Good bye Rangers

So John Tortellini hits a woman in the head with a water bottle and gets a game off. Too bad. The Rags should be done just for dressing Avery, the guy who old Johnny boy benched for his silly behavior. Gotta love this. I like the whining from the Rags too. Ohh, he skated into the goalie. Ooooh he bit me. Brashear tried to hurt on of us.
Bite me. The team lost all credibility when it let Avery suit up on Sunday.
Andrew Gross of the Bergen Record reports there was a mark on Brandon Dubinsky's arm, but a nbite. C'mon, when did Shoane Morrison become Mike Tyson.

Season over

But, Justin DiBenedetto scored his first pro goal tonight in the Sound Tigers 4-2 loss to Wilkes arre in the opwening round of the AHL playoffs.
The OHL's third-leading scorer this year, DiBenedetto scored the Tigers' first goal. He hasd three shots in the first period. Like I said the other day, the kid shoots it. Can't score if you don't shoot it.

OVECHKIN

Man that guy is fun to watch. It must just scare the crap out of a goalie to see him coming. The one tonight was almost typical vechkin. Beat one guy, make a move on the next, lose the puck, kick it back to your stick, fall to your knees, shoot and score. Easy right.
Man he's worth the price of admission.
Stick with the video, its worth it.

Tigers on the brink

Another close one, but the Soundtigers fell 2-1 to the Penguins last night. Bridgeport trails the Wilkes-Barre Penguins 3-1 in the best of seven series. Things look bleak. Go to the Soundtigers web site for a recap and boxscore.
On the plus side, I got a look at prospect Justin DiBenedetto (right) who is seeing action with the Tigers. He looks confident, moved well without the puck and had two shots on goal. Both shots reminded me of Sean Bergenheim when he first came to the Islanders. Not sure what to do? Shoot the thing. He didn't hesitate, just fired away. He was the third leading scorer in the OHL this year, so that should tell you something. He might have been the steal of last year. They picked him 175th overall (sixth round) and he looks like a player.

Another playoff game, another Nystrom goal

Man he would look good in blue and orange.

Dr. Hook on TV

One of the new TV shows I like is the Unusuals. They film in New York and Brooklyn and the stories are quirky enough to keep my attention. And last night, as an added bonus, one of the guest stars was Paul D'Amato, or, to those of us who know the greatest hockey story ever told, Tim "Dr. Hook" McCracken.
That's my daughter and me with Paul at a recent Soundtigers game.

Nystrom scores in playoffs

OK OK so it was Eric Nystrom that scored last night for Calgary. But Islanders fans of a certain age get all warm and fuzzy thinking of Nystrom and the playoffs. The guy was just clutch. And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Eric scored five goals this year. Three of them were game winners. Sound familiar.
I wish the Islanders had grabbed him in the draft. Wish they had taken Zach Parise, too. Anyone see Milbury's lame comments about skating issues whne they asked him about Zach?
I'm convinced the real reason is he had a problem with the Islanders legacy and he wanted , here's ego for ya, to make his own mark. Yeah, brilliant.
Here's why it took me a long time to dislike Mad Mike. He DID go into the stands at the garden, take a Rangers fan's shoe off and beat the guy with it.
Watch for number 26.

Thaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh Yankees win

Jose Molina wearing sunglasses behind the plate looked like one of the bad guys from Battlestar Galactica.
I'm going to my first game at the new stadium Tuesday night, I'll post Wednesday on what its like.
But at least they won today.
OK now on to hockey.
The Wiles Barre Penguins' Tim Wallace was suspended for Sundays game (UPDATE: Sean Bentivoglio scores in OT to give the Soundtigers a 5-4 win and new life in the AHL playoffs.)
I'm guessing it was for the hit that Mike Iggulden took in the coconut early in the second.
Wallace is a punk. Here's a hit that got him suspended last March when he ran the Tigers Andy Sertich from behind.


AND THE FREAKIN TIMES SAYS THAT TORONTO WANTS TAVARES! Luckily Greg Logan of Newsday actually spoke to Garth, you know, actually doing some reporting instead of rehashing three-day old news, and made me feel a lot better.

Soundtigers lose 5-4 in OT

The Bridgeport Soundtigers lost game two of their opening round playoff series to the Wilkes-Barre Penguins in OT and are down 2-0. Game three is Sunday in Wilkes Barre.
Go to www.soundtigers.com for a recap. Here's the short version: They go down 1-0 30 seconds in, Get ahead 4-2 and give up 2 in the third to force the extra period.
Highlight of the game? Jon Sim, during a scrum, getting behind one of the Penguins and shoving his helmet forward so it covers his eyes. Did it at least twice. Made me think of the movies.
What movie? The greatest hockey story ever told, that's what movie.

And what troubled me? Somebody is gonna try and do a remake of Slapshot. A REMAKE.
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/the-hanson-brother-return-a-slap-shot-remake.php
Are they nuts. Its the perfect hockey movie. And its got charm. Yes charm. Despite three goons from the Iron League, an f-bomb every 22 seconds or so and a scheming coach who sleeps with an opposing goalie's ex-wife to get inside his head, its charming.
And its part of the fabric of hockey. I play on a team called the Chiefs, guess where the name came from. On the Roadrunners (2-17-1, see the first post) you can hear stuff from the movie all the time. "Yeah, we've got a lotta losses" "The hair make me puke" "Old time hockey, like Eddie Shore"
I have a West Point hockey t-shirt that says old time hockey on it.
A remake is gonna be crap. I just know it. Its going to be like your brother goes to the machine and brings you back a stinkin' root beer.

Soundtigers lose playoff opener

The Bridgeport Soundtigers lost the opening game of their playoff series with the Wilkes Barre Penguiins 3-2.
The game started badly for the Tigers when fan favorite Pascal Morency took a penalty on the opening face off and the Penguins scored after someone cracked goalie Nathan Lawson in the head hard enough to dislodge his helmet.
I like Morency (left), he's a tough guy on the ice but a good guy off of it.

Friendly to the fans and patient with the kids. My daughter had her picture taken with him at the beginning of the season and one game brought it to get him to sign. She saw him in the hallway and he even had his own Sharpie. Good guy, bad penalty. If he was agitating and getting them off their game, OK. But the opening faceoff? Before the game he was jawing at Aaron Boogaard and I swear it looked like he asked him to drop them now. Coulda been a true Slapshot moment.
Anyway, if you want a recap of the game, go to http://www.soundtigers.com/, the reason I decided to post was because I SAW ISLANDERS OWNER CHARLES WANG LEAVE THE VIP AREA WITH ALEXEI YASHIN!!
Again with this team trying to give me a stroke.
Please let this be just two old friends enjoying a game. I'm sure Alexei is kind to animals and I know he has always been a gentleman to fans but leave him in Russia. The guy makes a mint and he disappears in pressure situations. Also, it was clear in his last years here that his ego was running rampant. He had to play center, even though he was better on the wing when he came back from that gash on his arm. It was also pretty clear that he divided the room and he was driving his teammates nuts with a nonchalant attitude.

Opening day in the Bronx

The stadium is beautiful, the place was filled and the Yankees got crushed 10-2.
We had the first pitch at the new stadium, the first hit, the first homer, the first drunk in the stands to get belligerent and on and on.
Thats so 5:30. Let's talk about hockey.
I was going to write about goalies and how weird they tend to be, but I don't have the time today.
Here's what's important. Next weekend I am playing in a tournament that should be a blast and is for a good cause. Its the Hope for Heroes Hockeython at the Palisades Center on Saturday, April 25.


The mission of the tournament is "To bring together the compassionate, caring people who love to play, coach and watch hockey, with the hope
of raising awareness and providing funding, which may in
some small way, ease the tragic burden of pediatric
cancer on children and their families."
The night starts with a kids tournament featuring the Clarkstown Capitals at 7. Then the madness begins. Nine skaters per team playing 4-on-4 in 15-minute running-time games through the night. Each team winds up playing once every hour.
At midnight its still fun. At 3 a.m. you ask "What am I doing here? This is nuts."
But everyone pushes through because the mission is imoportant.
Two years ago three of our players had to leave early and we were down to one sub for our last two games. Talk about jelly legs.
While the games are going on there will be silent auctions in the stands and last time there was a band. Can't say for sure about the band but its worth a trip to the fourth floor of the Palisades Center for a look, or a laugh at me trying to stand up, never mind skate, at 2:30 a.m., and maybe to help out a great cause.
To find out more, go to http://hockeython.org/

Islanders No. 1

Well, at least on draft day they're on top.
Chris Botta assures us, on his NYI Point Blank blog (a great read for Islanders fans, by the way) that the team will take Tavares or Hedman. Good. Because when I heard that Toronto would do whatever it took to get Tavares I thought about past years and nearly had a stroke.
Garth, please do the right thing and keep me out of intensive care.
Speaking of intensive care, being an over-the-hill rink rat involves playing on two rec hockey teams and being the local league administrator. My wife is understanding and has not threatened to kill me in my sleep over the amount of time I spend on hockey.
Let me give you a recap of last night's game. A 3-1 win for my team, the Road Runners. Unfortunately, I can take no credit for the win. I arrived at the rink (the Rye Playland Ice Casino) in plenty of time. Sat down in room 2, got a nice seat near the window -- 'cause if you've ever been there you'd know its the hottest rink on the circuit -- and started to get dressed for the final regular season game. We are out of the playoffs thanks to a 2-17-1 record.
First I put on my cup, then knee brace, then my hockey socks. I laced up and tightened my skates, at my age a tiring task. Then, I reached into my bag to get my hockey pants.
Not there. Not on the floor around where I was dressing either. I called home and found out from my bemused wife that they were still on my bed. Crap. She asked me why I left them there. Almost stroked out right there.
I asked teammate Stevie Ray Binowitz, a guitar-slingin forward if ever there was one, to go to lost and found to see if there were some discarded buckets I could use.
Now here is where I need to digress some. In Rye, the dressing rooms are upstairs and the ice is on the first floor. It aint the easiest place, but the staff is good and the ice is well kept. You also have to park a long way and lug your equipment, but that's an issue for a colder day.
Back to Stevie Ray. He tramps downstairs and across the ice to the office, inquires about pants for his idiot teammate sitting upstairs in his skates and underwear, and finds out the answer is no.
He comes back upstairs and lets me know that it was a workout. Like I don't feel bad enough.
But thats not the bad part. Here's the bad part. This being rec hockey and all, the most important job on the team is bringing the beer, or as I like to call it, carbohydrate replenishment.
Beer duty rotates throughout the year. There are a number of beer fouls, as far as I'm concerned. Bad beer is one. Not bringing enough is bad. Deciding to take home the ones not yet opened even if there are still guys hanging around gets you serious abuse for a week or so.
But the major misconduct under beer rules happened last night. The beer guy was a no show. This is just not done. There will be justice. I don't know what, but we can't have this. This is anarchy.
Yeah, I forgot my pants, but not showing up on beer day. That's like hearing the Islanders are going to trade the No. 1 pick to Toronto.