Monday, October 31, 2011

October 31, 2011, San Jose Sharks-New York Rangers advance for Metro Newspaper in New York City

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Rangers hope to avoid becoming Shark bait




DENIS GORMAN
NEW YORK

Published: October 30, 2011 6:56 p.m.
Last modified: October 30, 2011 7:02 p.m.
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The last thing a team struggling to find its identity needs is a nationally-televised match against one of the NHL’s pre-eminent teams.


That is exactly what beckons for the 3-3-3 Rangers, when they welcome the Sharks to the new MSG tonight. San Jose has won the first five games of its six-game road trip, including a 3-2 come-from-behind overtime win on the Island Saturday night. The Sharks have allowed the third-fewest goals in the league.


“They’re playing at home. From what I understand, they lost [Saturday afternoon],” Todd McLellan said of the Rangers after the win at the Nassau Coliseum Saturday night. “I don’t think they’ll be a happy group.


“We’re going to have to work against that team.”


For a group that prided itself on its collective work ethic last year, the Rangers’ have not yet played a complete game in 2011-12.


Sustained forechecking has been replaced by a team attempting to play a skill game that it is ill-suited for.


Factor in a 38-35-11 mark at the Garden in the last 84 regular season games and you have a formula that leads to disappointment. Or as one fan disgustedly bellowed during the third period of Thursday night’s home opener, “Go back on the road.”


The Rangers have admitted that this season has not started in the fashion that any of them envisioned.


“We’ll just focus on playing [Saturday’s matinee against Ottawa],” Michael Del Zotto said after the Rangers’ 4-2 loss to Toronto. “Playing a full 60 minutes.”


They did not accomplish that. Saturday’s 5-4 shootout loss to the Senators was emblematic of the Rangers’ ills.


The Rangers had a 4-1 lead in the third period before Ottawa scored three times over a span of 8:08 to tie the game. When Erik Christensen, Brad Richards and Wojtek Wolski couldn’t solve Craig Anderson in the one-on-one portion of the game, coupled with Milan Michalek’s backhander between Henrik Lundqvist’s pad and glove, the collapse was complete.


John Tortorella acknowledged the negatives, but chose to focus on the positives.


“I thought there were signs of a number of players beginning to play their game. We played in spurts again — longer spurts than we have played. I’m not dwelling on the bad stuff,” Tortorella said after the stunning loss. “There was some bad stuff, obviously, that is something we have to continue to chip away at.”



Follow NHL beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.


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posted by Denis P. Gorman at 12:26 PM

Sunday, October 30, 2011

October 30, 2011, San Jose Sharks-New York Islanders game story for Associated Press

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Burns scores in OT to lift Sharks over Isles 3-2

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UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP)—San Jose coach Todd McLellan was happy enough to laugh about the winning goal, even if it didn’t come on the play he designed.


Brent Burns scored a power-play goal 1:07 into overtime to give the surging Sharks a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday night.


“We were talking about our set. It’s not something that’s common, so we needed to take a timeout to set up what we were going to do. What we talked about, we didn’t do,” McLellan said between chuckles. “But we scored the goal, so we’ll take it.”



Burns slammed a one-timer from the top of the right circle past Rick DiPietro after a disputed delay-of-game penalty on New York defenseman Travis Hamonic.


Hamonic attempted to fire the puck off the glass to a streaking John Tavares, but it went out of play. The officials convened and concluded that the puck did not touch the glass, leading to a delay-of-game call. Replays, however, showed that the puck did in fact hit the glass first.


Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture also scored for the Sharks, and Thomas Greiss made 35 saves. San Jose has won the first five games of its six-game road trip, which concludes Monday night against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.


Tavares and Michael Grabner scored for the Islanders, who have lost five in a row.


DiPietro made 27 saves in his first start since a 7-4 loss in Philadelphia on April 4. He replaced an ailing Evgeni Nabokov for the shootout in New York’s 3-2 loss at Pittsburgh on Thursday night.


“I felt pretty good,” DiPietro said. “I always have nervous anxiety at the start.”


The Sharks broke through almost as soon as the puck dropped, thanks to a cross-checking penalty on New York defenseman Steve Staios 10 seconds into the game. Only 7 seconds after the penalty was called, Pavelski slipped a backhand into a half-empty net after DiPietro slid out of position.


The Islanders entered the game with five goals in 29 power-play opportunities. They ended the night scoring twice on six power plays.


San Jose also was 2 for 6 with the man advantage.


“Ricky played well,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said.


Tavares tied it 1-all with a power-play goal at 3:15 of the second period. With Burns and fellow defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlassic focused on Matt Moulson and P.A. Parenteau, who were able to keep control of the puck in the offensive zone, Tavares was able to sneak into the slot unobstructed. He snapped his seventh goal of the season into a virtually wide-open net as Greiss laid flat on his back.


The Sharks, who played Friday night in Detroit, admitted to being tired. Following Tavares’ goal, New York began to dominate play. And when Grabner completed a passing sequence with linemates Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen with a one-time power-play strike at 11:28 of the second, the Islanders had a 2-1 lead.


“We were moving and getting pucks to the net,” Tavares said. “We did a lot of good things tonight.”


New York’s lead lasted all of 1:51 before Couture scored his third goal of the season.


“(The puck) hit their ‘D’ man and it was on my stick. I let it go quick,” Couture said. “I was able to be in the right spot at the right time.”


NOTES: The Islanders honored their 1992-93 team in an on-ice ceremony before the game. That team upset Washington and two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh in the first two rounds of the playoffs before losing in five games to eventual Stanley Cup champion Montreal in five games in the Eastern Conference finals. … Announced attendance was 11,742 despite a nasty storm that left the Northeast covered in snow and slush. … New York set a season high with 37 shots on goal. … San Jose had 10 takeaways and 16 blocked shots.


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posted by Denis P. Gorman at 12:52 PM

October 30, 2011, improved Toronto Maple Leafs column for HockeyPrimeTime.com

Kessel, Leafs rising in the East Print
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Written by Denis Gorman
Thursday, October 27, 2011 22:36


Nobody is planning a championship parade down Yonge Street, but something is different about the 2011-12 Maple Leafs. Where some recent editions might have wilted under adversity, this year's team is fighting back.



Denis Gorman
The moment was not one associated with a recent Toronto Maple Leafs team.


The Maple Leafs found themselves trailing 2-1 29 seconds into the second period of last Saturday night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. Jonas Gustavsson, who replaced an injured James Reimer in goal before opening faceoff of the period, had surrendered a ridiculously quick goal to Andrei Kostitsyn that sent the Bell Centre into hysterics.


In the not-too-distant past, perhaps the specter of Kostitsyn’s goal would have caused the Leafs to commit acts of self-defeat and selfishness. On this night, to the delight of Leafs Nation, there was resilence.

It was started by perhaps the Leafs’ most important player and their biggest star, Phil Kessel.


As he skated up the right-wing wall into the Montreal zone, Matthew Lombardi lost control of the puck. It skittered behind the net and onto Josh Gorges' stick. The defenseman began carrying the puck up ice when he was pressured from behind by Lombardi.

Gorges lost concentration for a moment. He also lost the puck to Kessel. Two strides later, Kessel found himself directly in front of Carey Price with all the time in the world.


Snipers do not require much time to do their job. With an imperceptibly quick flick of his wrists, Kessel lifted a shot over Price’s glove and just under the crossbar. It was a goal scorer’s goal and it tied the game at 2-2 with 19:10 remaining. Kessel’s tying goal was one of the five that the Leafs would score on Price, with Mikhail Grabovski spinning the overtime winner.


Yes, it was only one goal and it was only one game, but at first glance the Leafs look and feel like a completely different team than the ones that compiled a 228-206-68 post-lockout record. The Leafs and Florida are the only two NHL franchises not to qualify for the playoffs since the work stoppage.

Toronto’s last playoff appearance was a six-game, second-round series loss to the Flyers in spring 2004 with a veteran roster featuring Ed Belfour, Ron Francis, Brian Leetch, Alexander Mogilny, Joe Nieuwendyk and Mats Sundin.


The Leafs left New York with a 6-2-1 record after a 4-2 win over the Rangers. After scoring the tying goal with 1:20 remaining in the second period and getting three more in the third, the Leafs have the third-best record in the NHL.

“It’s a big start,” Dion Phaneuf told HockeyPrimeTime.com after the Leafs’ Thursday. “We want to keep going. The biggest thing is consistency throughout the full year, not just a good start and fall off. You want to keep going and stay as consistent as possible. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”


To attempt to dissect why some teams win and others lose is a fool’s errand. There are countless variables and sports, like life, is fluid; the indefinable formula that leads to success in one year may not provide positive returns in another.


“It’s probably a combination of things,” Joffrey Lupul said when asked to analyze the Leafs’ start to the season. “From myself, personally, it was just being healthy and ready to go at the start of the year. Also I’m benefitting from getting a shot on the first line and Phil Kessel is playing at a really high level right now."


Yeah, you could say that. Kessel’s nine goals and 16 points lead the NHL in both categories while Lupul has 10 points in nine games.


“A lot of times we’re just looking to get him the puck and he’s making something out of nothing,” Lupul continued. “If you look at the stats, teams are going to pay more attention to him as the season goes, if he keeps this pace up. My job on the line is to take some pressure off him – I can shoot the puck as well – and just go in there, forecheck, win some battles and try to get more opportunities for him.”

It was only one goal and one game, but at first glance the Leafs look and feel like a completely different team than the ones that compiled a 228-206-68 post-lockout record.


Still, there is a danger in being overly reliant on one player or one line. Look at the New York Islanders for proof.

Secondary scoring forwards Lombardi, Grabovski, Clarke MacArthur, Nikolai Kulemin and Tyler Bozak have combined for eight goals, 10 assists, 18 points and a plus-3 rating.


Even more concerning for the Leafs is Reimer’s long-term medical condition.

He left the Hockey Night in Canada win over the Canadiens after being clipped in the head by a Brian Gionta elbow exactly one minute into the game. He played for the remainder of the first period before being replaced by Gustavsson.

Reimer did not play in Toronto’s 4-2 loss in Philadelphia on Monday night. Gustavsson allowed all four Flyers goals and had a .867 save percentage. Toronto’s Monster has been ghastly in the three games this season. He is 2-2 with a 4.09 goals-against and .876 save percentage, numbers that slightly improved after a 28-save performance in New York.


Coach Ron Wilson told reporters Thursday morning that Reimer said he didn't feel well after practice Wednesday. The Leafs’ decided to “shut him down for a day,” Wilson said, and call up Ben Scrivens from the AHL Toronto Marlies. Before the game, Reimer was placed on injured reserve with whiplash.

When told that Gustavsson hinted that Reimer may have suffered a concussion on the play, Wilson grew sarcastic, as he is wont to do.


“The doctors haven’t said that to me,” Wilson snarked. “Last time I checked, I don’t have a medical degree and I don’t think the Monster does, either. So until we’re told something like that, this is a day-to-day thing.”

For a city that last celebrated a Leafs’ Cup championship 16,249 days prior, those last four words could be interpreted as either a positive or a negative. What they do know is that the day of May 2, 1967, grows in significance with every moment.


No one has ever won a Cup after nine games, and it is not worth discussing whether 2011-12 is the Leafs’ year. But what can be said is that this edition has fight.


On Twitter: @HockeyPrimeTime and @DenisGorman

Photos by Getty Images

Last Updated on Friday, October 28, 2011 00:06

http://www.hockeyprimetime.com/news/columns/kessel-and-leafs-rising-in-the-east

posted by Denis P. Gorman at 12:46 PM

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

October 27, 2011, Pittsburgh Penguins-New York Islanders fightless game column for HockeyPrimeTime.com

Nothing violent about this Penguin win on Long Island Print
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Written by Denis Gorman
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 16:10


On February 11, the Penguins visited the Islanders in a game that turned into a violent spectacle. The season's first meeting was hyped up by MSG Network in anticipation of a violent redux. Thankfully the reality was a routine hockey game.



Denis Gorman

UNIONDALE, NY – The reality did not match the anticipation.


See, on Tuesday night at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins kicked off their season series. It was their second meeting since Feb. 11. That evening at the Nassau Coliseum, the two teams engaged in a two-hour, 58-minute long gang fight on ice.




The numbers from that night are as obscene as they are outrageous:


A combined 346 penalty minutes.


Seventeen players with 10 or more penalty minutes.


Fifteen fighting majors.


Ten game misconduct penalties.


Tangentially related was that the Islanders won the game, 9-3. John Tavares (a goal and three assists) had four points. Michael Grabner, Matt Moulson and Travis Hamonic each had three points; P.A. Parenteau finished with two points.

But the theme of that evening was the NHL's worst example of team-on-team violence since the Colorado-Detroit rivalry was a brawl for Western Conference supremacy throughout the mid-to-late 1990s.


The specter of the Feb. 11 game hung over Tuesday night’s match. How could it not? The venue and the teams were the same.


Media outlets in New York and Pittsburgh scrutinized what occurred in the short-and-long term aftermath – professionally. No matter where one falls on the fighting-in-hockey debate, this was a legitimate story and ignoring it would have been amateurish.


But there is a difference between reporting a story and manipulating a story to push a narrative. MSG Network in New York aired commercials in the days leading up to last night’s game that highlighted the Feb. 11 brawls. The commercials were not MSG’s first attempt to celebrate the fight-marred game. The cable network was going to re-air a series of games in their entirety during the summer.

The Islanders scheduled viewing parties around the games. But once word began to leak that the Feb. 11 game was going to be shown at one of the viewing parties, it was the Islanders – not MSG – that absorbed most of the criticism. The Islanders asked MSG to select another game to air in its place and cable outlet acquiesced.

How disappointed the Islanders' cable partner must have been when the realization dawned that the two teams were uninterested in slamming fists off skulls.


Still, the unspoken insinuation in airing the fight-filled spots was clear: There will be violence and you don’t want to miss it. How disappointed the Islanders’ cable partner must have been when the realization dawned that the two teams were uninterested in slamming fists off skulls.


There were only five minor penalties in the Penguins’ mostly unmemorable 3-0 win. Each team was 0-for-2 on the power play and the closest instance of on-ice viciousness was Marty Reasoner’s four-minute high-sticking minor in the third period.


Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots to record his 20th career shutout and Dan Bylsma earned his 121st win in his 200th regular season game as coach of the Penguins. Pascal Dupuis scored the game-winning goal on a semi-breakaway with 2:54 remaining in the first period. Islanders castoffs Richard Park and Aaron Asham teamed up on Pittsburgh’s second goal and Jordan Staal potted an empty netter with 2:00 left.


Instead of discussing punches and promises of retribution, the postgame conversation topics spanned the gamut of hockey: Evgeni Malkin’s return after missing five games; an extraordinary defensive effort by the Penguins; a quartet of Pittsburgh defensemen – Matt Niskanen, Deryk Engelland, Ben Lovejoy and Paul Martin – combining for 15 of the team's 26 blocked shots; the Islanders’ third straight loss, and whether the trendy pre-season pick to compete for an Eastern Conference playoff berth needed to break up its line combinations in order to generate offense.


What transpired at Nassau Coliseum on the night of Feb. 11 was unforgettable. So a resumption of the violence Tuesday night was unnecessary.


No, Tuesday night at the Coliseum did not live up to the hype.


Thankfully.


On Twitter: @HockeyPrimeTime and @DenisGorman

Photos by Getty Images

Last Updated on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 19:26

http://www.hockeyprimetime.com/news/columns/nothing-violent-about-this-penguin-win-on-long-island

posted by Denis P. Gorman at 11:02 PM

October 27, 2011, Toronto Maple Leafs-New York Rangers advance for Metro Newspaper in New York City

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Rangers open newly-renovated Garden


DENIS GORMAN
NEW YORK

Published: October 26, 2011 5:48 p.m.
Last modified: October 26, 2011 5:55 p.m.
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After 11 games in 28 days spanning 15,336 miles and five countries, the Rangers stepped into the transformed Madison Square Garden Wednesday morning.


They were in awe of what they saw.


“Obviously everything is different. The whole area is a lot better, more modern,” Brad Richards said of the renovated Garden. As part of the reconstruction, a state-of-the-art locker room was built for the Rangers, who will walk past the Delta360 Club to the ice. New seating was installed in lower bowl.


The changes were a hit with the players. The only complaint came from Michael Del Zotto, who joked that the notoriously bad MSG ice “is still awful; they didn’t fix it.”


Assessments of the refurbished Garden aside, yesterday was a work day for the Rangers, who practiced for an hour in preparation for tonight’s home opener against Original Six-brethren Toronto. The Leafs have authored a 5-2-1 start to the season spearheaded by Phil Kessel. Kessel leads the league in goals (9) and points (15).


“It’s a great test for us. Once the puck drops, all this stuff goes away. We’re focusing on two points and a good Toronto team over there,” Brandon Prust said. “They’re playing well right now and it’s going to be a good test for us.


“Young and fast and they work hard. They just go, go, go.”


Assuredly, the coaching staff will emphasize limiting Toronto’s puck-possession time and eliminating second-chance shots. Even though Tortorella preaches team defense, much of the onus will be on the defense corps, which may receive a major boost as Michael Sauer indicated that he could play. He added Sauer would allow Tortorella to be able to skate almost a full complement of his envisioned back end, with the notable exception of Marc Staal.


While solid defensively, the Rangers are struggling offensively, despite Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards leading the team with four goals and five points, respectively. The Rangers’ two goals per game average is tied with Nashville, New Jersey, the Islanders and Minnesota as second worst in the league, while the power play is the third worst in the NHL.


Midway through the third period of the Rangers’ 2-1 win in Winnipeg Monday night, Ryan Callahan’s cross ice pass for Ruslan Fedotenko ricocheted off Ondrej Pavelec’s stick and Zach Bogosian’s skate into the goal. It turned out to be the game-winning goal, the Rangers’ second power play goal of the game and third overall in 28 opportunities with the man advantage.


It was not Gretzky-to-Kurri, nor will it ever be compared to the great skill goals in the history of the game. Still, the Rangers aren’t about to apologize for it.


“We’ve been working on getting pucks to the net, taking some bad angle shots and not always worrying about making that perfect tic-tac-toe play with an empty net,” Del Zotto said. “I think that’s what we have to focus on, getting some of those greasy goals. The power play, we got two goals the last game, which is a good start and hopefully we can get that going and keep it consistent. I think we’re waiting for that one greasy goal.”


“It’s a crappy goal; it’s a lucky goal he scores, the winning goal,” Tortorella said of Callahan’s marker. “But that’s what happens when you start doing those small things, working on the other parts of your game. You get some good luck.”



Follow Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman for coverage of all three local NHL teams.


http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1007655--rangers-open-newly-renovated-garden

posted by Denis P. Gorman at 10:55 PM