Silence

When do you think the first game of the next round will be? Do you think any of the later home games will hit May 15 - 19? (I know that depends on who they are playing) Thanks!

Wow, make that a hat trick for tonight - 33 in all!

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/rumors/rumor.asp?id=853 Brisebois rejected trade to NJ Friday, March 14, 2003 The Fourth Period - As the 3:00pm ET trade deadline approached on Tuesday, the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils had reached a trade agreement that would have sent defenseman Patrice Brisebois to the Swamp. All that was needed was the approval of Brisebois himself, who has a no-trade clause in his contract. According to various reports, Brisebois refused to waive his no-trade clause and rejected the deal to New Jersey. Brisebois signed a four-year contract last year which holds a no-trade clause in the first two years of the deal. It's uncertain what the Devils would have sent Montreal for the veteran defenseman. Brisebois has yet to comment on the ordeal.

Devils 3 Boston 1

I know that it is about two of the Red Wings, but I really want to share this article. I applaud Draper and Shanahan for the joy that they brought into those two children's lives. (And Mitch Albom is the guy who wrote Tuesdays with Morrie) http://www.freep.com/sports/redwings/mitch...h7_20030307.htm MITCH ALBOM: Big men, little buddies How Draper, Shanahan touched their short lives -- and vice versa March 7, 2003 BY MITCH ALBOM FREE PRESS COLUMNIST There are bonds you are born with, like your parents or siblings, and bonds you choose, like friends and lovers. Then there are the bonds that come along by accident, that somehow choose you, and draw you in like destiny. For Kris Draper, the Red Wings' oft-grinning forward, the bond began with a phone call. A teenage girl from Shepherd, he was told, had leukemia and was in the hospital. She was a huge Draper fan. Could he possibly call her? "I'll never forget when she answered the phone, I told her who it was, and there was absolute silence," Draper says. "And then she said, 'Is it really you? Is it really Kris?' She was kind of overwhelmed. She couldn't think of anything to say. So I said, 'I'll tell you what. Why don't you take some time, think of some questions, and I'll call you back.' " And he did. That call led to another. And those calls led to a visit. And that visit led to a hug -- "I was all sweaty after practice, but she didn't care," Draper says -- and that hug never really ended, it formed a connection, the unexpected kind, between a veteran hockey player and an otherwise-typical 16-year-old named Kara Spindler, who found out on Sept. 11, 2001, the day terrorists struck the United States, that she had leukemia. Draper's phone calls went on for months. They could come at any time, from the road, from the car. He and Kara talked about typical things: the game, the players, TV shows, movies. She would ask why he always seemed to get his face cut on the ice. At the end of the conversations, she would say, "I have to get off now and call my girlfriends and tell them I was just talking to Kris Draper." All this time she was going through chemo treatments. She suffered a stroke. She was slowly dying. You wouldn't have known it. She was upbeat. She watched out for others. One night, her father, Dave, was sleeping in a chair in her hospital room. The blanket fell off him. "She got out of bed, with all these IV tubes in her and everything," he recalls, his voice choking, "and she put the blanket back over me. That's the kind of kid she was." When children get sick, families need support. Before Draper entered their lives, neither Dave nor his wife, Lyn, nor their two older sons had ever had any encounters with professional athletes. They watched them on TV like everyone else. Now Draper was part of their small army of the heart, part of that support group that shares a terrible burden. Which is why, just days ago, Draper got a call from the family. The bad call. The worst call. His phone pal, the bouncy teenager who had sent a stuffed bear to the Wings so that Draper's kids could play with it, had lost her battle. She was gone. A pair of Brendans For Brendan Shanahan, it began with a name. There was a little boy, he was told, a 5-year-old from Macomb Township, also named Brendan. He was sick. Cancer. He was undergoing treatment for a tumor in his sinus cavity and 16 tumors in his lungs. Would Shanahan meet with him? Shanahan said sure. This was four years ago. "You could tell the moment you saw his face," Shanahan remembers. "Something about him. Just really charming. And he loved the Red Wings." Young Brendan, whose last name was Filzek, began coming to games regularly. You could tell he was suffering; he was small for his age and had to deal with radiation and hair loss. But he soldiered on. He turned 6, 7, 8 and 9 -- all those years shrouded by a terminal illness. Doctors would twice say he was cancer-free, and twice he would relapse into the disease. Shanahan, known for being a tough hockey player, was in awe of the boy's bravery. "He was such a little guy," the Wings forward says, "going through such a big thing." Sometimes, during warm-ups, Shanahan would see him standing near the glass with his parents, Doug and Maureen. They would wave. Other nights, when, after the game, young Brendan could barely stay awake, Shanahan rushed out of the locker room still wearing his equipment, still sweating off the chin and forehead, just to say hello. One time, Shanahan visited his house and sat on the floor, talking to his "buddy." "I'd always ask him if he had any new girlfriends," Shanahan says. And? He laughs. "He usually said he had a few." They sent Christmas cards to each other. Little Brendan got to pose with the Stanley Cup. The night Shanahan scored his 400th goal, he gave the puck to Brendan. And last November, the night Shanahan broke a nine-game goal-less streak by scoring twice, he gave both pucks to Brendan, who also left wearing a Shanahan hat and a Shanahan sweater. You kindle hope in moments like that. You think maybe, just maybe, because the kid looks so happy, he will get better. And then, a few weeks ago, the Wings were on a road trip. Their PR man approached Shanahan after practice. He had some sad news. Shanahan braced himself. He had just become a first-time father himself. The miracles of growth were part of his every day, watching his newborn twins open their eyes or wave their tiny hands. Now young Brendan Filzek, whose growth, in a certain way, Shanahan also had watched, was dead. A few days later, Shanahan was at the funeral, holding the casket as one of the pallbearers. Little Brendan was buried wearing a Shanahan jersey. "I wasn't there as a Red Wings hockey player," Shanahan says. "I was there as a friend. I was honored to be asked. I was honored, that day, to be part of that family." Good guys, good deeds And that's the thing, isn't it? The sense of family? You can't be naive. You can't think athletes are substitutes for fathers or mothers or even brothers or sisters. But when they care, like these Detroit players care, they become like uncles or cousins, distant cousins perhaps, but under the tent, they share the news, they call on the phone, they come to the funeral. It is the best that sports can be, a spreading of the glory that comes with the game, an athlete's saying, "Here, you want to feel some of this? I'll share it with you. You're special to me, the same way I'm special to you." When Draper remembers his teenage phone pal, he says, "Kara was always thanking me. That's the amazing thing. Here she was, dying from this disease, and she kept thanking me for calling her. How do you tell her that there's nothing to thank me for, that it's a privilege to be able to put a smile on your face, to distract you from the disease even for a few hours?" You don't. You just do it. Draper and Shanahan are only two of the Wings who make these connections. It happens more than you know, more than you might think, especially with hockey players, who seem to think the locker room is a sort of playground of good fortune, so why not share it -- especially with sick kids? "There are a lot of faces that have come through our room, kids' faces that you think about and then you realize they are no longer with us," Shanahan says. "Knowing kids like little Brendan reminds you that what you do is only a game, it's not life and death, but at the same time it shows you how important the game can be. Because it can make a sick kid happy." Shanahan has a picture of little Brendan now; it hangs inside his locker. Draper has the stuffed bear that Kara sent him; his little daughter plays with it. Big men. Little kids. The bonds that tie.

DEVILS 4 Flames 2

Devs 2 Wild 2

Devils 3 Caps 2

Devils 3 Islanders 2

Devils doing just fine after losing Holik By DARREN (N)Єverson Faceoff.com correspondent http://www.faceoff.com/home/news/story.htm...0224191417.html They don't sit around pondering what's wrong with old friend Bobby Holik's new team, the New York Rangers. They have their own club to worry about, although -- at 37-16-4-4, sitting atop the Atlantic Division -- they don't have many worries these days. But when they do think about it, or at least, when they're asked about it, the New Jersey Devils are surprised. On July 1, when Holik ended his 10-year Devils career by signing with the Rangers, one of three possibilities seemed inevitable: The Rangers would get better, the Devils would get worse or both. Instead, the one thing that not even the Devils themselves could've expected has happened: nothing. The Devils are on their way to the playoffs for the seventh straight season, while the Rangers are on the verge of missing the postseason for a sixth straight year. "It's amazing," goaltender Martin Brodeur said. "It's a good thing I didn't bet on that. I mean, I'm not saying they're not going to make it, but it's amazing they're in the position they're in. Definitely injuries were a big factor, but every year it seems to be the same thing." In the Rangers' case, "the same thing" is no post-season for potentially a sixth straight year despite a loaded lineup. "You look at their lineup, it's pretty scary," Scott Stevens said, "but that doesn't always mean you're going to win." If anything, the Rangers' plight -- they stood 11th as of Feb. 24 -- reinforces the righteousness of the Devils' organizational approach: valuing young players, discipline and defense over aging, high-priced forwards reared in someone else's system. "There has to be chemistry," Stevens said. "You put all of the goal scorers on one team, it doesn't mean you're going to win. I think you need a little bit of everything to put a hockey team together. I think that's how you go about it. Sometimes hard work will beat talent, so I think you need a combination." Brodeur spoke of the Rangers' trading of young players. "They had that defenseman," he said, searching for the name. "He just scored on me (on Dec. 23) ... Lintner? Richard Lintner? I thought he was really good. He played a couple times against us in the pre-season, and they just traded him away." But in exchange for Lintner and three other young players, the Rangers got Alexei Kovalev. And for the free agent Holik, they didn't surrender a single person. The Devils, meanwhile, lost the punishing center who personified their style of play. How have they been able to adapt? "It's a combination of things," Stevens said. "I think John Madden, there's no question he's a pretty good checker. He's taken that role, that whole line and done a very good job. Joe (Nieuwendyk) has done a good job in the leadership area and with his play." "He was a big part," Brodeur said of Holik, "but he wasn't a guy who played 25 minutes for us. You have a guy like Mad Dog (Madden) that stepped up. Everybody knew he was able to do it, but now it's his responsibility to play against the top guys, and he really loves it." INJURIES: Oleg Tverdovsky (concussion-like symptoms) is still on injured reserve, but he is skating on his own and is starting to stiffen his workouts. Sergei Brylin remains out for probably the rest of the regular season with a broken right wrist. Colin White (sprained right knee) is walking but will go on injured reserve, general manager Lou Lamoriello said. ONE MORE MILESTONE: Now the Devils have two achievements to celebrate when they honor Joe Nieuwendyk sometime before season's end for scoring his 500th goal. On Feb. 23, Nieuwendyk became the 65th player in league history to reach 1,000 points. As was the case with goal No. 500 -- a brilliant solo move at Carolina Jan. 17 -- Nieuwendyk made this one count. He scored the tying goal in the third period of the Devils' come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Penguins. So what's next for the 36-year-old two-time Stanley Cup winner? "Another Stanley Cup would be nice, wouldn't it?" Nieuwendyk said. WELCOME ABOARD: It's not the major trade that has been rumored to be a possibility, but it is interesting. The Devils on Feb. 24 acquired 29-year-old center Pascal Rheaume (4-9--13) from the Thrashers for a conditional pick in the 2004 draft. Rheaume, who first signed with the Devils organization in 1993, will report to New Jersey, where he'll provide some needed depth. The Devils were thin at forward until Brian Gionta and Turner Stevenson returned from injury against Pittsburgh, and with Brylin out and Steve Guolla back in Albany for conditioning, the Devils only had three true centers (Scott Gomez, John Madden and Joe Nieuwendyk). THE LINES: Pat Burns made a minor adjustment in the Devils' 4-3 victory at Pittsburgh Feb. 23, breaking up Patrik Elias and Scott Gomez, but it remains to be seen if they stay apart.

Devils 5 Rangers 2

Devils 3-1

oops i didn't see that someone already posted this. Sorry!

Feb 20, 2003 Devils' White out 1-to-2 weeks with knee injury From nhl.com..... EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey Devils defenseman Colin White is expected to be out 1-to-2 weeks with a strained right knee. The prognosis isn't as bad as the Devils' originally feared after the third-year player was hurt in a mid-ice collision with Ottawa forward Mike Fisher on Wednesday night. White's knee bent back after the collision, and he crawled off the ice. He had to be helped to the locker room and he did not return. The Senators scored two late goals to win 5-3. White played all 59 games this season. He has five goals and seven assists.

Although I would love to see Satan on the Devils.... I highly doubt Buffalo will trade him (or anyone else) until the team is sold.