Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning Correspondent talks with L.A. Kings coach Terry Murray and Kings Goalie Jonathan Quick about the Kings hot start to the season and Saturday's shootout win over the Lightning. Also Minn Wild Coach Todd Richards talks about his days with the Orlando Solar Bears of the AHL.

Anders Hedberg was an unheralded Ranger in a lot of ways as far as The Mouth is concerned. When Anders and his linemate Ulf Nilsson were signed by the Bluehsirts for 2.4 Million dollars in 1978 with much ballyhoo, the NHL was a much different place then it is today.The NHL had a very xenophobic attitude toward players from foreign countries. This was the case with owners, general managers and even the players themselves. Anders gave it 100% every night and scored a lot of big playoff goals for... the Rangers.The following clip took place on April 5th, 1983 during a preliminary playoff contest between the Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers at the old Spectrum. This is Ranger Smurf hockey at its finest as Anders leads the way in frustrating the Flyers with speed and skill.The game also features a young and very green Mike Doc Emrick in his first year as a NHL play by play man. Since this is the Flyers feed we of course like many of these clips have documented, we are treated to the whining of the Flyers color men.This time the culprit is Bobby The Chief Taylor who now presently does his whining during Tampa Bay Lightning broadcasts.The Rangers would go on to win this game 5-3 and went on to sweep this 1982-83 best of five playoff series against Philly 3-0 more>>

2009 season has some great action.

Things got wild and wooly in Vancouver last night as a mini brawl occurred where the Rangers outnumbered the Canucks 10-7 in players on the ice but for some reason no real beat downs took place. Soon after that things got real fun when Sean Avery brought the verbal rukus while on the bench when he verbally obliterated Vancouver Canucks Darcy Hordichuk with the following expletive talent evaluation of the Canuck. “STFU, You F’N Suck, You’re a F’N Bum Hordichuk, STFU!”The following clip shows... Hordichuk’s team mate Shane O’Brien coming all the way from the defensive side of his own bench to engage Avery in this war or words. What results is O’Brien losing his cool and losing his stick. O’Brien then got ejected from the game which resulting in a loss of “man” power for his team, which in essence completed his loser Hat Trick for the night. more>>

A change of scenery is always good. The Mouth thought ex- Ranger Peter Prucha needed one and that came to fruition. The only problem was he was sent to the Phoenix Coyotes.The downside for a player joining the Yotes, is that the franchise is located in the desert, where nothing grows, not even flowers, except cactus of course.The Mouth quips that the same lack of growth can be said for the young hockey players that try to develop there in the arid and barren wastelands of Arizona even the... Phoenix franchise is stunted and wilting fast.During this past off season the Rangers did business with the Phoenix club yet again and acquired Enver Lisin and in exchange sent Lauri Korpikoski to his NHL developmental funeral in Phoenix.Enver Lisin has a NHL pre requisite of hi-lite reel type goals, he also has a companion low-lite reel of defensive lapses, Enver is a project for sure. But he can get better and so far he has been.In the Mouth's opinion the kid has played well. After a camp where coach John Tortorella called him out on his unacceptable defense, the kid has broken his butt to hustle on every play and prove the critics wrong. The following clip shows a couple examples of this.The hustle shown on the video culminates when Lisin scores his first goal as a Blueshirt. He netted his first as a Ranger against the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs this past Saturday, October 17th, 2009 in a game which the Rangers won 4-1.more>>

There are few things that leave The Mouth speechless and this clip was one. The Big man will leave you good people and resident wisecrackers of Ranger Crisis to be the judge and jury on this one. I know the ladies will like it, The clip is from a CBC show called “ Battle Of The Blades”, which apparently is our neighbors answer to the United States television hit “ Dancing with the Stars.” Frankly, The Mouth doesn’t know what to make of this. The only thing he does know is that we must get... Ron Duguay’s best buddy Chris “Kotsy” Kotsopoulos take on this on ice rink dance contest !more>>

Artem Anisimov's First NHL GoalWhen a player get his first NHL Goal its always a party on the ice, and even sometimes off it. In this case a party of Five led to Artem Anisimovs first NHL goal before any celebration again.Besides Anisimov himself, five other Rangers , including net minder Steve Valiquette played pivotal roles in putting this one on the board.. The Big man in his commentary points out Sean Avery has a vital role in the play resulting in a goal.The Mouth also wants his Ranger... Crisis fans to note that coach Tortorella is practicing what he preached promised as far as going with the hot hand.In a crucial time in the game, with a tenuous 1-0 lead and on a Power Play he rolled out the Third Line to play on the man advantage.The move paid off big time for both the Rangers and Artem Anisimov who after a beautiful feed from Vaclav Prospal beat Ducks goal J.S Giguere for his first NHL tally. more>>

Before the game the Rangers played against the Capitals that took place on October 8th 2009, Rangers coach John Tortorella called Ryan Callahan " A Pro" and The Mouth couldn’t agree more.Before the Big man began this wonderful video blog for us he was not the biggest Callahan supporter, he found Ryan small and streaky. Two things that bugged the heck out of him.It’s takes a big man to admit he’s wrong and the Mouth is certainly is that and he takes back every negative thing he ever uttered... about Ryan.The penalty killing shift that is shown in the first part of clip is one of sacrifice, tenacity, skill and endurance. It really is an amazing series of plays, which includes two separate spoilers of Alexander Ovechkin Power Play shots the last of which results with a super Ryan Callahan goal.The goal had come when Callahan had nothing left in the tank but hockey heart and that's what got it done..The second part of the clip takes place just two minutes after Ryan’s tally and gives kudos to the Rangers third line. The hustle of both Artem Anisimov and Enver Lisin in the offensive zone is textbook, combined with a great finish by Ales Kotalik.Kotalik ended up scoring a sweet goal , that made four Capitals on the ice look absolutely foolish in it’s wake.more>>

Looks like Donald Brashear is going to be a busy ruffian this year as he has already had two fights in his first three games. The season is young but Donald is fitting in well and making the fourth line a positive intangible with both offensive effort and body work.The Big Rig used his most useful asset, which are his dukes when he threw down against Matt Carkner of the Ottawa Senators on October 3rd, 2009 at MSG.Matt Carkner who is the cousin of former Blueshirt defenseman Terry Carkner, is no... stranger to brawling as he once accumulating 335 penalty minutes in the AHL for the Cleveland Barons. The fight itself is uneventful but there is a punch thrown by Brashear that catches Carkner’s helmet flush on. Lucky For Carkner it was his helmet that flew off and not his head. more>>

The Mouth wishes to Thank you Michael Del Zotto for being the first Ranger teenage defenseman to score a goal since Mario Marios did it during the Carter administration. MDZ as the kids call him, did it in only his second NHL game and his first as a Ranger at Madison Square Garden. The goal is also a great example of teamwork as the entire unit of Five touched the puck before Del Zotto put his first NHL biscuit into Senator’s goalie Pascal Leclaire’s basket.

Donald Brashear had his first fight as a Ranger as he took on a familiar fight face to Ranger fans in the 6’4 227 lb Eric Godard. The tussle was initiated by Godard and The Big Rig was more then happy to oblige.The opening of the fight is where Brashear showed his quickness, scoring early and stunning the Pittsburgh enforcer Godard. . Godard has always been a game fighter as we found out last year in Colton Orr’s “GigantOrr” seriesIt was great to see the Big Rig shake the cob webs off from the... off season and get down and dirty and do extremely well in his first official regular season battle as a Blueshirt.more>>

Ten Rangers appeared with Dave on his lae night television program to help him out with his Top 10 segment. The Topic was "Top 10 things you would never hear a Hockey Player say"

The Mouth’s Hockey interviewer soul mate Rose “The Sports Lady” Beiderman talks with Ranger great Rod Gilbert in what probably is the most graphic expose ever done on Mr. Gilbert. The clip is chock full of adult humor some of which I think actually takes Rod by surprise, even though he knew what he was getting into when he sat down with Rose.It may take you a few seconds to recognize who is actually under that powdered wig, if you don’t recognize her at all you might not get premium cable... service. The“Sports Lady character is being played by the talented comedienne and actress Susie Essman. Susie is a regular on HBO’s “Curb your Enthusiasm.” Essman plays the hilarious and foul mouthed Susie Greene wife of Jeff Greene who is Larry David’s best friend and manager in the series.more>>

“The Big Rig“ video feature that we are about to embark on for the first time will continue in time line a recorded documentation of the tussles and throw downs of one Donald Brashear from start to finish as long as his Ranger career dictates.In this, the debut episode of “The Big Rig” Brashear tangles with former Hartford Wolf Pack puncher the 6’4 235 lb Brandon Sugden. The fight took place in a Pre-season game that took place at MSG on September 24th, 2009.Sugden who was trying to impress the... Cap coaches, and win a spot as their tough guy came at Brashear with all he had, which led it to be a long and brutish affair. more>>

This clip may be the grand daddy of them all as far as Bizarre Bench Clearer's go. It's also one of the best isolated displays of an unlikely combination of viciousness and one of total hilarity.This "event" most likely can only be topped by the Bruins invading the MSG stands on December 23rd, 1979. What makes the following clip so redonkulous is the participants involved not really the fisticuffs. It all happened at MSG on February 21st, 1979.The Rangers representative on this trip into... bizarre-o-land was none other than Staten Island born and bred Nick Fotiu. Nick who actually despite taking a stick to the head, then staving off a linesman, trying to cut off his adversary in the hallway before he reached his locker room was the most sane of the combatants.That’s because Nicky had become involved with the craziest mutha to ever lace up a pair of skates at the Pro level, Steve “Demoltion Durby” Durbano. The Mouth can not be convinced otherwise that Steve has no equal when it comes to being the biggest nut job ever to play in the NHL and throw in the WHA as well.Steve’s life experiences on and off the ice are ones of folk tales and legend. In the following clip Durbano gets in a stick fight with Nick Fotiu and while Nicky is being held off by the late great linesman John D'Amico. Durbano comes over top hitting Fotiu with nothing but lumber in a vicious stick attack.This all happens in a nano-second during the scrum in front of the Blues bench. The Mouth splices the stick attack four consecutive times into the video so that the viewer can see it, because it comes sneaky and quick just like every other Steve Durbano attack did.The following night on Marv Albert’s WNBC broadcast he deemed the Blues loony tune defenseman “Hatchet Man“ and said that Durbano “Represented the pure sickness element in hockey today.” I say Marv had it right, and after watching the video I think you will agree.more>>