Updated: Sunday Evening 3/30/08

Newsday: http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/rangers/ny-sprang305631800mar30,0,2919306.story?track=rss

Apparently Madame Kristen Davis denies any knowledge of Sean Avery as a patron and her lawyer maintains that the electronic spreadsheet the NY Daily News claims contained Avery’s name is nonexistent. To quote her lawyer Mr Heller:

Heller said no such book exists. “It’s my belief and my client’s belief that whatever is in the Daily News’ possession is not authentic,” he said. “If it were real, the district attorney’s office would have brought it to the arraignment and waved it in front of the court.”

Looks like Sean Avery won’t need to twist Glen Sather’s arm for more money come July. He should make a tidy some from all his libel lawsuits. 

This whole incident should still serve as an object lesson for all men in the public eye be they businessmen, politicians, or professional athletes.

I can understand why single men, sports figures especially, patronize prostitutes. I just can’t condone it. Some groupies out there want to get their hooks into players to ensure a long-term gain. They get themselves pregnant and ensure a meal ticket for themselves until the kid is an adult. Or, they claim they were raped to sue for damages.

A story circulated a while back about a famous hockey player who had a son that was the product of a casual relationship he’d had with the boy’s mother. Now I’m not saying that this woman wasn’t in love with the hockey player but he certainly wasn’t in love with her. Otherwise, he would have made her an offer of marriage when he learned he was, as they now say, the Baby Daddy.

Women can be really shortsighted about love and men. They sometimes are incapable of separating their urges from their emotions. Men, conversely, cannot control their hormonal urges. Their baser instincts overrule their common sense when it comes to obtaining sexual gratification. This is the dangerous Venus/Mars combination. Certainly, patronizing a prostitute is the unemotional, simple way to ensure gratification while maintaining anonymity. It just makes you wonder what diseases are being spread by the Johns to their innocent girlfriends/wives.

If this story about Avery is true, he better have his name on some other Madame’s list. After this latest revelation, I have a feeling Avery’s going to be a lonely boy. No decent girl will want to be with him. From everything I’ve read about her, Elisha Cuthbert seems to be a decent Canadian girl. She might know something about Avery we don’t?

What has all this to do with Avery’s ability to play hockey?  Any publicity is good publicity you say? Bushwah. The Rangers are in a fight for a playoff berth. How many more distractions do they need? Jagr is talking to his former GM from Omsk. Apparently, Avery can’t keep it in his pants. It’s a distraction and, frankly, an embarrassment. 

If I’m Glen Sather, I’m having second thoughts about re-signing Avery. He’s a ticking bomb, ala Kobe Bryant. If these allegations about Avery are true, it is all very unseemly. I feel badly for his parents.

Posted under New York Rangers

If on March 7th anyone had told me the Rangers would be even in points with Martin Brodeur and the Devils on March 27th and be 7-0 in their season series, I would have sent them to Bellevue for a check up from the neck up. Well, call me crazy!

After a disappointing loss to Philadelphia in overtime on Tuesday wherein the Rangers went 0 for 5 on the powerplay, they were able to turn their powerplay around last night and go 2 for 3 against the Devils. Prior to last night the Rangers were 0 for 30 and 24th in the league on the powerplay. So, why the success last night?

Have the coaches finally gotten through to some of the players to take the shot in traffic, to keep cycling and moving their feet and to stop all the lateral passing? Let us live in hope. Last night, the Jagr, Dubinsky, Straka, Roszival and Backman unit burned a full minute and didn’t get a shot off.

Drury, Gomez, Shanahan. Mara amd Girardi came out as the second unit. Shanny takes a shot from 40 feet out. Marty saves it and Gomez chases down the rebound behind Brodeur. He passes it out in front to Shanny who is now waiting in the slot. Shanny roofs it over Brodeur and scores! This is the classic Detroit set play. Yzerman from behind the net to Shanahan. He scores! Zetterberg to Datsyuk from behind the net. Datsyuk scores! You get my drift. This is the same play I described at the Coach’s Forum in detail for Renney, Pearn and Pelino in November. Apparently, either they didn’t listen or the players refused to execute.

Second powerplay, Renney goes first with Gomez, Drury and Shanahan. They fight to keep the puck down low. This time Gomez finds Backman just on the ice at the point. Gomer threads a perfect pass to him. Backman sends a laser stick side high on Marty and scores. Backman redeems himself for that terrible giveaway to Parise and ties the game.

On the third powerplay, Gomez, Drury, Shanny unit are checked relentlessly and don’t get a shot. The Devils penalty killers are quick studies. The Jagr unit comes on and New Jersey almost gets a shorthanded goal on a failed lateral pass attempt by Rosival coming out of the Rangers zone.  Hey, two out of three is a hell of a lot better then 0 for 31.

I hope they finally get it now and continue to improve on the powerplay for the rest of the season and into the playoffs. Let’s see how long Renney will go with Gomez, Drury and Shanahan as his first unit. I would like to see him send out Dawes, Dubinsky and Callahan as the other unit. Cycling, movement and crashing the net for rebounds will put pucks in the net. Endless peripheral passing and waiting for the perfect shot have not gotten it done and won’t get it done. Save Jagr and Straka for five on five.

Next time we see Marty and his Merrymen is on April 6th. Let’s hope on April 7th the Rangers 8-0 against the Devils and getting ready for the first round of the playoffs.

Posted under New York Rangers

Sorry for the bad pun but it’s just about all you can say today after the Rangers’ less then stellar showing Friday night in Philadelphia.  The fact that Scott Gomez, contrary to expert reports (coughLarryBrookscough), did not crack ribs or have any other major injury is a minor miracle. He sure went hard into the boards. Thank God he’ll be alright. 

Here’s something I will never understand. Why do hometown reporters put their teams and players in jeopardy by circulating injury information that other teams can capitalize on? To add insult to the injury, the premature report about Gomer wasn’t even correct. No wonder coaches and players tend to be closed mouthed around the press. These reporters are in such a godawful hurry to get a “scoop”. They are not fans. If they were, they’d sit on injury reports and take one for the team.

The major miracle is that the Rangers walked away with a point after sleep walking through the first two periods.  I thought playing Valliquette might prove to be a mistake after the first goal, Richard’s breakaway. I truly felt Henrik would have stopped it. After seeing Valley flub that one, I knew Philly would triumph when it went to the shootout.

Marty Biron may be an inconsistant goaltender but when he is on he is on and he was on Friday night. As usual, what wasn’t on was the Ranger’s powerplay. No better example was their failure to score 4 on 3 in overtime. They kept trying to set up Shanny for the onetimer and it wasn’t getting through.  They had an opportuniy to bury the Flyers and they didn’t.

Credit the Rangers for coming back to tie it but Philadelphia was the more desparate team. The Rangers were lucky to get the point. It would be remiss of me not mention the goal scored by Marek Malik and the three point night of Christian Backman. These two have been whipping boys long enough. Their play in this game should silence the boo-birds for a while. 

I want to wish Blair Betts a speedy recover. He’s been one of our best face off men and a stellar penalty killer. Scott Gomez justs needs some rest and recuperation. He and the rest of the Rangers have three days to rest and find their powerplay before they meet the Flyers on Tuesday night at 730pm. It’s a Versus game.

To all who celebrate, Happy Easter! 

Posted under New York Rangers

The Rangers just gained two points in the Hummer Metro Ice challenge by defeating the New Jersey Devils for the sixth time this season in a thriller of a shoot out. Hockey purest out there hate the gimmicky shootout and the three point game but tonight it was the Ranger’s salvation.

Mad props to the Rangers for hanging in and getting these two point. The Rangers first period lethargy turned into a dominating but fruitless second period and a persistent and fruitful third period. Renney and his team could have thrown caution to the wind in the third but they patiently stuck to their game plan and tied the game.

The Rangers defense looked light years different then they did over the weekend in Florida. Turnovers were kept to a minimum and positionally they all played well, even Backman. Malik managed the puck well in his own end and was moving and engaged in the play. Kudos to the penalty kill for keeping the Devils off the board in 4 out of their five opportunities.

Conversely, the Devils had no problem from keeping the Rangers off the board on their powerplays. The Ranger never got anything going as they shot themselves in the foot in all five of their chances. Perry Pearn has a lot to answer for if he is the “architect” of their Godawful powerplay.

The youth are leading this team. Ryan Callahan plays a perfectly positioned patient pass to Drury for the tying goal in regulation. Nigel Dawes is our “money man” on the shootout. Henrik Lundqvist has beaten Martin Brodeur six times this season. Six Times!

After watching the first fifty minutes of this game, I was convinced the Rangers were going to be on the losing side of this tilt. Once Drury tied the score, I was sure we had a shot at stealing the two points from the Division and Conference leading Devils. 

The Rangers are back on track after their lost weekend in Florida. They played an inspired game against the Crosby-less Penguins last night and edged the Devils tonight. Now on to Philadelphia for another playoff style game against the Broad Street Bullies on Good Friday. One game at a time, one day at a time.

PS. Kudos to Coach Renney for astutely calling that time out against the Penguins Tuesday night!

PPS. Thank you, St. Joseph.

Posted under New York Rangers

The last thing in the world I wanted to say this morning is “I told you” but it is the sad truth. Many people recoil at the idea of playing hunches or following your intuition. I don’t. Two years ago at this time, the Rangers needed one point in their last five games to win the Atlantic Division. They didn’t get it done. They now have ten games left to make the playoffs and just blew four “easy” points in Florida. Que lastima!

Insanity – to keep on doing the same thing while expecting different results 

I revere Tom Renney but this morning I must ask if he hasn’t gone insane.  Clearly, after losing in Sunrise a shakeup was indicated, if for no other reason to try and wake up the team and infuse some energy into the powerplay.  People have been speculating for weeks about the condition of Martin Straka. He has not exhibited his “take no prisoners” Marty Straka style of play for some time. It begs the question why is  Renney sitting a healthy Petr Prucha and playing Straka instead. 

I realize that we are down two defensemen in Mara and Malik(?) but when they come back can we please end the “Backman/Strudwick” pairing? In a previous entry, I mentioned my reluctance to see these two newbies, Sjostrom and Backman, being worked into the lineup at such a crucial time. God forbid they upset what little chemistry this team had developed.

In hindsight, playing Lundqvist instead of giving the game to Valiquette was not an horrendous gaffe. Lundqvist played well in the face of a team that absolutely refused to skate, shoot, hit or check. Still, would not it have been better to start Vally and rest Henrik?  

Self-fulfilling prophecy – a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true

One doesn’t have to be an Einstein or a Cassandra to predict that if the Rangers can’t get their powerplay functioning, they haven’ t got a hope in hell of making the playoffs. The next ten games will be the hardest ten games of this season. After watching this team play this weekend, I cannot help but believe that they have mentally thrown in the towel. How else can one explain the lack of focus and effort against a team with the worst record in hockey?

I would be remiss as a person of Irish descent if I didn’t wish one and all a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. The only trouble is that this morning, the only thing Irish that comes to my mind with regard to the Rangers is Murphy’s Law.

For the New York Rangers:

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Posted under New York Rangers

There are but twelve games left in this season and each game will tell its own  tale. The Rangers now have 83 points. They are in 3rd place in the Atlantic Division and 6th place in the Eastern Conference. Many Ranger fans, visions of sugerplums dancing in their heads, are fantasizing about their Rangers catching the Devils for the Atlantic title. Some are thinking that they could even possibly pass both the Devils and Montreal and take the Eastern Conference Crown.  Ah, but a Ranger fan’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a blueshirt heaven for? 

At this time, I would like to take a page out of the “Moonstruck” movie script where Loretta Castorini (Cher) slaps her lover Ronnie Cammerari (Nicholas Cage)  across the face and screams “Snap out of it”. At this time, these romantic Ranger fans need to be reminded that the Rangers have no powerplay and their defense has more times then not looked like Swiss cheese. 

Sure you say, leave it to mhurley to throw cold water on the party. The Rangers are on fire right now. That’s as may be. But I urge one and all to take a look at the remaining schedule for a more sobering look at this stretch run. In order to just make the playoffs, the Rangers MUST take at least 13 of the remaining 24 points left to be had. They must win half of their remaining games to finish safely with 96 points.  

Game one and two of this final dozen are in Florida this Friday and Saturday. The Rangers developed a bad habit of losing to inferior teams this season. On top of that, these two games are back to back. These are four points that the Rangers absolutely should lock up. Where have I heard that before?

The Rangers play the Fish and the Flyers twice more, the Icelander games coming back to back. The Flyers currently sit in 8th place with 78 points and a game in hand. These games could be ugly and I’d never count out Marty Biron. By the time the Rangers play them, the Fishsticks may already be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. All the more reason to exact revenge on the Rangers.  

Most crucially, the Rangers have to play both the Devils and the Penguins three more times. I truly believe the Rangers can skate with the Devils but the Penguins are way too fast for the Rangers. Compound the Penguins speed with a back to back home and home series with Crosby and Malkin and I don’t see the Rangers stealing any points from the Penguins in either of those two games.

This isn’t a scientific treatise here. I will not factor in the difficulty of our aforementioned adversaries remaining schedules. I’ll leave that to number crunchers like The HockeyRodent. Alls I’m saying is that the Rangers have to put their noses to the grindstone, earn 13 more points and lock a playoff spot.  Any other kudos they garner will be gravy.

Posted under New York Rangers

When I was kid, Fishsticks were always a Friday night staple during Lent. I am just glad the Rangers chose to have Fishsticks on a Thursday night. You can all thank me as the founder of tonight’s tasty feast at the Nassau Mausoleum. How is that, you ask?

I restrained myself and didn’t attend the game tonight. It was mighty hard for me to resist. A former co-worker who I hadn’t seen in a few years came into the office last week. She suggested we meet up at the game tonight. It was a very tempting offer but I recalled the vow I made right here last October 10th.

It caused a big bruhahah in the New York Hockey blogoshpere. I cajolled Ranger fans to “Vote With Your Wallets”, lay a little fiscal punishment on the Fishticks and not go to games at the Mausoleum.  So, rather then be a hypocrite, I stayed home tonight and watched on TV. 

http://www.myblueshirtheaven.com/2007/10/10/vote-with-your-wallets/#comments

I was tivo-ing the game and stopped watching midway through the third period. I couldn’t take the stress, the angst, the tension. This game wasn’t about the Hummer MetroIce Challenge. It was about gaining ground on Boston. It was about rising in the standings. It was about Henrik Lundqvist regaining his game. It’s about our defense righting itself. It’s about making the playoffs.

When a team dicks around all season blowing leads and squandering points, it’s this time of the season that gives Ranger fans fits and starts. I do not have the stomach for it. After being subjected to that sickening game and shoot out at the Garden on Tuesday night, I’ve had enough stress this week.

Therefore, due to my inattention tonight and decision not to go to the game, the Rangers prevailed. Don’t all thank me at once. It was my pleasure. Now onward to Sunday where we might really put a hurting on Boston in the standings. The Rangers are 4 points out of first place in the Division and in the Conference. When was the last time the Rangers had a banner to display? 1994.

Let’s Go Rangers!

PS. Who knows? Maybe Sean Avery is worth $3,000,000.00. Thems a lot o’ O’s.

Posted under New York Rangers

The Rangers are traveling through another dimension,
A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind,
A journey into a hellish place in hockey’s time/space continuum

whose boundaries defy that of imagination.
That’s the signpost up ahead,
The Ranger’s next stop: The Islander Zone…

Once again, the Ranger’s lost to an Islander team that has been decimated by injury and is on the outside looking in to the playoff picture. The Islanders AHL level back up goaltender, one Wade Dubielewicz, showed Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers $6.875 million dollar franchise goaltender, how it is done in regulation, in overtime and in the shoot out. Charming.

I don’t care if the goals were flukes or softies, you don’t give up 3 goals on 8 shots or less in your last two games and not take heat for it . I would have pulled Lundqvist after the third Islander goal to help him get his head out of his ass. The same goes for the heads of the rest of the Rangers in front of him. This game was starting to look like a replay of Sunday afternoon. The key difference was that Valliquette was able to stone the Flyers on the shoot out. Jeff Tambellini. Come on Henrik. You’ve gotta be kidding me.  

As Renney said on Sunday, that game looked like pond hockey and the Rangers were off to the races with the Flyers then and Islanders tonight, too. Let’s get our defense back to some semblance of the pre-Backman pairings. Rosival/Malik, Tyutin/Girard and Staal/Strudwick. Blown coverages, running around like headless chickens and giveaways up the wazoo were as much a factor as the shaky play of Lundqvist in tonight’s loss. I’ve seen enough of Backman for now. I’m not slamming the kid. I just don’t think that a playoff run is the right time to insert a new defenseman into a long standing lineup. I can’t wait for Mara to come back. I can’t believe I just said that.   

Let’s lay the lionshare of the guilt where it belongs, our lack of offense. If Messrs. Jagr, Straka, Shanahan, Avery and Dubinsky had shown up offensively tonight, I wouldn’t be so pissed off that the Islander’s made chumps of the Rangers again. I saw players entering the zone and instead of making a play, they looked around to see where the shooters were and who they could pass to. Hello, you are the shooter. Chris Drury understands this. He took the shot and scored a goal. Too bad no one else gets that game in and game out. The shots the “goal scorers” were taking were right into the Islander goaltender and for the most part imminently stoppable. The Rangers weren’t stacking the slot, weren’t working down low to screen Dubielewicz and they weren’t fighting for rebounds.

Lastly, when the chips are down the Captain of the team needs to step up. Jaromir Jagr shouldn’t be Captain and if he has a shred of decency he will decline the “C” next season. I blame Renney for pandering to him on the shoot outs. What the hell was he thinking putting Rosival out there? Malik would have been a better choice.

Thursday night the Rangers will literally be in “The Islander Zone”. Let’s hope they can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to get two points instead of one.

Tempest Fugit, Gentlemen! 

Posted under New York Rangers

It’s March 2 and time to start bringing my stress ball to games. You know the kind I mean. The ones they give out for physical therapy if you have carpal tunnel syndrome. Mine is white and a little smaller then a tennis ball. These games down the stretch can be real nailbiters.

This afternoon’s game was no exception. What a crazy game. I was hoping the Rangers would get on the board early and first. Much to my chagrin, it was the Flyers who scored less then two minutes in. The entire first period was like watching pond hockey with two snowballs substituting for goal posts and no one playing defense. It was the perfect game to be showcased on national TV. NBC sure got their monies worth of excitement. Gary Bettman probably had that smug little grin on his face for the duration.

There was plenty of scoring. Six goals were scored in the first period alone. There was scoring, good goals, bad goals, two pulled goaltenders, a rockem’ sockem’ fight, overtime and a shoot-out. It ran the gamut of possibilities for one NHL game. The only thing that didn’t happen was the crowd throwing things on the ice and delaying the game. No matter. This was one of the most entertaining games of the year.

While Henrik Lundqvist was hung out to dry on the first two goals, the third goal was definitely soft. The score indicated that Henrik had let in three goals on eight shots. Were I Tom Renney, I would have pulled Henrik after the third goal. I must say that I was releaved to see Valliquette, the Flyer Killer, come out at the beginning of the second period.  After the Rangers went up 4-3, the Flyers pulled Nittymaki and put Biron in. When that happened, I really started sweating bullets. Biron is far more experienced then Valley. 

Carter did get one by Valley to tie the score at 4-4 but Valley made some great saves and was steady for the rest of regulation and in the overtime. Once it came down to a shoot out, I was working the stressball but good. I felt Biron, the seasoned veteran, would stone the Rangers and that Valley wouldn’t be up to the job. Valley had beaten the Flyers twice this season but never mano a mano in a shoot out. Again, I was happily mistaken. Thanks to Brendan Shanahan and Nigel Dawes, Valley only had to face two Flyer shooters and came up big again.

Our Swedish newbies both scored goals tonight. Sjostrom may bring some scoring to the fourth line afterall. That was a beautiful second effort goal. Backman’s goal may be just the penance he needs to repent all the penalty minutes he has taken and keep the boobirds away long enough to establish himself on our backline.

Too bad the Rangers had to give up a point to get the two but I’ll take them and move on.

Posted under New York Rangers

I will be on the radio again on Sunday evening on New York Hockey Talk:

 http://www.nyhockeytalk.com/

Tomorrow evening from 9pm  until 10pm there will be fans of the Devils, Sabres, Islanders and Rangers talking about their teams. Wait, the Devils, Islanders and Sabres have fans? ; )

Yours truly will be bringing up the rear from 945pm til 10pm. Let’s hope I’ll be talking about the Rangers beating the Flyers tomorrow.

And, because We are his Queen and We threatened to hold Our breathe until We turned “blueshirt” blue, The Hockey Rodent acquiesced and created berthWatch 2008:

By appointment to Her Majesty, HRH mhurley, purveyor of Stuff You Don’t Get Anywhere Else:

http://hockeyrodent.com/RODBERTH.HTM

Let’s Go Rangers! 

MR
 

Posted under New York Rangers