nj96

I say Elias. He's scored 1/5 of all our goals and he's one of the best defensively. Without him, we're no where near where we are today. -Dan

Alright... I'm sold. Turner played great tonight! As much as I love seeing Little G flying all over the place, I say leave Turner there and see what happens! That line's really gelling like a felon (yeah, I just said it! ). -Dan

The only thing that really bothers me about Stevenson is that he might be the slowest player on the Devils. When Elias and Gomez are on the rush, there's no way he's going to keep up. I'd rather see Marshal on that line. At least he could keep up during the rush and still has the presence to create a little space. And if we do stick with Little G on the big line, that leaves Kozlov to hopefully spark another scoring line and Stevenson to the grinder line (sans Larionov hopefully). I think the EGG line would be a lot harder to stop if the other team has to face another quality scoring line (that we've desperately needed all season) and I love the idea of a Marshall/Rasmussen/Stevenson line pounding the crap out of people. -Dan

Maybe its stars shouldn't put themselves in the situations that cause serious injury? Both of the situations could have been prevented by the player who got injured. Both Lindros and Naslund left themselves in prone positions and if they get hurt, it should be their fault alone. -Dan

I think they should call high shots with either a high-sticking or roughing call, but you can't say that Stevens's hit was high, Lindros was just bent down. And you really can't expect the hitter to try and get out of the way if some skater drops down right before he's hit. It's too much to ask of the players and officials to make that call. Also, by asking the hitter to avoid head contact well into a hit, you are asking him to put himself in a prone position and risk injury all because some skater decided to drop down. It sounds like Lindros was saying that he wants to stop people who come in up high and clearly in the Stevens case his arm was at his side until after the hit. I applaud the desire to protect the players, but I think the Stevens hit was a really bad example to bring up. This wasn't a Tie Domi elbow to the head or a Bertuzzi, this was a legal hit into a prone player. If anything it just emphasizes the need for a skater to protect themselves from injury, not change the rules to accomodate. -Dan

I hear what you're saying, but can you penalize a player because the other guy bent down? Did Stevens jump up to intentionally get at Lindros's head? No. Could the exact same hit have hit shoulder to shoulder? Yes. Both Moore's hit and Stevens's could have been less damaging if the hittee had been in a less prone position. Penalizing a player for hitting someone who dropped down at the last second doesn't seem like a good solution. -Dan

Sorry I was just editing the post because I realized, for once in the past week, they WEREN'T talking about Bertuzzi. Lindros should be the last person to talk about leading into a hit up high. He does (or did) it all the time. As for the rules of the game, hitting is an integral part of the game. If you start to make hits illegal you kill the great game we all love. Maybe the change should be in the equipment (like softer pads) making hits less intense, not the rules. -Dan

First off, I can't beleive that Lindros brought up Stevens in a dirty hit argument. Here's some, ummm, proof: First off... If you don't want to get destroyed, don't stare at your feet. Here's the initial impact: The moment Eric's lights go out: Directly afterwards, Stevens does lift his arm to push the player away, but the elbow doesn't even play into the equation. Lindros should really look at the hit. Moore just caught Naslund who put himself in a prone position. If you take out that hit, you have to take out all legal hits. Sorry, but Stevens should be the last player the "hockey has too much violence" people should go after. -Dan

No problem. As for the audio only, I've had some codec issues in the past, and I still have some problems, so maybe JesterDevil can shed some light for the both of us... -Dan

Here's a link: EliasVideo Please right-click and select "Save Target As..." and save it to your local computer to save some bandwidth (it's 3.2 MBs). -Dan

I think Lou will wait at least another year before thinking of dealing Hale. Granted, he's made mistakes, but then again so did White when he first came in. White's still screwing up on a nightly basis and he's still out there. Hale's been thrown to the wolves and I think he's done a hell of a job acclimating himself to the league. With Stevens leaving within the next few seasons (hopefully not sooner), I think Lou's hoping Hale will be a home-grown replacement. While I think we should deal for a vet D before the deadline, I think Hale's got a place in the future of the team. -Dan

I felt bad for LaBarbara during this game. The Rangers weren't giving him much support and one of the goals I did see even Marty might not have stopped. It was a laser and clinked off the crossbar and in. Perfect shot. Good for the Pens, though. At least give their fans something to cheer about nearing the beginning of a hopefully small market friendly new era. -Dan

I'm watching this game via center ice and the announcer is butchering Zyuzin's name. He pronouces it Zy-Oozin. No bearing on anything whatsoever, just makes me giggle whenever I hear it. -Dan

They were blowing calls all night. The diving call on Gionta was BS. You can see the D's stick get under his skate. And the Niedermayer call he was trying to get around a forward interfering with him. I don't think the entire team played badly, just not together. It just looked like everyone was traded here for this game. No cohesion. No chemistry. -Dan

I think being traded from Florida to a contender (and cup champs ) will really get him going. No matter how he plays, he's still an improvement on Larionov as our second line center (As much as he does for this team, Brylin never really belonged there to begin with). -Dan

I think maybe everyone copied the program which lists the names in reverse order by date. -Dan

JAY PANDOLFO, Scott Pellerin, Danton Cole, Alexander Semak, Jon Morris, Peter Sundstrom, Anders Carlsson, Tim Higgins, Hector Marini Don't know the validity of that, got it off the net. Here's the site. -Dan

Unfortunately, it will probably go to the highest bidder so we might be stuck with something like "Hostess Twinkie Dome" or "Trojan Max Dome". Our only salvation may be that a private company isn't going to build the arena, so we might actually get a cool name. -Dan

That because he skates at around 800 MPH! I love him on that line! What he does that neither Marshall or Stevenson can do is instill the fear of the Little G. The fear that a highly caffeinated little midget is going to mysteriously pop out of nowhere and steal the puck. It's amazing how much he allows Gomez and (particularly) Elias to fade out of the defenses scopes and get set for a scoring chance. -Dan

Hasek! What is it $8 mil a year to get hurt! I can do THAT! -Dan

No one's mentioned that Elias scores even in our defensive-minded system, and who knows how any other scorer will do here. Iginla's a great player, but it's been said many times here that our system kills offensive prowess. Who knows what he'd do here. I say keep the guy we KNOW will score here. But then again, I think Elias will be here for a long, long time. (I hope) -Dan

Also, when it happened, it was on a pretty laxed forecheck until Gomez went in and stole the puck. Gionta just lost an edge and went down, taking him out. The goalie was upright before Gomez even touched it. By definition goalie interference, but you could see the ref basically saying "Hey, he lost an edge." If the Rangers just moved it, it wouldn't have been a big deal. Good win by the Devils. Really quick release from Jagr on his goal. Scary he could get it moving that quick with a little flick of his wrist. -Dan

Maybe they're trying to showcase Larionov for a trade: Holik for Igor - straight up. It sounds so silly, the Rangers might actually go for it... -Dan

So you're saying you have receipts from livery companies to back up that statement? It's not the greatest neighborhood either. Hang out in the fashion district after 8PM and let me know... -Dan

So... Where do they live?!? In the fashion district? On Broadway? By the railroad yard? Or in the Post Office? I hate to tell you that the area within walking distance around MSG is pretty much commercial with very little residential and the residential that is there is really, REALLY expensive (or older people who've lived there for 800 years and pay $40 for rent thanks to rent control). Probably not a whole lot of people living there that actually go to the games. And on another note... I'm a fellow Bergenite not a big Newark fan and will probably stop going to games if they move (for many reasons) but I've got to say something. In all your arguments and posts, you've proved one thing very well: You can't make a valid point. Period. You try, but fail. Try researching something. Anything. Go on the Internet and get statistics and trends to aid your point. It's a lot better than speaking (in great detail) of something you really know nothing about. -Dan