Tom Renney Would Be Proud...

It appears I'm alone over on this website as Islanders Writer Bryan celebrates the birth of Baby #2. He doesn't answer any of his texts, no matter how funny I am, or how hilarious the picture I send him is. And no, rumors the baby being named Avery Henrika are greatly blown out of proportion.

Without further ado...

4 Reasons I Think Tom Renney Was Coaching Tonight's Game vs. San Jose Instead of John Tortorella...

1) The first clue I had that Mr. Renney was behind the bench and not Mr. Tortorella was that Steve Valiquette wasn't pulled after the 4th goal was given up. Mr. Tortorella would have put in Henrik Lundqvist at that point, regardless of whose fault the goal was. He would have switched goalies to wake his team up. This inkling that Mr. Renney was coaching tonight was only made stronger when the game became 5-2 and Valiquette stayed in net.

2) The 2nd clue was the Intermission Switch. Classic Tom Renney right there. Mr. Renney doesn't switch goalies mid-period. He waits until the 2nd intermission, then sends the new goalie out. He doesn't like to hurt anyone's feelings.

2) Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden were defensive partners for much of the game, especially at 4-2 and 5-2. Mr. Tortorella would never do that, he has too much sense. However, Mr. Renney still seems to be relying on players' salaries, not players' skills, to win the game.

3) The 4th line was on the ice in the 3rd period. While Mr. Tortorella "shortens the bench" when he wants to win the game. In previous seasons, Mr. Renney often would use Colton Orr, Blair Betts, and whoever else was on the 4th line to "shut down the opposition" while they added no offensive value whatsoever. Notice tonight's 4 shifts in the 3rd period for Donnie Brashear when they needed a goal.

4) Petr Prucha didn't play tonight for the Rangers. That's a staple of Mr. Renney's reign.

No, of course, I jest. There are 3 reasons I know Tom Renney didn't coach the Rangers tonight...

1) He works in Edmonton, and Edmonton won a 2-1 game. If that doesn't scream Tom Renney, I don't know what does.

2) Redden and Rozsival played a grand total of 0 seconds on the power play. If this was a Renney Game, they each would've had time at the point, passing up on shots, missing the net, and letting the puck bounce over their sticks and out of the zone.

3) Jed Ortmeyer scored tonight. He never scored in a Tom Renney game!

* * *

Redden and Rozsival were especially atrocious tonight. Any good that Redden did in those games against Toronto was washed away tonight. He wasn't physical (okay, he did land one check when he fell onto a Shark); he couldn't pass the puck correctly; he let people fly by him. To those who say I'm too harsh on him, were you watching this game?

When either of them are on the ice, I want the Garden fans to chant "AHL! AHL!"

* * *

That said, I did see two firsts at MSG tonight. One was my first Michael Del Zotto #4 jersey - the first of many, no doubt. (I saw my first Matt Gilroy #97 jersey Wednesday against the Kings).

The other first? The first time I ever saw a Wade Redden #6 jersey on a Ranger fan. Don't believe me? Look!

Wade Redden's cousin, or nephew, or some other family member, at Madison Square Garden. 10/19/09

Martin Brodeur*...

I think it's funny how little press is going to the fact that Martin Brodeur isn't really the winningest goalie in NHL history. Everyone is talking about him like he's Jesus on Ice, when in reality he hasn't broken Patrick Roy's all-time wins record.

See, Brodeur has won 27 shootouts, putting his real win number at 525.

(I see people comparing this to Roger Maris, which is completely untrue. First off, Maris played like 8 more games than Ruth did. It would be comparable if Major League Baseball added an extra inning to every game. Brodeur won an extra 27 games from 2005-2009 that would have been ties for Roy. Second, this milestone is not nearly as important as Ruth's record was. If you asked me before this year what the record for wins was, I would not have known.)

What also is a lie is his "record" of 48 victories in one season, "breaking" Bernie Parent's record. The record was 47, Brodeur has 48 in 2006-07, yet 10 of them were in the shootout. Technically, he wouldn't have even broken 40 if this were pre-lockout years. 

I'm not an opponent of the shootout. In fact, I hated ties with a passion and thought they were killing hockey (along with the two-line pass rule, the New Jersey Devils, and Jacques Lemaire). Nothing was worse than seeing a 1-1 hockey game. Unfulfilling. And Lord knows my Rangers need shootouts to make the playoffs, and Henrik Lundqvist's 4-straight 30-win seasons (a record to start a career) was definitely amplified by the tiebreaker.

And yes, Brodeur will eventually break the record cleanly. He plays 70 games a year when healthy. I would also say he legitimately has 3 or 4 more seasons in him as a starter, so that's atleast 100 more regulation/overtime wins without shootouts. 

Before Devils fans learn to read and come on this website and bash me for being a Brodeur hater...

1) I don't particularly like Brodeur. I've met him in person, and he has an awful personality. I think he's childish, he takes dives, he whines, and there's a reason he sits alone on the buses after games. 

2) I understand he's a great goaltender. I don't think he was as good as Roy was. But I know he should eventually own this record outright, just next season.

I just wish the coronation of Brodeur to God-like levels by the NHL would stop.

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?)

2008-09 NY Rangers: Goaltending...

The first in a three-series look-ahead at the 2008-09 New York Rangers. 

GOALTENDING

Obviously, Henrik Lundqvist is the man in goal, what with his $7.75M coming to him in two-week installments next year. 

The question is about the back-up. The Rangers had two NHL-worthy back-ups last year. Steve Valiquette stood tall (bad pun, only works if you know he's 6'6") when called upon, and David LeNeveu went 8-3-2 with a .924 save percentage. 

Both happen to be free agents this year. Valiquette is unrestricted, and LeNeveu will probably be a RFA. 

Whoever it would be would probably be needed for 12 games the whole season, needing to go 6-4-2. Lundqvist would start all 82 games if he could, so 70 games seems to be in his range for 08-09. Last season, Hank played 72 games, getting decisions in 71 of them.

The smart money would be on Valiquette being re-signed to a 1 or 2 year deal at around $700,000, with LeNeveu being re-upped for a few years on a two-way deal so that if Valiquette falters, LeNeveu could step up. He would be splitting time with young Miika Wiikman in Hartford. LeNeveu has a losing record in the NHL at 5-9, but those were played with a poor Phoenix Coyotes team in front of him. What is troubling, however, is his .888 save percentage.

The Rangers could go a completely different route and sign someone on the fringe, like Bob Esche, who kept himself in shape by playing in Russia and for the US in the World Championships this month. 

However, I don't see that happening. Valiquette is the consummate professional. He knows his role and he loves it. He knows no one is usurping the King from the net, and he is happy being the back-up and a morale-booster during practice and on the bench.

What to Du?...

ISLANDERS POST by ZACH

With all the talk of the Islander-talk at the concentrating on Mike Comrie, Miro Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Josef Vasicek, another impending free agent's name got ignored - Wade Dubielewicz (that name is hard to type, so from here on out, we will refer to him as "Dubie" - which shouldn't be confused with "DP," unless you are reading this aloud to yourself).

Dubie makes a non-threatening $500,000 this year. For a backup goalie with little experience, that is a nice number; it fits under the cap well. It also doesn't pain a team to have a $500,000 player ride the bench like it does to have, say, $3.2M being benched every game (no offense, Ottawa or Ray Emery).

However, at one point in time, Garth Snow will have to make a decision on the man who encompasses the same warm spot on the bench he once had while Rick DiPietro played. I'm guessing that since the position of GM has already been filled, Dubie will play in the NHL again next season. 

Will that be in Orange & Blue?

Last year, as we all know, the Islanders needed to win 4 straight games to even have a chance at sniffing the playoffs. With Rick DiPietro out for the rest of the regular season with concussion problems due to his own foolish play, Steve Begin, and Sean Avery, Dubie stepped up. A shootout win against the Rangers where he stopped Jaromir Jagr to win, a win against Toronto, then in Philly, then in a shootout against the Devils (where he gave up a goal with a second left to send it to overtime). His reward? The Mike Dunham Memorial Bench Spot during a first round loss to the Sabres.

This year, DP is out again, this time with the dreaded "tweaked hip." Who is there for the Islanders? Dubie. He had an impressive shootout win against the Rangers (again, this time at MSG though), then lost in the home half of that home-and-home, although he held his ground well and even DiPietro would not have saved the shots Dubie let in. 

Since the beginning of March when he started playing a lot, Dubie has let in 3 goals twice, 2 goals twice, and 1 goal three times. Yet he is only 3-4, meaning the ineptitude of the Islanders has nothing to do with him. For reference, in his first game since January, he gave up 1 goal against the Panthers while the players in front of him fired 53 low-angle, direct-to-chest shots against backup Craig Anderson. He is not the reason this team is looking ahead to the Bethpage Black while it's still March. As a matter of fact, when he beat the Rangers on March 4, the Islanders were 3 points out of 8th in the East. Now, they are 11 points out and unable to make up those points with 5 games left.

Once again, Dubie has had nothing to do with the current state of the team. Injuries have piled up and some players seem to have packed it in. Yet he plays to the top of his game, day in and day out.

Since the lockout, we have seen backup goaltenders usurp the starters. Henrik Lundqvist took over from Kevin Weekes in October 2005 (although Tom Renney was reluctant to announce the change until January). Cristobal Huet overtook Jose Theodore and David Aebischer until Jaroslav Halak usurped the usurper last spring. No Manny Fernandez OR Dwayne Roloson in Minnesota - wait, who is this Niklas Backstrom? Hell, Ilya Bryzgalov played so well behind J.S. Giguere that GM Brian Burke felt bad for sitting him and let him go elsewhere. 

Will Dubie ever usurp DP? Probably not, because Garth Snow and Charles Wang wouldn't let it happen. DP has a long way left to go on his contract, and another team might not pick that up for another decade. Besides, a $4.5M backup is expensive to keep around (no offense, Olaf Kolzig or Marc Denis). 

Teams will come knocking on Dubie's door (or ringing on his agent's phone) come July 1. Carolina will have an open spot and would love to have a solid backstop waiting for his chance to play behind wildly inconsistent Cam Ward. Calgary can replace Curtis Joseph with the 29-year-old Wade. And Tampa Bay has Mike Smith and Kari Ramo, both unproven goalies who might play better with some competition. What about Detroit? Chris Osgood will be the main guy in net there if Dom Hasek doesn't return, but can he handle it? Think Dubie wouldn't jump at a chance to play in Hockeytown?