It was either an itchy trigger finger or some newly discovered Canadian mean streak that caused highlights of Canada’s Olympic glory – culminating, of course, in Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal against the United States – to be displayed during “The Star-Spangled Banner” in this rink Tuesday night.

Something less than a gracious welcome. But then, Ryan Callahan wasn’t the most polite guest, either.

Fresh off his first Olympic Games and the stinging loss to Canada that he called “the best game I’ve ever played in,” Callahan played one of his finest games this season, scoring twice in a four-goal second period that carried the Blueshirts to a 4-1 season-reopening victory over the Senators. The game was the Rangers’ first in 16 days, but technically it was their third straight win and fourth in five games – a mini-surge that, who knows, might tempt cap-strapped Glen Sather into purchase mode ahead of today’s 3 p.m. trade deadline.

If things are going to break right for the Rangers in the final six weeks of the regular season, there were omens good and bad last night. The good was their 60-minute effort following the long layoff, and their second-period outburst that started with Callahan’s highlight-reel tally 22 seconds in and including scores from Brandon Dubinsky and Sean Avery.

Click here to read the full article – By New York Daily News

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Want to sum up the last few years for Rick DiPietro and the Islanders?

The goalie entered the NHL’s two-week Olympic break with his surgically repaired knee in good shape and not having missed a practice due to injury since returning on Jan. 6. And now, on the eve of the team’s return to the ice tonight against Chicago at the Coliseum, he’s out indefinitely with swelling in the knee.

Still, the 28-year-old was not terribly discouraged by the news, saying tests showed yesterday that everything is fine structurally with the knee.

“It’s precautionary,” DiPietro said after returning to the team’s practice facility after practice, where he worked out. “After seven or eight days off, to kick it back into full gear might have irritated it a little bit. There’s nothing major to report, just the stuff that goes along with the territory of coming back from a serious injury.”

DiPietro reported he had no problems after Sunday’s practice, which he participated in fully, but that his knee stiffened late Sunday and yesterday morning.

Click here to read the full article – By New York Post

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Martin Brodeur noted that the Olympic gold medal he picked up in Vancouver on Sunday is larger and heavier than the one he won with Canada in 2002.

That’s because he sat on the bench as the backup to Roberto Luongo for the last four games, including Sunday’s 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. in the gold-medal game.

“It’s hard,” Brodeur said Monday after rejoining his Devils’ teammates in San Jose to prepare for tonight’s season reopener against the Sharks. “When you don’t play, you don’t feel as much a part of the team. I really embraced it as much as I could because I think this was the right thing to do.”

It might be difficult for some to come back from the emotional experience of the Olympics, but Brodeur doesn’t believe that will be a problem for him.

“It’s been over for a week for me, so I’m not in an Olympic mode, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’m excited to get back. This is our family. This is what we do.”

Click here to read the full article – By Bergen Record

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If you’re looking for that glimmer of playoff hope, beyond two wins in a row, as the Rangers’ players and coaches go their separate ways for the two-week Olympic break, it is this:

One of their chief rivals in the race — the Tampa Bay Lightning — shared the Garden ice with the Rangers on Sunday, and let’s just say that both teams showed how typical they are of the bottom two-thirds of the East. Inconsistent. At times lousy. Sometimes putrid.

The Rangers got down by two goals, skating at about three-quarters speed and were booed off the ice after the first period of a game that the NHL should be thankful wasn’t on network TV.

“We stunk,” coach John Tortorella said. “We got booed off the ice, and we deserved to be booed off the ice.”

The Rangers then scored four in a row in the second, including a highlight Sean Avery penalty shot, for a 5-2 victory, their third in four games.

Click here to read the full article – By Rick Carpinello of The Journal News

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The Islanders wanted to finish strong before the Olympic break.

After taking a 3-1 lead into the third, the Isles failed to convert a minute-long 5-on-3 to start the final period and then allowed three straight goals to fall to Ottawa, 4-3, yesterday at the Coliseum.

“It’s frustrating,” said Blake Comeau, who saw the first two-goal game of his career go to waste. “The playoff race is tight from 12th all the way to sixth. These were two points we definitely needed. It’s going to be a big stretch when we get back.”

The Isles, six points out of the final playoff spot, have 20 games after the two-week break, which Scott Gordon and Mark Streit will spend at least part of in Vancouver. Gordon — who was a backup goalie on the 1992 US team that lost the bronze medal game to Czechoslovakia — is an assistant to Ron Wilson on the US staff and Streit is the Swiss captain.

Click here to read the full article – By New York Post

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The Devils will return a different team than the one that skidded into the Olympic break. Whether they’ll be better depends on whether coach Jacques Lemaire can restrain himself and un-burn them out.

They’ll be better just for the returns from fractures of Paul Martin and David Clarkson, better for the further acclimation of Ilya Kovalchuk, and better for the trade that sources told The Post general manager Lou Lamoriello is still pursuing for another center.

Lamoriello, sources say, was in the hunt for Matt Cullen, who went to Ottawa from Carolina, and has made inquiries about Matt Stajan, who left Toronto for Calgary. His interest in a center is a certainty.

Another forward, Alexei Ponikarovsky, who plays like a center, is likely to be moved out of Toronto, and he may be the best they had. There has been speculation, idle or not, from NHL team officials that he could be Jersey-bound.

Click here to read the full article – By New York Post

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Marian Gaborik missed his third game of the season when the Rangers hosted the Predators on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

“He’s day to day,” coach John Tortorella said. “In talking to Rammer [trainer Jim Ramsey] last night, it wasn’t a good chance because it just swelled up. It’s a pretty nasty gash. We’re fortunate it wasn’t more serious than it was. I think, after a couple of days, it’ll calm down, the swelling. So, hopefully, he’ll be ready to play in Pittsburgh.”

The Rangers face the Penguins on Friday night as two games remain before the Olympic break.

Tortorella said deciding to rest Gaborik – a key player for Slovakia in the Olympics – for these last two games is not a consideration.

“Not a chance,” Tortorella said. “If he can play, he’ll play. He’s our best player.”

Gaborik has 35 goals and 34 assists and is on a five-game point streak with six goals and two assists in that span.

He was injured during a shootout drill when Lundqvist came out of the crease to poke the puck. Gaborik attempted to jump over the sliding goalie but Lundqvist’s skate caught Gaborik’s right leg. Gaborik lay on the ice for about a half a minute before skating gingerly to the bench.

“We didn’t know if he was joking with Hank or not,” said center Erik Christensen, who had Chris Drury on his right wing instead of Gaborik against the Predators.

Click here to read the full article – By Bergen Record

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Unfortunately for the Islanders on a night they outplayed by the Penguins for some lengthy stretches, Evgeni Malkin knows what to do when the puck finds his stick.

“It’s tough. When you have guys like [Sidney] Crosby and Malkin on the ice, those guys make things happen,” Islanders coach Scott Gordon said. “It’s pretty consistent with every shift they have. That’s where their team is at now, and that’s where we aspire to be.”

With Kunitz scoring his first two goals since Dec. 29, the Penguins shook off a 5-4 loss Sunday to Washington in which they couldn’t hold a 4-1 lead to win their seventh in a row at home against the Islanders.

The Islanders lost their eighth in nine games as Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 37 of 38 shots — though it was defenseman Kris Letang who made the save of the night.

With Fleury occupied at the other side of the net, Letang sprawled along the crease to stop Matt Moulson’s shot in the first period. Right about then, the Islanders probably knew what kind of night it would be.

“What I liked was a lot of pucks were hitting him [Fleury] in the chest and that means he was being aggressive. He didn’t have to make a lot of spectacular saves,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.

Click here to read the full article – By New York Post

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Devils left wing Ilya Kovalchuk grew up in Russia, so he knows what big snowstorms are like.

“All the schools [in Atlanta] were shut down for a week, so it’s a little different,” Kovalchuk said before the Devils’ game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night at Prudential Center. “But there’s a little bit more snow here. It’s like back in Russia, so it’s good. Nice hockey weather.”

Fortunately for Kolvalchuk, he did not have to drive in the storm. Only a week has passed since the trade that brought him to the Devils from the Thrashers, and he still doesn’t have a car in New Jersey.

He got a ride to Prudential Center on Wednesday afternoon from rookie right wing Vladimir Zharkov, a fellow Russian.

“We’re in the same hotel, so he’s a pretty good driver,” Kovalchuk said. “He’s got a Porsche Cayenne sports car. So I told him, ‘Just be careful. Relax.’ ”

The day was somewhat reminiscent of Jan. 22, 1987, when a blizzard brought 15 inches of snow to the area and only 334 fans made it to the Meadowlands to watch the Devils defeat the Calgary Flames, 7-5. The start was delayed 1 hour and 46 minutes because only 13 Devils had arrived by the 7:30 p.m. game time.

Click here to read the full article – By Bergen Record

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It’s done. For better or worse, Olli Jokinen is a Ranger.

The deal, announced in the wee hours Eastern time, had had been held up for a couple of days while Kotalik played Hamlet, pondering whether to waive his three-team no-trade clause that included the Flames.

Jokinen and Prust, who both played in the Flames’ 3-0 loss to the Flyers in Calgary last night before the transaction was announced — how bizarre is that? — are expected to join the Blueshirts for tonight’s game against the Kings.

The key player in the deal for the offense-challenged Blueshirts is Jokinen, the very talented 31-year-old center who has scored 34 goals or more in four seasons, but who also has a terrible reputation around the league as a selfish player who also is a bad teammate.

GM Glen Sather did well to move Kotalik, whom he signed to a three-year, $9 million free-agent contract over the summer who but fell quickly out of favor with head coach John Tortorella and became a shell of himself over the last month.

Click here to read the full article – By New York Post

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