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The National Hockey League’s postseason is extra special in these parts this spring thanks to the two locals still playing.

The Heckler scored a pair in section 335 through a Craigslist ad for game two of the Eastern Conference finals at the Garden.  We paid through the nose but it was as good a view as I’ll ever get at a big hockey game.  We sat on the aisle behind the Rangers bench about 25 rows up.

Marty made a couple acrobatic saves in the first stanza and Kovie’s power play rip set up lots of early momentum for the Devils.  The game turned back the Rangers way when bumpy ice, a questionable couple of interference penalties and odd puck bounces helped the Blueshirts gain a one goal advantage.

Clarkson’s game winner in the third was nearly negated but his raised stick caught the puck at a level deemed legal and so the series is even.  It’s best of five now with the next two in Jersey.

The Rangers are the better team.  They have a better goalie and tougher defensemen who seem to thrive on long shifts.  The only question now is whether the cumulative effect of playing two seven-game sets to get here weakens their resolve.  That’s not to diminish the Devils.  They’re also a great team.  But you can inscribe the ’11-’12 NY Rangers on this Cup, I believe.

Those who watch the Rangers during the regular season know that the team’s head coach John Tortorella is a cranky, volatile figure prone to abrupt in-game decisions.  For this contest, Torts benched his most potent scorer Marian Gaborik for most of the third period.  Afterwards, he refused to discuss his thinking and rolled out his typical post-loss act of intimidation with a larger-than-usual group of assembled media.  Logical questions about the game came from Stan Fischler and Larry Brooks.  Both were shot down with one word answers and demented glares from Torts.  This is what the guy has been doing since he replaced Tom Renney three years ago.  It’s only now with so many casual sports fans paying attention that the rest of the world is getting to know what a jerk Torts can be.

That’s not to say Torts doesn’t deserve massive credit for shaping a team with so many talented parts into a group that routinely outworks and outhits its opponents.  It didn’t happen Wednesday night but the head coach of the Rangers has been able to gain great intensity from his entire roster when this tournament’s critical moments call for it.  He has a captain in Ryan Callahan who truly leads by example.  The post-game public Torts is nasty but I sense he believes his professional responsibilities are hindered by interaction with anybody but the guys in the Rangers sweater.

About two minutes after shooting down Brooks and Fischler, Torts walked out of a silent room.  But not before he had somehow created a vibe in which the media was afraid to ask questions.

Much has been made about all the shots the Rangers block.  Brooks has suggested the Rangers block so many shots that the League might consider outlawing it.  I don’t buy it.  Hockey teams have been blocking shots for as long as I’ve been watching the game.  The Rangers routinely block twenty-plus shots a game.  But they do it knowing there’s great personal risk.  The frozen puck hurts a lot when it hits you at high velocity.  Sliding to the ice can also take a defender out of the play momentarily.  Kovie’s goal came after failed shot block attempts and nifty puck movement by the Devils.  There’s a natural deterrent to the blocked shot attempt and I wouldn’t change the rules one bit in this regard.

The Rangers need to improve just one part of their game and they’ll be fine.  They need to do a better job of reducing traffic in front of Hank.  The Senators were especially effective planting a man in front of the Ranger goalie and the Devils seem to be trying to create the same distraction.

There were very few Devils fans in the Garden last night.  Those who wore outward displays of their fandom were badgered.  It’s unfortunate, but there’s a segment of the Ranger crowd that takes delight from making it uncomfortable for the visiting fan.

In the hallway between periods, I heard this exchange:

Rangers fan to a Devils fan:  “You’re on the wrong side of the river, pal!”

Devils fan:  “I’m from Connecticut.”  (laughs)

Rangers fan:  (pauses)  “You’re really fucked up, then.”

John Amarante (pictured above waving a towel) sang the national anthem as he has at all postseason Rangers games.  His rendition is stirring.  Not since Wayne Messmer’s run as the singer at Blackhawks games have I heard a guy belt it with the unique intensity of Amarante.

-While I understand Facebook‘s broad reach and unique ability to match ad buyers with specific users, I’d be skeptical about the web site’s staying power.  If I was a stock buyer, I’d duck the early days of the Zuckerberg IPO frenzy.  Monetizing user data is something I know zero about and so I could be dead wrong about Facebook’s ability to mine long term riches from its 900 million or so enrollees.  I can only speak from the perspective of a casual user.  Every significant change Facebook has made to the site in recent years has been a dud.  The timeline introduced late last year is a disaster.  It turns the home pages of individual users into a complete mess.  I predict eventual disenchantment with Facebook and a fate not unlike MySpace.

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West Virginia’s five electoral votes won’t be in play for President Obama this November but his campaign has to be somewhat aggravated by how that state’s democratic party primary turned out last Tuesday.

Of the nearly 180-thousand presidential primary votes cast, an astounding 72,544 were marked for Keith Judd.  Obama received the balance (105,854 votes).  Unopposed in most states, Obama is a cinch to recapture his party’s nomination.  The outcome in West Virginia won’t impact his campaign’s strategy to gather 270-plus electoral college votes in the slightest.

But the extreme outlandishness of what happened in West Virginia cannot be understated.  Judd might as well be Daffy Duck for the purposes of categorizing him as a candidate.  He’s nuts.  He has zero credentials for the job and he’ll be incarcerated in Texas for the entirety of the term he‘s seeking.  Judd shouldn’t be anywhere near a presidential primary ballot – especially when serious, law-abiding public servants seeking lower-ranking offices are denied ballot access all over this country all the time.

I’m all for greater choice in the voting booth but Judd’s performance in West Virginia reflects badly on that state’s notoriously crooked Democratic Party machinery and the loyalists it turns out for elections.

Lawmakers there can start by refining state election law to raise the bar on access to the Presidential primary ballot.  While the US constitution put limits on what states can do in this regard, there has to be a way to keep a guy like Judd from making a joke of the process.  From Texarkana, TX, Judd mailed off three money orders (likely with help from a trickster) totaling $2500 and a notarized, completed form to gain his spot on WV’s ballot.  Only the names of Judd and Obama appeared on WV’s democratic party ballot under the choice for president.  For $2500, you’d think more people would take a crack at it.

West Virginia’s junior senator Joe Manchin and current governor Earl Ray Tomblin are both democrats but both refuse to endorse Obama.  Manchin wouldn’t even reveal who he voted for in the Obama/Judd matchup.

Judd won 41-percent of the vote state-wide.  He won coal-rich Mingo County by a margin of 2972 to 1967.  He won ten counties across the state.  Even in Raleigh County where there’s some degree of scrutiny and structure, Judd garnered nearly half the 6500 or so votes cast.

Obama’s clean energy push (as modest as it may be) scares many in West Virginia.  Coal is king there.  But the droves who cast a protest vote for a convicted sap look foolish for the choice made.  So do the party power brokers who got a little too cute for their own good when they facilitated the outcome they ended up with.

-Congrats to Dan Lynch for hitting the five-year mark with his great web site NYCTaper.  A week after recording the Woods/Crystal Stilts show at 285 Kent, Lynch is celebrating NYCTaper’s anniversary at the same venue tonight.  Oneida will top the special bill.  Among the hundreds of shows recorded and made available for download on Lynch’s site the last five years are 11 Oneida gigs.  Lynch and a small team of helpers record many of New York City’s important music performances and later present them to the public in full form with a brief review and set list.  Said Lynch on NYCTaper:  “It’s a humbling experience to realize that our hard work and good intentions have made this site work for a community of music performers and music lovers.  We hope to keep doing this and to continue to grow into the future.”

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New York City’s ambitious bike share system is on schedule to launch in July and we’re now learning a few important details about user costs.

For those who live here eager to use the program it’ll cost you 95 bucks for an annual membership.  The pricing scheme recently unveiled tilts pretty favorably in favor of those who buy the one-year plan.

Pay the up-front fee and you’re basically good to go with a crack at the ten-thousand two-wheelers that’ll be stationed across Manhattan and Brooklyn at 600 different racks.  Those with the annual deal will have 45 minutes on a bike pulled from a depot before it’s due back in a rack.  Any rack.  Bikes that aren’t returned on time will result in overdue charges that get pretty stiff depending on the length of the lateness.

Visitors can buy one-day ($9.95) or seven-day ($25) access but will be limited to just 30 minute rides before their bike is due back in a rack.  The 30-minute limit seems a bit short and will inevitably trigger overage costs for those who aren’t adept at meeting the constraint.

I personally gave up ownership of a bike about eight years ago when I moved to the small apartment I live in now.  Not only would a bike eat up valuable space in my place but my neighborhood is so densely populated, it would be hard to launch a safe ride from where I’m at.

What bike share does for me is big.  It’ll allow me to initiate rides in places and at times where interaction with automobiles will be slim or none.  I’ll jump on a bike at the lower end of Central Park or along one of the rivers early on an off day.  I’ll pedal on a trail that doesn’t allow cars and return it to a rack 40 minutes later and swap it for another one to reset the clock.  I’ll return bike #2 at a dock near the subway and come home happy.  Eventually, I imagine I’ll find a route and a routine that works.  If I do it with any kind of regularity, the 95 bucks is a deal.

The location of racks in parts of Manhattan already saturated with obstructions will likely spur complaints.  I envision backlash.  But I believe bike share is gonna be a positive development for a guy like me who has gotten away from urban biking because of hyper-anxiety about getting hit by a car (not to mention the storage issue).

I’ll pick my spots.  I’ll grab a bike and go for a ride.  The cost of a one-year pass comes in well under the charge for a monthly unlimited Metrocard.  If all goes well with the initial deployment of ten-thousand bikes, the city is saying it will expand further into the outer boroughs.   I like it.  I look forward to it.

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It was long a tradition during my Derby-attending years spanning two decades to hit a big rock show in Louisville on one of the nights my friends and I were in town.  If there wasn’t a great event already booked, my pals working in the rock and roll business at the time would try to set one up.  The list of bands we saw on Derby weekend during the 80’s and 90’s includes Pavement, Eleventh Dream Day, Silkworm, Son Volt and Freakwater.

I stayed in New York for this year’s Kentucky Derby and didn’t have any luck betting the race.  But good fortune and timing brought a Woods show to Brooklyn on Derby night as the band came home after a two and a half week Spring tour.

Playing its 16th gig in 17 nights, Woods took the stage at 285 Kent at about 10:30 PM Saturday night.  The place was packed.  It was hot in the venue.  The three dollar cans of Buds were selling so fast they were coming straight out of the box without refrigeration.

Before Woods went on, a collection of video clips projected on a screen behind the band showed Adam Yauch at various points during his great career.  Yauch had died at the age of 47 a day earlier in Manhattan.

When the show started, the screen showed artistic images that blended nicely with the 9-song, 45 minute Woods set.  There were several highlights.

After a 13-minute plus killer version of Bend Beyond, Woods played a wonderful new number that contemplated honesty and the difficulty of seeing it sometimes.  It was a beautiful, catchy song with a powerful drum involvement.  I can’t wait to hear the recorded version of it someday and I’d guess fans of the band will yearn for it in the live setting for a long time to come.

Kevin Morby played harmonica on the set’s only other new song.  The set list published by NYCTaper identified the title of the song “Cali in a Cup.”  It’s the first time I’ve seen Woods incorporate the harmonica into its live act and it was well executed by Morby.

Effects man Lucas Crane returned front and center behind his customized console after sitting out the previous Woods tour.  On a string of dates earlier this year, Matt Valentine filled the Crane gap.  It came as a relief to me that Crane was back on the knobs for this show despite MV’s unique talent.  While Woods demonstrates great flexibility in the deployment of moving parts as it goes along, I find myself getting attached to the mainstays like Crane.

To free up primary drummer Jarvis Taveniere, Woods called on a tour-mate to sit behind the kit for most of the set.  This is becoming a great Woods tradition.  We saw it first when Ben from The Doozer was enlisted.  This time it was Eric from Mmoss who played drums.  Taking occasional visual cues from Jeremy Earl, Eric did a great job – almost as if he’d been there from the beginning.

Crystal Stilts was the headliner on this night.  Those who left the venue after Woods finished were replaced by as many or more people.  This was my first time seeing Stilts.  They were great.  I was blown away.  I haven’t been able to get the Stilts tune “Shake the Shackles” out of my head for the last three days.  Singer Brad Hargett has a captivating stage presence.  At first, it seemed as if he was disinterested or preoccupied.  But as the Stilts set built in energy, so did Hargett’s spunk.  There was moshing and great spirit from the band’s supporters up front.  I was totally won over and look forward to the next time I get to see these guys.

Admission to the gig was just five bucks.  It was a Todd P show.  Among those in attendance was Morby’s Babies bandmate Cassie Ramone.

I took the Bedford bus up to Queens Plaza after it was over.  It took forever for both the bus and connecting train to arrive.  Work the next day was kinda rough.  But what a fun Derby night it was.

The next time I see Woods will likely be in the woods.  Deadheat Dave and I are making a plan to hit Woodsist Festival 2012 in Big Sur, California in early August.

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For the second year in a row, TSR will watch the Kentucky Derby on the tube after being on site for the previous 19 consecutive runs for the roses.

The twenty 3-year-old colts running in the 2012 Derby stack up as a better-than-average group on the talent scale.  From a handicapping standpoint, it’s been intriguing the last week or two imagining how the known form of the field’s top shelf will translate into trips that unfold for them after the gates open early Saturday evening.

Traffic pitfalls always crush the hopes of at least a few of the top contenders as the race plays out.  That part of it makes it awfully tricky to pick the winner of this race.  In fact, I’ve never correctly predicted the Derby winner.  You can expect the talented sprinter Trinniberg will run way ahead of the those chasing him for the first half of the race and then peter out abruptly.  The white-as-a-ghost-colored horse Hansen will stride quickly in Trinny’s wake (along with the unusually low-to-the-ground Bodemeister) and likely find himself inheriting desirable clean airspace with about five furlongs remaining.

Hansen is a colt properly tested for this event.  He won the 2-year-old Breeder’s Cup dirt route race on the Churchill strip and seasoned for the Derby as a 3-year-old in stakes races at Gulfstream, Aqueduct and Keeneland.  Casual racing fans may know about Hansen more for his sideshow element than his racing talent.  Hansen bears the name of his eccentric, outspoken, hands-on owner Dr. Kendall Hansen.  Before each of Hansen’s last two Derby preps, the Doctor tangled with racing officials about plans to paint Hansen’s bushy tail the color blue.  Permission was firmly declined in each instance and Hansen’s tail was left to fly its natural color.

You won’t need distinctive coloring to know who’s winning this race as the final moments play out.  You’ll get that cue anyway.  It’ll be the white horse.

Here’s your TSR Derby trifecta:

Hansen

Alpha

Rousing Sermon

To add to the excitement of Derby Day, there’s a Rangers playoff game on TV early in the afternoon.  And later that night in Brooklyn, the full cast of Woods (Lucas Crane is back behind the knobs) anchors a triple bill at 285 Kent.  I’ve heard a harmonica has come out of the trick bag on this tour.  Looking forward to it.

Happy Derby Day.