3rd star of November. Although he might not have deserved it with his stats alone - the NHL curiously only lists his games played, shots faced, and minutes played and not his save percentage or goals against average - he definitely has the heart and he's a hell of a team player.

However, while he might be the reason I don't hate the Islanders this year, that all might go down the drain if I see Andy Sutton take a run at Brandon Dubinsky or if Brandon Witt cheap shots Henrik Lundqvist or if DiPietro returns or if some stupid fan passes out photocopies of the hooker who someone said was bought by Sean Avery. If Avery can sleep with Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) or Catherine Keener, he doesn't have to pay.

A Lackluster Weekend...

Nobody has written on our blog since Thursday, when Bryan typed about optimistically venturing the following day into Newark to drink beer and boo Zach Parise.

It is now technically Monday morning (although I will still consider it Sunday until I go to bed or see the sun). I almost posted on Friday that if the Islanders beat the Devils, then the Ottawa Senators would be the worst team in the East.

Since then, the Rangers technically showed up for a game in Ottawa, although I don't know how much of a presence really they had if they were outshot 14-0 for the first 13 minutes of the game. Yes. 14-0. Although I guess it is hard to generate shots off the rush when you are shorthanded 3 times in the first 6 minutes. To be honest, they never stood a chance in the game, and it's not because this is the same Ottawa team that used to pick apart the Rangers and Islanders in years past. The Rangers never stood a chance because they took themselves out of the game by taking lazy penalties, not hustling, not getting traffic to the net, and not caring.

Since then, the Islanders lost ground in the Hummer Metro Ice challenge, aka the battle-of-the-backup-goaltenders when Scott Clemmensen beat Joey Mac. In Backup Bowl II, they happened to beat Patrick Lalime and his Buffalo Sabres. Brian Boucher, Johan "The Moose" Hedberg, and Ty Conklin were watching intently.

Since the Islanders won Saturday, I have no good way to end this post. If they lost, I would've said, "Let's hope next weekend's recap isn't as half-hearted and depressing as our collective heroes were this weekend." Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. (Does that make sense?)

Great Win Tonight

So tonight was interesting. Two New York teams playing at home against Canadian opponents, two 2-1 shootout wins for the locals. Zach will be by to tell you more about the Rangers game. As for the Islanders...

 - Zach talked me into buying back into online gambling. So I did. I considered betting the under for this game, which was five goals. I ultimately decided against it and bet the under in tonight's Bills-Browns game, which was said to be played in snowy conditions. The under in that game is 41. It's already 13-7 Cleveland with not a drop of snow on the ground. Uh-oh.

 - Caught the pre-game show tonight... it wasn't bad. Filler-laden, sure, but enjoyable. Two segments stood out to me. The first, obviously, was the Stan Fischler-C.J. Papa segment in which the two spent maybe five seconds talking about the Islanders. They'd go on to repeat this during the intermissions. The other was a segment called "Billy's Breakdown" where Billy Jaffe broke down some film for the viewing audience. What I liked was that he didn't pick the scoring plays. Instead, he picked the plays people don't really notice, but can be disastrous if done incorrectly. Tonight's theme was breakouts from the defensive zone, which is harder than it seems. Jaffe also scores points with me for doing NHL Live during the afternoon and still doing the game at night. That's hardcore.

 - The Isles came out jittery, but started to get it together by the end of the first. The second and third periods showed how good defensive hockey can be. Like Zach said the other night, defensive battles are great, and hockey has better defensive-minded games than any other sport. Joey MacDonald is the obvious first star of this game, but Andy Sutton played an excellent game as well. It's no coincidence the Islanders have gotten their act together since Sutton's return. Here's a stat you might not be aware of - since Sutton came back on October 30, the Islanders have only played two games (out of nine) in which they haven't either won or held a third-period lead.

 - The stat I just mentioned doesn't just reflect well on Sutton, but on the whole team. Everyone loves to dump on the Islanders - more on this later - but the truth is the Isles have been extremely competitive so far in November. This team is starting to figure out what it is. It's certainly not the best team, but it plays hard. It gets ahead early, often loses its way, but is starting to learn how to come back and play a good third period. Three wins in a row is a big deal for a team most people picked for last in the entire league.

 - As well as the Islanders are playing, I still have to question some of Scott Gordon's decisions. Namely, how on earth Jeff Tambellini gets a regular shift in overtime. You really want to throw out a minus-six player out there in overtime? I don't get that one. Nor do I see the logic in giving Josh Bailey a try in the shootout. Had he scored his first NHL goal already, that'd be one thing. But to take an 18-year-old who's trying to figure out the NHL game, trying to get his firsts out of the way, and throw him in there against a top-three goaltender? That's asking a lot. I guess Gordon is still trying to figure out who his go-to shootout guys are. The only player to participate in both Islanders shootouts this year is Trent Hunter - and he missed both of his attempts.

 - Throughout the game, the announcers mentioned the boasts of the Vancouver media that this would be an easy two points for the Canucks. As the game progressed, the announcers became more and more fed up with these remarks. Finally, Howie Rose sardonically remarked after Joey MacDonald's final save, "The all-knowing Vancouver media has some explaining to do!" Look, homerism is a turn-off for a lot of people. For Islanders fans? I think we kind of need that. It's not as though there are a ton of people proudly boasting Islanders merchandise. I wore an Islanders shirt to Saturday overtime last week, and a Rangers fan asked me, "You wear that (bleep) in public?" So yeah. I'll take a broadcast crew that gets behind my team as opposed to one that calls it right down the middle, at least as far as the Islanders are concerned.

As for the articles in question, here's one I found, entitled "Islanders Look Like Team in Oldtimers League".  But I did find this blog, which did your typical "Hockey's in trouble on Long Island" post earlier today and ended tonight's coverage with this nugget: "Canucks lose after scoring in the first minute of regulation, beaten by a career minor-league goalie named Joey MacDonald. Not very good..."

If you've ever wondered why Islanders fans have such a complex about their team, it's because we have to read crap like this pretty much all the time. It kind of gets old after a while. When the Rangers were awful, people made fun of them for spending a lot of money. Nobody said New York City didn't deserve a hockey franchise. Even if it's hard to dispute the facts about the state of the Islanders, it hurts to hear about it so often. Especially from the uninformed Canadian media, who are never wrong about anything. Just ask them.

One last thing about the Canucks, who have been to the playoffs just as many times as the Islanders since the lockout: They stole the Islanders' promotional slogan from last season.

I was happy the Islanders got their two points tonight. But I think I'm even happier that the Isles got to stick it to the media. Something tells me they're going to be in this sort of position a lot this year. But if the first two weeks of November are any indication, the Islanders won't be nearly as bad as many of us feared. I can think of a lot of teams who wouldn't mind taking 11 out of 18 points in November.

Next game is Friday in New Jersey. I'll be making the trip out to The Rock for the game. It probably won't be a very sober one. In any event, it'll be a fun trip to the most wonderful arena that nobody goes to.

Coach Switch...

Considering how often Tom Renney switches up lines when they are clicking (Zherdev-Dubinsky-Voros, Drury-Callahan-Dawes, Gomez-Naslund, Cullen-Prucha-Ortmeyer), why does he never switch the power play lines up?

How many times last year did Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan not score before he started throwing Petr Prucha out there? Oh, he didn't switch them up. This year, it's been Drury-Gomez-Naslund-Redden-Rozsival the whole year for about 80 seconds, then they lose the puck, and Zherdev, Dubinsky, and others take their place with 30 seconds to score.

Blair Betts technically has scored more times than Chris Drury, yet Drury goes out time and again to swipe at pucks and miss. (I saw "technically" because while they both have 2 goals, one of Drury's was barely a goal and he hardly touched it before it deflected in from behind the net.) Rozsival has one PP goal. In tonight's game against the Islanders (currently in the 3rd period), he has been responsible for more SH goals than that. Embarrassing.

Am I saying Betts is the answer? Obviously not. But why not have Nik Zherdev, Brandon Dubinsky, and Aaron Voros get a crack at it? Prucha would love some PP time. So would Ryan Callahan.

For Pete's sake (not Prucha's), Joey MacDonald is a career backup goaltender who the Rangers are making look like Dominik Hasek, not the guy who backed him up for 8 games in Detroit two years ago. They are making him look like an All-Star with their low angle shots that go right into the crest on his jersey. 

10-3-1, 10-4-1, 11-3-1, 10-3-2, whatever they end up after tonight, their power play is atrocious and while Renney keeps telling reporters he's going to change things, I'm very skeptical about it.

Rangers 4, Islanders 2: A Live Report

It's a fun tradition in my life. Every time someone buys me tickets to a sporting event for my birthday, things usually go horribly wrong. For my 25th birthday two years ago, my brother got me tickets to Game 7 of the Mets-Cardinals NLCS. A crushing ninth-inning home run ended the Mets' season. The next year, my brother got me tickets to the Mets-Marlins season finale, which was interesting for all of ten minutes before Tom Glavine secured the Mets' ticket to collapse immortality. This year, I told my brother to put the kibosh on sports tickets. But that didn't stop my friend Leslie, she of the half-season ticket plan, from offering me a game for free for my birthday. Ignoring my previous history with birthday tickets and the heartbreak that inevitably follows, I chose tonight's Islanders-Rangers game.

Whoops.

The evening started out innocently enough. Unfortunately, there wasn't time for parking lot hockey or pre-game boozing, but there was time for Checkers. We brought it to the parking lot, where we saw an obscene amount of Ranger jerseys. Uh-oh. Fortunately, a car of Islander fans pulled up next to us. They brought Coors Light, a weak choice, but I had to let it slide. Even when they drilled my car with the football they were throwing around, I was totally fine. After all, one of them had an old-school wavy jersey, just like the one I was wearing. I went with my Zigmund Palffy throwback; Leslie wore her Trent Hunter RBK Edge jersey.

We headed into the Coliseum, still aghast at the number of Ranger jerseys we saw on the way in. Immediately upon entering, we were handed a pamphlet full of Islanders propaganda along with a flyer showing the team's new third jersey, which had just been unveiled about 90 minutes prior. I got a press release in my e-mail from Corey Witt, but I ended up getting an even better view of the jersey...

Clearly, this was going to be a good night.

We decided to head down for warmups, something Zach got me into doing when we went to an Islanders-Coyotes game last year. The first goalie we saw was Yann Danis, which was a pretty clear sign that Rick DiPietro wouldn't be playing. Warmups were fun enough, but even more entertaining were the scores of bad jerseys I saw throughout the Coliseum. Particularly notable jerseys included, but were not limited to: Garth Snow, Mattias Weinhandl, Chris Simon (Islanders), and Dan Blackburn. There were some impressive ones too, including Rich Pilon, Aaron Voros, and Henrik Lundqvist's Swedish league jersey.

Finally, it was gametime. Much of the crowd hadn't found their seats by the time Chris Drury opened up the scoring with his first goal just 56 seconds into the game. But the Islanders ended up being the better team for much of the first period, with Kyle Okposo's goal being pretty much the first thing he's done all season for the Islanders. After the first period, we headed down to Knucklehead's at Gate 20. The former Dom's Deli locations are now called Knuckleheads, serve a variety of exotic beers (including Bluepoint), and have tables and a nice atmosphere. I ended up going with a Sly Fox Pilsner, which wasn't all that great; fortunately, the pretzel twist that went with it was exquisite. I swear, there is no better arena snack in the entire world than the Nassau Coliseum pretzel twist.

We got back to our seats just in time for the second period, which was pretty uneventful. It was nice to see a fight between these two teams. Even though it wasn't the best fight, it was something to get things going. After the second, we watched the in-arena entertainment, which quite honestly sucked. The new arena interviewer asked Mike Comrie perhaps the dumbest question of all time: "What do you need to do in the third period to tie up the game?" Um, how about, SCORE A GOAL?!? The insanity didn't end there, as there's now a thing where you can text anything you want to some number and the text appears on the scoreboard. Leslie's text ("Marry Me, Hilbert!") appeared on the scoreboard; my text ("Buy a pretzel twist") didn't. You could also vote on which song the Islanders would come out to as the third period began. All three choices were pretty cliche choices, as was pretty much all the rest of the music we heard tonight. Or, at least, that music which wasn't of the emo persuasion. Ugh.

Anyway, the third period told the story of the game. It also shed some light on the significant gap between the two teams. Though they performed admirably for the first 40 minutes, the Islanders just didn't have what it takes to hang with the Rangers for a full 60 minutes. Even before taking a ton of dumb penalties, the Islanders didn't show a great deal in the third. The Islander fans in attendance, on the other hand, did show quite a bit in the third period, resulting in a number of fights in the crowd. These proved to be more entertaining than the game. Of particular note during the Islanders' denoument was the time the Islanders gave the Rangers a five-on-three, resulting in a Chris Drury goal just moments later. But to me, the moment that told the story was when Aaron Voros nearly beheaded Jack Hillen by dumping him into the boards. Bill Guerin immediately jumped all over Voros, knocking him to the ground and punching him. Honestly, Guerin probably deserved a fight instigator and game misconduct, but it never happened. What's important, though, is that nobody else bothered to defend Hillen. The game ended without incident and, thanks to Scott Gordon waiting until there were ten seconds left to pull Joey MacDonald, the Islanders never stood a real chance of coming back.

(NOTE: Zach informs me that the Islanders were trying to get MacDonald over to bench for some time, only MacDonald wasn't paying attention and only got the message when the Islanders started banging on the boards. To be honest, I'm not sure which is worse - MacDonald not paying attention, or Gordon taking way too long to pull the goalie for like the fifth game in a row. Whichever truth you believe, it's not good.)

That Guerin/Voros play was the key to the game. Here, you have your captain and a leading scorer from last year fighting the physical battles, the kind of things your enforcer should be doing. And that's the Islanders' problem. They don't have any purely physical forces to intimidate the opposition. They also don't have a sniper that changes the way opponents organize their defenses. The Islanders aren't just a young team, they're a young team with no identity. They should look at their rivals and learn some hard lessons about life in the NHL. You need to be able to play every style in order to be a successful team. The Rangers can plug in size if they need size, speed if they need speed. Tonight, the Rangers sensed that the Islanders didn't have the horses to play the physical game these teams usually play, so they threw Petr Prucha in there. Not that Prucha made the difference or anything, but it shows the difference between these two teams. One team can give a number of different looks; the other can only hope to play their "system", whatever that is.

Leaving the Coliseum, we talked about all of these things while simultaneously noting that these Islanders-Rangers games are sort of getting old. We estimated an approximate 60-40 split, with the Rangers' faithful being the dominant group. Now, most times, road team fans keep to themselves and stick to cheering for their team. Not so with Ranger fans. They stuck it to Islander fans every chance they got, which is the fan's reward for winning. Still, it's annoying to come out, support your team against their biggest rivals, and get crapped all over for doing so. This whole "Garden East" reputation isn't going anywhere until the Islanders get better, which could take a while. I guess it's just another thing us Islander fans are going to have to deal with.

After the game was over, I head to Miller Ale House to watch Monday Night Football with some friends. While at the Ale House, I saw a ton of Islanders and Rangers shirts, jerseys, and hats. Maybe hockey isn't dead after all. That sort of made me happy.

The rest of the night? Not so much. Tonight served as a sobering reminder that the Islanders are light years behind the Rangers and that Ranger fans by far outnumber Islander fans on Long Island. But hey, if you're an Islander fan, it can't get much worse. You're fifteen points behind the Rangers. They have the best record in the league; you have the worst. You've already hit rockbottom in October, so the coming months should only bring better things. And if you're a Ranger fan, you might dismiss tonight's game as "only" a victory over the Islanders. But you also went on the road and beat a team that always plays you tough. You outlasted their best efforts and not only found a way to win, but to win convincingly. That's impressive.

So Round 1 of this season's rivalry goes to the Rangers. Congratulations, Ranger fans. I guess.

On that note, I'm going to go drink some more. I leave you with this question. Suppose Joey MacDonald, after taking a slapshot off his mask, ended up with a concussion and had to miss some time. Would the Islanders still publicly proclaim his concussion as an "undisclosed injury"?

Just Throwing It Out There...

We all know the double standard that the media has when it comes to the Islanders. Just about everything the Islanders do is roundly bashed by the media. I know, I know, a lot of teams get bashed by the media. But when it comes to the Islanders, it's almost done with contempt. Like the Islanders can't just do something wrong without being called the laughingstock of the NHL, an organization in disarray, or whatever clever nicknames are out there. For example, when the Blackhawks fired Denis Savard last week, people were surprised, but nobody went out of their way to bash the organization the way they did when Ted Nolan was fired. Just the same, the Canucks named Roberto Luongo as their captain and people sort of shrugged their shoulders. Had that been Rick DiPietro, we'd never hear the end of it.

It's another controversial issue with DiPietro that I've been thinking about. Of course, that'd be his fifteen-year contract. Now, I've defended it for the most part, mainly because I think it's a good idea to lock up a player at below-market value for the prime of his career. But the other day, I heard a viewpoint I'd never considered.

Those of us who have Sirius Satellite Radio have access to a show called Hockey Night in Canada. It's not quite NHL Live, but it's good. They always have players and hockey personalities on the air. So last week, they had Craig Simpson on the show. Simpson, of course, is a former Oiler, the host of Hockey Academy on the NHL Network, and is also the color commentator for Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. The topic of the Islanders came up, and Simpson brought up perhaps the best point yet on the DiPietro contract issue.

This is what he said. Rick DiPietro has proven himself to be, at least on some level, injury prone. He's going to need a capable backup in case of injury. However, if you're a young goalie in the Islanders organization, what's your motivation to go to the next level? With DiPietro's contract, you have no chance of ever starting over him. In other words, if you're Joey MacDonald, what's your motivation to prove your worth to the Islanders? And if you're the Islanders, do you really want to bring in twelve backup goalies over the next twelve years?

I know it's not really relevant at this point. But it certainly intrigued me. And from either perspective, when looked at in this way, the deal is hard to defend.

Discuss.