Sport-scan daily brief

Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves and stopped all six Devils attempts in the shootout as the Islanders won an opener for the first time since 2007. Michael Grabner had two goals and an assist for the Islanders.

The recently signed free agent Damien Brunner scored twice for the Devils, and Martin Brodeur had 23 saves in his first game of the season. Cory Schneider was in goal in the Devils’ 3-0 loss in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Brodeur stopped the Islanders’ first five shootout attempts before Moulson beat him just under the crossbar. Moulson joked that he told Coach Jack Capuano that he should have shot earlier in the shootout.

“The puck kind of hopped up, and luckily I chipped it up,” Moulson said.

SENATORS 1, SABRES 0 Erik Karlsson sneaked a one-timer under Ryan Miller’s legs with 1 minute 35 seconds left in the third period, giving Ottawa a victory at Buffalo. Craig Anderson stopped 35 shots to earn his 23rd career shutout. Miller made 45 saves for the Sabres.

RED WINGS 3, HURRICANES 2 Stephen Weiss scored at 3:13 of overtime, lifting Detroit to a comeback win at Carolina. The Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg’s goal with 16.4 seconds left in regulation forced the extra period.

FLAMES 4, BLUE JACKETS 3 Jiri Hudler and Curtis Glencross scored 42 seconds apart in the third period to lead visiting Calgary past Columbus. The Flames rookie Sean Monahan recorded his first N.H.L. goal, and T. J. Galiardi added a goal and an assist.

JETS 5, KINGS 3 Devin Setoguchi scored two goals in the third as host Winnipeg beat Los Angeles. Ondrej Pavelec had 33 saves for the Jets.

AVALANCHE 3, PREDATORS 1 P. A. Parenteau had two goals in Colorado’s home win over Nashville.

New York Times LOADED: 10.05.2013

719580 New York Islanders

Moulson Gives Isles 4-3 Win Over Devils

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: October 4, 2013 at 10:15 PM ET

NEWARK, N.J. — Matt Moulson scored the only goal of the shootout in the sixth round and the New York Islanders opened the season with a 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.

Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves and stopped all six Devils shots in the shootout as the Islanders won a season opener for the first time since 2007.

Michael Grabner scored two goals and set up another by Frans Nielsen for the Islanders.

Recently signed free agent Damien Brunner scored twice for the Devils, while fellow newcomer Michael Ryder had the other.

Martin Brodeur, whose father, Denis, died last week, had 23 saves in his first game of the season. Cory Schneider was in goal in the Devils' 3-0 loss in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Brodeur stopped the Islanders first five shootout attempts before Moulson put a shot just under the crossbar.

Josh Bailey almost won the shootout in the fourth round, but his shot hit off the post.

Brunner tied the game at 3-all at 7:34 of the third period with his second goal of the game. It came shortly after a Devils power play expired. Defenseman Anton Volchenkov came off the bench and shot the puck toward the net. It deflected to Brunner and he slid it into an open net.

The Islanders took their first lead of the game early in the third period when Nielsen worked a give and go with Grabner and lifted a backhand between Brodeur's pads as the goaltender tried to poke check the puck off his stick.

Both teams had scoring chances after Brunner tied the game at 3-all. Kyle Okposo of the Islanders hit the post about a minute after Brunner's second goal and Brodeur came up with close-in stops on Grabner and Pierre-Marc Bouchard on breakaways.

Nabokov stopped a short-handed shot by Stephen Gionta and a close-in attempt by Steve Bernier.

The Devils twice took the lead in their home opener and Grabner responded for the Islanders each time.

Grabner's second of the game came on a shot from the right circle that beat Brodeur on the short side at 13:43 of the middle period. Bailey had forced a turnover at center ice and made a pass that sent the speedy right wing into the Devils' zone.

Ryder, who is wearing the No. 17 jersey that Ilya Kovalchuk had before returning to Russia after last season, rekindled memories of the Russian superstar by snapping a shot past Nabokov a little less than five minutes into the second period. It was his first goal with the Devils.

Brunner, who had a team-high eight shots in Pittsburgh, gave the Devils the lead 2:59 after the opening faceoff. Nabokov couldn't control a shot by Dainius Zubrus from the slot and Brunner tapped the loose puck into an open net for his first goal as a Devil.

Grabner, who was stopped on an early breakaway by Brodeur before the Brunner goal, didn't miss his second one-on-one. He took a pass from defenseman Travis Hamonic in stride and slid the puck under Brodeur to tie the game at 8:07.

NOTES: Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who head the group that bought the Devils this summer, dropped pucks at the ceremonial opening faceoff. ...This was the first of five regular-season games between teams. Islanders won last year's season series 3-2. ...Brock Nelson, the Islanders' first-round draft pick in 2010, made his NHL regular-season debut. He appeared in a playoff game last year. ... Other than Brodeur in goal, the Devils used the same lineup they did in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

New York Times LOADED: 10.05.2013

719581 New York Islanders

Islanders top Devils in shootout to cap sloppy game

By Brett Cyrgalis

October 4, 2013 | 10:17pm

No, it was not the prettiest, but in the end, it’s not as if the Islanders care.

On Friday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, the Islanders managed to open their season with a 4-3 shootout win over the Devils in a game that was not very convincing in proving that the preseason was over.

“It was a little bit more wide-open than I anticipated,” said coach Jack Capuano, insistent his team created enough offense to be happy about. “From game to game, you don’t know what to expect. But I thought it was a real good hockey game.”

It ended when Matt Moulson lifted one over Martin Brodeur’s right shoulder in the sixth round of the shootout, with neither team managing to net one before that moment in the skills competition. It ended anticlimactically for what seemed to be shaping into a night of redemption for Brodeur, who started his 19th consecutive home-opener, only mildly bittersweet because the night before his streak of season-openers ended at an NHL record of 18, with Cory Schneider playing in a 3-0 loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

“The puck kind of hopped up,” Moulson said about the winning tally, “and I found a way to chip it in.”

It seemed almost appropriate, as both teams had their stars shut down — most notably John Tavares’ Islanders line, which had very little time and space — and teetered back and forth by the play of both goaltenders.

“I feel like I’m supposed to feel in the first game, I guess,” said the Islanders’ Evgeni Nabokov, who finished with 26 saves, some of them spectacular, and who was unsure if he’s going to play the second part of this back-to-back Saturday night in the Coliseum against the Blue Jackets.

“You can play as many preseason games as you want, but at the end of the day, when you start, it’s a different game. The adrenaline is flowing, it’s hot out there and you’re battling and the game is fast, but that’s where your focus comes in.

“I was trying to concentrate and just make a save for the guys when I can,” he continued. “Sometimes you’re able to, sometimes you not.”

Nabokov especially had trouble with new addition Damien Brunner, who scored his first two goals as a Devil, the second with 7:34 gone by in the third to tie it 3-3. His two goals were negated on the Isles’ side by Michael Grabner, the speedster opening his season with a two-goal performance of his own, which could have easily been a hat trick if he buried yet another breakaway with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

“It was our first regular season game, and there is some stuff we can be better at, especially in the ‘D’ zone,” Grabner. said “But we did some good things too.”

Grabner also had a primary assist on Frans Neilsen’s third-period goal, a nice give-and-go that gave the Islanders their first lead at 3-2, when Brodeur whiffed on a poke check. The early part of the game was not Brodeur’s finest work, as leads of 1-0 and 2-1 (in the second period from Michael Ryder’s first goal as a Devil) both evaporated.

Yet, even in the overtime there were chances aplenty, chances that went for naught until Moulson tied a bow on the proceedings in the shootout.

“Some of the wins we got last year were a lot like tonight,” Moulson said. “Not necessarily our best game, but we find ways to win.”

New York Post LOADED: 10.05.2013

719582 New York Islanders

Isles' Michael Grabner in full flight against New Jersey

Originally published: October 4, 2013 10:18 PM

Updated: October 5, 2013 12:01 AM

By JOHN JEANSONNE

NEWARK -- One game into the season, a thoroughly unscientific, informal and unofficial evaluation of the 2013-14 Islanders might go something like this:

They certainly could use a full season of wing Michael Grabner's ability to repeatedly materialize with the puck on the dead run, as he did in last night's 4-3 shootout victory over the Devils.

A pair of flashing drives by the swift Grabner, steaming from the blue line to the net, produced the Islanders' first two goals at the team's most nervous moments.

He beat Martin Brodeur along the ice at 8:07 of the first period, with the Islanders down 1-0, and put a high shot past Brodeur on a similar breakaway at 13:43 of the second, after the Islanders had fallen behind 2-1. And it was Grabner's give-and-go return pass to Frans Nielsen that set up the Islanders' go-ahead goal early in the third period.

But the lead did not stand up. And when the shootout cycled into the sixth round without a goal, Grabner kidded that his turn "probably would have come right after Nabokov'' -- as in goalie Evgeni Nabokov.

"I didn't want to shoot,'' he said. "It seems easy, one-on-one with the goalie. But like you saw in the shootout, it's not that easy to score."

Still, the sight of Grabner, who turns 26 Saturday, setting off on high-speed forays into the attacking zone was an encouraging one for the Islanders, similar to the kind of threat the Austrian flyer presented when he came to the team as a free agent in 2010 and scored 34 goals.

He slipped to 20 in 2011-12 and scored 16 during last year's lockout-abbreviated schedule. On Friday night, his right-place-at-the-right-time presence, working with Nielsen and Josh Bailey, rendered them the most dangerous Islanders line.

John Tavares, already the team's center of gravity at 23, had four shots on goal -- two in the first 30 seconds -- and appeared to be missing the deft dog-whistle communication demonstrated in the past with longtime running mate Matt Moulson.

"I'm just trying to use my speed to get to some open ice," Grabner said. "It's not something I worked on specifically. It's always been there. I don't think I'm getting faster. Maybe maturing. Or maybe because they played already [Friday night's game was the second of back-to-back games for the Devils]."

The opening game after the lockout-shortened season didn't settle much, merely that the Islanders are one step closer to Brooklyn, not necessarily on the road to greatness.

Against the Devils, they had to be rescued more than once by Nabokov and Grabner. But whatever that foretells cannot yet be certain.

Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 10.05.2013

719583 New York Islanders

Matt Moulson's shootout goal gives Islanders win over Devils

Originally published: October 4, 2013 10:18 PM

Updated: October 5, 2013 1:28 AM

By ARTHUR STAPLE

NEWARK -- Perhaps the biggest change from last season and the season before is how the Islanders react to their results.

Once there was an occasional feeling of moral victory in losses. Now the Islanders feel they can be hard on themselves while gaining two points.

That was the case in their opener Friday night when they overcame some sloppy play around their net and an off night from John Tavares to grab a 4-3 shootout win over the Devils, the Islanders' first opening-night win since the 2007-08 season.

Michael Grabner more than made up for Tavares' rocky start to the season, scoring the Islanders' first two goals and setting up Frans Nielsen's go-ahead score 61 seconds into the third.

The Devils tied it and the game went through overtime and to a six-round shootout. Matt Moulson beat Martin Brodeur to end it in extra shootout innings after the first 11 shooters were denied.

"We weren't very good," Tavares said of his line, which included Moulson and Kyle Okposo. "We had some good shifts early but we couldn't get much going. We tried to be too cute at times."

The Isles' failures came at both blue lines. The inability to clear their own zone cost them on the Devils' tying goal at 7:34 of the third, just after a Devils power play expired, when Damien Brunner popped a loose puck past Evgeni Nabokov for his second goal of the game.

There also was inconsistency in getting pucks in deep behind the Devils' defense, which led to some overstayed shifts and tired players trying to defend.

"Basically, guys were exhausted [on the Devils' goals] because we weren't moving or playing as a five-man unit," Travis Hamonic said. "We were making mistakes we wouldn't make if we were playing better together."

But there were bursts, usually of the speedy variety from Grabner.

After Brunner opened the scoring 2:59 into the game off a scramble in front of Nabokov, Grabner took a deflected pass in stride, blazed past Devils defenseman Adam Larsson and slid the puck under Brodeur at 8:07 of the first.

Answering another Devils goal in the second -- this one by Michael Ryder after Josh Bailey's shot block landed neatly on Ryder's stick for a quick wrist shot at 4:46 -- Grabner raced on to Bailey's pass and beat Brodeur between the pads at 13:43 of the second.

Grabner had two other breakaway chances denied by Brodeur, who also made the save of the game when he got his glove on Pierre-Marc Bouchard's tip shot with 6:25 to go in the third.

"It was a little more wide open than we thought it would be," said Jack Capuano, who wasn't as displeased with his team's performance as his players said they were. "We had more chances tonight than we had in a long time [against them]."

The Islanders get right back to work Saturday night, hosting the Blue Jackets in the Coliseum opener. Also, unlike first games in recent seasons, the Isles want to have no regrets about wasting points in October when the season begins to wind down.

"We've been in that situation before where we look back in March or April and think about the points we didn't get in October and November," Hamonic said. "It's a good way to start changing that."

Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 10.05.2013

719584 New York Rangers

Richards’s New Start as Rangers Left Wing Begins Well

By JEFF Z. KLEIN

Published: October 4, 2013

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Brad Richards was annoyed at the question, which he has been asked repeatedly for the past few weeks.

“Will this season be different for you, coming off a bad season last year?”

Richards seemed as if he was about to glare at the questioner, but he answered it anyway because it is part of his job, and he is not one to shirk his duty.

“I’ve done everything I can to get ready,” he said. “It’s a new beginning. As much as you guys want to keep bringing up last year, a new season’s different, and I can’t think like that. I’m in my 14th year. I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done and try to get on track right away.”

It was after the Rangers’ comprehensive 4-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes in their season opener Thursday night, only the first of 82 games. But Richards, 33, is on the clock, and time is already running out.

He has entered the third year of a nine-year, $58.5 million contract. The Rangers chose not to buy out Richards in the off-season, but they are expected to at the end of this season.

In July 2011 Richards was the most sought free agent in the N.H.L., a playmaking center with a Stanley Cup on his résumé and a reputation for quiet leadership. His first season with the Rangers went well, with 66 points in 82 games and a trip to the Eastern Conference finals.

But last season was a disaster. He scored 34 points in 46 games and slid down the depth chart. The power play he quarterbacked sputtered and dropped to among the worst in the league. By the time the Rangers reached the playoffs, he was the No. 4 center, benched for long periods by John Tortorella, the coach he won the Cup with at Tampa Bay in 2004 and the man who lobbied hardest to bring him to the Rangers.

To make matters worse, Tortorella suggested that Richards started the lockout-shortened season out of shape. Richards acknowledged that, and during training camp last month, even with Tortorella gone, Richards continued to accept that particular criticism. In a recent interview on Canadian television, Tortorella called the damaged relationship with Richards one of the regrets of his time in New York.

“It snowballed,” Richards said Thursday of the problems he had last season, “and I probably didn’t handle it the right way in the environment I was in. It’s over.”

This summer Richards trained with the Connecticut-based strength and conditioning coach Ben Prentiss, who has worked with Martin St. Louis, Jonathan Quick and other N.H.L. players.

Richards needs a great season to avoid a buyout, and for now he has the confidence of Coach Alain Vigneault, who has kept him on the power play. He has also moved Richards from center to left wing on the top line, alongside Derek Stepan and Rick Nash.

“You look at your top six forwards as far as skill level, and the guys that should be able to play a little bit more of an offensive role,” Vigneault said. “I felt Richie should be in the top six, and left wing was available.”

Richards accepts some of the blame for the Rangers’ weak power play last season. But that includes a certain amount of veiled criticism of the way Tortorella and his assistant, Mike Sullivan, coached it.

“Our power play wasn’t good last year — it goes both ways: I could have helped if I was playing better,” he said. “But our whole power play wasn’t so good.”

The problem, he said, was that the Rangers tried all kinds of players in all kinds of positions.

“Last year we played everywhere,” he said. “I’ll be honest, I can’t remember so many looks as we had last year. But to us it now has a different feel: we know what we want to do. We have a common area of the ice we want the puck to get to set up certain players.”

On Thursday the Rangers’ power play, with Richards on the point, scored once in four attempts. It was about the only bright spot in a thorough loss. The Rangers next play Monday at the Los Angeles Kings as they continue a nine-game trip because of renovations to Madison Square Garden. Their next four opponents were Western Conference playoff teams last season.

Richards was one of the few Rangers who played reasonably well against Phoenix. He led the team with four shots and logged more ice time than any other forward. With the score tied, 1-1, in the second period, he was robbed of a goal on a sprawling save from Phoenix goalie Mike Smith. It might have changed the game.

“I’d still like to score on that shot,” Richards said afterward, dutifully answering questions as the clock started ticking on what could be his last season as a Ranger.

New York Times LOADED: 10.05.2013

719585 New York Rangers

Time with Rangers could be over fast for rookie ‘Quickie’

By Larry Brooks

October 4, 2013 | 10:36pm

LOS ANGELES — Rangers coach Alain Vigneault’s nickname for Jesper Fast is “Quickie.”

And it could be just that for the lone Rangers rookie.

The fresh-faced freshman, who logged 10:13 in his NHL debut in the Rangers’ 4-1 defeat on Thursday at Phoenix, likely will be bumped from the lineup on Monday against the Kings if Ryan Callahan gets final clearance to go from the medical staff.

“I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to,” said the 21-year-old Fast, who was credited with one shot and one hit. “I don’t say it was good or bad — it was average.

“I didn’t do anything to earn my spot. Hopefully I will get another chance and do more.”

Fast, who admitted to being nervous through the first period (“It was tough to get through it”), said he had trouble adjusting to long stretches on the bench created by the use of power play and penalty killing units of which he is not a member.

The winger, who skated as a fourth-line alternate at Friday’s practice while Callahan slid into his spot on the unit with Brian Boyle and Taylor Pyatt, sat for a stretch of nearly five minutes in the first period and over six-and-a-half minutes in the second.

“It was harder for me to get into [the flow], but that’s part of the game. I can’t have that as an excuse,” Fast said. “Of course in the regular season, the best [players] should play, I can’t say I should have played more.

“If I get another chance, I have to get used to that.”

New York Post LOADED: 10.05.2013

719586 New York Rangers

It’s early, but Rangers are consistently inconsistent

By Larry Brooks

October 4, 2013 | 8:11pm

LOS ANGELES — Through six exhibition matches and one game that counted for real, Thursday’s 4-1 defeat at Phoenix, the Rangers have consistently been unable to develop consistency in their game.

They have been unable to sustain good moments and have too easily squandered momentum. The Blueshirts have barely been able to string together more than a couple of good shifts at a time, let alone play at the required level for 60 minutes.

The Rangers recovered from a spotty start Thursday to seize control late in the first period, but faltered following a series of mistake-filled shifts in the second and never could quite make a game of it again once the Coyotes grabbed a 2-1 lead midway through the contest.

“I agree that we’ve looked good at different points, but we haven’t been able to put together a full period or a full game,” coach Alain Vigneault said after Friday’s one-hour practice session. “I don’t want to give our team an excuse, but a lot of that has to do with our challenging training camp schedule.

“The game in Phoenix was only the second time we had even close to our full lineup together — we had most of the group in the [exhibition] game in Vancouver — and that’s made it difficult,” he said. “Everything takes time. This is no different.

“Having said that, I’m confident that the 48-hour window we’ve given the guys before our next practice on Sunday will be very beneficial to getting the team to play at the pace we need to sustain.”

The tempo that has come and gone and the hard forecheck game that has been absent both should be bolstered, if not remedied, by Ryan Callahan’s expected return against the Kings. The captain said he will be “100 percent when I come back,” unencumbered after undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum immediately after last season’s playoffs.

Callahan will not immediately reclaim a top-six forward spot, the coach choosing instead to leave his top two lines intact while moving the captain to the right side with Brian Boyle and Taylor Pyatt. That bumps rookie Jesper Fast down and almost certainly out. (Yes, that was quick).

Vigneault said he doesn’t want to give too much too soon to Callahan after watching Derek Stepan struggle while centering the top line on Thursday after missing nearly all of camp and the entire exhibition schedule.