Around the National League of Hockey 1/5

January 5, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Even though it wasn’t a busy night for the NHL (just two games), both involved NY teams, and there was some sad off-ice news for the Devils family when Doc Emrick’s father passed away weeks after celebrating his 90th birthday.  Oy, what a month for poor Doc between the laryngitis which forced him to miss the Winter Classic and now this.  The title of this blog is one of Doc’s favorite expressions incidentally - hopefully he’ll be back waxing poetic on-air once he gets his health and family taken care of but he’ll definitely miss the Devils’ next two games this week at least.

Back on the ice, presumably Derek was watching a lot of the WJC’s while the Rangers were beating down a bewildered Penguins team 4-0 with their best performance in weeks ironically, putting the Blueshirts back into first place.  I didn’t see a moment of that game but Henrik Lundqvist returned from his flu or whatever sidelined him Saturday to register a 27-save shutout.  Nigel Dawes and Paul Mara scored power-play goals.  Chris Drury also scored for the Rangers, and Scott Gomez got an empty-net shorthanded goal late when the Penguins pulled Marc-Andre Fleury on a power play to get a two-man advantage.

Derek can talk about the Rangers later but I’ll say a few words about the Penguins here.  First off, reading the Yahoo! recap I’m astonished how bad it’s gotten over there.  Pittsburgh has lost five straight, six of seven and their once high-powered offense has only scored eight goals in that time.  A grumpy Sid Crosby (more on that below) has been held pointless in his last three, and Evgeni Malkin has a mere two assists in seven games.

Right now it’s code red time for coach Michel Therrien who might be on the verge of becoming the next NHL coaching casualty this season, especially after an embarrassing 6-1 loss to an average Panthers team on Saturday where Crosby jumped Brett McLean off a faceoff and received 19 minutes in penalties for a fight, unsportsmanlike conduct and an instigator.

Crosby claimed he asked McLean to go and of course McLean said he didn’t – but given Crosby’s general petulance and recent punk behavior (punching some Thrasher player Boris Valabik in the crotch twice a couple weeks back) I’d be more inclined to believe McLean’s version, especially given the frustration already building around a dissapointing Penguin team.  His defenders – mostly in Canada – claim that Crosby’s persecuted because of the scrutiny he gets but honestly at this point he’s bringing it on himself and it’s not as if he’s ever been publicly taken to task for his actions by the league or his team.

In the night’s other game, the Islanders are tied 2-2 with the Oilers in the third period, but honestly do Isles fans even want to win at this point?  They’re 15 points out of a playoff spot at the halfway point, and currently lead the John Tavares (or Victor Hedman) sweepstakes.  Of course tanking no longer guarantees the top pick, but they should get one of those two at least.

Update: Well the Isles lose again, 3-2 for their 13th straight road loss…yikes.  At least last year they remained on the fringe of contention till February.