WRIST SHOTS: A COMPLETE CLUSTERPUCK

I'm going to come right out and say it: horror movies don't scare me more than the Ottawa Senators do. They're scary good. They dispatched the New York Rangers in the night 3-0, on three goals scored in an unfathomable 52 second span. Dany Heatley, dammit I wish he was on my team.

* Meanwhile, 3 out of 5 Sportsline.com NHL "experts" have chosen the Rangers to win the Cup. Not sure what they're basing that on, but everything that I've seen points to Ottawa. Oh, my choice is still San Jose over Ottawa. Though it would be foolish to overlook the Sabres, who won 6-0 and 7-1 this week, the second game they had 53--FIFTY THREE--shots against the Crapitals.

* Last night the Devils won a game they usually don't: a bad 2nd period, a listless Brodeur, an Atlanta goal with 4 guys in the crease in what can only be described as a "clusterpuck", down 4-2 entering the 3rd. They came all the way back and won 6-5, with Patrick Elias scoring a PP goal with :27 remaining in the tilt. It seemed like everything I shouted at the screen happened: I just got finished saying, "Elias has a great shot, he should just fire the puck on net more" and BOOM! Elias scored a goal (that may or may not have gone off his skate unintentionally). Then after the go-ahead goal I sarcastically suggested, "Hey guys, how about we play a little defense now?", with :15 left this happened:


Yes, this game was mere inches away from being tied up by Atlanta, if not for Brodeur's quick glove work. All in all, a great effort by the Devils and a nice win, but one that you don't expect to happen more than once a season.

* I almost bought tickets on Friday for a Rangers @ Devils game at the brand new Prudential Center . . . and then remembered that after the game was over, it would be 10:00 PM and I'd be in Newark. Seriously, I'll just watch it on TV.

* After beating the Rangers 2-1 in a close fought game on Tuesday, the Islanders did what they almost always do the next game: lose. Badly. This time, 7-1 to the struggling Leaves, albeit with their backup goalie. It's uncanny how they get up for the Rangers games, and follow it up immediately with a let down.

* It's official: the new RBK sweaters are pretty uniformly hideous, from the missing stripes that make Toronto look like they're skating in warmup jerseys, the ugly-ass lines and colors on Calgary, and the hideous orange sleeves on the Islanders. For some reason, the home jerseys for Dallas, Vancouver and Atlanta have giant letters with the city name on it, just in case their fans forgot where they were. How dumb to they think their fans are? Answer: pretty fucking dumb. Anyway, I noticed that the Original Six were virtually unchanged, but all of the Canadian teams' designs are not as subtly tweaked, because they know they are most likely to shell out the money for the new threads. But not only are they ugly, they also reportedly also retain more sweat and the players end up with more moisture inside their equipment (gloves, skates and pads). In other words, Bettman sucks.

* The Philadelphia Flyers need to be penalized severely for having two of their players in the past month viciously attack opponents. These 20+ game suspensions are meaningless if they're levied against marginal players like Boulerice (a 29 year old 4th line goon), and Downie (a non-starting rookie sent down to the minors mere hours later), and it's even more ridiculous that the team's management and coaches would not be punished at all. So how does this penalize the team? They should be forced to lose a roster spot for the duration of the suspensions, then maybe this nonsense would stop. Or maybe we could just eradicate the Flyers "organization" completely--that option sounds better to me.

* And of course, I'm rooting for the Colorado Rockies to win the World Series, since they were the original name of the New Jersey Devils. Does that mean they get their names on the Stanley Cup?