MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rangers Visit the Rock

New York Rangers (5-6-1) at New Jersey (5-6-1)
Game Time: 7:00 PM (FNY2, MSG, Yahoo!)
Career Top Performers vs.

Martin Brodeur (70 Games) 38-16-15-1, 2.07, .919, 7 SO
Patrik Elias (47 Games) 14-36-50, +18
Sergei Brylin (48 Games) 8-9-17, -8
Brian Gionta (26 Games) 11-7-18, +8

Henrik Lundqvist (11 Games) 6-2-0, 1.60, .938, 1 SO
Jaromir Jagr (56 Games) 27-51-78, +18
Brendan Shanahan (30 Games) 10-8-18, -14
Chris Drury (20 Games) 5-6-11, -2

Injuries …

Devils: Out: Colin White (Eye), Cam Janssen (Shoulder), Jaime Langenbrunner (Hernia); Questionable: Karel Rachunek (Groin)

Rangers: Out: Ryan Callahan (Knee), Martin Straka (Finger); Questionable: Marek Malik (Back); Probable: Sean Avery (Shoulder)

Game Story: Neither team is off to the start they envisioned, but both have reason to be excited for two decidedly different reasons: one is playing perfect positional hockey and one is scoring a lot more.  If you think you know who is who, you are wrong.

The New York Rangers bring their - dare we say, TRAP! - and the virtually unbeatable Henrik Lundqvist (5-6-1, 1.67, .937) that has the Rangers dead last in goals scored and first in goals allowed while the Devils GFA continues to move up, scoring nine goals in the past two games.  It is quite an interesting switch, especially with Martin Brodeur looking merely very good over the team’s first eleven games.

Players to Watch: Lundqvist had another fine outing on Thursday, shutting out the Capitals.  If not for a Vincent Lecavalier penalty shot goal on Monday, Lundqvist would be working on a 120:16 shutout streak. The Rangers are simply not scoring, but the Swede has single-handedly won more than half of the team’s games.  For the Devils, it is once again time to watch Jay Pandolfo and John Madden … but, again, not for the same reason as normal.  Instead of being locked on the opposing team’s top scorers, they ARE the top-scorers with six goals a piece.  Even better, whoever gets to ride shotgun on the right with them also starts scoring.

New Jersey Wins if … Pandolfo and Madden keep up their offensive wizardry?  Wow.  They don’t get much recognition because of their perceived styles, but the two of them have been the most steady offensive forces in hockey this season outside of Ottawa’s #1 line.  Even with this determined Rangers defense, this team cannot defend three scoring lines, which is what the Devils have when these two are skating wild.

New York Wins If … Lundqvist and the defense continue to play at this level.  Yes, the Devils technically have three scoring lines, but that is based on potential.  Patrik Elias, Dainius Zubrus, and Brian Gionta are considered scorers, but they aren’t doing much of it lately.  The Rangers also will get back Sean Avery and perhaps he is the kick the Rangers stagnant offense needs.

How It Will Play Out: Against all odds, it will be a shootout with the each team’s entire roster figuring on the scoresheet, but Martin Brodeur will finally play like the Marty of old in the third period.  Jaromir Jagr will continue to terrorize the Devils but Patrik Elias begins his coming-out party tonight.

Devils Blanked In New York

New York 2 New Jersey 0

The Skinny: Winnipeg-native Nigel Dawes scored the early and late goals and Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 21 shots he faced as the Rangers ended a four-game losing streak and, most importantly, scored a goal. Scott Gomez and Karel Rachunek made their debuts against their former team, but both were ineffective throughout. The Devils were outshot 31-22.

Goal Scorers
Devils: None
Rangers: Nigel Dawes (1,2)

Goaltenders
Devils: Martin Brodeur (L, 2-5-0) 29-of-31
Rangers: Henrik Lundqvist (W, 3-5-1) 22-of-22

Stars of the Game: Dawes, Lundqvist, Brodeur

Analysis: New Jersey doesn’t have anywhere near the talent in place to consistently win games, so it has to hustle for a full sixty minutes. They did, and it gave their opponent a tough, physical challenge. They still lost 2-0 to a Rangers team that, quite honestly, is playing terrible hockey.

The entire offense struggled to string together chances and the defense, while not bad by any stretch, once again did nothing to tilt the ice in their favor. Half the defensemen (Martin, Greene, Oduya) won’t shoot and the others that will (Vishnevski, Rachunek) do not hit the net. It is not a good day when five-game veteran Sheldon Brookbank is the most active player on the blueline.

The passing game is still a tremendous issue. Who exactly did Karel Rachunek think was open on the play the resulted in Dawes’ first goal? For that matter, who called a wholesale line change in the defensive zone? In fact, the Devils were caught with their pants down at least four times on line changes, a sign of a tense team not paying attention to the little things that win hockey games.

The good news is that the unprecedented nine-game road trip is over with the Devils securing 7 of 18 points. That is not horrible, especially without the team’s best defenseman (Colin White) and Jaime Langenbrunner. However, they’ve allowed 3.3 goals per game over the nine games. That isn’t an insurmountable number if the offense is clicking. They’ve been shut out three times and if you take away the eleven goals scored against Atlanta and Pittsburgh, the team’s GFA is 1.3.

Martin Brodeur is going to need to carry this team until Brent Sutter can figure out who else, besides Madden and Pandolfo, wants to contribute offensively. With the home opener against Ottawa coming up, the offense is going to have to quickly find something it can do reasonably well.

EA Sports’ NHL 08 (PS3) Updated Rosters

Preamble: The CAP limit is apparently 160.  I see “apparently” because I can’t be 100% sure that I have exactly 160, but it is around there and created players are no longer showing up.  Thus, this is the near-final roster version.  If you really, really, really want the new one with 14 extra players, let me know and I will Email them to you.  However, it is probably not worth it for you, especially if you started a dynasty already.

Completely fed up with EA Sports extremely lackadaisical approach to providing gamers with updated rosters, I redid my previous effort. The past four days have been total hell on the eyes and rendered all other life tasks impossible. :) The original was posted on DigitalSportsMania and included only a handful of created players and nominal roster changes.

These don’t. These are as official as it gets. Here is what this roster update includes:

- Rosters updated (with 99% accuracy) as of Saturday, October 20th.

- Approximately 100 created players. Their attributes were decided mainly using McKeen’s Hockey, Red Line Report, TSN, the Hockey Forecaster, and Hockeydb.com. Other information was found through the always helpful Google.

- Corrected salaries, up to about 75% accuracy. This is a tedious task, so this will become further accurate in future updates.

Other things to know:

- Some players remained on their teams despite being sent packing to an ECHL team. I’d rather have them on an AHL team than in the FA pool.

- This will be updated semi-weekly here at On Fire.

- The potential rating was a very useful tool. I basically judged a player’s potential by where they were drafted or their overseas experience (combined with age). This is important to know before asking me why Josef Boumedienne got a fairly decent rating; his rating won’t be improving anytime soon.

- Also remember that if you do not like a rating, feel free to edit it yourself.

Things to come

- Retired players will be “zero’ed” out. In other words, they will be given the worst possible rating and highest possible salary to prevent any CPU acquisitions in Franchise mode. I didn’t do it now just in case people want to keep those players in the game.

- Massive player re-ratings. Some of these guys are rated horribly. Rico Fata is an example. Yeah, he can fly, but that is about all. In this game, speed can get you a lot of chances, so we have to tone him down in the other categories.

In any case, enjoy. I am sorry 360 owners, I don’t have one, so I cannot help you.

List of 145 Created Players

Download Rosters

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How to Get These on your PS3

1. Download the compressed file.
2. Open it up.
3. Extract it to whatever drive/folder that you like. Desktop is easiest since you can just delete it afterwards.
4. Be sure to unzip it while keeping the folder structure intact: PS3/SAVEDATA/…(roster file). If you don’t have those two folders, the PS3 will not recognize the file.
5. Copy them to any USB device you have; a flash drive, a mp3 player, whatever.
6. In the main PS3 menu, scroll right to “Game, move up to “Saved Data Utilty” and then “USB Device”.
7. Locate the NHL Rosters file and press triangle to copy it over to your PS3’s hard drive.

Devils Offense Doesn’t Stop

New Jersey 5 Pittsburgh 4

The Skinny:  In what was never going to be confused as a defensive slugfest, the two teams combined for nine goals, 65 shots, and five straight power play goals.  Two of the consecutive tallies came from Travis Zajac while the grinders - Jay Pandolfo, John Madden, and Aaron Asham - accounted for the other three goals.  The Penguins weren’t as creative; their goals came from the players designed to score them: Gary Roberts, Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin, and - the sudden offensive juggernaut - Maxime Talbot.  Both Martin Brodeur and Marc-Andre Fluery made some big saves despite allowing nine goals.

Goal Scorers
Devils: Jay Pandolfo (2), John Madden (4), Travis Zajac (2,3), Aaron Asham (2)
Penguins: Maxime Talbot (4), Gary Roberts (1), Sergei Gonchar (1), Evgeni Malkin (2)

Goaltenders
Devils: Martin Brodeur (W, 2-3-0) 26-of-30
Penguins: Marc-Andre Fleury (L, 2-3-0) 30-of-35

Stars of the Game: Zajac, Gonchar, Zach Parise

Analysis: Forthcoming…