Marty's Better

Or at least he was last night. The Devils' 4-1 victory over the Rangers certainly sent a strong message to the best team this year in the East. The Devils played a damn near perfect game.

One key component that separated the Devils of last night to the Devils of the past 6 games or so was the offensive play of the blue-liners. In the last game against the Islanders the puck was blocked constantly and never made it through. Kovalchuk scored in the first minute of the game which stunned the Rags and their fans. Stepan scored in the second to tie it up. After the Stepan goal the Rags kept firing for a few minutes but Brodeur never faltered. A power play for the Devils finished out the tied 2nd period. Once the teams hit the ice for the 3rd it was all Devils. Sykora took a blind pass from Clarkson and wristed it against (what I thought was his leg) his "butt" (as Sykes put it in the postgame show) which found its way past Henrik for a 2-1 lead. Then just a couple moments later Dan Girardi passed the puck right to Kovy as his team was changing lines. This allowed the Devils to get an odd-man rush with Jacob Josefson and Ryan Carter. Carter shot it past Lundqvist for a 3-1 lead which by Devil/Ranger game standards is a huge lead. Elias added an empty netter that officially thinned out the blue from the stands. The buzzer sounded as the chant "Marty's better!" filled the Prudential Center.

Two things stood out for me in this one. 1. Bryce Salvador, welcome to the NHL. Sal was never on my favorite player list, but he's stepped it up this year especially with the absence of Tallinder. and 2. The sloppy play of the Ranger defense. This is supposed to be the best team in the NHL this year playing against their biggest rival. Girardi made two mistakes in the course of seven seconds that costed his team a goal. He passed it right to Kovy. Then, didn't take the pass on the Josefson/Carter 2 on 1. Torts benched him for the rest of the game which I assume is because of this.

NHL.com comments have been fired up with Devil fans and MOST Ranger fans staying humble. A few "you have no fan-base" sore loser comments popped in here and there. For a team with "no fan-base" the rock was rocking pretty loud last night it seemed. Little Ranger side note: no more Sean Avery! It's official! He is G-O-N-E GONE! The Rangers have officially cut ties with him today. He was a healthy scratch for the Connecticut Whale since January 27th. There's only one thing I have to say to you Sean: До свидания, удачи в России (Goodbye, good luck in Russia). Enjoy all the vodka you can drink while punching cops and talking about Roshkenkovadoyalov's sloppy seconds! (That is best, fake Russian name you'll ever see!)