Rangers Maul Panthers
October 19, 2005
Wow, the Rangers continue to impress with their hard work and determination. Monday night they again faced one of the top goalies in the league and once more wore their opponents down and chased Luongo after the second period. The score doesn’t reflect it, but Luongo was incredible in net. What impressed me most from this win was the Ranger passing. Once they got into the zone their puck control was amazing. They moved the puck at will and setup the plays they wanted to executed. The Panthers looked like kittens chasing the beam from a flashlight on the livingroom floor.
Lunqvist continues to impress by making the big saves and keeping the team in the game. He also displays amazing poise and has quickly become a fan favorite. Tom Renney insists Weekes is the #1 goalie and most Ranger sites back him up saying Lunqvist needs more seasoning. These are the logical answers, but sometimes a team simply plays better for one goalie over another. It will be interesting to see what happens when Weekes returns. Regardless, having two goalies competing for the #1 job is a good thing.
What more can you say about Jagr. He fires laser beams and almsot seems to score at will on the power play.
Tonight and tomorrow will be huge tests for this Ranger team. Ranger-Islander games take on a life of their own and can get quite physical. The Islanders have been struggling and have something to prove. Will be interesting to see how these Rangers stand up for each other if the game turns ugly. The team lacks a bonafide enforcer, but I could see several guys stepping up to protect each other. But if things get REALLY ugly, who is going to drop the gloves with Godard?
Kick me in the Jimmy!
October 18, 2005
Sometimes hockey players do something stupid (Todd Bertuzzi, Marty McSorley) and sometimes they do something weird (Ziggy Palffy sucking face with a teammate after a goal), but rarely do they do something stupid AND weird. Well on Sunday Martin Havlat was suspended for 5 games for kicking an opponent in the groin during a 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins. The league came down with a stiff suspension because this is the SECOND TIME Havlat has kicked an opponent (Eric Cairns back in the 03/04 season).
The Senators have enough talent that they should weather the loss of another forward and continue their hot start to the season. The real impact of this suspension will be on the Binghamton Senators. The B-Sens will have four games before Havlat returns and unless Vaclav Varada and Mike Fisher return to the lineup we can expect Patrick Eaves and possibly someone else to be called up from the AHL.
Bobby Granger
October 17, 2005
This season the NY Rangers marketing team created Bobby Granger, a short die-hard hockey fan to help promote this years team and the returb of hockey to MSG. As adverse as I am to commercials, I’ve actually found myself rewinding the TiVo to watch these. Here’s the most recent commercial featuring Darius Kasparitis and Maxim Kondratiev showing Bobby which infractions will be called this season.
Bobby Granger [5 mb]
Right Click - Save As
Old Time Hockey
October 17, 2005
One of my friends sent me some clips from the famous Sens - Phantoms fight fromDecember 28th, 2003. The teams combined for 379 penalty minutes, an AHL record. There were 11 fights and 16 game misconducts. This is the best clip showing Brian McGrattan getting schooled by Jim Vandemeer, Ray Emery beating the snot out of Mike Peluso, and Neil Little doing the long jump.
B-Sens Fight [12 mb]
Save my bandwidth: Right Click - Save As
Sound Tigers 5 - Senators 4
October 16, 2005
Last night was the home opener for the 05-06 B-Sens. They lost, but I saw many reasons to be excited for this season. The paper has a good game wrap up so I’ll just cover a few things that stood out to me.
The Good - This years Senators came out of the gate with HUSTLE. I didn’t see anyone coasting and they showed a strong forecheck. Led by Steve Martins, one of the hardest working players in the game, the new B-Sens had me excited from the first shift. With the new rules, teams need to be fast and work hard if they’re going to win games.
I was also very impressed with Filip Novac. With only two defensemen returning from last years team, this was my biggest concern, but Novac showed tremendous speed and good puck handling. If he keeps this up we won’t be missing Pothier and Schubert as much as we thought. Tomas Malec also showed some nice moves and with his size he is a great addition to this club.
Danny Bois can skate! Bois, along with most of last years B-Sens really stepped up their game and impressed with their play. These guys really needed to up their level of play now that they’ll be looked upon as the veterans on this young team and tonight they did just that.
Fighting - I was worried the only fight we were going to see was in section 18, but Brett Clouthier dropped the gloves with Robinson and opened a can of whoop ass! No need to worry about McGrattan being with Ottawa, this team has its enforcer.
On offense we got what we expected from Martins and Hamel, but we also saw two goals from Jeff Heerema. If he can stay healthy, he’ll make the top 3 or 4 scorers on this club. We’ll have to wait to see Patrick Eaves since he was busy getting his first NHL point in Ottawa.
The Bad - Like a lot of teams this season, the Senators are not used to the new rules and drew a ton of penalties (eleven!). Last seasons Senators were know for their clutch and grab play and they need to curb their reflexes with the stick. Was almost comical to watch Jan Platil reach over a guys shoulder with his stick, realize what he was doing, and quickly pull his stick away to avoid the penalty. Of course the reason he was in that position to begin with was because he let the Bridgeport player past him to begin with. I think we’ll see a lot of penalties until these guys learn to keep their sticks down and cover their zone better.
The Ugly - Turnovers! I’ve never seen so many turnovers behind our own net as I did last night. The Sound Tigers saw this weakness early and whenever a Senators took the puck behind our own net to slow down play, a Bridgeport player moved in and created a turnover. The Sens also had a lot of problem with passing. Our rushes were very sloppy with poor passes into skates or, worse yet, onto Bridgeport sticks. A lot of fans were booing the ref at the end of the game, but it was these turnovers in our own end that cost us the game. Top that off with Denis Hamel getting called for diving (surprise, surprise) in the last minute.
The good news is that sloppy passing and hesitation with the puck are common with a team that is so young and unfamiliar with each other. Give the kids a couple weeks of practice and a few more games and they’ll get it under control. I went into the game very apprehensive about this season, but I left with a smile on my face and excited about the energy I saw on the ice. We won’t be coasting to a division title this year, but this team will be playing in May.
BC Icemen Alumni Report
October 14, 2005
Here’s an update on some of our BC Icemen players.
Guys that are probably still playing…
Peter Cermak
Justin Plamondon
Mark Dutiaume
Jason Payne
Jarno Mensonen
Shane Kenny
Jason Norrie
Rob Voltera
Alex Andreyev
Steve Moore
Pierre-Luc Therrien
Karel Betik
Marc Lauzon
Eric Andersen
Steven Lowe
Rangers Roll Over Devils
October 14, 2005
As the Rangers assembled their team for this season, I couldn’t help but get excited. I wasn’t sure if it was just excitement that hockey was coming back or if I really did see hope for this team. From what I’ve seen in their first five games I’m convinced that I saw something in this hockey team that Rangers fans have not seen in almost 10 years. The Rangers have assembled a combination of highly skilled and creative players with a core of young, blue collar, hard working kids who are giving some of the best teams in the NHL a run for their money.
Last night was perhaps their best game of the season. Facing the Devils and Martin Brodeur, the Rangers came out hustling and steamrolled over a slow footed and disorganized Devils team. Brodeur looked overwhelmed by the pressure the Rangers were putting on him. It wasn’t a flurry of shots, but just a constant forecheck and hustle that the Devils defense could not keep up with. The result was a 4-1 Ranger win that will fuel their confidence and hopefully keep this Ranger team rolling.
I think we may be witnessing a “perfect storm” in New York this season. The combination of a top notch coaching staff, a lineup infused with fast, young, and determined players combined with a sprinkling of highly skilled veterans is creating a team perfect for taking advantage of the new rules. Many reporters were picking Philly as the team to beat this season, but a few recognized that the Flyers picked players who would excel under the OLD system…big, tough and gritty. But what good is Derian Hatcher if he can’t catch the younger, faster skaters?
The season is still young, but already the games have taken on the pace of OT playoff hockey. Fast paced, edge of the seat action and we may be witnessing a changing of the guard among the elite hockey clubs.
Binghamton Senators 2003/04
October 13, 2005
Here’s the Alumni report for last years B-Sens. Very cool to see how many moved up to the NHL. Mouse over a players name to get a popup with more info.
Podcasts
October 13, 2005
Getting pumped over the new hockey season and can’t wait for the B-Sens home opener on Saturday. Patrick Eaves was called up for one game this week and performed well. Looking forward to seeing this kid in Bingo.
In the meantime, I’ve been discovered some good hockey podcasts. For those of you living under a rock, a podcast is like a radio show distributed over the internet. I use iTunes to subscribe to my podcasts (all free) and download them to my mp3 player to listen to them in the car. Here are a few that really stand out. They’re all done by hockey fans and have varying quality, but most are suprisingly well done.
Sens Underground - My favorite of the bunch. Three canadians talking Sens hockey and slamming the Leafs. Great knowledge of the game and a wonderful sense of humor. Hockey talk is meant to have a Canadian accent and to be discussed over a few pops.
A Foot in the Crease - Other side of the coin, this one is a Leafs podcast. Two canadians talking Leafs hockey with great coverage around the league. Gotta love a podcast that includes the “Lindros concussion free days” count.
One Man Offsides with Jim Criniti - Not as smooth on the mic as the others, but great coverage from around the league even if he does like the Islanders.
HockeyNation.tv - This podcast has short clips from the New York hockey scene. Mainly postgame comments from MSG and FSNY along with some commentary from John Davidson, Stan Fischler, and the rest of the crew covering the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils.
If you’ve found any other good hockey podcasts, add them in the comments. I’m always looking for some more podcasts to fill up my drive time. Gas may be expensive, but at least the podcasts are free.
MSG Stands
October 11, 2005
This is the classic video clip of Mike Milbury climbing into the stands at MSG to beat a fan with his own shoe.
Milbury and the Shoe
