Snowman On Fire

Today I experienced the delight ususally reserved for watching Duke basketball lose to North Carolina. The Rangers were out-gunned, out-hit and out-hustled for all but about 3 minutes of today’s Game 5, and they got bounced by the Penguins. It’s becoming increasingly easy to cheer for the Penguins, as they generate excitement rather than controversy. Who wants to hear about Jagr’s future in the NHL, Gomez’s monster contract that took the Rangers no further than he took the Devils, Sean Avery’s spleen venting, or listen to the Rangers whine about penalties? Another trade deadline deal - the one that brought Hossa from Atlanta to Pittsburgh - looks briliant, as Hossa gets the game and series-winning goal. Shades of Patrik Elias with that one. The Monday morning question is just how much the New York media will pick this series apart, looking to lay blame in which the guy supposedly in his career twilight (Jagr) outshone the recent imports (Gomez and Drury) when it counted.

I’m cheering for the Penguins in the Battle of Pennsylvania, and they could take either Dallas or Detroit.

Game One of the Hudson Hate-Fest starts in 15 minutes. Tom Guilitti’s Fire and Ice blog has some great commentary, including a stream of reader comments. Tom wants predictions, and I can’t resist being an armchair broadcaster, coach and screaming fan:

This is going to be a grind it out, long series. My predictions: it goes at least 5 games, probably 6. Rangers win one in the Rock, but the Devils humble the Rangers at least once and depose King Henrik. With all of the talk of playoff experience, doesn’t anyone remember Lundqvist’s first playoff experience against the Devils?

Bubba and I went to the Devils-Rangers game on Sunday, our first game together since January. Aside from the obvious - Devils beat the Rangers for the first and only time this season, Devils snap a 7-game losing streak against the Blue Meanies, Elias wins the game in fine style - there were a ton of little things that made the afternoon great. Most of all, though, the entire past season is not prelude to the playoffs, it’s more like the safety video on the airplane. It’s there, you have to acknowledge it, but now that it’s over the real fun begins. What happened between October and March - the highlights, the lowlights, the wonderful goals and the defensive breakdowns of Tacoma Narrows Bridge proportions is literally ancient history. It’s the second season, and we watched the Devils lay down the smelly hockey glove for a first-round brawl.

Highlights from Sunday’s trip to the Rock:

We visited Bubba’s jersey hanging outside of Section 121, in person, and got a good laugh. If you look through the men’s room sign you can spot the little snowman on the sleeve. It seemed appropriate for the quantity of bathroom humor that we enjoy.

The Devils proved they can win in the clutch. Playoff hockey is about momentum: how often does a 6- or 7-seed make it deep into May while the top seeds are done in one? Sunday’s win was required and proved more than two points in the standings.

The defense was better — not great, perhaps a bit above good — but definitely better. And “Swedish Vish” decided to gap up at the most opportune times. I hope he keeps it up through the first few Rangers games, because….

Jagr skates like my friend Goggles. We call him “Goggles” because he never looks up to pass, and hasn’t seen the inside of his defensive zone since he was in high school. We saw Jagr camped on the Devils blue line or cherry picking in the neutral zone enough to question his stamina. They shouldn’t count time on ice if you’re standing in the far blue line wondering what happened to your long, flowing hair.

Gomez showed some signs of his true playoff form, namely, bad passes in large quantities. With only 16 goals on the season (vs 13 in his last season in the proper uniform), Gomez cost the Rangers about half a million dollars a goal. Think about it: you could have Scott Gomez score you a goal, or buy a nice 4-bedroom house for the same money. When the pressure is on, he folds like a tourist in the Taj card room - at the wrong time and when the stakes are higher than he thought.

As we left the Rock on Sunday, hoarse, cheering, immune to the unseasonably cold April weather, and entering our second season of joy, we had one more reason to celebrate: the Devils won every game that Bubba and I attended this year. A perfect record, for the first time since we bought a slice of season tickets in 1999 and began cheering for some kid named Elias who had a wicked wrist shot. And now we face a horrible quandry: we wore our almost-matching Elias jerseys (Czech and Russian Superleague) to every game, and the Devils delivered in every one of those games. The Devils would like us to wear red, but second season or not, I can’t counter superstition and tradition. Elias style trumps the marketing department, in Trump style and standing up under pressure.

Some nights the hockey viewing stars just don’t align, or they aren’t meant to align. I found the Devils-Penguins game on the Vs network here in my California hotel, just as I was getting ready to go out for a company dinner. I saw enough of the second period to develop a fear that the Devils were reverting back to the disorganized play that led to disasters last week against teams not in the Western Conference cellar. As I went into the hotel lobby, Jordan Staal made it 3-1 Penguins, and I mentally checked out.

But thanks to the wonders of NHL Wireless, I continued to get goal by goal updates. An Elias goal to halve the gap; a Clarkson goal to tie it, and then the winner in OT. Getting these updates on the West coast often means I get two or three duplicate messages, but I don’t mind clearing the SMS backlog when the Devils win.

Lots of minor thoughts:

Elias was pissed after his penalty that led to the opening Penguins goal, and he played like someone was threatening his wine collection, manhood or both. I don’t remember seeing him play with that much fire since the Rangers playoff sweep nearly two years ago.

Oduya had a reasonable game, aside from his own penalty. Vishnevski was on for all three Pittsburgh goals, one of which caught him in the shinpad before bouncing by Marty. If you can’t help the goalie, get out of his way.

Perhaps Jay Pandolfo tried to do too much first game back — on the PK, up against a still-tough although Sid-less top Pens line — and he looked a bit out of sorts. He was also on-ice for all three Penguins goals, and didn’t take another shift after last one, with about 15 minutes left in regulation.

NHL.com now has a slick little feature that shows you the player’s name if you hover your mouse over the player number in thegame summary page.

A three-way tie for first is a good thing, especially when it could have been three points to Pittsburgh and two to Philadelphia. One some level, I feel that whatever happened around the 5 minute of the third period was a turning point, definitely in the game, maybe in the back half of the season. There’s just a huge mental advantage to winning a game in which you had to overcome a pair of 2-goal deficits, and the Devils had been on the wrong end of that one multiple times in January. The Devils earned tonight’s win on the basis of hard work. Now if we could only see that spark against the Rangers and Islanders.

Bubba and I modeled some of the international flavors of Patrik Elias at the Kings-Devils game on Saturday night. Bubba has the 2002 Czech Olympic jersey, with a completely English surname (missing the Czech accents that add color, intonation and printing costs). I’m wearing a somewhat official Metallurg Magnitogorsk Russian Super League jersey, with “Elias” on the back (in Cyrillic). Metallurg was the second team to sign Elias during the lock out year, bringing him on board for the Super League playoffs. Dave King’s book “King of Russia” has a great depiction of his year coaching the very same Metallurg team, the season after the lockout when Evgeni Malkin was his star player.

We get a lot of comments and compliments on the jerseys, which is why they’ve taken the place of our “home reds” at the Rock. And since they’re dye sublimated, without tackle twill, they clean up quite easily when they have buffalo chicken tender sauce, Carvel ice cream, mustard from a Premio sausage or soda spilled on them.

Chalk it up to a lighter jersey, lifted of letters. Or maybe Patty was just told he can have fun again. Or maybe it was getting halfway to the 500 goal mark, or perhaps Dino set Elias up with some good calzone at lunch time today. I’m merely listening to the game 2,550 miles from the Rock, buried in a smelly office in California, and happy that nobody is still around to hear me running through the halls.

Elias scores in overtime, capping a night when he was on the ice for every one of the Devils’ four goals. Patty had two and assisted on a third. Jagshemash!

Elias nejlepsi, minus accents and pronunciation: Elias is the best. First star of the game, tonight at the Rock and always in our home.

Patrik Elias has gone from “A” to “C” to a more simply lettered sweater, with Jamie Langenbrunner named the new Devils captain. There have been dozens of online column inches written about the nationalities of various NHL captains, and how that has or has not translated into success in the post-season (if there is any correlation at all). With Paul Martin wearing an “A”, two of the three Devils captains are Minnesota natives. Good luck and congratulations to Jamie. I’ve only had two interactions with him — I played in a golf tournament in which he was in the foursome ahead of me (and he signed a handful of autographs before and after playing), and he signed some swag that was forwarded through a chain of custody involving more friends of friends than a Facebook group.

Elias never really seemed comfortable with the “C”, offering the usual post-game comments and serving as public recipient of coaching delivered through the New Jersey sports writers, but not stepping up vocally in public. I’m sorry to see Patty unlettered, because I think he’s been a leader on this team since the 99-00 season when he was so integral to the disposal of the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Championship series. On the other hand, if removing the mantle of leadership means he can go back to playing with comfort, comedy and courage, then it’s a good move.

And for all six readers who may have wondered where I went, I completely stopped blogging for about a month, both about hockey and work. It wasn’t intentional; I have about ten half-written blogs and thoughts on various pieces of scrap paper, napkins and Mac stickies. But work, travel, a week of vacation, some youth hockey, and insane travel schedules all conspired to create something of a writer’s block. Writing is like exercising, as it gets progressively harder to start again once you start using the elliptical machine to display holiday cards.

Went to my first game at the Rock last night, and all I can say is “wow.” This is a building meant for hockey, it’s a building that is a delight in which to see a game, and to enjoy yourself between periods of the game. The Devils christened it properly with a 6-1 drubbing of the Lightning. How else to summarize except to point out that Jay Pandolfo, the hardest working defensive winger in the NHL, recorded his first career hat trick tonight? It was a fitting conclusion, especially since the goal was originally credited to Vishnevski (and I was screaming “Cousin!! Cousin!!” from deep in Section 21), and I can only imagine what a collection of Halloween headgear would have accumulated on the ice. On the other hand, it’s the Devils’ new den, so some scary helmets are most appropriate.

About the Rock:

From the huge logo on the floor of the entry tower, to the three-times larger than life Patrik Elias, the high school and college jerseys dotting the concourse to the murals and bits of Devils history, it’s clear you’re in a hockey arena, and one that was designed by, for and about the Devils. The only other rink that gives me that feeling is Princeton University’s Baker Rink, because it’s not about the merchandising of the game but rather the game (and team) itself. I’m not going to mind walking 4 blocks in the freezing cold, even if it’s raining or snowing, knowing what’s ahead. There is simply no comparison to any other NHL rink, because this one isn’t shared with any other team. You know the feeling you get when you come home for Thanksgiving? Imagine that 41 times a season.

Some of our ticket group buddies who went opening night told pre-Halloween horror stories about getting in and out of Newark due to construction, congestion and confusion. Using the Prudential Center parking maps off of the Devils web site, coupled with a little Googling, we were fine. The trick is to stay off of Route 21 and use Broad, Market and Raymond. Coming in off of I-280 East, take the 1st Street exit and avoid the entire Stickle Bridge construction mishegas.

Total time from Livingston to Green lot: 20 minutes. From lot to seats: 10 minutes, down a very well lit Mulberry Street. From lot back to Livingston: 25 minutes. It sometimes took that long to get out of the parking lot at Giants stadium, after waiting and standing on a bus for 10 minutes. The police were helpful, the parking lot attendants gave reasonable directions, and it was a much better travel experience than I had expected. Leaving the arena, going north on Broad Street, the police metered the traffic out of the lots, the side streets and into the 4 travel lanes on Broad to avoid backups. Cont-izod-al Arena traffic control had 25 years to work this out, and failed.

The only negative of the night (besides Oduya, but I’m foreshadowing): check out Section 118. I took that picture near the end of the first period, and there were literally five people in the entire mid-tier section. The announced attendance stood a bit north of 13,000; the capacity is over 17,000. Sure, it was Halloween, and the Devils have yet to start truly carving out their own piece of the Rock, but I’ll bet there were scantily over 17,000 butt cheeks in seats tonight. Lou must get more local support — not just $10 student tickets, but filling up the upper and end sections at a good price. If you didn’t have fun last night, you definitely were a zombie (or Tampa Bay’s Holmqvist).

About the team:

Tonight’s game was the equivalent of a coyote (one Mad Dog) pissing all over to mark its turf. The Rock has seen its first win, first hat trick, and first game by a blueliner taller than half of the Nets backcourt. I think Martin St. Louis had trouble seeing over Malmivaara’s jockstrap. We were eager to remind him of this, repeating a line from the opening sequence of “Slap Shot” perhaps a few too many times. I’m only sorry I didn’t get to hear Chico on the broadcast having a party with Olli’s pronounciation. But give the big guy his props: He may skate like Zdeno Chara, but he plays “D” like the big Bear as well, and was +2 on the night. Despite crashing into Marty while swinging the puck behind the net, he had a good opening night.

Oduya needs to work harder and just simplify his game. Standing and swinging his stick while Richards controlled the puck on the power play was the genesis of the Tampa goal: play the puck, play the body, or take away the passing lane. Can’t do all three, or try to do them, or change your mind part way through: you give up control and Richards feeds LeCavaLier (I’m going to mess up the capitalization of his name just to piss him off, Johnny Most style).

Vishnevski played well. Used the body, controlled the puck, and uncorked a bullet from the point. Even if we’re not related, he’s cool. Overall, the defense seemed to have a much better sense of where to be, and where to be going, especially in getting the puck out of the defensive zone.

Most improved award: Zubrus. He controlled the puck with his size, since he has little speed. Instead of getting caught behind the net and turning the puck over, he bulled through, finding Madden for a nice goal which Zubrus essentially manufactured out of hard work and tenacity.

On top of everything else, Brodeur looked very good — solid glove work, rolling over to block the upper part of the net when down on the ice, great lateral movement.

Supposedly the Devils ran head to head sprints in practice. Here’s my take on how the bottom of the order worked out:
1. Malmivaara. Number of letters in his jersey and overall wind resistance slow him down.
2. Brookbank. Slow but thoughtful. If he was in your English class you’d love when the teacher called on him, because he’d spend the rest of the period saying something surface-level deep, but articulated so slowly the bell rang before you realized he hadn’t read the book either.
3. Me, going at full speed with no possibility of stopping, after a good 8 or 9 stroke acceleration. And I’m the one the Friday night gang nicknamed “Slow White.”
4. The Oreo mascot, who sometimes gets to play in the “all mascot” halftime game at Princeton University basketball games. Unfortunately, he has no mascot arms, limiting his ability to play offense or balance on skates.
5. Zubrus. He’s that slow, but if he’s going to play positional hockey, use his size and his head, he can plod to his heart’s content, and I’ll even give him my spot in the speed rankings. He earned it.

Winner, eleven — that is, on the eleventh goal of last night’s Devils-Thrashers game (11 goals? In a Devils game?? Hello, Coach Sutter!). I was hoarse from yelling at the television and radio broadcasts but all’s well that ends well. In this case, there was ample material for holler-backs.

The Good: Elias gets his first goal, and nets two goals and a very pretty assist on Zajac’s tying goal. The Devils didn’t give up when they were down two goals, and after squandering single-goal leads. Strong, solid forecheck, including the last power play of the game which may have been the best I’ve seen in three seasons. The days of long-range bombing from the point, typically resulting in a blocked shot, a riccochet to start a short-handed attempt, or the puck clearing the attack zone, are over and done. Precise passing and shooting through open lanes. Tying all of the good together: Elias fires from the top of the slot, rebound comes to the right where he scoops it, fires back to Martin, who re-feeds Patrik for the game-winning goal. Puck control, skating hard to make time and space, and shooting through lanes rather than into shinpads.

The Interesting and Good: John Madden has re-emerged as a goal scorer. Not that he had ever lost the touch, but I think in previous seasons he was forced into a role of sheep-dogging the opponent’s top-line, over-watched center-pieces to the point where he was playing defense instead of pivot, with or with-out overt over-hyphenation for emphasis. I think my son puts it best: “Maddog is a hard worker.” When teenagers recognize work, you know it’s valuable and valued. When you go from two scoring lines to three, it’s a big deal for your opponents. Half of the Devils goals last night came from the Madden-Pandolfo combination.

The Bad: I always follow games through live caps at 2 Man Advantage because their photo editing captures the mood so perfectly. It’s like enjoying one of the old Monkees TV shows with the cutaway jokes to make a visual pun. Last night they challenged Brodeur to stop a beachball (but stopped short of suggesting he couldn’t make do with a pitchfork, both a Devilishly good utensil and the best for spearing wayward plastic). I’m not so sure it was Brodeur, more of the weak defense on the weak side (again) and a complete lack of attention to the wings on the weak side. A possible breaking point in the game came when Kovalchuk was left unmolested on the left side, with Dave Clarkson just behind the play. When the “D” is back, cutting down the shooting lanes, the wings have to fill in and take away the passing lanes. Nobody got between Kovalchuk and the puck from the cross-zone pass to the one-time that eluded Marty. Partly a rookie mistake, partly bad defense. If the Devils are going to play a more aggressive offensive game, then the natural by-product is that they’re going to have more goals scored against them — this goes both ways. But I’d much rather see the Devils win 6-5 than lose 2-1. Any day.

The Ugly: Bobby Holik. How his crease-crashing that resulted in Brodeur looking up at the Thrasher’s third goal was not a penalty escapes me. Why give the captain-C to a player with the loyalty of a cat and the leadership qualities of a high school locker room bully? To top it off, our brilliant TV commentators relayed a story that Elias and Holik had spoken when Holik was given the “C”, just as Patrik had his revoked, randomness rooted in their Czech heritage. Maybe if Elias races across the Hudson to pimp his contract, there will be some kind of similarity here, but then we’d have to talk about Gomez.

So we will: Elias has 4 points (2 G, 2A) and Gomez has half of that, only thanks to a miserable assist late in last night’s Senatorial smackdown. If Gomer was on his way to 63 helpers, he should have quadrupled his output. Personally, I think the relative economics lesson here is that there’s half a Gome$$ separating the two. Double oof.

The game’s not over yet, but it looks like the Devils will end up tied for the worst record in the NHL after tonight’s fiasco in Florida. There are probably a dozen little things wrong, but in the overall scheme of “new Devils hockey,” there are three obvious abominations:

Defensive positioning. Guys standing around, or leaving the weak side of the net wide open. Four white shirts down low, and nobody on the point. Even our squirts know how to start a breakout, and there’s nothing to start if your wings are down low. Hel-low?

Offense. Not just lack of goals, but lack of attempts to score goals. Shoot the puck. We adore Patrik Elias with religious fervor, but he needs to fire the puck at the net. Earn that “C” back, Patty. Which leads to the clincher….

Leadership. Gionta taking multiple minors, including a dumb one for delay of game (on a backhand pass over the glass), six straight minors, random efforts all indicate that someone other than Sutter needs to step up and straighten out the helmets. Establishing leadership means taking some risks, being creative, and what Mark Cuban calls “doing the work.” Even if the refs aren’t.

It’s a rare combination of dumb and dangerous to predict the entire season based on four games, but 1/20th of the way through the season the Devils have a pair of points. That puts them on pace to match Philadelphia. Last season.