Trouble Between the Tunnel

It may be a bit premature, especially considering the fact we’re ten games into the season, but with the best New York team being the Isles, there could be trouble brewing for the other area clubs. However, much has changed in the landscape of both the Rangers and the Devils that the causes for concern could be just a chemistry issue.

First, you look at the Rangers. This is a team who went out and decided they had enough money to basically do what they did before the lockout, which was get the best players’ money could by. In this case, Chris Drury and Scott Gomez, both are coming from the free agent frenzy. Yet, at the beginning of this season—only Drury seems to be comfortable enough with the system Tom Renney is running to get some consistency on the score sheet. Gomez has been shuffled around the line-up, which could cause for a lack of production as the comfortability factor is not there.

What should sting even worse is that the Rangers have a league-worst 16 goals-for this young season. With the likes of Jaromir Jagr, Martin Straka, Drury, and Gomez; this team should have more than 16 goals in 10 games. It begs the question of how much did Michael Nylander mean to this squad?? Oddly enough, the Rangers have only given up 21 goals, thanks to the work horsemanship of Henrik Lundqvist.

With the struggles early, you have to wonder when or if Jaromir Jagr will become a disturbance to this club, as well as how long before Tom Renney gets shown the door, should the struggles continue.

Moving through the tunnel over to New Jersey and the stink of the sulfur isn’t the only thing that is foul in Jersey. The Devils have gotten off to an awful start, no thanks to nine straight on the road as their new building, the Prudential Center, was finished and Bon Jovi finally stopped squatting on the land.

With new coach Brent Sutter behind the bench, we have been able to see John Madden and Jay Pandolfo flourish in the hard-nose system; yet with the departure of Gomez and Brian Rafalski—the Devils have lost some of their kick.

The kick was seemingly to the groin, as the normally defensive sound Devils haven’t been showing their true defensive form, giving up 34 goals in 10 games. Martin Brodeur appears almost human in net, as he is sporting a 3.30 GAA and .876 SV%.

The offense for the Devils is just as atrocious, with the team being shutout on two occasions already this season. Throughout the 82-game schedule in ’05-’06, the Devils were shutout the same amount. The absence of both Gomez and Rafalski are being shown on each end of the ice, with Gomez’s set-up prowess being missed most; especially by Patrik Elias and Brian Gionta.

Like I said—it’s still early and I don’t want to get all Eric Francis on the Rangers and Devils saying they won’t make the playoffs after 10 games; I’m not a presumptuous ass. However, for these teams to be struggling as badly as they have been, it could make people put their finger on the button—albeit very early.

The Devil You Don't Know

A bombshell was dropped today in the NHL as the New Jersey Devils fired head coach Claude Julien. No reason was immediately given, but Lou Lamoriello will take over as the bench boss for the Devils for the rest of the season.

To say this caught some off-guard is an understatement. The Devils are the tops in the Atlantic, they have 47 wins, they are battling the Penguins for positioning, and now they shake-up their bench. It does remind many of when Robbie Ftorek was fired late in the 2000 season when the Devils won their second Cup, but even now it's a tad late to be screwing with things.

There's a couple of scenarios that could have led to this. First, players voiced the displeasure of Julien, which is highly unlikely as they have been winning without their top players. Second, Julien had a personal problem that needed to be dealt with, but then wouldn't he just resign?? Finally, and most likely of all, is that Julien and Lamoriello had a falling out, which lead to this.

Now, truth be told, Lamoriello did a decent job of coaching the Devils last season with Larry Robinson stepped down; but that was early enough in the season to fix some things and for the players to adjust. Now is probably not the best time to spring this on a team, especially when you have a Cup contending team like the Devils.

There's only two ways that this ordeal works out well for the Devils. One, if something is revealed about Julien and someone in the organization not getting along, or two, the Devils win the Stanley Cup because of this move and it didn't matter what happened or who was behind the bench. We'll see what happens, but I'm sure more to this story will come out sooner rather than later.

Around the Rink 03.07.07

Well, it's the beginning of the month, which means it's time for the usual "Penguins are threatening to leave town" propaganda. This is getting a bit old, but it seems like it has some merit. Mario Lemieux called the deal with the City of Pittsburgh and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at an impasse and will look at options to move. We've heard it before, sure-- but now Gary Bettman will meet with the Penguins to see what's going down to bring closure one way or another.

Now, Bob McKenzie makes a good point, which makes me feel dirty saying that. McKenzie said that this could be an effort on making sure the Pens get everything out of the city and state that they can. With Bettman in the fold; this could be the moderator they need in order to keep the Pens in Pittsburgh for years to come.

---------
Another controversial hit, as Cam Janssen of the New Jersey Devils took out Tomas Kaberle on Friday night. Kaberle is out indefinitely, but wants to come back this season. Janssen received a three-game suspension.

The hit was definitely late and the flop Kaberle took into the boards made my neck hurt, but had Kaberle had been more aware of Janssen, would it be as serious as it was?? I'm not saying Kaberle didn't protect himself, but you have to wonder if he knew Janseen was coming; would he have done something differently??

---------
You take out the heart and the body dies. That's what biology and Mortal Kombat has taught us. It seems that the Edmonton Oilers are showing it on the ice. Since Ryan Smyth was traded, the Oilers have lost all three games since, getting shutout twice, and scoring only two goals in that span. Now, with Ales Hemsky out and any hopes of the playoffs a far reach-- some may wonder what would have happened is Smyth was still there.

Smyth, however, seems to be thriving on Long Island, as is ex-Oiler M-A Bergeron who has eight points in seven games with the Islanders. It's salt in the wound, I know-- but it's an interesting stat.

Another question is whether Kevin Lowe will be able to attract any free agents to Edmonton this off-season. With the Pronger issues, it seems that no one is willing to head to Edmonton.

---------
It'll be an interesting show this week, so make sure you check out FOHS live at 9 PM ET or always on the FOHS Podcast. Have you checked out the FOHS Message Boards?? You should.