Day: September 25, 2007

by James DeBerardine

Hey again, this week I’d thought I would give you a rundown of teams in the East we should watch out for this season, some are constants, while others are new threats.

Pittsburgh Penguins: During the off season they certainly got older, adding Petr Sykora and resigning Roberts and Recchi, while all of their young studs gained a year of experience. Expect similar seasons from Crosby, Malkin, and Whitney, while Staal’s scoring should drop off a little, he will still be a threat. Angelo Esposito has a chance to play a big role on this team, depending on the lines at the end of camp. Their success is also greatly linked to their goalie, Fleury, if he plays well, they may well challenge for 1st in the division and/or conference.

Philadelphia Flyers: Undergoing a major facelift this off season with many new players, this team is in a position to challenge for a playoff spot this year. With Briere and Hartnell joining the forward group of Gagne, Richards, Knuble, and Carter, this team has a strong offence to say the least. The defensive is still unproven, but with new addition Kimmo Timonen they should be stable if not solid. Goaltending is still up in the air, with Biron the likely number one; we will have to see how he fares against the many strong offences in the East.

Washington Capitals: With the addition of Nylander and Backstrom up front, coupled with a season of experience for the defense which looked stable at the end of last year, this team has the ability to challenge for a playoff spot. Two complete scoring lines is their biggest claim to fame, but it looks like everyone in the East will have strong scoring, so lots of pressure will come down on veteran Olaf Kolzig, we will see if he can still man the pipes at an elite level in the NHL, with a young defense he may be left open to many odd man rushes so it is up in the air at this point.

Carolina Hurricanes: They regained their prized pivot Matt Cullen, as well as having some of their players step up in big ways last season, namely Ray Whitney. Still blessed with a strong defensive corps, they are still uncertain on the abilities of Cam Ward in goal after a shaky end to the season last year, he is probably at the end of his rope, perform or get shipped out, so their depth will be tested at goalie for sure. Also, they don’t have a sure goal scorer, Staal and Cole can score, but not on the level of someone like Jagr or Gagne, look for them to try and reinforce their forward position.

Ottawa Senators: Still pretty much the same team that made the finals last spring, so look for them to be up there once again. The defense should be very solid, even with Wade Redden as a question mark, with young players like Joe Corvo and Tom Priessing stepping up. Their goaltending is set with Emery, as he proved in the playoffs last year, but a good year by him would go a long way to prove this once and for all. Their only concern should be their depth at forward, they have one brilliant line and then Mike Fischer, they need to make a move to acquire a scorer if they wish to become elite.

New Jersey Devils: As always they have the Brodeur factor as well as a pretty solid defense even with the subtraction of Rafalski, some of their young defense proved they could play last year. Their forwards are pretty much the same as well, minus Gomez of course, look for a similar approach, not many goals this year as always. Jamie Langenbrunner must regain his scoring touch as does Brian Gionta, they do have a proven scorer in Elias and a young star in Parise, but we will see if this offence can do enough to support Brodeur once again.

Well that’s all from me until the end of training camp, hope you all enjoyed my thoughts and feel free to comment or PM me, of course we will discussing on forums.

by Mark Owens

Damn, I wish I saw last night’s fight-filled game with the Islanders. Why the hell don’t the Islanders televise their preseason home games? Probably because they can’t draw fans to the Nassau Mausoleum for any game, much less a preseason game.

Anyway, from what I’ve read, the Islanders’ dirt bags got things started early when giant Andy Sutton elbowed Ryan Callahan to the head. Sutton was last seen making a mockery of himself and his Atlanta Thrashers’ team last April, when he gooned Callahan and others at the end of playoff game two when it was obvious the Rangers were going to rout the Thrashers in that series. Hopefully, Colton Orr smacked him around but good when they fought on the next shift.

It seems things got really interesting when Ryan Hollweg crushed Islanders’ defenseman Freddy Meyer IV behind the net, and head goon Chris Simon blasted Hollweg from behind. No surprise there. Why is Simon the Lumberjack even playing? He still has to serve five more games for swinging his stick (timber!) at Hollweg’s face last winter. I liked him on the Rangers, but Simon lost his mind that night and probably should have been banned for a substantial part of this season as well.

Kudos to Jason Strudwick for jumping in when Simon and Hollweg dropped the gloves. I’m sure Hollweg would have taken his beating like a man but Jason didn’t want to see that so he stepped in. Great teammate.

The Islanders stuck together too, which is commendable, when goalie Rick DePietro jumped into the fracas to make sure Simon wasn’t at a disadvantage. That left Al Montoya no choice but to skate down the ice to take on Ricky the Goalie. Apparently, Montoya looked a little unsure of himself, even though he did tangle at least once in the AHL last year (I wonder how he did in that fight).

This would have been a good game to have Dan Cloutier in net; that guy can fight. Remember his beat-down of poor Islanders goalie Tommy Soderstrom (or was it Tommy Salo?) a few years ago? Cloutier, by the way, was recently demoted to the Kings’ AHL team, the Manchester Monarchs.

Speaking of thuggery, the Islanders now have Kip Brennan, who has amassed 210 penalty minutes in just 58 NHL games with the Kings, Thrashers and Ducks. I’m sorry, when I hear the name Kip I think of Kip Dynamite, Napoleon’s older brother. Anyway, this Kip appears quite frightening (6’4’, 230) and I’m sure Orr will see a lot of him this year. Kudos again to Strudwick, who dropped the gloves with Brennan last night.

It’s games like these that we appreciate the value of Hollweg, Orr and Strudwick. Hollweg can’t score (even though he did last night!), but he skates around like a madman knocking opponents on their asses, and Strudwick will drop the gloves with anyone when he has to.

Orr’s job, as enforcer, is to deter the other teams’ physical players from taking advantage of the Rangers’ skilled players, like the Flyers did at MSG last February, when Orr was not in uniform. Tom Renney admitted not playing Orr that day was a mistake and dressed Orr for just about every game after that.

Oh yeah, Orr’s job also entails delivering knuckle sandwiches, which he famously did the next time the teams met and Todd Fedoruk left the ice on a stretcher.

The Islanders and Rangers play again this Friday, this time at MSG’and this time televised. Can’t wait for that one! Maybe Orr and Francis Lessard should suit up that night!