MDPucks

Can I be the keeper of: The Honorable Sharp James Penalty Boxes at The Rock?

Small house: Gaelic Storm at the Ramshead in Annapolis Large house: Aerosmith & Lenny Kravitz at Verizon Center in DC Upcoming: Genesis at Verizon Center in September Best Concert ever attended: floor seats Springsteen 1999 at MCI/Verizon Center

I'm blaming the ineptitude of and tight-wad penny-pinching of ownership in those cities. Chicago, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles are the most important cities if you want to grow your sport because of the power of the media there and the numbers of transplants moving south. Its no secret that the NBA's hayday occured with Jordan in Chicago, Bird in Boston, Magic in LA, and Ewing in NY. Its also no secret that the NBA (with the built-in advantage they already have in the US) is suffering now because Chicago and LA are mediocre and NY and Boston are complete jokes and have been for years. Would the NHL have grown during the 1990's without Gretzky making hockey "cool" in LA? Messier in NY? The sport certainly wasn't growing with them both in Edmonton. Even with Lemieux in Pittsburgh that city had a "hip" reputation thanks to the Steelers. Instead Bill Wirtz forces fans in Chicago to pay PPV to watch all Blackhawks home games to watch a brutal team further alienating both the press and the fan base. Jeremy Jacobs raises ticket prices and concessions while trading away Joe Thornton for a can of Spigetti-O's.

Berman is a huge hockey fan. He called hockey games as a student at Brown and for years was a season ticket holder for the Whalers. ESPN's lack of coverage is only the result of the perfect storm of the last decade that's killed hockey. Namely the gaping wounds which once were Original 6 franchises in incredibly important markets in Chicago, Boston, and on 7th Ave. National press such as Jay Mariotti in Chicago and Bob Ryan in Boston take shots daily at their respective NHL franchises because ownership in both cities has completely crapped on the fans and that rubs off when they appear nationally. Add that to over expansion, over-emphasis on defense/no rules changes (because of over expansion and owners not wanting to pay $20 million for Bryan Smolinski's 20 goals), Lindros being a fraud, Gretzky & Lemieux retiring and no superstar to replace him in LA.

Not sure if they want to perform a quick-changeroo from concert to ice back to concert in the arena's first week of operation. I hope opening night is in November and its either Saturday the 3rd or the 10th. I have zero shot at making a weekday and Friday game before the 9th.

Interesting that Florida has opened up a bunch of new buildings in the last decade: -Wachovia Center - Philadelphia -Verizon Center - Washington -Gaylord Center - Nashville Other new buildings and the opponent I've been able to find: -United Center, Chicago (Edmonton) -XCel Energy Center, St. Paul (Philadelphia) -Nationwide Arena, Columbus (Chicago) -Staples Center, Los Angeles (Boston) -American Airlines Arena, Dallas (Nashville) -Phillips Arena, Atlanta (New Jersey) -St. Pete Times Fourm, Tampa (NY Rangers) -TD BankNorth Garden, Boston (NY Islanders) -Centre Bell, Montreal (NY Rangers) -Air Canada Centre, Toronto (Montreal) -ScotiaBank Place, Ottawa (Montreal) -RBC Center, Raleigh (New Jersey) -Bank Atlantic Center, Florida (Tampa Bay) I don't know who the opponents were in Buffalo, St. Louis, San Jose, and Vancouver. I'm sticking with my prediction of either Washington or Montreal. My new darkhorse is Carolina.

Washington or Montreal

Being an "old school" guy I'd like to add these names for debate: -Patrick Sundstrom -Sean Burke -Pat Verbeek -Aaron Broten -Kurt Muller

I like these. I moved to Boston back in 1995 when they went to the shoulder stripes moving into the FleetCenter/TDGarden. For an original 6 franchise I always thought those 90's uniforms looked terrible. The 1972 throwbacks were definately my fav and these new jerseys seem to be going back to that era. I'm currious to see what Columbus does now. They're going with the 3rd jersey flag logo as thier main (ditching the "CBJ" which I think was universally panned the moment they began using it).

So what's the over/under on how long it'll take Iron Mike to get canned? I give it 18 months... I also give Kipper until January until he gets traded.

volchenkov and emery can collect their jocks in the corner 2-1 Andy MacDonald over Ottawa.

Copps Coliseum will need some MAJOR rebuilding and it may take a full year's makeover to install those boxes and club seats. I'm not sure if the NHL wants the Preds to be a lame-duck in Nashville while Copps is readied for their arrival. The team that gets screwed the most is Buffalo which needs the corporate support of the west side of the Niagara River which will now be split. As for the divisions I wonder if the NHL will be retooling the divisions along with the discussion of retooling the schedule after 07-08. Its not like baseball where you need an even number of teams in each league in order to avoid an interleague series going on each day. Boston in the Atlantic would be cool, however I'm not sure the NHL wants to split-up the Boston-Montreal and Boston-Buffalo rivalries. I can even see the NHL returning to the 2 division per conference format.

As mentioned earlier Hamilton's Copps Coliseum is a crappy Meadowlands clone. They'd need a new arena and will be forced to pay both Buffalo and Toronto for regional rights. Hamilton is also very much a rust belt city whereas Winnipeg has actually grown helped by the boom in oil prices. I remember speculation of him trying to move the Penguins to the Southern Ontario (Kitchener, London) area. I think its in that hole between Toronto-Buffalo to the east and Detroit to the west where regional rights fees won't be a problem. Wouldn't be suprised to find the Preds end up in that area.

I know when the Saddledome was remodled in Calgary about 6-7 years ago the Flames played the first 3 weeks on the road. Playing October on the road will definately suck however the flip-side is the Devils will have a crap-load of home games down the stretch. The Western Canada trip and probably one of the Southeastern trips can be taken care of early.

Honestly Lowell has become a hole in terms of hockey in the last 5 years. Tsongas Arena has become a complete white elephant and the saturation of minor league and college hockey in the area has dwindled the fanbase even further. UMass-Lowell should never have moved out of old Tully Fourm in Chelmsford as Tsongas is 3x's too big. They and Merrimack currently have the least positive upside in Hockey East right now with Vermont and UMass quickly becoming players among the tradition UNH-Maine-BC-BU contingent. The quicker the Devils can get out of Lowell and set up shop in Trenton the better IMHO. Hell, there's rumors that the Rangers are pulling out of Hartford since MSG Inc. was rejected to run the Civic Center. Perhaps the Devils can restore the Whale in an AHL form?!?!

Looking to add titles and I'm willing to pay and/or trade copies of football or hockey games I already own. College Hockey: 2006-#16 Holy Cross upsets #1 Minnesota, 2007- #13 UMass upsets #3 Clarkson NFL: 1985 Giants-49ers playoffs, 1986 Giants-49ers playoffs, 1986 Giants-Redskins playoffs, 1990 Giants-49ers playoffs, 2000 Giants-Eagles playoffs, 2000 Giants-Vikings playoffs. Games I'm looking for: -10/31/1987 Oilers (my first game) -anything from the 1987-88 playoff run -12/23/1992 @Rangers -1995 Game 6 Flyers -1995 Game 4 Red Wings -2000 Game 7 Flyers -2000 Game 1 Dallas -2000 Game 6 Dallas -2003 Game 4 @Tampa -2003 Game 5 Ducks -2003 Game 7 Ducks -2/3/2006 Carolina (Stevens Night)

Introducing myself here. I'm a Jersey Shore/Monmouth County guy transplanted to Baltimore via Hartford and Boston. I've been a Devils fan since 1987 and have followed them all over the east coast. I've seen the Devils play at MSG, Hartford, Boston, Montreal, Washington, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, and Philly. I've also caught NHL games in Uniondale and Tampa. I'm a fan not only of the Devils but of the game in general. I play in a men's rec league around Baltimore/DC. I try to make it to the NCAA Frozen Four every April (didn't get to STL last year) and I've attended NCAA games in 16 different college arenas (UMass alum). I live down in Maryland now and catch the Devils whenever they're in Washington. Typically I road trip to 1 or 2 games a year in NJ.

Grew up "down the shore" in Neptune. I remember in the spring of 1987 I caught a Devils-Flyers afternoon game on WOR Channel 9 and was interested in the sport and thought it was cool that New Jersey had a team (I was already Giants and Mets fan). Devils came close but missed the playoffs that year (a normal occurance back then) but got further hooked on the sport with the bizarro Islanders-Capitals Game 7 4OT game. That September my parents bought me an old-school green & red Devils jersey for my birthday, Devils games started to be broadcast on Sports Channel (now FSNY), and I convinced my Dad to take me to see the Devils-Edmonton Oilers game on Halloween Night. The Devils of Muller, MacLean, Driver, Cirella, and Cheverier beat the Oilers of Gretzky, Messier, Anderson, Coffey, Kurri, and Fuhr 6-5 that night and I was completely hooked. That Devils team was the one that had the Cinderella run after Johnny Mac's OT goal in Chicago. In the years since I moved outside of Hartford as a teenager, outside of Boston in college, and outside of DC after that. I've seen the Devils play at MSG, Hartford, Boston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, and Carolina but have always returned to the Meadowlands to catch one or two games a season. I've also caught NHL games in Tampa and Uniondale. Went to college at UMass so I've seen many NHL'rs (including the Devils Pandolfo, both Gionta's, Clemmenson, Madden, both Parise's, Frank Doyle, and Zajac) play college hockey.