Are We Safe?

After tonight's loss to the Wild, the Islanders have 56 points in 73 games. They're eight points clear of Colorado and Tampa Bay, each of whom have played 73 games as well. Atlanta has 66 points in 74 games; they're not catching the Islanders. Nor are the Coyotes, even though they've won like five games in 2009. So, in essence, it's a three-team race for the first overall pick.

The Islanders and Lightning play a proverbial "4-point game" on April 4th at the Coliseum. It'll be interesting to see how the fans respond to that game if things are still in doubt. Quite frankly, I don't think they will be. Aside from the Lightning, the Islanders have road games against Detroit, Washington, Carolina and Pittsburgh, and home games against Philadelphia (twice), Montreal and Boston. That's a lot of playoff teams. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay has games against Ottawa and Atlanta on the docket, while Colorado still has to play Phoenix and a Dallas team that could be out of contention by the time they play on April 9th.

Long story short? It's looking good. Still, we must remember that these are the Islanders we're talking about; NOTHING comes easy. That said, I've already requested a personal day on April 14th to recover from the excessive drinking that will surely come after the Draft Lottery. We can only hope it'll be celebratory drinking, not despair drinking. But hey, even if Tampa Bay wins the Lottery, they're likely to choose Victor Hedman. So, if the Islanders have the worst record and lose the lottery to the Lightning, they may land John Tavares after all.

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Tonight's game was a bit frustrating. The Islanders dominated the first period, which ended in quite the fracas. And it's possible that the kerfluffle inspired the Wild to wake up and start playing. It probably had more to do with the Wild's goal with just a minute left in the first, but however you slice it, the Isles were outplayed in the final two periods. Hey, it happens, especially against a team fighting for its playoff lives.

But tonight's game was also inspiring. It seemed like once the Wild got comfortably ahead, they wanted to coast to the finish. The Islanders wouldn't let them. It was great to see guys like Blake Comeau and Kyle Okposo assert themselves physically; the only unfortunate part is that Okposo didn't throw down for the first time in his NHL career. Even so, the game proved to be quite the chippy tete-a-tete, the kind nobody thought they'd see between two teams that never play each other. In the middle of all of this was a Wild player named Cal Clutterbuck, a rookie who's proven quite adept at antagonizing pretty much everyone. Last night, he fought Sean Avery. Tonight, he was in the face of every Islander. He's a keeper.

It's always better to see teams play against the teams directly competing with them for playoff position. But this game proved to be a fun one. Or, at least, as much fun as the Wild and Jacques Lemaire will allow. The final eight of the East is almost sewn up. The West has a lot to be resolved in terms of playoff teams and playoff positioning. It's cool to be a part of that. But as for the Islanders' struggle for the first overall pick... it might very well be over.

NOTE: Colorado is getting killed 5-0 by Anaheim - at home, no less - in the second period. Thanks for showing up, guys.

Rare MSG Guests: Minnesota Wild...

The last time the Rangers played the Minnesota Wild, it was a disastrous occasion that culminated in Marion Gaborik scoring 5 goals and being desperately fed the puck for a sixth goal that never actually happened. That was December 2007 in Minnesota.

Tonight's game (on Versus, don't forget) marks only the 3rd time since the lockout that these two teams are going to meet. It's the second time since then that the Wild will be at Madison Square Garden.

As it happens, I will be at tonight's game (thankfully, so I won't have to watch the Versus telecast... someone please inform me who the Bud Light Drinkability Player of the Game is). And as it happened, I was at MSG the last time, as well.

Since that game was in December 2005, let me remind you how it went down...

... Dwayne Roloson was in net for Minnesota. He nearly won a Cup later that season with Edmonton.

... Henrik Lundqvist had just starting playing regularly when Kevin Weekes got injured in November.

... Petr Prucha (remember him?) had 2 power play goals, his 8th and 9th goals of the season.

... Martin Rucinsky had 3 assists.

... Martin Straka scored the other Rangers goal (an empty-netter)

... Future and former Ranger Pascal Dupuis scored the lone goal for Minnesota. Alexandre Daigle (remember him?!) had an assist during his short-lived comeback tour.

... Mikko Koivu, far and away the team's leading point-getter this year, was a healthy scratch. he will miss tonight's game as well with a knee injury.

... And my $36 seats in Section 333 are now closer to $60.

* * *

It doesn't matter if the Rangers win tonight in regulation, overtime, or the shootout, so long as they win. Giving an extra point to Minnesota doesn't hurt them at all, they just need 2 themselves.

The Wild sit in 10th place. Two points tonight puts them tentatively in 8th place, as Nashville and Anaheim will have a game in hand.

Both teams desperately need a win tonight, the Wild maybe a little more, so I expect a pretty fast moving game. It should be more like last season's game as opposed to the 2005 Neutral Trap Game I witnessed.

NHL Playoffs, Day 1: Unbiased Thoughts

Finally, the second season has begun. And even the hockey haters at ESPN have taken notice... sort of. Next to the humongous ad for The Masters (which just happens to be on ESPN for the first time this year), a tiny box appears with links to tonight's scores. Better than nothing, I guess.

Anyway, these are unbiased thoughts. Why? Because apart from my desire for the Devils to fall flat on their faces as soon as possible, I'm watching these playoffs as a neutral observer. Honestly, it's more fun this way... though I suspect an Islanders playoff run might be more enjoyable. I also suspect I won't be finding out anytime soon.

Let's take a trip through the games. At every arena, an NHL logo appears behind each goal and the Stanley Cup Playoffs logo is just inside of both blue lines, where we saw "Thank You Fans!" just two years ago. I guess this is clarification for those fans who thought they were watching the Super Bowl. Away we go...

- Rangers 4, Devils 1. I got to see all of this game. While it wasn't pure, beautiful playoff hockey, it was entertaining to watch. And I was very impressed with this Rangers team.

Once they settled in, the Rangers played a very smart game. They did everything they needed to do. They were physical, but not overly tough like the Devils tried to be. They were aggressive on special teams - both on the powerplay and shorthanded. Most of all, though, it seemed apparent that the Rangers just wanted it more.

On the Devils' first power play, the Rangers had four shorthanded shots, while the Devils didn't get a single shot on goal with the man advantage. That was a sign of things to come. Sean Avery and Scott Gomez were literally all over the ice. Martin Straka, of all people, lost his stick on a penalty kill and was flopping all over the ice to block the puck. That the Devils scored their only goal seconds later doesn't take away the effort, which was there all night.

Devils fans are going to say the Rangers got lucky tonight, and they have a pretty good argument. The Devils hit the crossbar three times. The Rangers' second goal was scored because Martin Brodeur was too busy counting sheep to cover up the puck when Ryan Callahan came charging in. The third goal bounced off Sergei Brylin's skate and to Sean Avery, who just happened to be crashing the net at the right time. It also didn't hurt that Gomez blew right by four Devils, all of whom just waved at Gomez instead of trying to stop him. In the end, you make your own luck, and the Rangers got themselves into a position to take advantage of the lucky breaks they received. The Devils can't say the same.

If I were a Devils fan - and I'm not, thank goodness - I'd be embarrassed. The breakdown of The Rock tonight was at least 50-50, and if the fans favored one side over the other, the Rangers had more supporters. The Devils didn't show up in their first home playoff game in their new arena. There's no excuse for that. They will probably put forth a better show on Friday, but is it going to be enough to trump a motivated and inspired Rangers team? That's a tough one.

- Penguins 4, Senators 0. Thanks to a solid effort by the Mets, I didn't have to check in on their game, which meant I could focus my attention on this game. Versus HD had been screwy during the first two periods, so I couldn't check in very often. Of course, by the time I got to this game, it was already over.

However, I did get to see Ottawa's failed attempts at flexing its "muscle". First, one of the Senators (maybe Wade Redden) dumped Crosby in the corner. The Senator went down... Crosby emerged with the puck. After the whistle, Crosby and this unidentified Senator were throwing haymakers with their gloves on. Seconds later, Ryan Whitney absolutely pummelled Redden (yes, it was definitely him) in a mismatch. Three minutes later, Gary Roberts dumped Chris Neil into the boards. Now, we all know Roberts is no stranger to drilling opposing players head-first into the boards (remember Kenny Jonsson?), but Neil is an abhorrent player. Roberts got a fighting major and a game misconduct by the time the ensuing scrap ended, but he was yapping all the way off the ice. Ottawa tried its best to intimidate Pittsburgh physically... and it didn't work. Let the record state - Pittsburgh owns Ottawa in every way.

Oh, and Marc-Andre Fleury got the shutout.

- Avalanche 2, Wild 0 (2nd intermission). This game wasn't even advertised on the channel information for Center Ice - not exactly a ringing endorsement. This is a unique series - and by "unique", I mean that I'm curious to see how it plays out, but I don't actually want to watch any of it. Admittedly, I've seen very little of this game, but I'm not too curious to watch any more of it. Maybe it's because it's not available in HD and the first two games were. I think I'm just inclined to avoid the Wild because Jacques Lemaire coaches them. Lemaire is wearing a pretty nice suit tonight, though - he looks like the Russian politician guy in Rocky IV.

- Flames 2, Sharks 1 (1st intermission). Now this is a game I can sink my teeth into. The Sharks have been one of my favorite teams to watch all year, and the Flames are a good match-up for them. Unfortunately, we don't get the excellent Sharks broadcast on CSN, but instead we're stuck with the CBC feed. Oh well.

It didn't take long for this game to get going. Calgary scored first on a deflection, then scored a second shortly after. Within ten minutes of the opening faceoff, the Sharks had pulled within one. The Sharks seem to have controlled play for the most part, but Calgary isn't out of any game with Mikka Kiprusoff in goal. They're not going to be intimidated by the Sharks - that's one thing Mike Keenan will always give you.

Of all the games we've seen tonight, this is the one game that has a chance of coming down to the wire. This looks like a fun one. You sort of wish Calgary had more offensive firepower so we could see a real barnburner, but this game is going to be all sorts of intense as it progresses.

Maybe this hasn't been the greatest night of playoff hockey we've ever seen. But I sure am glad the playoffs are here. Who knows what the rest of tonight has in store for us?