Thursday, October 23, 2008

No Fun and No Fans in NJ


I decided to follow the Sean Avery Circus around the New York area after Sean's triumphant return to MSG on Monday. That meant that I had to head to Newark on Wednesday for a rematch between Avery and Mmmmaaaarrrrttttyyyy. After last seasons' battles forced the NHL to implement a new rule, I figured that it would be a fun match to attend between two rivals.

How wrong could I be?

What resulted was a clinical dissection of Dallas by Jersey's regimented offense in front of maybe, maybe 7,000 fans. The Dallas Stars that beat the Rangers on Monday were nowhere to be found, as were the Devil fans, who stayed away in droves. On the ice, the Marty Turco that was there to stop every Blueshirt break through the Star defense didn't show up. The Turco who made it to Newark pulled himself grossly out of position twice to allow a pair of amateurish goals on his way to being yanked for a Swedish kid who had 110 minutes of NHL time before taking the Rock ice.

As someone who showed up in a Brendan Morrow Dallas shirt, I was embarrassed for the effort. Morrow was completely ineffective, as was Brad Richards and the rest of the Stars offence. As for Avery, Sean had one first period shift where he was able to open up shop near Mmmmmaaaaarrrrtttyyy and that was it. The rest of the time, he was kept to the fringe by the Devils system and had no chance to create an attack. In fact, his best moment came during warmups. He acknowledged a few Ranger fans before attempting to get two provocatively dressed Jersey girls to lose their shirts. Mike Ribeiro, adorned with his ridiculous cock-of-the-walk mohawk got a kick out of it but also tripped over his own feet while skating around the ice.

I should have taken that as an omen.

Ribeiro and the Dallas offense worked to get all of one true offensive chance the entire game. They were a shell of the team that defeated the Rangers, which - of course - disgusted me. Tomorrow will see them face the blue and orange of the Isles and I can only hope for a better result. I will likely be covering the game with my camera so hopefully I will be able to pantomime my opinions through photos so stay tuned!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

what are you so angry about and why do you have a Morrow jersey? Like most Rangers fans you're caught up in the glitz and glam of the game and didn't appreciate the fact that you saw another shutout from the best goaltender of all time. Next time stay in New York

Anonymous said...

Rangers fans of all people should be able to appreciate a Brodeur shutout since they've seen so many. Marty owns the Bluesh*ts.

Scotty Hockey said...

Darin, If people like me stayed in NY, your building would be entirely empty. And Marty is far from the best goaltender of all time. Maybe the best goaltender of your lifetime, which probably leaves you in high school right about now, but definitely not of all time.

And Rob - Marty does own us? Really? What is his record against the Rangers the last two seasons? Look it up ...

Stevens8204 said...

Playing Devils Advocate here Scotty...could you get the announced total of a Rangers game minus corporate seats. I would be curious to see it. The Devils did figure out a way to play an annoying nutcase. Now let's see how it translates to the next Rangers matchup. We will see.

nyrmike21 said...

Darin, he clearly said Morrow shirt. And he's a true hockey fan, not just a blind fan like Devils fans who only see their team. Rangers fan actually respect the game and other teams. Also Brodeur is not the best goalie of all time, that distinction goes to Patrick Roy. When it comes down to the end of Brodeur's career, Roy's winning % will be much better.