It had to happen sooner or later. It happened on January 20^th.

While struggling to stay out of the overall last place in the league standings, the Carolina Hurricanes named 25 year old Eric Staal as the new Captain for its hockey club. Rod Brind’Amour has worn the “C” on his sweater since 2005, succeeding the retirement of Hall of Famer Ron Francis and leading the organization to a Stanley Cup win in 2006.

Durability and leadership have not been the top headline for Brind’Amour’s 21^st season in the NHL(with St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Carolina) with the Canes looking up in the standings most of the season. Currently with 13 points and a ugly +/- -25, the wore-torn veteran has been pushed down from the forward lines and was even a healthy scratch for a few games. The guy is a proven leader--the kinda guy you want for your hockey team. He’s the player you could just look at an know his locker room speeches could be something of sports inspiration legend. Like most fans I have a lot of respect for “Roddy” and had mixed feelings of hearing the news even in the middle of this stressful season. With a total show of class the former captain supported GM Jim Rutherford’s decision and stepped aside for Staal.

As the team’s highest paid/profile player Staal has long been touted as the “future” of the franchise and was recently picked for Team Canada’s 2010 Winter Olympics team. While fans of the franchise knew Staal would eventually take the reigns many hockey fans felt the move was disrespectful this near the end of an outstanding career for Brind’Amour and this close of calling the Canes season a bust. Until Brind’Amour’s comments of supporting the change I must admit I too questioned the rational.

You don’t need to wear a letter on your team colors to prove you are a leader, but making a change in who is wearing the “C” is a significant move of respect and leadership for any hockey club on or off the ice. How has Staal responded? In his first game as captain versus Atlanta on January 21^st Staal scored a hat-trick. He has since posted 11 points in 7 games and has a 9 game point streak going into tonight’s game against Calgary. In short, he has led by example.

In an recent interview for Raleigh’s News & Observer, winger Ray Whitney said “It’s not a huge change. We’re just switching letters. You don’t even need a letter on. Leadership isn’t defined by a letter on your jersey.”   True enough. 

If this indeed becomes Rod Brind’Amour’s last season in the NHL I truly feel his #17 will eventually hang in the rafters of the RBC Center along side the #2 of Glen Wesley and #8 of Ron Francis. I also feel there could be a #12 hanging along side them one day after a hopefully long and outstanding career.

Ooops, my bad...you can find this post (and many, many more to come!) here:

 http://www.tailgate365.com/devils/

Broadway Blueshirts Pursue Familiar Path to Try and Recapture Cup Glory

Following the model that brought the team’s lone Stanley Cup of the past 70 years, the New York Rangers have acquired several key members of the Montreal Canadiens’ 1956-1960 dynasty.

Becoming Broadway Blueshirts just in time for the 2009-2010 playoff push are forwards Maurice “Rocket” Richard, Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, and Bernie “Boom Boom” Geffrion. Jean-Guy Talbot and the iconic Doug Harvey will anchor the defense, while 5-time Vezina winner Jacques Plante will join the inconsistent Henrik Lundqvist in goal.

“We’ve always been a team just a guy or two away from the big prize,” noted head coach John Tortorella. “It’s great to see that Slats is committed to putting those final pieces in place,” he said, referring to general manager Glen Sather.

Sather, whose 1980s Edmonton Oilers juggernaut was reconstructed in New York just in time to secure the 1994-1995 Cup, recently commented on the acquisitions.

“F#$%k it,” said Sather. “I’ve paid my dues in this league. Now it’s my turn to coast along on someone else’s hard work.”

When pressed further by reporters, the architect of the league’s last legitimate dynasty continued, “Messier, Anderson, Lowe, Graves, Beukeboom, MacTavish, Tikkanen…it takes a lot of hard work to assemble all that talent. Just ask Neil Smith.

“Hell, it took him another coupla years to finally land Gretz and Kurri, which just goes to show.”

The most notable of the new Rangers, Richard revolutionized the offensive game before his death in 2000. The Rocket set the standard for goal scoring when became the first NHLer to net 50 goals in a single season and 500 for a career. He also captained Les Habitants to 4 Stanley Cup wins while contributing to 4 others.

“Eight Cups. Wow. Not even Moose can say that,” said Sather in reference to Mark Messier, who won 5 Cups with Sather in Edmonton, and captained the Rangeoilers to their 1994 championship. His orgasmic spasms on Garden ice over a decade and a half ago remain the most enduring image of the Rangers’ Cup celebration.

The Plante move raised some eyebrows among Ranger faithful for 3 key reasons: Current goaltender Lundqvist is considered one of the cornerstones of the franchise; Plante’s outspoken nature and a divisive personality have made him a cancer in the locker room; and the fact that he succumbed to actual cancer in 1986. So why the move?

“Hank has been good at times, real good,” said Tortorella of his current netminder. “Other times, let’s face it, he’s been pretty bad. It’s that inconsistency that keeps him just a notch below the Plantes and Brodeurs of the world,” the coach noted. “Oh crap, did I say that out loud?” he said, casting a covetous eye westward toward the New Jersey Devils all-world netminder. “You can edit that out, can’t ya?”

The other new Rangers include Talbot and Harvey, seasoned blueliners who are expected to mentor young Ranger defensemen like Dan Girardi, Matt Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto. Beliveau, Moore, and Geffrion helped carry the championship torch from the Richard/Plante era into the Guy Lafleur/Larry Robinson/Ken Dryden years. Rangers brass hopes they can fill a similar role on Broadway, as they continue to act as though their decade-and-a-half old championship is still fresh. Of course, compared to the 54-year drought that preceded it, it is.

“If you had to pick another team to try and reconstruct when your own feeble attempts at scouting, drafting, and developing home-grown talent fail year after year, you could do a lot worse than the Canadiens of the 1950’s,” said noted hockey historian and unabashed Ranger-ass kisser Stan Fischler. “This is a team that could have hoisted Lord Stanley’s grail 8 consecutive times, were it not for the league’s decision to suspend Richard for the 1955 playoffs.

“Richard had an altercation near the end of the season where he punched a linesman 2 times during a game,” Fischler explained. “So league president Clarence Campbell had no choice but to suspend him for the playoffs. That decision touched off the famous Richard Riots in Montreal, and cost the team the 54-55 Cup,”

“Punching an official…twice! Ya gotta love that grit,” said Sather, beaming like a proud papa. “You just can’t teach that. Of course, with all the money this team has, combined with the League’s desire to have a strong team in the Big Apple, we don’t have to teach anything.”

(If you haven't figured it out yet, this blog entry is a work of fiction, intended solely for entertainment value. All quotes have been fabricated by me, and while the historical facts are accurate, the Rangers have not in fact reached the level of desparation implied herein...yet.)

Going into last nights game against the Ottawa Senators, the New Jersey Devils had won four straight and looked to extend their road streak to 8-0.

However, after going down 2-0 in the second period it wasn't looking too promising for the visiting Devils. But the Devils do what the Devils do, finding a way to cut the lead in half by the third period. 

The Devils power play has been short of spectacular but its what helped them gain 2nd place in the Atlantic Division, moving a point ahead of the New York Rangers and two points shy of the first place Pittsburgh Penguins.  

New Jersey went 3 for 6 on the PP, getting goals from Zach Parise (leads team with 17points), David Clarkson (12points) and Andy Greene (leads Devils defensemen in points with 6). Greene's wrist shot from the blue line through traffic proved to be the game winner, as the Devils held the Senators off the board in the 3rd period after scoring a pair themselves.

NOTES: The New York Rangers have have played three games more than New Jersey and the Pittsburgh Penguins have played two more than the Devils. By the end of the week the Devils could hold first place in the division after back-to-back games against Anaheim on Wednesday at home and in Pittsburgh Thursday night.

-The Devils are still without top defense line of Johnny Oduya (injured 10/29 in Tampa) and Paul Martin (out 4-6 weeks with broken arm sustained against Penguins). Jay Pandolfo also remains on the injured list, joined recently by Rob Niedermayer as of 11/5.

- Andy Greene has averaged 21:10 TOI after stepping up in place of Oduya and Martin. Greene also leads the defense with 6 points in 12 games.

-Former Islanders goaltender Yann Danis got his second win in his second game of the season against his former team Friday night at the Rock. 

The Devils will look to turn their 2-4-0 home record in the right direction as the New York Islanders come to town. They will go for their second straight home win, coming off of a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

Of course, like a lot of their recent games, Wednesday night wasn't just a win. It seems as though the Devils need to suffer a loss in order to gain a win lately. Rob Neidermayer will miss tonights game after suffering an undisclosed injury earlier this week. The good news? Patrik Elias started practicing just in time to get back in the lineup. With Elias activated off of the injured reserves list, the Devils only have forward Jay Pandolfo and Paul Martin still on it. Johnny Oduya has also been off of the ice since sustaining an injury last week.

With the top defensive pair now sidelined, Andy Greene has stepped up playing more minutes than any other defenseman for New Jersey. A pleasant surprise for any Devils fan after we had to witness the disappointment that is Corey Murphy- a signing the Devils made over the summer. For whatever reason, Murphy just has not been very strong for the Devils on the blue line.

Yann Danis will get the start against his former team, which means Martin Brodeur will have to wait till tomorrow to get another stab at making history for most shutouts.

And they improve to 7-0 on the road!!! Just three short of the record of 10-0 at the beginning of the season. Salvador came to the bench favoring one leg and Lemaire was having "hot flashes." How could someone else get injured he was saying? But Salvador just twisted it and did not miss a shift in the game on Saturday afternoon. It was a solid game against Tampa on the Devils holiday. The decision to throw Clarkson out there for his first ever shootout attempt proved to be a great idea, personally I was hoping to see Bergfors out there but I was happy to see the deke by Clarkson and the flip over the goalies pad on the backhand shot. 

With the Devils plagued with 2 big injuries to Pandolfo and Martin, and Oduya being day-to-day, they got GREAT news this morning. Elias has started practicing with the team as of Monday for the first time in over 5 months since his surgery! This is huge, the Devils have been scoring, but could use the boost of their all time leading scorer back in the lineup. The presence Elias brings to the ice is amazing, he brings leadership and consistency. With him and Langenbrunner in the lineup along with the rest of the veterans and "kids" the Devils will be one of the top 5 teams in the league.

All they got to do now is figure out how to win in front of the home crowd, and then they won't hear any complaints from Lemaire. Hes been happy with the team, except for the fact that they can not seem to produce and win at home. The Devils have been consistently good on the road in the past 10 years, but with the new arena they have to establish the Rock as a hard place to play for opposing teams. With the most state of the art arena in hockey its time to start proving they deserved it (Well Continental Arena was just as bad as the Coliseum) and can win there. 

Big game Wednesday night at home, what team better to establish home winning against than the Capitals. And they could be without Ovie???? Week-to-week is his status right now, in my 21 years of life watching hockey I have never heard week-to-week before...You know what this means, it opens the door to Zach Parise to win the scoring title! One last thing, if I read one more Devils pregame or postgame report about how Marty is one shutout away or it got spoiled with like 10 or 15 minutes left in the game I am going to go nuts, just let it happens guys and it will come, when we stop talking about it, he'll string them together like they are nothing...

The Devils are about to have a big game, a chance to go 7-0 on the road in style. On a holiday where the Devil is infamous and people will be dressed up in support of the team, the actual Devils will be wearing their strong road white jerseys. After the first 11 games of the season they have taken the fans for a roller coaster.  And now winning their first game without Martin and Pandolfo they are going to have to prove they can continue to do it over and over. Danis got to see rubber for the first time all season and proved that he can be a good backup for Brodeur after making some great saves. We need to see some of the defense step up out there, it can't be all White and Oduya, Greene and Salvador need to step up and get in the action. So far in 11 games, I love the play of Bergfors, the kid is earning his numbers out there, and I am about to purchase a practice jersey in black, and I think its going to have an 18 on the back for the young kid. ZZPops have been killing it and with the help of Clarkson and Bergfors the Devils will be a legitamite contender this year. The outlook is great, Elias will be back within a week or so from injury and that will help the scoring out, Marty seems to be in regular fashion playing at his prime into 37, and Lemaire seems to be happy behind the bench. The only 2 things that need to get better, the Power Play and the  home record, winning on the road is what the Devils have been good at for years, but its time to make the rock a hard place to come into for opposing teams, and the only way thats going to happen is with continued success there. Nice day game this afternoonn verse the Lightning, should be a good game and I would like to see the Devils win before less than 5 minutes in the third for once.

Go Devils!

David Meredith

I cannot believe it.  It is not that I thought the Avs would be bad this season but I certainly did not see this start coming, especially with the new and youthful faces this year.  Never mind the new net minder that was a "cast off".

Well, that "cast off" is standing 2nd in the NHL in goals against with 1.97, 2nd in save percentage at .940 and he is 1st in wins with 10.  Not to shabby eh?

The Avs are just red hot to start the season and Craig Anderson has been a huge part of that.  They have not had a start like this since the 2000 - 2001 team and they now lead the NHL with 22 points.  Beating the Red Wings twice in a week makes me smile also.

The team is getting it done with solid defense, great goal tending and team play.  The highest scorer they have is Wojtek Wolski at 19th in the league with 13 points.  We are used to seeing guys like Sakic, Hejduk and Forsberg in the top 10 but this season the load is being shared and I love it.

I don't know if it will last or not, but I am proud.  I have been an Avs fan since they came to Colorado and I am glad that first-year coach Joe Sacco is proving some critics wrong.  No matter where they end up, this team is for real.

That sounds like something I have been thinking about another team here in Colorado as well, how odd.