Been Busy...

I apologize for not writing more about our beloved Rangers, but between working very long days, going to a wedding yesterday, being hungover today, and running back and forth between the bank and the GMC dealership, I haven't had any free time to watch hockey, much less write about it.

Okay, that's being dramatic. I did miss all of the game against Minnesota, but I caught the first 2 periods of the Bruins game before I had to leave for work Sunday afternoon.

I'll be back sometime later tonight, probably around 1 in the morning, after I watch the Canucks/Rangers game on TiVo.

In the meantime, a very happy birthday to Islanders' Writer Bryan, who turns Colton Orr's number today.

Please Pardon Our Appearance While We Remodel

If you've visited this site over the past few days, you might notice a new layout. If you've come here multiple times over the past few days, you might have seen multiple new layouts. We're trying to find a new layout because we were both tired of looking at the old one. Zach might have found one that works. We'll see how it goes. But, in case you were wondering about the ever-changing look of The Rivalry... it's a work in progress.

Rangers-Capitals is on MSG tonight. Enjoy the game. I'll be posting my season preview tonight or tomorrow. No, I will not predict a Rangers-Sharks final for the third straight year.

Any Publishers Out There?...

As a 25-year old male (I am hesitant to ever refer to myself as a "man") with great taste in movies, it was only natural that I would see Julie & Julia on opening weekend.

Apparently in real life, this girl cooked like 500 Julia Child recipes in 365 days, made a blog about it, and it got turned into a movie and now a book. This girl, played by a short-haired, emo-dressing Amy Adams, wasn't very interesting, and her writing didn't seem to be particularly good.

That said, this website does not call itself a blog, though we might seem like that to the naked eye. See, we have an actual URL. You don't have to go to http://www.nyhockeyrivalry.blogspot.com to get to this site (although you can, and your destination will be here). Me and Bryan - uh, Bryan and I - are both talented writers. He loves writing about video games and floundering hockey teams, while anyone who knew me and high school and college can tell you I like writing about bank robberies, people who kill themselves at the end of a journey, and hockey teams on the playoff bubble. In real life, we're both smart and quirky. Okay, I don't know what quirky means, but I'm compassionate, and I often seek out blind men just to walk them across busy intersections. (True story: actually once helped an old man cross the street. A saint? No, but it was lovely.)

So, if any publishers are out there reading this, feel free to email me. Okay, so some of our material is time-sensitive, but we can work out a deal.

And if no one is interested in turning this website into a book then a movie (starring Jonah Hill as both Bryan and me in an career-making role), then I do write sports stories. I have a great one about a former Rookie of the Year who made nearly a million dollars last year. He gets arrested for beating up a cab driver over 20 cents. Far-fetched, I know.

How Good Are Predictions, Part II...

Each year, I write down a bunch of predictions from "industry experts," just to see how close they are. I also write down mine to compare. Last September, I posted the results on this page. I figured that we have some off-days now between playoff rounds, and since both local teams (and even the Devils) are out, why not do this post now as opposed to September.

Last year, for the record, ESPN, Newsday's Steve Zipay, and I all had 24 points. The big winner was Dwayne Kessel, aka "Eklund," from some Internet site that spouts "rumors," with 27 points.

This year, the combatants are once again Eklund, and myself. Joining the mix are Newsday's Mark Herrman, Sports Illustrated, and our Islanders' writer Bryan. Representing a once-anonymous ESPN will be E.J. Hradek.

(Scoring: 1 point for having a team correctly missing or making the playoffs; 2 points for predicting their exact position in the Conference.)

6th Place
I am sadly bringing up the rear on this campaign. A few gambles that I took (Tampa Bay winning the Southeast, Devils missing the playoffs, Colorado winning the Northwest, Edmonton and Phoenix making the playoffs) didn't exactly pan out. In fact, of 30 positions in the NHL, the only one I hit on the nose was Minnesota at 9th in the West. Sad, sad, sad predicting. I even had the Islanders coming in 14th in the East, ahead of Atlanta. I actually only predicted 1 division winner (Detroit, 1st in the West). It also appears my Dallas versus either Montreal or the Rangers in the Finals won't happen. In fact, I even said that Sean Avery would be sipping from the Stanley Cup this June.
19 points

5th Place
I shouldn't feel so bad, though. E.J. Hradek, who works for ESPN and hosts NHL Live on XM and the NHL Network, only beat me by 3 points. He only predicted 2 division winners (Red Wings and Capitals). The also picked the Devils to miss the playoffs, as well as Boston, both of whom won their division. He predicted Edmonton to win the Northwest. I still think my Colorado prediction was better! His bold prediction of Detroit over Pittsburgh in the Finals still can happen, though.
23 points

4th Place
Newcomer Mark Herrman, subbing for Zipay this year, ended in 4th. He nailed the Rangers in 7th, but that's about it. He picked 3 division winners, all in the wrong order (Washington, Detroit, San Jose). Dallas winning the Pacific instead of San Jose was his downfall. His Detroit prediction for the Cup Finals looks good, but Montreal will not be joining them. Better luck next year.
23 points

3rd Place
The bronze medal goes to an anonymous person at Sports Illustrated, who nailed 3 spots dead-on (Atlanta, 13th; Islanders, 15th; Nashville, 10th). They predicted 2 divison winners (Washington, Detroit), but 2 of their choices for the division didn't make the tournament (Minnesota, Dallas). SI did correctly choose 7 of 8 Eastern conference playoff teams, a feat only duplicated by Bryan. Their folly: Ottawa at 8th, Carolina at 9th.
26 points

2nd Place
Our own Bryan had a very strong showing, hitting 5 spots correctly (Capitals, 2nd; Philadelphia, 5th; Atlanta, 13th; his beloved Islanders, 15th; Edmonton, 11th in West). He had 4 division winners. His two misses: Penguins to win the Atlantic and Calgary to win the Northwest. His only East playoff team to miss was Tampa Bay, whom he predicted to come in 7th. They ended 14th, and his 14th team, Carolina, came in 6th. Not bad for a rookie, although his Finals prediction of San Jose hoisting the Cup at Madison Square Garden will not happen. Hey, much like his Islanders, there's always next year.
27 points!

1st Place
It pains me, but that Eklund guy from that website again won our competition. His Eastern conference wasn't that great: his only 2-point play was Washington in 2nd, and he picked the Devils and Carolina to miss the playoffs while putting Ottawa and Buffalo in. But he made up for it in the West, correctly guessing the final positions of San Jose, Detroit, Chicago, Calgary, and Nashville. He did pick Edmonton to win their division instead of Vancouver, but he was one of only two (with Hradek) to pick Vancouver in the playoffs. He also was the only person to think San Jose would win the West, as the other 5 of us picked Detroit 1st in the conference. However, his long-term thinking is off: Both the Habs and Sharks lost in the 1st round and will not meet up in June.
28 points

Terms of the Bet...

Bryan and I have made a bet regarding post-season predictions. The loser will have to donate $100 to charity. If I win, then Bryan will give his money to the Rangers' charity, Garden of Dreams. And if Islanders fan Bryan wins, I will donate my money the the Islanders' Children's Foundation.

- One point will be awarded if a series is correctly predicted.
- One additional point will be awarded if the winner is predicted as well as the correct number of games.
- One additional point will be awarded if the winner is predicted and it is an upset (lower-ranked team beating a higher-ranked team).

For example, if Detroit wins in 5, Bryan gets 1 point. If Detroit wins in 6, he gets 2. If Columbus wins in 5, I get 2 points, and if they win in 6 I get 3 points (one for the win, one for correct games, one for being an upset).

If I remember correctly, I got destroyed last year.

Here's hoping for a better post-season, for me and my team.

The Rivalry on the Radio...

Check out this link to hear us on CW Post's radio station discussing hockey.

Bryan is the one who talks very quietly. I'm the one who sounds like a robot who's smoking a cigar. And the host, Tony, is the one who sounds like the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.

Battle Of The Blogosphere, Round 2

Some of you may remember we were part of a contest at The NHL Arena called The Battle Of The Blogosphere a while back. We took on a formidable blog called Ranger Pundit. At the time, we were just happy to be there, but much to our surprise, we ended up taking it to the Pundit. Which was awesome, because that's a pretty good blog. The final score: The Rivalry 15, Ranger Pundit 7. If this were a seven-game series, we'd have won in six games.

As we skate down the handshake line with the Pundit, we are presented with our second-round challenge. This is Scarlett Ice, an Ottawa Senators blog. Like this fine blog, it's a blog written by two writers; unlike this fine blog, both of them are Senators fans. One of them, Dany Heatley Speedwagon, frequents the comments section of Deadspin, which is always a good thing. They do a pretty good job over there - hey, if they can support the Senators in this awful season they're having, they deserve a look.

You can make your opinion known at The NHL Arena, a quality forum for hockey talk. I haven't gotten to post on the Islanders forum in a while, but it's a great place; I cannot recommend it enough. Feel free to check out Scarlett Ice as well as The NHL Arena. Thanks.

Barry Melrose

By now, everyone has heard Barry Melrose's infamous soundbites in which he went off on his former team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. A lot of people are saying he's bitter about being fired; I'm sure that's certainly part of it. But the other part is that he seems to be right about everything.

Imagine for a second you got fired from your job. How would you feel? Would you wish your company the best? Would you hope your successor does a better job? Of course not! You'd pray for that company to go into bankruptcy and curse the person that takes your old position. So why is it not okay for Barry Melrose to say he hopes the Lightning don't win another game all year?

On Hockey Night in Canada on Sirius yesterday, one of the hosts was talking about how people complain when players and coaches aren't honest, yet those same people are the first to rip someone who's candid. And they're exactly right. When the Islanders parted ways with Ted Nolan, I didn't want to hear all this lovey-dovey crap about how it was a "mutual decision" and how each wished the other luck. I wanted the truth. Here's a situation where the truth is being laid out right before us, and people would rather criticize Barry Melrose for speaking his mind than consider what he's saying. Because the evidence is mounting that he wasn't far off at all.

The Lightning, picked by many to be the annual worst-to-first team in the East, have lost eight games in overtime/shootout this season. This suggests that the Lightning aren't as bad as their record indicates. However, since Rick Tocchett replaced Melrose, the Lightning have won only one game. More than that, Tocchett is getting fed up himself, suggesting that any player who is not ready to play will find himself in the press box. Sure, every coach says that, but Tocchett is getting what could be his only chance as a head coach, and he's not going to let the players ruin it for him. So when Melrose made his comments to ESPN immediately after being fired that he didn't get the effort he expected from his team and followed that up by saying he only cared about a handful of players on his team, he might have sounded bitter. That is, until you realize that Tocchett is going through the same thing.

The moral of the story? Be thankful you're not a Lightning fan. Even us Islanders fans can feel secure that our team isn't as messed up as the team in Tampa Bay. Oh, and if the media is going to criticize the Islanders for giving Rick DiPietro a 15-year deal every time he pulls a muscle, maybe it's time to start calling out Tampa's own "lifetime contract" man, Vincent Lecavalier, for not doing something to stop the chaos on his team.

***

Some real quick self-promotional stuff. Yes Islanders is doing a Best Islanders Blog poll and we're one of the nominees. We don't expect to come close to winning this thing, but it's pretty cool to be considered. Feel free to go to the site and vote. They've also provided us with a neat little banner which can be found on the right side of the page. We'll also be part of the running when The NHL Arena starts Round 2 of its Battle of the Blogosphere sometime soon.

Lastly, I'll be guest blogging at Puck The Media on Friday in case anybody is interested in stopping by.

New Banner, Same Old Islanders

Our friend Kristine came through once again with a new banner. This time, we didn't even have to ask for it. The old banner, which prominently featured Sean Avery, unfortunately became outdated on July 2nd. Not only is this one current, but it also looks even better than the old one did. We would like to publicly thank her for her efforts, as well as for putting up with hours of hockey talk she probably couldn't care less about.

As for the Islanders. Last night, I told Zach he could bet on the Islanders with confidence. After all, they were playing a horrible team in Florida. Rick DiPietro returned. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a bit, apparently.

I know the statsheet says that the Islanders lost by only two goals and were outshot by only five. But that was quite the egg they laid last night. It didn't seem like they were ever a threat to an awful Panthers team who let up six goals to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. You could say that the Panthers were "up" for the Islanders, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Despite being down by two goals, the Islanders managed just six shots in the third period. It's also worth noting that Florida only had seven. Now, some might say that's good, because it meant the Panthers weren't scoring again. But to me, it shows a stubborn refusal to open the game up when it needs to be opened up. That one's on the coaches.

If you're looking for positives, there were a few to be had. DiPietro seemed pretty solid in net and recovered well from letting up a goal in the first minute of the game. That's hard to do. Also, for those of us who worried about the young players not getting any playing time, everyone's playing for this team. With the exception of Nate Thompson, every player played between 11 and 21 minutes. Not bad. But when these are the things you try to reassure yourself with, that's a bad sign.

Still, look at it like this. Five games, four points. Most of us would have taken that before the season started. And even more of us would have taken that if they knew DiPietro would miss the first four games of the season. The truth is, this is the first game the Islanders have lost against a team that's on their level. You can take the losses against New Jersey and Buffalo because those are better teams. It's the games against Florida that you have to win. These are the games where you learn what you're all about so that when the Devils and Sabres come back to town, you can show you've improved. That's what this 2008-09 Islanders season is all about. It's not about winning the Stanley Cup or getting 92 points. It's about learning and about consistent improvement. This is a game where I thought we'd see more than we did. It happens.

Now, the Islanders get a nice five-day break between games to figure out what went wrong. They also get a wonderful test inthe Dallas Stars, a team that many have earmarked for great things this year. Let's hope they learn something in these next four days. This could be the first game I do from the Blog Box, and I'm not really sure what that means, but we should have something fun in store if things go as planned.

Blog Box

So I guess we can talk about this now...

We here at The Rivalry are proud to be among the newest members of the NYI Blog Box. There are a lot of good blogs out there for just about every team; the Islanders were just the team that gave those bloggers the chance to be recognized as, in a sense, team-sanctioned. It's a pretty big thrill for both of us to even be on this level. We started this blog almost eight months ago, not really knowing what we were doing. To come from that to actually being credentialed media? Pretty cool.

I don't really know what happens from here on out. I know I'll get to go to games (unfortunately, we only get one credential) and watch the games from a really good seat. I'll get to meet a lot of the other bloggers who made this thing a success to begin with. I'll get the chance to be in the locker room and even ask questions, though I doubt I'll actually do so. But one thing is for sure - we're not going to go soft or anything. Unless, of course, the Blog Box offers free unlimited pretzel twists. Then we might have a bit of a problem.

Anyway, it's a pretty exciting time here at The Rivalry. The Rangers are 5-0, and while the Islanders might have a tough go of things this year, it'll be interesting to watch them find themselves. And thanks to the Blog Box, we'll get to do so with access we've never had before.

Celebrating Six Months Of Mediocrity

This week, The Rivalry turns six months old.

Hooray for us.

I can still recall when we started this thing up. We were looking at two home-and-home series between the Islanders and Rangers, one in March and one in April. Remember, the Islanders were still very much alive in the playoff picture at this point. We wanted to be up and running by the start of the first series, and we barely made the cutoff. Not that it really mattered - nobody knew who the hell we were at that point.

It took us a while to really get going, but we had some gems early on. I managed to call Kyle Okposo's promotion to the Islanders. Zach managed to call Wade Dubielewicz's departure at season's end. Zach tried to convert me into a Rangers fan; I refused.

And then the playoffs started, and we essentially became a Rangers blog. At least, it did after Zach shouted out the Capitals and I trashed my favorite team. Convinced it'd be the best thing for hockey if the Rangers made a playoff run, I even pledged my allegiance with the enemy. Zach complained about the officiating in the Devils series, and with good reason. Zach also prayed for a Rangers-Flyers playoff so he could eat cheesesteaks, while I wished for a potential Rangers-Penguins ratings bonanza. Zach was the first to grill Ryan Hollweg for blowing the Rangers' season, something I'm sure took a lot of guts, given Zach's status as the sole Ryan Hollweg jersey owner in the Tri-State Area. Zach then proceeded to write a two-sentence live blog of Game 5, followed by a bitter post that very night.

Once the Rangers finished losing to Bettman's Chosen Ones, we focused on the rest of the league. I noted the fifteen-year anniversary of David Volek's vanquishing of the Pens in '93, while Zach talked about American Idol and Point Break. We discussed retired numbers and Stanley Cup celebrations. Zach broke down the upcoming Rangers' season into three parts; I did the same for the Islanders, only in one extremely long post. Speaking of marathon posts, we live-blogged the NHL Entry Draft despite boisterously proclaming we couldn't care less about the Draft.

July 1 came around, and we were all over it with a record eight posts. Zach proclaimed he wouldn't be buying a ticket package next year, only to rescind his boast later on. I wrote about Sean Bergenheim's upcoming (and eventually, averted) arbitration hearing, which would mark the first time I noticed our stuff being ripped off. Ted Nolan got canned, I called them bringing in a minor-league coach to replace him, and Zach reasonably stated that the Isles could be pulling a tank job next year. And, to top off our highest-traffic month yet, we actually got credited with "breaking" news as it related to the Islanders' new third jersey.

August has been a slow month, but we're trying. Zach went to (and returned from) Vegas, while I discussed the Isles' new aimed-to-please ticket plans. We also devoted some time to hockey DVDs and books that we've given our seal of approval. Lastly, the Islanders made a few organizational moves.

So there you have it. Six months of The Rivalry, all summed up into one self-indulgent post. We hope to have as much to be proud of when we hit our one-year anniversary in February. With the season coming up and (hopefully) a trip to the Blog Box on the horizon, there's a lot to be excited about as we approach October. Here's hoping for quality performances by both teams.

Vote For Us!

Over at The NHL Arena, they're doing a little tournament called "Battle Of The Blogosphere". It's a battle of 128 different blogs who will be dueling it out for supremacy. And, as you might have guessed since you're reading about it here, The Rivalry is one of the blogs selected.

The actual home page for the tournament is here. The page where you can vote for us is here. We're up against Ranger Pundit, a Rangers-only blog that gives a more newsy feel than we do. It's pretty good. May the best blog win.

While we're happy to have made the proverbial playoffs (insert your own "Unlike the Islanders" joke here), we'd like to do pretty well with this thing. We don't claim to be experts about anything - we just have fun talking hockey and making fun of each other's (and our own) teams. We're not self-promoting shills, but we think we do a good job here and we'd like to show more people what we're all "aboot".

If you agree, head on over to The NHL Arena and say so. If not, it's all good. Either way, keep an eye on this tournament; there are a lot of really good blogs that nobody knows about because of the low profile of hockey in America. Again, you can vote for us by clicking this link. Thanks for the support.

Islander Draft Thoughts & Site News

Real quick, just wanted to state that we have our own domain now! You can now access The Rivalry at http://www.nyhockeyrivalry.com/. The changeover is, to our knowledge, complete; however, if you have a bookmark at the old Blogspot address, it'll redirect you to the new domain. We also added a Google search that will let you search this site as well as the Web in general. The site isn't totally indexed yet, so it doesn't really work right now, but in time you'll be able to search the site as opposed to searching through our million tags. We just made our hundredth post, and the site is running as smoothly as ever heading into free agency. Hooray for us.

Anyway. Getting to the Islanders' performance at this weekend's Draft. The reason why I don't follow the draft or read the Central Scouting reports is because the truth about any draft is that it takes years to see who really "won". As such, there is no sense getting all worked up about things that are in no way certain. So the Islanders passed on Nikita Filatov for Josh Bailey. Does it really mean anything now? In three years, we can worry about it. I get that Islander fans have been burned in the past and don't want to go down that road again, but there comes a time when you have to have faith in your GM. Now would be a good time to trust in Garth Snow. We're not dealing with grinders and one-year contracts here. Snow hasn't screwed up a draft yet; until he does, he should get the benefit of the doubt.

I, for one, think Snow had the right idea. Get as many picks as possible in a deep draft, then see what happens. If Josh Bailey was really their guy from the beginning, that's wonderful; even if he wasn't, the Islanders were smart to take this approach. Besides, if they hadn't acquired all of the extra picks, the Islanders wouldn't have been able to take a flier on Kirill Petrov. And while Islander fans will point out ad nauseum that Josh Bailey was only the 14th highest-ranked skater in North America, Petrov was actually the second-highest ranked skater in Europe. Not bad. Figure that at least one of these guys will be solid players in the NHL, and if they both make it big, all the better for the Islanders.

Again, it doesn't pay to kill a team for their draft moves right after the draft. So let's allow time to see how right (or wrong) Snow was for trading down. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Besides, if the Islanders have a lousy 2008-09 season, they'll have a shot at John Tavares - and that's one guy the Islanders won't pass up.

State Of The Rivalry

So the season ends badly for both teams. The Islanders never had a chance. The Rangers fell short in a series that easily could have been headed for seven games. As we tend to say in these parts, wait until next year.

As for this blog... well, it's been quite a run so far. We launched just as February ended so we could be live for the March home-and-home between the Isles and Rangers. Since then, we've gotten better, and it seems like it's working. We're nearing our 1000th visitor, which my calculator says means we're getting 500 visitors a month. Not bad at all. To those of us who found us through Zach's promotional efforts on the blogs of Sam Weinman and Steve Zipay, we hope you'll keep us in mind over the summer and as next season starts. And, to everyone else, thanks for coming by and checking us out.

The summer is a pretty dead time for hockey, but we've got some good stuff in store. First, there are two more rounds of playoff hockey, and we'll obviously be watching intently. Then, July 1 rings in free agency. Two months after that, training camps open. So, you see, it's really not all that bad. We'll be here the entire time. We might not know anything about the upcoming NHL Draft, but when the Islanders get spurned yet again in free agency, we'll be here to lament. We also have some other fun stuff in the hopper - reviews of classic games, book reports (we like to read about hockey), so on and so forth. It's going to be fun.

In the meantime, Ranger fans, take advantage of the weather and hit the driving range. You've got some catching up to do; us Islanders have been golfing for a month already.

New Banner

It's good to know people who are competent, as evidenced by our new banner. No longer will you ever have to stare at the garish banner I made in five minutes with extremely limited Photoshop knowledge. Hell, it wasn't even Photoshop; it was some open-source version of the program. Anyway, thanks to our good friend (and closet Rangers fan) Kristine for hooking us up with this. Let's just hope Sean Avery re-signs with the Blueshirts so we don't have to make a new one in two months.