Blueshirt Boggle

Rangers Can Thank Hank Again

The Rangers used a witch's brew to conjure up a win tonight in Tampa. There was another goal by a defenseman, by Fedor Tyutin, a franchise record sixth straight goal by a Ranger blueliner. There was a rare goal by Colton Orr, his first of the season and third of his career, holding up as the game winner, with Ivan Baranka registering his first NHL point with an assist. There was one possible Lightning goal waved off by the referee and unconfirmed by video replay that might have made a game of this by halving the Rangers' 2-0 lead with plenty of time to go. And there were two other possible Lightning goals that hit iron.

There was also the usual bend but don't break defense and block but don't break penalty killing, but with a twist that demonstrates just how much of a team effort it is -- the six men manning the blueline were rookies Marc Staal and Baranka, young stalwarts Tyutin and Dan Girardi, and depth defenseman Jason Strudwick, along with former Lightning Paul Mara. Staal, Tyutin, and Girardi in particular did yeoman's work negating the league's top scorer, Vincent Lecavalier, who came into the game having scored two or more points in eight straight games -- Lecavalier really didn't have any good scoring chances (and didn't really set up any good scoring chances) with all the attention he received from the Rangers' fledgling rearguards.

But there was one indispensable ingredient without which the Rangers could not possibly have rebounded from their dispirited loss to the Islanders to shut down the league's highest scoring team -- first star of the game Henrik Lundqvist. The Lightning didn't really test him early on, when the Rangers had the territorial edge. But as the game wore on and the Rangers took the lead, Tampa's attack became sharper, and so did Lundqvist -- nothing got by him until a high body deflection in the final twenty seconds (except for the disputed goal, which may have spun a fraction of an inch over the goal line, but no so any video angle could pick it up). Coach Tom Renney blamed himself for the goal, for having the wrong personnel on the ice (i.e. Jaromir Jagr, no doubt hoping to jump start his slumping superstar with a possible empty net goal).

The power play extended its streak of futility with an 0-for-2 performance, but in this game, it was not for lack of attack. Straying away from constructing power play units and sticking with the his top two five on five lines, Renney got seven power play shots -- many of them good ones. Chris Drury, who had five shots on goal in the game, just about all of them off nice set-up passes from Jagr, had a slam dunk back door power play chance that was stopped. Although the Rangers missed Drury's acumen in the face-off circle, having him on the wing with Jagr and energizer bunny Brandon Dubinsky made for a noticeable improvement in that line's play.

Meanwhile, Drury's former line fared well on its won. Petr Prucha played a phenomenal first period, but then saw little ice time after that. Greg Moore acquitted himself well in his NHL debut. And Marcel Hossa rebounded from his poor outing against the Islanders on the left wing. The fourth line with Orr, Ryan Hollweg, and Blair Betts was very good too. The only downer was Sean Avery leaving the ice in pain after taking a Brendan Shanahan shot in the hand or forearm. While Avery had some good moments, Shanahan and Scott Gomez were ineffective and error-prone.

But in the end, the Rangers had their tenth win in their last twelve games -- having beaten all comers except for the Islanders (who with another ugly Ranger hangover loss proved that they leave it all on the ice when they face the Rangers). And as they look at their fourth-best standing in the league and their league-best goals against average on the eve of Thanksgiving, they know that they have to thank Hank for that.

Game reports can be found in the Daily News, Newsday, NYR.com, NY Sports Day, and the Post -- the latter notes that preliminary X-rays on Avery's hand were negative (i.e. no broken bones). Additional Rangers notes can be found at USA Today. From the Tampa Bay press (here and here), not much angst over the no-goal replay, since everyone pretty much agrees there was no visual evidence, but a lot of grousing about the lack of penalty call against Shanahan for covering the puck up in the crease -- problem is, he shoveled the puck under Lundqvist, so no penalty, right call by the refs. John Tortorella can't complain this time because the incessant whiner was just fined for his endless complaints about the officiating. In Hartford, the Wolf Pack lost a battle for first place -- see reports in the Courant and Howlings. And Jess give thanks in Prospect Park.

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all -- thanks for your support!

Two to Debut Tonight

It's going to be a big night tonight for two young hockey players. Greg Moore and Ivan Baranka will play their first NHL game when the Rangers visit Tampa Bay, according to John Dellapina of Blueshirts Blog reporting from the morning skate. Baranka, brought up in case Jason Strudwick couldn't play, will pair with Strudwick, taking the place of Michal Rozsival (sore knee). With Chris Drury moving to the left wing with Jaromir Jagr, where Moore lines up is not certain at this time -- probably on the third line on right wing, with Petr Prucha moving back to the left side or perhaps to the middle with Marcel Hossa on the left.

The Skinny on Vinny, and What's Wrong With Jags

When the Rangers first met Tampa just before Halloween, they were mired in a 3-6-1 start and could barely score a goal. Their 3-1 win that night was the first in the ongoing 9-2-0 run that has vaulted them to fifth overall in the league. For the Lightning, that was the first stop on a four-day tour of the New York area in which they lost all three games by a combined score of 13-2. But in the ensuing eight games, Vincent Lecavalier has gone on a tear of mammoth proportions, scoring seven goals and fourteen assists, capturing the NHL's first star of the week twice in a row, and catalyzing the Lightning's 5-2-1 record in those games (five straight wins before an OT loss in their last outing).

Lecavalier's counterpart in New York, the Rangers' captain and leading scorer, Jaromir Jagr, has not fared as well of late. Jagr has no points in his last three games, none in four of his last five games. What's more, he is not even getting any scoring chances, with only two shots on goal in his last three games, only seven in his last five (four in New Jersey, where he has a goal and an assist). While he has enjoyed taking on rookie Brandon Dubinsky as his center and has been lauded for contributing to the team's league-leading defense, Jagr will always be the first to tell people that his job is to score.

What's wrong with Jagr? There is no indication that he is injured. The problem is that he's basically playing on the Rangers' third line. He has no one to set up for the slam dunk goal the way he set up Martin Straka in the past, and he has no one to set him up for his goals, as Michael Nylander did in the past.

Dubinsky has risen to the challenge of centering Jagr and makes some great plays, but he was never projected to be a first line playmaker or goal scorer, and it shows. Marcel Hossa has no points in 14 straight games on Jagr's opposite wing, not even an accidental second assist. His vision and his hands are so limited that he skated past an open top half of the net the other night with the puck on his stick, no one on him, and the game on the line, and never even looked toward the net for a shot. This line is still effective playing the puck along boards, in the corners, and on the cycle, and that is fine -- for a third line. But they cannot generate first line points, even with Jagr on the right wing.

On the other hand, Jagr is not scoring on the power play either, where he has complementary offensive players with him plus the man advantage. Part of that is the overall inefficiency of the power play. But part of it is the make-up of the top unit, on which Jagr and Scott Gomez share quarterbacking duties. How many times have the Rangers stumbled because of confusion between the two of them on who is going to handle the puck, either on the rush or in the offensive zone? Too often, they go through an Alphonse and Gaston routine -- after you, no after you -- that results in the puck being turned over.

Jagr and Gomez were supposed to be a natural pairing, Gomez replacing Nylander's attributes on the Rangers' top line at a much younger age. But it didn't work -- each had to adapt too much for the other. So the Rangers' forward line combinations became a game of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The Rangers may now have a good Paul line in Gomez, Shanahan, and Avery. But not only is Jagr's offense petering out on his de facto third line, so is Chris Drury's on a line with the underutilized Petr Prucha and the now-demoted Nigel Dawes. With Drury logging some time on Jagr's left wing in the past two games, and with Straka close to returning, perhaps a revival of a true first line can be effected.

Dawes was returned to Hartford yesterday ostensibly to work on improving his play away from the puck -- his defense and his difficulties along the left wing half boards during break-outs, something the coaching staff worked on with him at practice but which was a persistent problem against the Islanders. But the truth is that Dawes, despite his evident offensive gifts, had only one goal and one assist in ten November games, averaging over twelve and a half minutes per game. Before scoring a goal against the Devils last week, Dawes had clearly played himself into a position where he was going to be the odd man out when Ryan Callahan was ready to return -- now he is out even before Callahan's return. Greg Moore will probably make his NHL debut tonight in Tampa in Dawes's spot on Drury's line.

In the news today, the Daily News looks at Jagr's and Drury's scoring woes, the Journal News looks at Drury, and the Post gets Henrik Lundqvist's take. Kenny Albert at MSG.com looks at the Rangers' defense. The reporters' blogs -- Blueshirts Blog and Rangers Report -- and the Hartford Courant have updates on the various roster moves, particularly on the demotion of Dawes. Also called up in case Jason Strudwick can't play (a longshot) was defenseman Ivan Baranka -- Jess at Prospect Park has a report on Baranka, including a reprint of the Blueshirt Bulletin interview he did with him a while back. NYR.com has a game preview. From Tampa, read about Lecavalier here, about their problems holding onto late leads here, and their problems with the refs here. In Howlings, Mitch has an update on Thomas Pock.

One of the good guys in hockey is Neil Smith. But despite having been the architect of the Rangers' lone Stanley Cup since 1940, the former Blueshirt GM was only able to ever land one more job running a team, and that only lasted forty days in the Nassau Asylum. Inmate asylum chief Charles Wang not only screwed Smith out of his job, he also screwed him out of his pay check. And now NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has ruled on Wang's malfeasance. Guess whose favor he ruled in -- owner or employee? You know it!

Iced!

I was going to write about how the Rangers got off to a good start last night, pinning the Islanders in their zone for the first five minutes of the game, and then being thrown off their game by a ludicrous series of five straight icings over a span of 42 seconds. But Brendan Shanahan thought that would be a ludicrous thing to write. "Yeah, that won them the game," he said with sarcasm. "You're gonna write that? No, that didn't throw us off, the icings didn't throw us off." Yes, it would be as ludicrous to say that those icings won the Isles the game as it would be to suggest that they did it on purpose to throw the Rangers off their game.

But it's difficult to argue that the Rangers' early dominance did not in fact end abruptly with their inability to win a single one of the five offensive zone draws that resulted from those icings. They were able to get only three shots on goal in a twenty minute span after getting the first four shots on goal in the first five minutes, having attempted all seven shots in the game to that point. "We had a good start," Shanahan agreed. "But for whatever reason, we didn't play an intelligent game tonight. The more disciplined they were, the less disciplined we were."

The icings weren't the reason, but they were emblematic of how the Islanders frustrated the Rangers in many ways. But the Rangers didn't lose because of what the Islanders did, they lost because of what they didn't do. "We tried to do a little bit too much by ourselves," coach Tom Renney said. "We didn't share the work load." Said Shanahan: "We allowed them to frustrate us and we got away from our structure that's been successful. We got on our own individual pages. When that happens, it's going to make you look stupid, it's going to look like you're chasing the puck around all night, which is often how it looked for us. We've got to settle down and trust the system that's been working for us."

Whatever else went wrong in this game -- not winning draws after those icings, the Islanders blocking myriad shots, even Marcel Hossa undermining his lone remaining redeeming quality by failing defensively on both Islander goals (and failing to take a shot at an open net late in the game) -- the ultimate culprit in this game was a power play that was beyond dreadful. "At least you can't say that we weren't shooting, because we really didn't even get it into the zone," Shanahan joked. "So I'm going to say the glass is half full there -- I'm going to assume that if we set up, we would have shot."

I started to ask Renney about the stretch of games where the power play was productive, but I couldn't even get to the main part of the question before he cut me off and said, "Don't be fooled. The power play's got to get better -- it's that simple. There's a system of play that will always protect you. The structure is there for a reason. There's no better example than the penalty kill -- when everyone's working together within a framework, you'll have success. As much as the power play allows you to freelance and have some latitude with the offensive ability you have, there are still things that are fundamental on the power play. We seem to be quite hit and miss on that."

Sean Avery was as miffed as fans were about some of the penalty calls that were and weren't made. "I got a double minor and I don't know why," he said of a call that went against him during a shorthanded rush that Andy Sutton interfered with. "The guy's not even cut." But there was little injustice in this game -- Avery could very well have earned a major, game misconduct, and suspension for poking Sutton near the eye with his stick on that play, even before Sutton interfered with him. The real beef on that sequence was that Avery was tripped badly back in the Ranger zone with no call. But when Rick DiPietro was penalized for roughing him in the crease, sure, Avery was pushed into him, but he managed to work his stick in there and got away with that. And the coincidental minors with Ruslan Fedotenko after the Isles got away with goaltender interference -- what did Fedotenko do, hit Avery in the crook of his elbow with his head while Avery had him in a headlock? On this night, Avery got the benefit more than he got the doubt.

But in another close one-goal game against the Islanders, as Jaromir Jagr said, "One little play, the game could be different." Like winning a face-off after one of those icings to keep your early momentum going.

Game reports: Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Advance, AP, NY Sports Day, SNY, NYR.com, and NYI.com, with more from the News, Newsday, Rangers Report, and USA Today. Newsday also has an interesting article on Sean Avery. For those who haven't seen it yet, Men's Vogue has a feature on Brendan Shanahan that is worth reading for several of its anecdotes. From Hartford, Bob Crawford has a look back at the Pack's weekend and a look at their week ahead. Howlings reports on Brett Hull's first trade as co-GM of the Dallas Stars -- a minor deal for former Ranger farmhand Bryce Lampman. Prospect Park reports on Ryan Hillier.

LATE UPDATE: Sam Weinman reports from practice today in Rangers Report that Nigel Dawes has been re-assigned to Hartford, replaced by Greg Moore, who will likely make his NHL debut tomorrow night, and that Ivan Baranka has been called up in case Jason Strudwick, who was apparently injured late in the second period of last night's game, can't go.

Giving Thanks For Hank and the D

The November issue of Blueshirt Bulletin was delivered to the US Postal Service last Friday and should begin showing up in subscribers' mailboxes today in the New York area. Written when the Rangers were struggling to score, the issue focuses in on the defense and goaltending that kept the team afloat in the early going, with articles on Henrik Lundqvist, the defense, the penalty killing, Jason Strudwick, and Brendan Shanahan. There are also smaller bits on Sean Avery's tumultuous season (even before his adventures in Toronto), Marc Staal facing his brothers, and Brandon Dubinsky's adoption by Jaromir Jagr.

Wait, that's more than enough, you say? That's not even the half of it. We have Biofiles of Staal and Nigel Dawes, Mark Messier's trip to the Hall of Fame, Greg Moore's ascendancy in Hartford, Thomas Pock's demotion to Hartford, what the Rangers have to do to avoid the fate of the Mets, introductions to a pair of lesser known Ranger draftees, Danny Hobbs and David Skokan, a profile of Hartford's radio voice, Bob Crawford, and all of our usual columns -- Rangers Timeline, Prospect Park, Zoning In, View From the Blues, and All Around the Rink With the Rangers.

Our roster of writers remains a who's who of Ranger beat writers -- John Dellapina of the Daily News, Steve Zipay of Newsday, Sam Weinman of the Journal News, Bruce Berlet of the Hartford Courant, Dan Rosen late of the Record now with NHL.com, and Joe McDonald of NY Sportscene. Our roster of columnists include Jess Rubenstein with Blueshirt Bulletin's unparalleled prospect coverage, Mitch Beck, now covering the Wolf Pack in depth, Scoop Malinowski of Biofile.com, Anthony Mastantuoni, Ron Boesgaard, and of course recent Lester Patrick Award winner John Halligan.

This issue looks better than ever. We switched to a new printer in October and realized superior print quality, and this month upgraded to thicker paper stock, which further improved the quality of reproduction, especially of the photos and graphics, and makes the magazine feel better. Although the cost increase was worth the improvements, it does emphasize our need for your support if we are to continue to provide the kind of coverage of the Rangers you can get only in Blueshirt Bulletin and nowhere else -- and you can at the same time help support our continued daily coverage online here at BlueshirtBulletin.com, which remains free. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.

For subscribers outside of the New York area, we spent some time with the Postal Service to try to get down to the bottom of late delivery. They changed the way they distribute mail when they changed their rate structure last summer. Understanding better how they operate, we are going to investigate ways to improve delivery to outlying areas in the future. We will keep you updated about the process. In the meantime, we remain at the mercy of a Postal Service that stands guilty of false advertising in using the word "service" in its name. Please be patient until we can find solutions to their problems.

The Rangers return to the ice tonight to face the Islanders, this time at home after two one-goal losses on Long Island. The Isles have made a living on one-goal games this season, but with only seven goals in their last four outings, they are having trouble scoring at a time when the Rangers have rediscovered their ability to do so. And with some help from the power play, they could score even more. The Rangers' recent difficulties with the Isles is the subject in the Daily News today, the Isles' scoring woes is the story in Newsday, Stan Fischler analyzes the two teams going into tonight's game at MSG.com, and NYR.com has its usual game preview. The Post looks at Dan Girardi's journey. Hartford won last night on a late goal by Mike Sauer, his first goal as a pro -- see reports in the Courant and Howlings. Prospect Park has a brief report after a quiet Sunday.

The Best Defense Provides Good Offense [Links Added]

When the Rangers couldn't score goals, the defense helped keep the team afloat with the stingiest goals against in the league (with help of course from the NHL's best goaltender). Now, the Rangers' offense has finally gotten in gear, with seventeen goals during the current five game winning streak (3.40 goals per game). Here too, the defense has stepped up to chip in. Tonight in Pittsburgh, all four goals in the Rangers' 4-3 overtime win were netted by blueliners, and every rearguard who didn't get a goal registered an assist. That makes it nine of 24 goals the Rangers have scored in the month of November that have been scored by defensemen, in addition to their thirteen assists. What made tonight's win doubly sweet for the goal scorers is that it helped them atone for mistakes they made that led to Pittsburgh's three goals and several other scoring chances.

Granted, it took superior play by the Penguins' dynamic duo of Sid Crosby and Gene Malkin for the Pens to cash in on those opportunities, but the Rangers' defensemen would all do things differently if they had do-overs. Dan Girardi would not dive for that puck on the power play to let Crosby break out two on one, and Michal Rozsival would not have given him any room to pass for the shorthanded goal that put Pittsburgh up 1-0 -- although it took a seeing eye backhand pass to make the play. Marc Staal would not take the tripping penalty that led to Crosby's goal during the delayed call -- although Crosby was lucky Henrik Lunqvist knocked it in with the back of his back pad. Jason Strudwick would not have panicked and lost his footing after a deflection off Colton Orr's skate hit him at the top of the crease -- although it took a head's up kick pass by Malkin to set up Petr Sykora's game tying goal late in regulation on what was only the second of only three Pittsburgh shots on goal in the third period.

Rozsival was first to redeem himself with a goal in the opening minute of the second period that turned the game around and began the Rangers' comeback from a 2-0 first period deficit. But he had two goals against to redeem himself for, one of them shorthanded, so it was apropos for him to get a shorthanded goal of his own minutes later, with defense partner Staal earning one of the assists on the play. Girardi made up for his power play gaffe with a power play goal to put the Rangers up 3-2, with his defense partner Fedor Tyutin starting the scoring play with a blast from the point, the rebound deftly passed off to Girardi by Petr Prucha. Finally, having played a role in letting the Pens take the game to overtime, Strudwick got the overtime game winner, joining his partner Paul Mara on the rush, the two defensemen combining for the goal. Mara had been shooting wide all night, missing possible goals of his own during power play time, so he made the right decision passing that one off.

The defense also played a huge role in shutting down Crosby after a huge first period. In addition to his goal and assist, Crosby hit a goal post in the opening minute of the game and blew by Strudwick for a two on one late in the period that was thwarted by Lundqvist. With the last change at home against a coach who doesn't like to match lines, Pittsburgh successfully kept Crosby away from the Rangers' best defensive pair, Girardi and Tyutin. After that, Ranger coach Tom Renney was diligent in getting Girardi and Tyutin out against Crosby, and they shut him down completely -- not even a shot on goal. The fourth line of Blair Betts, Ryan Hollweg, and Orr helped -- and they also notched their first point of the season when Hollweg was awarded an assist on Rozsival's first goal (Hollweg got the assist but not a plus, having left the ice for a shift change before the goal was scored).

The Ranger power play scored once but was again complicit in putting the Rangers behind and keeping them from winning the game. They were one for six overall and had extended their streak of futility to 0-for-21 (with a shorthanded goal against) before scoring. They could not however put the game away in regulation on the man advantage in the latter half of the third period. Renney went back to a first unit of Jagr, Shanahan, and Gomez, with a pair of defensemen on the point, and though they controlled one advantage for the entire two minutes, they were otherwise no more than sporadically effective in their seven to eight minutes of ice time. The second unit of Drury, Prucha, and Avery scored the lone power play marker, but they were otherwise entirely out of synch in three to three and a half minutes of ice time. The Pens had only one power play, during which they allowed a shorthander. They also had the benefit of a second penalty call that they used to score their second goal.

Not too many game reports, as only two local papers sent reporters to Pittsburgh last night -- see the Daily News, Newsday, and NYR.com. More from Blue Notes, Blueshirts Blog, NY Sports Day, and USA Today. Game reports from the Pittsburgh side are here and here. In the Sunday columns, John Dellapina looks at the Rangers' wrongly maligned defense in the Daily News; Steve Zipay looks at league disappointments at the quarter pole in Newsday, a list that no longer includes the Rangers; Larry Brooks looks at the discarded new jerseys in the Post; and from the Boston Globe, still more on Sean Avery. The Rangers will open next season in Prague, according to Newsday and Blueshirts Blog. The Times has a feature on hockey rivalries.

In Hartford news, the Wolf Pack won their third straight last night on Artem Anisimov's first goal in fourteen games -- see reports in the Courant, Howlings, and WP.com (Howlings also has a recap of the previous night's win). With Dane Byers and Frankie Lessard joining the legion of injured Packers, Howlings speculates on possible call-ups from Charlotte, and then find out who the answer is -- Ryan Murphy, signed to a PTO. In other prospect news, Jess has a recap of last night's action at Prospect Park.

Rangers Looking For a Fleury of Goals Tonight

The Rangers travel across Pennsylvania today to face the Pittsburgh Penguins as their road trip continues with the third of four straight Atlantic Division contests. The Pens are on the opposite tack from the Rangers -- their win over the Islanders the other night broke a four-game losing streak and an 0-3-1 home winless streak. Before the win, they had been 2-7-1 after a good 5-2 start to their season. A big part of their problem is in net -- another contrast to the Rangers -- where Marc-Andre Fleury sports an unsightly 3.43 GAA and .896 save percentage. He has given up four or more goals in six of his eleven starts (including a 4-1 loss to the Rangers last week) and has held opponents to fewer than three goals only twice in full games. He is expected to start tonight.

This time, Fleury will not face a team uncertain where their offense had gone -- the Rangers' scoring punch has been somewhat, though not yet fully, revived, beginning with the four goals they scored against Fleury. A complete revival rests on the fortunes of the power play. Though they went through a good stretch when they score power play goals in five of six games, the Rangers have not scored on the man advantage in seventeen chances since scoring on two in a row in that 4-1 win over Pittsburgh. They will almost certainly continue experimenting with two units tonight. Jaromir Jagr will be on a separate unit than Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan, and Chris Drury will play up front, where he has historically had success, rather than the point, which emerging young defensemen are capable of manning.

The power play is the subject of one of the few reports on the Rangers in the press today, in the Post. The defensemen -- more specifically, the offense provided by the defensemen -- is the story in Newsday. The Journal News looks at the Rangers' streak. NYR.com has a game preview. On the Penguin side, Mark Recchi was a healthy scratch in the Pens' 3-2 win over the Isles and is uncertain if he will be back tonight -- see the Post-Gazette (more from Pittsburgh here and here). From TSN, a humorous look at trash talking inspired by Sean Avery. Hartford won last night on a pair of Frankie Lessard goals (see the Courant and WP.com), and Jess has the lowdown on Friday night action at Prospect Park.

First Place Not Foremost for Rangers Right Now

When the Rangers were losing road games early this season, they rarely felt they played bad enough to lose, they merely felt that they couldn't score the goals they needed, something that would eventually happen. Now that they are scoring more, they are winning the exact same kind of road games they had been losing -- two of them close enough to go to a shootout. Even as that has vaulted them back to the top of the division and the upper reaches of the conference standings, they do not want to rest on their laurels -- not in November. "We're getting wins," coach Tom Renney said after last night's 4-3 shootout win in Philadelphia. "Not only do we have our season back and we think we can control our own destiny, but we do that within games [too]. At the end of the season is when we'll worry about where we finish. We have a lot of work to do -- we're not a finished product. We just want to win."

Sean Avery, who was back to jawing with the opposition during the game (but not during warm-up), said, "The way we're playing as a team, the first place thing -- first place, what? You're a point ahead of second place? That's for everyone else to talk about. We just want to keep winning -- that's our main focus. You can't think about first place -- we got five-game segments that Tom lays out for us and that's what we're focusing on. This is a tight group of guys that are genuinely upset after a loss. There's a group of angry guys after a loss. That's contagious. There's that pride where we want to win games for Hank, we want to win games for Jags. It goes through the room. We're really building a team here -- that's the important thing."

It helps to have enough players to form three good lines. Wednesday in New Jersey, Jaromir Jagr took control of the game, scoring two goals (only one counting) and setting up another. Last night, with Jagr fighting the puck all game long, the ex-Devil line of Avery with Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan took over. Shanahan scored the key goal during play and the only goal in the shootout while the other two combined to assist on his goal as well as Fedor Tyutin's. "I don't know who said you're washed up," Avery said to Shanahan (knowing full well who said it). "But not many guys can go in 100 miles per hour and absolutely shoot a laser top shelf."

But the power play, in a 1-for-17 slump after going 7-for-26 in scoring man advantage goals in five of six straight games, had to be reconfigured after it failed to give the Rangers the breathing room they needed to win this game in regulation. All sorts of combinations were used among the forwards (with Chris Drury moving up off the point) and on defense (with Tyutin and Marc Staal getting power play time). "We wanted to try a couple of different things," said Renney. "We believe there is a formula there. It may be going back to two units again. We wanted a couple of different combinations of people to look at. Not that we can sacrifice a game for that, but as a coach you do those things sometimes."

Henrik Lundqvist has given up uncharacteristic goals early in each of the last two games. "Obviously it's a bad goal," he said of Jim Dowd's bank shot from the corner, which Lundqvist gave him because he was concerned about a Flyer driving to the net down the slot. "That's how I play it now -- sometimes that's going to happen because I have to be aware of where the guys are in the middle. I don't think they will score that many from that angle, but I have to cheat a little and look where the rest of the guys are." He was happy that the Flyers kept trying to score on him from that angle after that.

In the shootout, Lundqvist got a little help from his friends. "I got a little inside tip from Drury," he explained. "I went up to him before we started and asked him about Briere. He said he likes to go up really close, almost like Nylander. I took a chance there and pokedchecked him. I think it surprised him a little bit, so he couldn't get it up there, and I got him with my pad. This was the first time actually I pokechecked and did something different -- otherwise, I do the same thing over and over... I just try to be ready for anything no matter what they do."

Eddie Mio, the one-time Ranger goalie who now works for Phoenix, scouted the Rangers in both New Jersey and Philadelphia. But it may not be any indication of a potential trade, as the Coyotes face the Rangers and other Atlantic Division teams next month. The injured Rangers -- Martin Straka, Marek Malik, and Ryan Callahan, sat in the press box last night, groaning whenever the Rangers had a good scoring chance they couldn't convert and laughing whenever one of their teammates got himself into trouble on the ice. I gave Callahan a bucket of popcorn that had previously belonged to the gentleman sitting to my right.

Game reports: Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Asbury Park Press, NY Sports Day, and NYR.com. Notes from USA Today. From the Philly side, if you're interested, go here, here, here, here, here, and here. Also from Philly, an article on Avery -- they can't accuse him of being a no-talent goon so they concede his abilities and question his ego, and (unlike Toronto) they can't accuse him of only going after players his own size, so they come up with another thing to challenge him on. Avery's ego is not going to get any smaller after being featured in People Magazine's sexiest man alive issue (but just for his scar). Hartford's weekend action gets under way tonight -- see previews in the Courant and Howlings, as well as Bruce Berlet's AHL column in the Courant. Jess takes a breather before the busy weekend at Prospect Park, but it's still worth a visit.

Shanny's Sharpshooting Shatters Flyers' Streak

Both times the Flyers have run into the Rangers this season, they've had a streaks put to an end. First time, they hadn't lost a game when allowing three goals or less. The Rangers, still struggling to score at the time, beat them 2-0. This time, at the start of the game, they announced (quite loudly -- everything is loud, too loud, at Walk-over-you Arena) that they were going for their seventh straight home win, the only NHL team to not lose at home yet this season. The Rangers put an end to that with a 4-3 shootout win.

It may have even been a regulation win had they not run out of gas in the third period -- they were outshot 9-1 over a span of 17 1/2 minutes after Petr Prucha's go-ahead goal early in the third period (they held the Flyers to just 14 shots on goal to that point). A late power play was no use either -- while everything else clicked again tonight, the power play was so feeble that Tom Renney tried some new combinations, both at forward and on defense, with the man advantage, conceding that at some point it may even cost the team two points just to make sure they get things right.

But once the game got into a shootout, it was good night nurse for the home team -- pucks rarely get past Henrik Lundqvist in the NHL's fifth period. With Chris Drury tipping him off on how to play Daniel ("Call me Danny") Briere to start the shootout, and offensively-challenged Scottie Upshall an easy mark with the game on the line, Brendan Shanahan having already beaten Martin Biron high glove for the second time on the night, the Rangers didn't even need their third shooter to put an end to the Flyers' home win streak.

And so the Rangers have won four in a row for the second time this season, eight of their last nine, and nine of their last eleven since starting the season 2-5-1. They won their third straight on the road after starting out 0-5-1 away from the cozy confines of the Garden, where they are 8-2-0. They are 6-1 in their last seven Atlantic Division contests after starting out losing the first two. They have scored 13 goals in their last four wins (not including shootout goals), an average of 3.25 goals per game, to move over the 2.00 mark for the season and out of last place in the league. Meanwhile, they have only allowed 14 goals in their last nine, outscoring opponents 23-14 in those time. More on Friday...

Ranger Rooks Rock the Rock

Martin Brodeur did not get his 500th NHL win last night when the Rangers made their first visit to the Rock. Most of that was his own fault, allowing three soft goals, four goals on 23 shots on a night when the Rangers only attempted 30 shots in total. But this was a night when all Devil storylines (Brodeur, and Scott Gomez’s return to New Jersey) were overshadowed by Ranger story lines -- at the start of the day by the Sean Avery soap opera, and at the end of the day by the way the Rangers’ rookies rocked the Rock, highlighted by the first NHL goal for budding star Marc Staal.

“It’s good for the organization,” coach Tom Renney said after Nigel Dawes, Brandon Dubinsky, and Staal scored goals, along with two by Jaromir Jagr (only one of which counted). “This is the future of our team,” he went on. “These kids have to contribute. That’s why they’re here. It’s not a token opportunity for them -- we need them to do what we believe they can. That’s no different than anyone else.”

Dawes beat Brodeur five-hole on a two-on-one to negate an opening minute Devils goal, scoring less than a minute later. Dubinsky scored his second of the season on the rebound of Jagr shot as the once-vaunted Devils defense broke down left and right. Jagr then scored the game-winner, a huge goal in the closing minute of the second period as Brodeur let the puck drop in the crease for the poke-in that made up for the one Jagr believed he scored earlier -- video replay was unable to confirm that his shot went in, even though there was no possible doubt about it (“I thought I scored,” Jagr said. “I don’t know what happened -- bad luck this year. I thought it was in. It’s an old building -- it’s tough to see a thing.”).

But the killer was Staal’s first early in the third period that put the Rangers up 4-1. Brendan Shanahan wound the puck around the boards and then let Gomez’s centering pass back to him go through to Staal at the left point. “I was going to say something [to Shanahan] to leave it,” Staal explained. “I thought he was going to let it go. When it went through, it was ahead of me. When I first stopped it, I was just going to take a slap shot, shoot right away. When I looked up and I saw there was no one in front, I took another couple of steps and shot high.” He wasn’t sure whether to celebrate right away. “I heard it hit the post. I wasn’t sure if it crossed the line. Then I was wondering if somebody tipped it -- Aves was celebrating pretty hard, I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe he got a stick on it.’ As soon as I found out it was my goal, it was a great feeling -- every kid grows up dreaming of that goal.”

Shanahan retrieved the puck that he had given up to Staal. “Don't get used to it,” he joked, according to the Daily News. “The only other times I've tried that I've surprised my defensemen more than the guys on the other team.” “I didn’t know about the 500th victory part,” Staal said about getting his first against a future Hall of Fame keeper. “I grew up watching him shut out teams and play unbelievable. So to get my first goal on him is an added bonus. It’s nice to get a close-game goal like that, put the team over the top.”

Jagr was gushing after the game about the play of the young Rangers. “They all get better and better every game,” he said. “With Staalsie, you can see his confidence is building up. I can even see it in practice -- first it was so easy to play him one-on-one, now it's tough. He's getting stronger and quicker and more confident. He's going to be a great player -- plus he’s got the skill. I don't want to go too far and [say] like Brian Leetch, maybe not Brian Leetch, but he's got the skill to play the same way. And he’s got the confidence -- he’s not afraid to make the play. He does it -- he’s gonna be better and better.” “He’s moving the puck well, skating well, making good decisions with the puck,” said Michal Rozsival, Staal’s partner in the absence of his usual running mate Marek Malik. “He’s got all the tools to be a really good defenseman. I think he has more skills than he’s showing now -- offensive skills. But I think sometimes it takes time. Sometimes it takes time to get confidence. Right now he’s trying to be steady.”

So what happens when Malik returns? “We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” Renney said. “It’s not in front of us right this minute. We’ll leave it the way it is for now. We know this one works, we know the other one works. We’ve got a style of play that will allow most pairs to have success. Playing with a guy who can move the puck as well as Michal helps [Staal]. Michal is a guy who allows Marc to test things, try things, experiment with things. You’ve got to give them the latitude to see exactly what it is they can offer. Over time he will evolve into the type of defenseman that is able to play both ends of the rink extremely well.”

Jagr had more words of praise for his new centerman, Dubinsky, as well. “I like the potential,” he said. “I like it right now, but maybe in 20 games I'm going to love it. How many games has he played -- twenty? He's going to get better and better. That's what I'm excited about. We can develop something.” He was not enamored with the officiating last night -- there were guys all over him as he owned the puck most of the game, but he was the one tagged with two minors. He tried to laugh it off, but his frustration came through all same. “He [the referee is] telling me when I put my arm like that,” he raises his arm to fending-off level, “like I’m doing for twenty, maybe thirty years, he said it’s a penalty now because I’m protecting myself, I’m not letting the guy through.”

There are more things going wrong over in Jersey than just Brodeur looking ordinary (or worse) now that, for the first time in his career, he has no more than an ordinary (or worse) defense in front of him. There is a coach there who has no problem calling out his players in public. “That was not a good play by either forward, Madden and Pandolfo,” Brent Sutter said in explaining Jagr’s goal. “Letting him walk off the boards to the slot -- you can't accept that. That's two veteran players who need to be more responsible defensively and that's a big part of their game.” That’s one Selke Trophy winner and one of last year’s Selke finalists he’s talking about, a tandem who have had great success against Jagr by shadowing him, something Sutter doesn’t let them do anymore.

Calling out such players in public for one mistake that may be as much his own fault as theirs -- calling out his best forward, Patrik Elias, earlier this season after stripping him of his captaincy -- while working for a GM known to have a short fuse with coaches, especially ones with losing records, bodes poorly for the highly-anticipated debut of the successful junior coach. Sutter either loses his team -- and his job -- in short order, or his coaching takes hold and they get their act together for him. Given the roster he has to work with and the attitude he’s taking as a rookie NHL coach, we see him wearing out his welcome right quick.

Meanwhile, lost in the shuffle was another routinely huge game by Henrik Lundqvist in the Rangers’ net. After showing rust from his first break of the season in the opening minute (and without the proper help from his centerman, who should have covered Jamie Langenbrunner while the defensemen were otherwise occupied), Lundqvist shut the Devils down the rest of the way. His biggest save was on a shorthanded breakaway by Brian Gionta in the third period that could have made a game of it for the home team. “Huge save, an absolutely great save,” Renney said. “A bad mistake by us, and Henrik, as he's done a number of times this year when we've needed it the most, stepped up and made a very big save for us.” He has now faced the Devils thirteen times in his career, with a record of 8-2-3 against them. Brodeur has a record of only 5-6-2 in those games.

The game was an announced sell-out, ostensibly the Devils’ second of the season after opening night in their new arena. But most of the luxury boxes were completely empty (thirty that we could see, and we couldn’t see them all), and most of the ones that were not empty had only a handful of people in them. There were countless rows in the lower bowl that had swaths of unused seats, with some rows having as many as fifteen or twenty empty seats in row. They may have sold or otherwise dispensed all the tickets for this game, but thousands upon thousands of them were squandered, and that despite the legions of Ranger fans in the region who might have filled the void.

Game reports: Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Record, Ledger, AP, NY Sports Day, SNY, NYR.com, and NJD.com. More from the Post on Jagr, from Yahoo Sports on Lundqvist, from Rangers Report on Malik, from the News on Langenbrunner, and from Blue Notes and the Ledger on Avery. Game notes from USA Today and the Ledger. Dan Rosen at NHL.com writes about Brodeur's 500th win, which we now know will not come against the Rangers. Blueshirt Bulletin subscriber Greg Cimilluca debates the issue of the best American player, among other issues, at CBS Sports. Hartford won last night on a pair of Greg Moore goals (see Howlings for Mitch's game report), Charlotte is happy to have a lot of goalies from the Rangers' organization to choose from, and Jess has some news and notes at Prospect Park.

And how about those Leafs? Surely they can find a way to blame Avery for one of their players posting nude photos of himself on the internet and another (the inimitable Wade Belak, he of the "kill Sean Avery" remark) admitting he takes the trash out naked. Well, maybe they can't blame Avery for all that, but they can blame him for losing -- for losing at least that one game against the Rangers. As they sink toward draft lottery land, mark my words -- they will win the first overall pick, and the league will allow John Tavares to enter this year's draft.