This was a week of records being broken, World Baseball Classic excitement and drinking until you turned green on St. Patrick’s Day, but it may have all been overshadowed by the weirdness that is Alex Rodriguez. Pictures were released of him pretty much making out with himself and rolling around on a mattress. Did he finally sweep himself off his feet? What’s next? Cloning? Maybe he got divorced so he can marry himself. He’s just getting more and more bizarre. “What was he thinking?” and “A-Rod” go to together like peanut butter and jelly these days. This week’s Hot Stove Player of the Week, Martin Brodeur, has turned down his prize: “I don’t need a prize. Just working and living in New Jersey is an award in and of itself.”

Winner

Martin Brodeur: The Devils goalie tied Patrick Roy’s all-time wins record on Saturday in his hometwon of Montreal and then broke it in New Jersey on Tuesday night. Next up is the all-time shutouts record, currently held by Terry Sawchuk, though it …

Here are the answers to yesterday’s quiz.

1. The Devils’ first season in New Jersey was 1982-83.

2. Aaron Broten was the team’s leading scorer in their inaugural season (16 goals, 39 assists, 55 points).

3. Bep Guidolin was the first coach in franchise history, in Kansas City from 1974-76.

4. John MacLean is the franchise’s all-time leading goal scorer, with 347.

5. Ken Daneyko is the franchise’s all-time leading games played leader, with 1,283.

6. Patrik Elias is the franchise’s all-time leader in assists, with 410 (and counting).

7. Chris Terreri is second in games played (302) and wins (118) for franchise goalies.

8. Jacques Lemaire (1995), Larry Robinson (2000 – replaced Robbie Ftorek that season) and Pat Burns (2003) have led the Devils to Stanley Cups.

9. Brian Gionta holds the franchise single-season record for goals scored, with 48 in 2005-06.

10. The New Jersey Devils first made the playoffs in 1987-88. They made it all the way to the conference finals, but lost to Boston.

The Devils started out in Kansas City, moved to Colorado and have settled in Newark (”Gateway to Secaucus”). See how much you know about the third (but best) team in the area. The answers will be posted tomorrow.

1. When was their first season in New Jersey?

2. Who was the team’s leading scorer in their inaugural season in Jersey?

3. Who was the first coach in franchise history?

4. Who is the franchise’s all-time leading goal scorer?

5. Who is the franchise’s all-time games played leader?

6. Who is the franchise’s all-time assists leader?

7. Martin Brodeur is the all-time games played and wins leader for franchise goalies (obviously). Who is second in those categories?

8. The Devils have had three different coaches lead them to Stanley Cups. Who are they?

9. Who holds the franchise single-season goals record?

10. In which season did the team first qualify for the playoffs after moving to New Jersey?

Welcome to New York (or welcome back, in some cases). This week saw a plethora of new players entering the New York sports scene – free agent acquisitions for the Giants and Jets, players acquired at the NHL trading deadline, a prodigal son returned and a future hall-of-famer is back from injury. The prize for this week’s Hot Stove Player of the Week, Martin Brodeur, is the return of Sean Avery to the area. Enjoy!

Winner

Martin Brodeur: The Devils goalie made his triumphant return, and has won all four games he’s played. He threw two shutouts in those games, and only let in a total of four goals. He’s about to break every goaltending record there is. And now his old nemesis is back. The new kinder and gentler Avery wouldn’t dare call the goalie Fatso again, would he?

Runners Up

Bart Scott/Jim Leonhard/Lito Sheppard: The Jets improved their D with two former Ravens joining their old coach, and an ex-Eagle thrown on the pile for good measure.

Chris …

Here are the answers to yesterday’s quiz.

1. The Rangers debut season was 1926-27.

2. The Devils franchise began as the Kansas City Scouts in 1974, and after two seasons moved to Colorado, where they played as the Rockies from 1976-82.

3. The one other NHL team to play in New York was the New York/Brooklyn Americans. They played in the league from 1925 to 1942.

4. The New York Raiders/Golden Blades/New Jersey Knights (one team, many names) played two seasons in the WHA before becoming the San Diego Mariners.

5. The Rangers acquired their name when newspaper writers started calling the team Tex’s Rangers, after original owner Tex Rickard.

6. New York/New Jersey teams have won 11 Stanley Cups – the Rangers won in 1928, 1933, 1940 and 1994; the Islanders in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983; and the Devils in 1995, 2000 and 2003.

7. Andy Bathgate (1959), Bryan Trottier (1979) and Mark Messier (1992) all won the Hart Trophy.

8. Bryan Trottier is the only New York-area player to win the …

See how much you know about the history of the local hockey franchises. The answers will be posted tomorrow.

1. What year did the Rangers debut?

2. Before the Devils moved to New Jersey, they played in two other locations. Name them.

3. Besides the Rangers, Islanders and Devils, what other NHL franchises have played in the New York area?

4. What WHA franchise played in the New York area?

5. How did the Rangers get their name?

6. How many Stanley Cups have New York/New Jersey teams won?

7. In the past 50 years, only three New York-area players have won the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP. Name them.

8. How many New York-area players have won the Art Ross Trophy (leading scorer; first handed out for the 1947-48 season)?

9. How many New York-area players have won the James Norris Trophy (top defenseman; first handed out for the 1953-54 season)?

10. Which center of the New York-area’s WHA franchise was named a first team All-Star for the 1973-74 season?

Thanks, Devils. They seem to solve all the Rangers’ problems, don’t they? The Blueshirts defeated David Puddy’s favorite team (el diablo!) out at the Rock yet again, by a score of 5-2. New Jersey was sorely undermanned (John MacLean had to fill in and take a few shifts), but it still counts in the standings. It was the first time the Rangers faced the Devils franchise without Martin Brodeur in goal since they were the Kansas City Scouts back in 1976.

After (another) slow start and falling behind 1-0 in the first period, the Blueshirts just completely turned it on in the second. New Jersey aided the Rangers immensely by having one player after another take turns sitting in the penalty box (four infractions in all in the second). New York ended up with two five-on-threes in the period and scored on both of them. That would be routine for most teams, but five-on-threes haven’t been the Rangers’ best friend this season. Michal Rozsival scored the first one, slapping it …

Is Aaron Voros the new Sean Avery (but without the annoying personality)? He stood in front of Martin Brodeur all game long, as the two got to know each other. And in the process, the Rangers free-agent acquisition from Minnesota scored two goals and assisted on another. It looks like we have a new fan favorite. The Blueshirts picked up where they left off last season by beating the Devils yet again, 4-1, to remain unbeaten for the year.

The Voros/Dubinsky/Zherdev line dominated again. Brandon Dubinsky had a goal (that Brodeur helplessly waved at) and two assists, and Nikolai Zherdev pitched in with an assist. That’s the second game this year that line has racked up seven points. They’re the best line on the team so far, and they’re fun to watch. It looks like Brodeur has found his new Rangers nemesis in Voros. After Avery interned at Vogue for part of the summer, he and Brodeur actually spent a month together working on a sitcom pilot, Fatso …

New York has had its share of great announcers, goofy announcers, pro’s pro announcers and just plain bad announcers. For this list I’m going to use the late ’60s/early ’70s as the cutoff date. Mel Allen and Red Barber were legends, but they weren’t my legends. I’ve also cheated. In some cases I’ve listed announcing teams and in others, just an individual. So here is my top-10 best announcers/teams of the last 40 years. And no, you won’t find Suzyn Waldman, John Sterling or Fran Healy on this list.
10. Jim Kaat: The 16-time Gold Glove winner and three-time All-Star pitcher was stuck in a booth with a hodgepodge of Yankee shills from 1994–2006 (and a one-year stint in 1986). Always classy, he stood out by telling it like it is, and had a humble, non-shtick way about him.
9. Mike Breen: New York native Breen …

Well, it’s been weird.  That’s the best way to describe this first day of free agency in the NHL.  In New Jersey, where GM Lou Lamoriello began the day by retaining free agents Bryce Salvador and Jay Pandolfo, the next order of business was to bring back a pair of heroes from the team’s late-90s glory days.

Shortly after announcing that the team had signed former-Dev Brian Rolston to a 4-year, $20 million deal, the Devils put the final touches on a one-year, $2.5 million agreement with center Bobby Holik.  Not exactly five-years and $45 million, but still good work if you can get it.

“Bobby is still one of the top size-strength forwards and will add size and strength to our center ice,” said Lamoriello.

I don’t recall “size and strength” being a glaring weakness during their five game series loss to the Rangers this past postseason, but evidently Lou felt it was, and who am I to question Lou?

The signing of Rolston is much …

The Hudson River rivals agreed to a pair of four-year, $20 million deals today with defenseman Michal Rozsival returning to the Rangers and Brian Rolston returning to the team with which he began his career.

In the duel of duplicate deals, the Devils come out on top here, adding a player who has scored 30+ goals in each of the last three seasons to their anemic offensive, not to mention a player who they already know will thrive in their system.

Meanwhile, Michal Rozsival hits pay dirt with the Blueshirts.  Here’s what I had to say on the prospect of Rozsival returning back in early May:

One has to imagine that Rozsival will be seeking a sizable raise over the $2.3 M he earned this past season, especially given the fact that [Christian] Backman is pulling in $3.4 next year. Putting aside my personal feelings on Rozsie, the defenseman played first-pair minutes all season-long and appeared in at least 80 games for the Blueshirts for the third consecutive year. He’s scored …

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In 2006 the Rangers entered the playoffs for the first time since the 1996/97 season. They were very familiar with their first round opponent and knew they had to come out and play tough hockey. Even Jaromir Jagr came out hitting.

But they couldn’t match the Devils’ toughness or intensity. This was obvious to everyone when Jagr separated his shoulder throwing a hit on then Devil Scott Gomez during the first game of the series. For the remainder of the short series, they were swept in four games, they were left with no fire power.

This time around things were much different. The Rangers stacked up against the Devils in almost every way. They had better offense, better defense, and even the better goalie. They also had one other important ingredient which made the difference in the series; they had Sean Avery.

Avery made a big difference in a number of ways and most important were his dogged attacks on Martin Brodeur. …