AUTHOR: The Maven TITLE: Rangers-Devils ... Which way? DATE: 12/15/2006 02:15:00 PM ----- BODY:

This is the story of two teams going in different directions – for the moment at least – headed for a major collision at the Garden on Sunday night. In case you missed it, I’m talking about the Rangers and Devils. What’s noteworthy about them is that each played a mediocre game – with the exception of Henrik Lundqvist – on Thursday night but one team won and the other lost. The Blueshirts rode Lundqvist’s best game of the season to a 5-2 win in Dallas. New Jersey decided to gamble on Scott Clemmensen who gave up a pair of goals before some people were even seated. Yet I don’t fault him for the loss – but we’ll get to that later. With games in Toronto on Saturday and at home against the Devs on Sunday, the Rangers are in position to move away from the pack; and it wouldn’t surprise me if they did. Even Matt Cullen is scoring now and Jarkko Immonen belongs in the lineup on a regular basis. By the way, how come nobody is pointing out that the winning streak directly coincided with the return of Darius Kasparitis? On the other side of the Hudson, the Devils are in real danger of descending into a four game losing streak reminiscent of the one that began in Phoenix on November 22. Granted Clemmensen was rusty in the first period in Beantown but he did recover and his buddies got two goals back before the first period had ended. But Claude Julien’s skaters descended into an inexplicable funk not unlike the one suffered against the Coyotes. In the end, they were double victims: A. The club lost two precious points to the team it defeated 5-1 the week before. B. Clemmensen unfairly took the wrap for an undisciplined team who’s penalty killing failed them. Redemption is possible Saturday afternoon with the Detroit Red Wings coming to town. No less important will be the Devils visit to The Apple on Sunday. After two straight losses to the Blueshirts it’s time for the Meadowlanders to show they can beat the Rangers as they did last Spring. For that to happen Marty Brodeur will have to out-goal Lundqvist and the Devs have to figure out how to score some goals. By Monday we’ll know in which direction each of the teams is headed.

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