Henrik Lundqvist has played Martin Brodeur 12 times during the regular season in his NHL career.

The results are as follows:

Keep in mind these are only Regulation and OT stats. They do not include head to head shootout numbers, nor does it take into account Henriks miserable playoff showing 2 years ago against the Devils, which needs no explanation as it’s all been said.

So, is this the proverbial passing of the torch? Or was there ever a torch to pass? Honestly, I don’t know if there was. Everyone always calls Martin Brodeur one of the greatest goalies of all time, but honestly, I’m just not sold. I know his numbers look great, but playing behind that defense during their prime years, Henrik Lundqvist might have had a sub-zero goals against average. We’ll leave the Brodeur bashing for another day though.

With that said, I think we can all take heart to the fact that it was the Rangers youth that toppled the once great Devils, and not their vets. With goals from Staal, Dubinsky and Dawes the Rangers clearly showcased a youth movement even Lou Lams could be envious of.

I think the most important thing that can be taken from this game, is that I never felt we were going to lose. Even down 1-0 early (albeit only for about a minute) I never thought the Rangers were going to be beat by the Devils, it can be seen as a shot against a once proud New Jersey franchise, or, ideally, it can be seen as a positive step forward for the Rangers franchise.

I am no longer hoping to not see my team lose, I am expecting to see them win. That change in attitude has been subtle, but it is clearly there, and we can all feel it.

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You know why no sane Ranger fan would want to trade Jaromir Jagr (unless youre getting a guy like Sid the kid back), is because unlike most players in the NHL, Jaromir has the ability to single handedly take over a game. Unfortunately we’ve seen him play very passive for most of the games this year, but tonight, at least in the second, he was totally into it. Jaromir had a goal and an assist in that period, and he very easily could have had 1 or 2 other goals. He’s just flying out there, using his superior size, skill, and vision to make the Devil players look like preschoolers.

Brandon Dubinsky has officially won me over. He has that immeasurable thing out there with Jaromir called chemistry. You don’t know exactly what it is, but you know it when you see it. He’s playing really well with Jagr, and is making the necessity for Hossa a moot point. Once Straka comes back, expect Hossa to be on the 4th line, and expect Hollweg to be showing off some new suits in the press box.

By the way, that was a much better period to watch. There was some good defensive play, but there were also some great chances at both ends, and some great goaltending (Jagr flat out robbed by Brodeur, though the softie he gave up makes up for it) by both goalies, albeit Henrik wasnt nearly as challenged as Brodeur was.

Hopefully the Rangers will show some killed instinct and go for the jugular in the 3rd. Pick up another 2 or 3 goals, and embarrass the Devils in their new stadium.

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The first few minutes of the game, fun, fast paced, exciting. Everything else, boooooooooorrrrrriiiinnnnnnnggggggg.

Seriously, is anyone paying attention in this snooze fest? I know it had trouble keeping my attention, and im as big a hockey junkie as the rest of you. Screw the neutral zone trap, what we saw out there was neutral zone crap. No sustained pressure, no clean hard hits, nothing that really makes you “ooh” or “ahh”. Definitely sound defensive hockey (outside of the first few minutes), but you can play sound defensive hockey, and not be boring, hopefully we see some of that in the second.

Other than that, the inside of my eyelids look a-ok, perhaps I will reexamine them if the pace of this game holds form.

Anyway, here are a few highlights from the first…

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