With hockey in the spotlight in New York, the Mets got in the spirit by donning their favorite hockey jersey during their road trip to Toronto .

The themed trip was actually planned during Spring Training, but with two of the three local teams meeting for a chance to play for Lord Stanley's Cup, the trip was even more appropriate.

“In spring training we talked about taking themed trips,” Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters. “And one of the guys said, ‘hey let’s take a hockey trip when we go to Canada.’ So I told all the players they could pick a team and we went to the NHL store and got the jerseys.”

Jason Bay, a Canadian, chose to go with a throwback Hartford Whalers sweater, while the Met manager sported his hometown Detroit Red Wings jersey. As far the local teams, Met announcer Howie Rose was the lone person to wear and Islander Jersey and Andres Torres represented the Devils.

Several players sported the Ranger blue, but perhaps the best jersey of the bunch was David Wright's throwback movie from The Mighty Ducks:

Even before the Mets left for Toronto, Collins was in a hockey mood. During his post-game press conference he compared the quickness of it to a John Tortorella presser.

Apparently the baseball writers in New York don’t know the Rangers and Devils are playing game 2 tonight.

During a press conference to announce Citi Field as the host ballpark for the 2013 MLB All-Star Game, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took a moment to give the New York hockey club a quick shout out.

During his remarks to the media Bloomberg said he expected a Stanley Cup for the city of New York, alluding to the Rangers Eastern Conference Finals game 2 tonight against the New Jersey Devils. What he got in return was silence and blank stares. The Mayor tried to recover by informing the room the Rangers were in fact in the playoffs and playing tonight in the conference finals.

He still got no response and quickly moved on.

Guess there are still people unaware of the Rangers success (or existence) in New York.

For a series that was expected to have some bad blood, the heavyweight bout wasn’t between two players throwing haymakers at each other. Instead it was between two world-class goaltenders.

The Rangers shut out the Devils, 3-0, to win game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals Monday night, but for the game was not all New York. In fact for most of the game It was New Jersey who controlled most of the play, forcing Rangers’ netminder Henrik Lundqvist to be stellar for the first two periods.

Among several scoring chances for the Devils was a breakaway chance for Ilya Kovalchuck, as well as a chance by Zach Parise that saw him get straight shots on Lundqvist. “I saw him coming, I just tried to be aggressive and tried to stay on my knees. It worked out pretty good,” Lundqvist said after the game about Parise’s chance in the second period.

“You have to give Henrik (Lundqvist) a lot of credit there for keeping us in the game,” Ryan McDonagh told reporters after the game.

Lundqvist pushed aside 21 shots for the Rangers in the win and was happy to help in such a big way in the win.

“As a goalie you always want to step up when the team is not going so good, and they're having some tough moments,” Lundqvist said after the game. “It's fun to be there and try to make a difference when the team is going through a tough stretch.”

On the other end Martin Brodeur played well too, stopping 25 shots, but due to a breakdown by the Devils early in the third period the Rangers fired a shot into the net. Brodeur frustrated the Rangers making several big saves including a glove save in the third period to keep New York from going ahead pulling away.

Lundqvist called Brodeur one of the great players in the NHL, putting him up there with goaltending great Dominik Hasek.

“Every time you play against great players it’s exciting,” he said. “Growing up he was already a big guy over here, a big name. Of course it’s inspiring and exciting to play against top guys. It always is.”

Prior to game 1, Brodeur acknowledged Lundqvist’s status as one of the best goaltenders in the NHL.

"Well, I mean, he's a Vezina candidate," Brodeur said. "I don't know, he's unbelievable lately. He's kind of the top goalie in the NHL right now.

“I just expect it to be a big war out there,” Lundqvist said after the game. And while the series may be a war, the biggest battle will take place between the pipes.

It was a royal flush for the Los Angeles Kings.

The Kings, who haven’t reached the conference finals since 1993, are now headed to face the winner of the Coyotes/Predators series for a chance to go to the Stanley Cup Finals. An impressive feat for a team that was not expected to beat the heavily-favored Vancouver Canucks or St. Louis Blues.

And now, they’re looking like the favorite to go to the Stanley Cup Finals. no comments

Just over 16 minutes ticked away off the clock in the second period, before the Phoenix Coyotes were able to muster up their first real, quality offensive shift. While clinging to a one-goal lead, the Coyotes and Mike Smith dodged a plethora of bullets thrown their way by the Predators' offense in the second.

Literally, dodged.

The Predators, while dominating the play for the majority of the second period, were their own worst enemy. Quality chance after quality chance was wasted away by the Predators from their inability to simply put the puck on net.

Maybe the Preds figured since they can't put a puck past Smith when the shot is actually on net, maybe shooting over the four-by-six cage would create some sort of parallel-universe alternate reality, where you score goals by missing the net.

Whatever the case, Nashville now finds themselves on the wrong end of a 3-1 series, ultimately fighting for their playoff lives when play continues, Monday night in Glendale. no comments

13 days ago, Claude Giroux sent a statement to the hockey world in Game 6 of the Flyers' opening round series with their hated in-state rivals from Pittsburgh.

Giroux, who asked head coach Peter Laviolette to start the game and then told Danny Briere to "watch this" moments before faceoff, laid out Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby and fired a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury just 27 seconds into the contest. The game was over before it really started. Because Giroux said it was.

After the game, he was praised. Flyers fans rejoiced, for their savior had arrived.

Everyone was convinced he had dethroned Sid the Kid as "the best player in the world," whatever that means. You know, because Peter Laviolette said so.

Fast forward two weeks later. The Flyers are in a 2-1 hole to their other proximity-based rivals, the New Jersey Devils, thanks to an all-world performance by Ilya Kovalchuk in Game 3, where he returned from an injury by scoring a point on every Devils goal.

After a 14-point performance in round 1 that had everyone in Philadelphia proclaiming the Conn Smythe race over, Giroux has gone pointless in three games at even strength. He's also a -3.

Best player in the world indeed. no comments

"You're adding our leading scorer, one of the top five scorers in the League, so I think it can't do anything but help."

Boy, Devils head coach Peter DeBoer was pretty spot on with his assessment at Thursday morning's media session of the return of Ilya Kovalchuk, wasn't he?

Kovalchuk was reportedly hindered by a herniated disc in his lower back since midway through New Jersey's first-round series with Florida. He sat out Game 2 of the Devils' second-round series with the Philadelphia Flyers with what the team described as a "lower-body injury."

Tonight though, he returned for his team's third tilt in front of the home crowd in Newark with a bang. no comments