Snowman On Fire

Where oh where to begin?

Listening to non-stop Klezmer music, starting Saturday night when the Rangers’ King Henrik was responsible for a menorah’s worth of red lights (with Weekes adding the shamas)?

Stewing over Saturday’s ugly Devils loss to Detroit, and knowing that a change in attitude was only a change in production away?

Listening to Big D predict a double-digit points lead for his Rangers over my beloved Devils, trash talk from one of the most polite people I know?

It was a night of freylacht: merry-making of Biblical proportion. From the opening goal scored on what has become the signature Elias off-wing move (slide to the right, pass from Rafalski on the power play and one-timer to touch twine) to the discounted 3:40 of play time after Patty’s second goal, it was fun to watch. Even Big D called to admit it was a good game.

As for the Rangers: the wheels on the bus may have slipped off early this year. No early ken a horas, no early blessings, but it’s freylacht time in the Atlantic Division.

As has been the case for the past few weeks, I’m on the way to California. Cranking up the Audioslave - Out of Exile on the tune machine, and reading email in the airport lounge, I spot today’s Star Ledger with our dear Patrik on the banner, his second front-page appearance in less than two weeks. Inside, there’s a half-page mini-poster of Elias, and once again there’s a foot of column inches dedicated to singing his praises. This is all great news - after all, the Star-Ledger incorrectly identified Devils D-man Brad Lukowich in a picture last week (he was listed as Richard Matvichuk, who was scratched for that game, making him an unlikely assist on Patrik’s goal).

Way cool. Suddenly NJ is the Elias Sports Bureau, but with better accents and pronunciation. Sunday’s Star Ledger had Elias coverage worthy of a Giants game (a Giants win, even), today he gets his own poster, and who knows what’s next? Polite coverage from Sports Illustrated (I won’t hold my breath)? Cover of ESPN: The Magazine?

Time out. As my late grandmother would say, “No ken-a-horas“. No early blessings, not even for Saint Patrik. Tonight is game two of the Rangers series, and what we saw yesterday (for those of us glued to OLN) was that the visitors went four-for-four, kind of an inverted Buffalo effect (at least when measuring Super Bowl wins). Tonight we hope that Buffalo inverts a streak again, holding off the Flyers, and that the Devils keep the home teams on top, sending the series back to the World’s Most Famous Arena where the Rangers and other circuses play.

However, if Patty turns in another superstar performance like Saturday’s effort, maybe it’s time to fix some spelling. There’s no “c” in Patrik, but there should be one above the left Devil’s horn on his jersey.

Nice day for Devils hockey fans.

Our little Devils wound up their season with a 6-1 win, with six different players putting the puck in the net. What they worked on all year — passing, skating, controlling the flow, taking away passing lanes, clearing rebounds — all came together. Great way to enter the last two weeks of skating before we’re off to Lake Placid for the year-end tournament.

The big Devils had the (practice) ice before us. No Elias — still hurting. Not good. Langdon and Krisjanis Redlihs got an extra skating session in after the rest of the team was in the showers. Both were scratches tonight, but it was the first time Redlihs was on the Devils’ roster (he was called up from Albany). With Matvichuk hurting, maybe we’ll see the Riga rook soon (he’s Latvian, not Swedish).

Highlight of the morning skate: the players all stopped to sign autographs on their way off of the ice. Marty must have signed a dozen, and Zach Parise autographed a wide variety of sticks, hats, and one person’s year-old copy of USA Hockey magazine with Parise’s 20-year old mug gracing the cover (that would have been me). David Hale got some major props from the Mite squads waiting for him.

Both Hale and Parise had assists tonight as the Devils knocked down the blueshirts, 2-1. You can be nice and good at the same time.

But highlight of the highlight was Jason Ryznar. Despite the fact that he was sweating like a marathon runner in July, and that half of the kids gave the cocked-head “Who are you?” at his Hancock, he was good-natured, stopped to talk to the adults and the kids, and gave an honest answer when I asked him “What’s the best thing you can do in Albany?”. “Sleeping” was Ryznar’s reply.

Fair enough. For Parise, Ryznar, Hale and Redlihs, I’d have wagered on “leaving” as the best part of Albany, but that would be a complete and total ken a hora. I’m glad to see the four of them skating around on our rink.

My late grandmother used to say “No ken-a-horas,”, loosely meaning “don’t give early blessings” but figuratively translating into “avoid the evil eye.” Even tangentially touch on a compliment, and “poo poo poo” was the required punctuation to avoid inviting harm as punishment for vanity.

The Devils went 9-0 and I celebrated that accomplishment in these very online pages, poo poo poo. The just-ended 4-game road trip, in which 2 of the “away” games were within 100 miles of home, saw them go 1-2-1, remaining scoreless in the last seven periods played. Seven periods? That’s like watching an entire feature length film without seeing a goal. Shutting out the Islanders is nice; know me and know I have no love for anything on Long Island, including traffic, misnamed parkways, and hockey teams owned by my employer’s sometime competitor. Following that by being shut out twice? Not nice.

What’s wrong? Passes without looking. Too much passing, not enough shooting. How can the Devils have power plays in which they don’t get a shot on goal? How can they have power plays in which the first minute goes by fishing the puck out of their defensive zone? Watching them the tail end of the week, they looked like, well, poo. Hockey is a game of small bounces, like the puck thrown at the net that turned into Thursday night’s game-winner in Tampa Bay. It’s a game of small momentum turns, like Gomez deciding to back skate to the blue line Friday night instead of touching the puck for an offsides. He slowed down, the Panthers didn’t, and the resulting 2-on-1 iced the game for the Devils. The EGG line laid exactly that, checking in at minus-three Friday night.

I’m going to wear a red ribbon. I’m going to throw salt over my shoulder, and spit “poo poo poo”, and turn my Hockey News clipping projecting Patrik Elias scoring 86 points upside down, to avoid the evil eye. Back to practice back at South Mountain Arena, a comfortable old place that should bring back comfortable old habits. No ken a horas.