Blue Notes

9:39

That was original -- Gomez goes straight ahead with the faceoff at center ice, and it goes straight into the empty Devils net. 5-3 final, Rangers up 3-1. Good night!

9:37

14.8 seconds left, faceoff outside the Rangers zone. Still no shots for the Devils since Staal's goal.

9:34

Devils can't get anything going yet, and it's the Rangers with the counterattack -- good stop by Brodeur on Dawes with 1:10 left. Time out Devils. Brodeur has 34 saves, but he's still looked shaky, even when not removing his own mask during the middle of play.

9:33

Marc Staal had been having a good night, now it's up a notch. Kid wires one after the Devils can't get the puck out. Good set-up by Straka. 4-3, now 2:29 left.

9:29

Well, there was Avery's chance to be a hero. Great feed from Gomez, but he shoots it back into Brodeur. 4:29 left

9:21 p.m. Rangers have gotten very, very little done offensively this period. They are getting beaten to puck in all zones. 6:30 left.

9:17 p.m. Dancin' Larry just made his token appearance. 9:58 to go.

9:15 p.m. Bit of an early whistle there seemed to deprive the Rangers of a scoring chance, but the puck had already slithered wide when the play was blown dead.

9:13 p.m. No sign of that composure yet. Avery attempted a wild end-to-end rush that never had a chance, the Devils broke it up easily and Lundqvist was forced to make a big save on a partial breakaway by Madden.

9:10 p.m. Rangers need to show some composure here, with 12:30 to go. They've blown three one-goal leads, the Garden is screaming every time a guy in blue gets knocked down, and the Devils seem to have an emotional edge now. This is the turning point of the game.

9:09 p.m. Well, it's hard to understand what just happened there. First, Avery gets demolished by Bryce Salvador in front of the net with the puck nowhere nearby. No penalty. Then, the Devils come down and Lundqvist lets in a savable wrist shot by Mike Mottau. 3-3.

9:05 p.m. Power play ends without any major scoring chances. 16:22 and counting...

9:03 p.m. Tyutin gets caught out of position, Girardi misplays the puck and is forced to take a penalty. A little under 19 minutes to play, power play time for the Devils. Start biting those fingernails, Rangers fans.

9:01 p.m. Next goal will mean the difference between a nail-biter and a comfortable (given the back and forth nature of this series) two-goal lead. No predictions on who gets it, just stating the obvious -- it'll be a big one.

8:57 p.m. Ready for the third period. Will it be reckless or careful? Judging from the tenor of the game so far, I'd say reckless. We'll see.

SECOND PERIOD

8:42 p.m. It just gets wilder and wilder here. Jagr and Broduer collide and penalties are handed out. Rangers continue on the power play but come up empty. Brodeur makes a couple more big saves and the period is over. Wow. Brodeur's saves in the second half of the period kept the Devils in it. It could easily be 5-2 Rangers now. Instead, it's 3-2 after two. Back after another quick break...

8:35 p.m. Avery burns Colin White on a 1-on-2 rush and White is forced to pull him down. Power play Rangers with 3:30 to go... Jagr is robbed on an open net.

8:33 p.m. The intensity in here has ratcheted up at least three notches since the start of the second period. Count on the third period being even crazier. This has been a wildly entertaining period, with both teams capitalizing on their opponents' mistakes.

8:28 p.m. The stupidest call in hockey rears its ugly head. Fredrik Sjostrom is called for goalie interference, but on the same play, they call Brodeur for diving. Which is it, guys? You can't have both a dive and a penalty on the same play. Why don't they just change the rule and call it "embellishing a penalty," because that's really what Brodeur did.

8:26 p.m. Every time the crowd gets down on them, the Rangers score. With 19,200 coaches screaming SHOOOOOT, Fedor Tyutin fires a slapper from the blueline and Chris Drury deflects it in. 3-2 Rangers. So much for a low scoring game.

8:24 p.m. Ugly looking power play. The Rangers had some setup time early and late, but got zip done. Power play is over and the crowd is NOT happy. Shots are now 17-5, after the Rangers led in shots 12-6 after one.

8:20 p.m. Travis Zajac gets nabbed when his stick flies up into the face of Rozsival. Rozsival's hurt and the Rangers get a four-minute power play.

8:18 p.m. The Rangers got what they deserved here. Elias takes a seemingly harmless shot from the left circle, Langenbrunner waves at it (may have gotten a piece of it) and it's 2-2.

8:15 p.m. Bad, bad penalty here. Rangers get a too-many-men call, which not only makes them shorthanded, but nullified a good scoring opportunity with Jagr battling in front of the net. The crowd is feeling good again with the lead restored, but the Devils have definitely picked up their competitiveness in the second period so far. 13:21 to go, Devils on the PP.

8:10 p.m. The Devils goal has sapped the confidence in the building. And as I type that, the Rangers get it right back... Dubinsky makes a good play to chip the puck past Colin White, leading to a 2-on-1 with Marty Straka. Dubinsky feeds Straka, who punches it home for a 2-1 Rangers lead at 2:53.

8:05 p.m. And there it is. Nice play by Jamie Langenbrunner to shove a rebound in front to a wide open Patrik Elias, who to ties it at 1-1.

8:02 p.m. We're just about ready for the second period. Expect the Devils to come out strong. I wouldn't be surprised if they scored in the first 10 minutes before the Rangers pick up their game. Why? I don't know, just a thought...

FIRST PERIOD

7:47 p.m. Very good first period for the Rangers. The only downside is that they dominated play, but only lead 1-0. As we've seen so far this series, fluky goals can easily erase a lead that small. Back after a short break...

7:45 p.m. Shots are 12-5 Rangers with 1:07 left. None of the Devils' five shots was from an especially threatening position.

7:43 p.m. Dan Girardi may have gotten away with tripping Zach Parise, who was a step away from breaking in alone on Henrik Lundqvist. The fact that this is the first time I've mentioned Lundqvist's name so far should be a good indication of which team has had the edge in play so far.

7:40 p.m. Coincidental penalties on Dubinsky and David Clarkson. 4:15 left in the first, time for some 4-on-4.

7:37 p.m. The Devils have had trouble against the Jagr-Straka-Dubinsky line in the early going. If that line is allowed to cycle deep in Devils territory, it's bad news for New Jersey.

7:35 p.m. Unlike so many other big-money free agents in recent New York history, Gomez and Drury have enjoyed mostly successful seasons and the fans have responded in kind. Gomez got a piercing ovation when his goal was an announced, and the fans chanted "Druuuuu!" loudly when his name was announced for an assist on the goal.... Marty Brodeur stops Michal Rozsival on a 2-on-1 and it's still 1-0.

7:31 p.m. Absolutely beautiful pass from Dan Girardi to Scott Gomez at the side of the net, who taps it in for a power play goal and a 1-0 Rangers lead.

7:29 p.m. Midway through the Devils power play, John Madden grabs Sean Avery as the two chase after the puck and Madden goes off. Rangers will have more than 1:30 of power play time here...

7:25 p.m. Chris Drury takes the first penalty of the game at 9:57 of the first. Time for the penalty kill to do its job.

7:21 p.m. Rangers defenseman Christian Backman made a bad play behind the net in his own end, shying away from a hit and nearly turning the puck over. Can't do stuff like that in the playoffs.

7:18 p.m. The Rangers have controlled the play and outshot New Jersey 3-0 in the first 4 minutes. The Devils' Paul Martin tried to line Avery up for a hit on his second shift of the game, but Avery spun away from it. Not quite as physical as I would have expected early, but the atmosphere here is very intense.

7:12 p.m. During the Rangers' first shift, Avery was the only Rangers player standing up on the bench... He came on with his usual linemates, Brendan Shanahan and Scott Gomez. He missed a great chance to score when he let a Gomez centering pass slide through his legs, and he threw one aggressive bodycheck that mostly missed the target. No opportunity for the Devils to thump him yet.

7:10 p.m. I'll be keeping an eye on Avery throughout his entire first shift, so stay tuned... Here we go...

7:08 p.m. The first MARRR-TEEEEE chants have begun, and we haven't even dropped the puck yet.

7:06 p.m. First observation: The PA system here is way, way louder now than it was during the regular season. I'm no old foagie, but the sound is deafening here, and not in a good way. 90 seconds to the National Anthem. The crowd here is definitely pumped as the Rangers hit the ice...

6:53 p.m. Since everyone seems to be offering their two-cents on this whole Sean Avery controversy, I guess I'll start there. (Afterward, I'll explain why the Rangers may have a legitimate excuse for losing tonight's game.)

OK, Avery... Avery's behavior may have been bush-league (comparable, perhaps, to A-Rod's screaming "Ha!" at an infielder trying to catch a pop fly). But equally as bush-league was the NHL's decision to announce a rule "clarification" in the middle of the playoffs.

As another New York tabloid pointed out this morning, rule changes are supposed to be approved by the NHL's Board of Governors. But by declaring the new regulation a "clarification" of the unsportsmanlike conduct rule, rather than a new rule, Colin Campbell and his entourage were able skirt the politics that would have prevented them from enacting a rule in the middle of the postseason.

That said, hockey is a game that is won or lost on the ice. Normally I would say the Rangers have no excuses whatsoever for losing the game -- controversy or no controversy -- but I received an ominous text message about an hour ago that should have Rangers fans worried.

It was from my father, who has already managed to jinx his beloved Blueshirts b predicting a 4-1 Rangers win. Uh oh...

Well, we're about 15 minutes from game time here. I'll check back in once we get under way.