Once upon a time, this was a deadly double-stop. I actually kept track of stuff like this.

In the 1980s through ‘90, for a span of eight years, either Edmonton or Calgary was in the Stanley Cup final.

And back then, most seasons, every team played in every city twice. And also, pretty much every trip out West by every team from the East included the Alberta twinbill.

So that’s why it was so stunning that in the 1980s, only six teams—SIX! —went through Edmonton and Calgary, or Calgary and Edmonton, and swept both games. SIX!

In the 1990s, at least until the point at which I stopped counting, it happened 32 times. I have no idea how often it has happened in this decade, but teams don’t do the Alberta two-step as often as they used to do it. And it sure isn’t as daunting a task, even though both franchises have been to Cup finals in recent years.

Which reminds me, that MSG promo for tonight’s game is kind of disrespectful … the one that brags about the Rangers being an Original Six team and mocks the Flames’ logo because it has fire coming off it. Especially since both franchises have won the same number of Stanley Cups in the last 69 years (and counting).

And MSG doesn’t see it fit that this proud Original Six franchise go on its regular station tonight, but rather gets bumped to MSG+, and probably with backup play-by-play guys on TV and radio because it’s a football weekend.
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I’m going to be working and away from the laptop pretty much all day and night. I will try to put up a pregame thread. Not sure if I will be able to do it.

Lundqvist, no doubt, will be back in goal. Not sure if Brashear will play. But you can certainly expect more resistance and belligerence from the Flames than you saw from the Oilers two nights ago.

Here are the pregame notes.

So, no, I’m not putting much into the 4-2 victory in Edmonton, other than it is sure better than a loss, an overtime loss or one of those skills competition losses. Those would have all been unacceptable (like the Islanders game).

Thoughts:

1) The MSG propaganda machine is cranked up with the “what a great play by Drury” stuff. And I’m one of the few who think this guy is a decent captain and a good hockey player. But he is not playing well by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps he’s hurt and everybody there knows it but isn’t allowed to say it, so they defend him. If he’s healthy, he should not be getting praise. That said, I think Joe and Sam were dead on in that Callahan, Dubinsky and Higgins are looking much better lately.

2) Did you see the “Sausage Fest,” Captain Clutch commercial (I think it was for Captain Morgan)?

3) I say this pretty much every night: What a play by Del Zotto … this time on the Callahan goal. Also, Gilroy (on that great ice in Edmonton) had a stellar game. I think both of these guys need defensive defense partners, and I think maybe it’s time to stop expecting offense from Staal and let him play with one of those guys, and let Girardi either play with the other or play with Rozsival.

4) Maybe you guys are right about Tom Renney. Oilers look passive, awful.

5) I’ve said all along how much I miss hockey, and that if somebody called and asked me to go back to hockey full time, I probably wouldn’t even have to think about it. But that is one trip I don’t miss even a little.

6) Although the Edmonton P.A. guy has such a great, Canadian voice and accent.

7) Aaron Voros. Is this guy trying to get bought out?

8) Amazing how much easier this game is, and how much better the results, when you have a power play. Remember that seven-game winning streak? That was PP driven.

9) Once again,  MSG bails on the Tortorella press conference quickly. Brutal.

Here are the official game summary and event summary.

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
November 5, 2009 – New York Rangers 4, Edmonton Oilers 2 (Game #17, Road #9)

• The Blueshirts defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2, tonight at Rexall Place to improve to 10-6-1 overall, including a 4-4-1 mark on the road; the win was the Rangers first in Edmonton since Feb. 21, 1999.
• New York tallied three goals in seven power play opportunities to snap a four-game (0-12) goal-scoring drought with the man advantage.
• The Rangers registered a season-high, 39 shots on net, including 14 in each of the game’s first two periods; New York also recorded 28 blocked shots, led by Marc Staal (five) and Dan Girardi (four).
• Christopher Higgins opened the game’s scoring at 15:28 of the first period, his second goal in as many games, and tied for the game-high with six shots in 19:09 of icetime.
• Goaltender Steve Valiquette made 26 saves to record his second win of the season.
• Ales Kotalik led all skaters with three points (one goal and two assists), each of his points coming on the power play; Kotalik is currently tied for the NHL lead with 12 power play points.
• Rangers Alternate Captain Ryan Callahan notched his first goal in 11 games, and added an assist in 20:00 of icetime.
• Marian Gaborik led the team with 24:03 of icetime, and finished with one goal and two points on six shots; he now has 12 goals and 21 points in 15 games this season.
• The Rangers blueline collected three assists in the contest – Michael Del Zotto (one), Marc Staal (one) and Matt Gilroy (one); Rangers Alternate Captain Vinny Prospal also tallied an assist on Kotalik’s game-winning, power play goal.
• The Blueshirts practice schedule for tomorrow, November 6, is 12:00 p.m. at Leduc Recreation Centre in Leduc, Alberta.

• The Rangers return to action on Saturday, November 7, when they will face-off against the Calgary Flames at Pengrowth Saddledome (10:00 p.m.), to conclude their three-game Western Canadian road trip; the game will be televised live on MSG Plus.

My mom found this photo of me and some other guy after the World Series last night.

Combined, he and I make more than $30 million a year. (actually, between the time of this photo and the time it took to actually get him to answer a few questions he probably made more money than I make all year.)

The photo was taken by my friend Frank Becerra Jr., the great photog from The Journal News and LoHud.com.
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You probably saw that the Canucklehead O’Brien was suspended for his idiot thing with Avery the other night. Steve Zipay quoted Avery as saying, “I’m surprised (league officials) haven’t called me for being in the area.”

Zip also reports that Lisin is back in, and Valiquette starts in goal against Tom Renney’s boys.
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Here is a preview from NHL.com. And here are the pregame notes from the Rangers.

Here’s the link to Larry Brooks’ story today, about the Rangers’ interest in Peter Forsberg and Glen Sather actually admitting it. I wonder which of the bad contracts he will have to eat in order to afford Forsberg.

The last thread reminded me of an idea I had a little while ago.

Jonny D wrote: “Forsberg would look great next to Gaborik … in the doctor’s office.”

And I was thinking of instituting a “comment of the week.” What do you guys think? On Friday or Saturday we can all submit candidates, and then on Sunday or Monday we can vote on them and come up with the best line each week. Any interest there?
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Here’s an NHL.com feature on Ryan Callahan as part of the site’s package on tough guys. And here’s the site’s preview of tonight’s game in Edmonton.

Chris Drury makes the U.S. team—no doubt, right, with John Tortorella one of the assistant coaches? He might even be captain. Anyway, in my scenario, he enters the Olympic break with something like nine goals for the Rangers. Then he gets to Vancouver and has another chapter of Clutchness, scoring like seven goals in the Olympics. Then he returns to the Rangers and adds four more the rest of the season. 

Could happen. Right? Would you be even a little surprised?
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Completely unrelated … when I took over this blog, I was doing another one called “Faceoff” with Sam Borden. We abandoned that when this one became such a big part of my work week. But I want you guys to check out my last post from that blog, back in April. It’s my Little League World Series moment.

I’ll be back later with game notes and stuff. Just wanted to get something out there before I leave Yankee Stadium and go into hibernation until about noon.
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Want to know what I was thinking in the middle of the Yankees’ celebration? That now George Costanza has another trophy he can drag around the parking lot while he insults George Steinbrenner and the “front office morons.”

“I fear no reprisal.”

NHL ANNOUNCES DISCIPLINARY ACTION TO NEW YORK RANGERS 

BYERS AUTOMATICALLY SUSPENDED AND COACH TORTORELLA FINED

        TORONTO (November 4, 2009) — The National Hockey League announced today disciplinary action resulting from NHL game #201 between the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, November 3.

        New York Rangers forward Dane Byers has been suspended automatically for one game, while head coach John Tortorella has been fined $10,000.  Byers was assessed an instigator penalty at 18:50 of the third period.  He will miss Thursday’s game at Edmonton. 

        The disciplinary action is pursuant to NHL Rule 47.22, which states “a player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five minutes of regulation time or at anytime in overtime, shall automatically be suspended for one game” ... in addition, “the coach shall be fined $10,000 — a fine that will double for each subsequent incident.”

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Byers will forfeit $2,590.67.  The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.  The coach’s fine goes to the NHL Foundation. 

I said this last week, and I’ll say it again. Some of this falls on Tortorella and Mike Sullivan. They can’t let these types of things continually happen. Then again, with a limited roster, their options are slim.

Some thoughts:

1) They sure bent over backward to get Christopher Higgins his first goal, and he got it. I understand that Lisin was out (another mystery injury, upper/lower something or other?) and it probably was easier to just elevate Higgins to the No. 1 line. But I wouldn’t mess too much with Gaborik-Prospal. It worked pretty well with Dubinsky and it worked pretty well with Lisin.

2) I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but has anybody seen Ryan Callahan and Sean Avery. Yes, Avery annoyed some of the Canucks and was involved in that between-benches incident (miraculously, he didn’t get a penalty, a game misconduct or a suspension … yet). But neither is doing what they’re supposed to do. And I won’t even get into Rozsival or Drury again.

3) You’ve got to love that little melee in the third period. The Rangers stuck together, and you don’t see nearly enough of that stuff with this team. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t translate into momentum. In fact, just the opposite.

4) Gotta like the naming of Prospal as an alternate captain. Although he still sounds, to me, like Vegetable Lasagna from Seinfeld.

5) They keep showing that Mercedes commercial during games … the one where the young, rich clown with the glasses if driving with his two young daughters in the back seat, and swerving out of his lane, dozing off, speeding, and tailgating an 18-wheeler. And his new Mercedes is supposed to protect him and his kids from this idiotic type of driving? How about this: Don’t get in the car with the kids if you’re going to drive like that, pea-brain.

Here are the official game summary and event summary.

Back to the Stadium for me. Supposed to be like 34 degrees tonight. So nice, what baseball does to its fans.

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
November 3, 2009 – New York Rangers 1, Vancouver Canucks 4 (Game #16, Road #8)

• The Blueshirts were defeated by the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1, tonight at General Motors Place to fall to 9-6-1 overall, including a 3-4-1 mark on the road.
• Christopher Higgins notched the Rangers only goal of the game, his first as a Ranger, at 6:24 of the third period; he finished the contest with two hits in 19:42 of icetime.
• Rangers Captain Chris Drury collected an assist on Higgins’ goal, and registered four shots in 18:00 of icetime.
• Brandon Dubinsky registered one assist and delivered three hits in 18:36 of icetime.
• Forward Vinny Prospal was named Alternate Captain prior to the game, and finished the contest with a team-high 11 faceoff wins (65%, 11-17).
• Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy led the team with three blocked shots in the game in 22:49 of icetime.
• Marc Staal led New York with a plus-one rating and 23:58 of icetime.
• The Blueshirts practice schedule for tomorrow, November 4, is 1:00 p.m. at Rexall Place in Edmonton.

• The Rangers return to action on Thursday, November 5, when they will face-off against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place (9:30 p.m.), in the second game of their three-game Western Canadian road trip; the game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio.

Did I mention that the Sedins remind me of the Proclaimers: “And I would walk 500 miles …” Me and John Dellapina and Tom Gulitti used to always sing that song when Vancouver was in town.

Just wanted to give you this blank canvas for the late gamer.

If you’re interested in the Brian Leetch conference call transcript from this afternoon, it’s on the previous thread.

See youse during the game.