'7'

Best wishes Stardew, hope you feel better soon. maybe you'll consider taking me off ignore

does anybody know why Modin is availible? He's not playing poorly, his team is winning and he has contributed when healthy. Maybe he's not getting along with Tortorella? ESPN is reporting that Lightning general manager Jay Feaster denied a report in the Boston Globe that said he offered Modin to the Bruins for holdout D Kyle McLaren, the Tampa Tribune reports. that's from his player page at ESPN.com

well, of course the economy has something to do with it, also this team is very boring, the scorers aren't scoring, weekday game. 1st place in the east is not enough to bring fans out, they don't care, we've seen many 1st place devils teams choke in the playoffs.

1 and 2 would probably draw the same amount of people, in the end, both of those teams would be in the playoffs.

yea, I was going to bring up the attendance in the game thread but I figured you guys have heard enough of me, so I backed down. it was 11,000 and change in the boxscore, so it looks like they've been fudging the numbers again, along with every other team...... Buffalo got 9,966 against Ottawa (looked like 7,000) Nashville, one of the NHL's biggest mistakes, got barely 10,000 against LA. Florida had only 12,000 against philly.

-The Garden should take note of the atmosphere at last week's concert. It's not like that for a Knicks or Rangers game. if you win, they will come......and make noise -When did hockey become really boring? sometime around 1996, but it's starting to come around again. -When did NHL officials decide they were the game? c'mon Derek, there's a long overdue crackdown on obstruction going on. This is absolutely necessary. Probably the best decision Bettman's ever made. -When did the Coolest Game become so lame? When Bettman tried to fix what wasn't broken. -When did ESPN last cover a hockey game? Rangers/Flyers I believe, they've cut back on games this year and will probably show even less next year. Don't you work there? -Paging Jose Theodore: "Get your head out of those models and start earning your salary!" he will -I can't decide what's uglier. Those Orange 3rd jerseys the Islanders wear or the Orange ones the Flyers now come out to. this 3rd jersey thing has gotten out of control, they ruin the integrity of the game, time to ban them. (like that'll ever happen) -Whatever happened to playing Jamie Lundmark? I don't know "He's close Sam, Trottier told me he's real close to breaking out" JD talking about Lundmark the day before he was sent down -It's okay to burnout a 19-year-old 2nd year goalie but keep a top prospect buried behind such dead weight as Dixon Ward, Ted Donato and Dave Karpa. Why not give Brent Fedyk and Chris Kontos a call? Chris Kontos, there's a name from the past Blackburn has always been giving up 3 goals a game so I can't tell if he's burned out or not. The kids a little overrated, blame pappy JD. -Bryan Berard has 7 goals for Boston. Who knew? I think he had another operation over the summer to improve his vision even more. -I thought Ed Belfour was done. Cujo who? The Eagle is still steady Hart Trophy Candidates:Mario Lemieux, Joe Thornton and Marian Gaborik. throw in Marian Hossa, 18 goals. Lemieux has 51pts in 26 games Selke Candidates:John Madden, Brian Rolston and Jere Lehtinen. how about Mike Knuble

sounds like they trapped very well, did elias or nieuwy get a shot at the empty net?

hawks and Isles now tied 2-2 on a goal by Daze. whoops, 3-2 hawks, arnason with the goal

mario has an assist in that game, 50 points in 25 1/2 games so far

pittsburgh is down 2-1 gagne finally wakes up for philly.

did anybody notice Pando on the 1st powerplay unit earlier in the game?

how about Albelin, last time I saw him score a goal in a Devils uniforms was the 95 quarterfinals in the old Boston Garden.

sure, now the Blue Jackets are doing well, so was Nashville in there 3rd year, now the honeymoon is over and they can't draw flies. anybody remember how the Barons did attendance wise? Ohio fans have always been loyal to the Bengals and Browns, but they pretty much let the Indians rot and the Cavs don't draw very well, I don't know what to make of that state sports wise. Atlanta was a mistake, they're one of the worst sports citys in America. They lost the Flames, the Braves can't even sell out playoff games, the Falcons and Hawks frequently play to empty seats. The Thrashers honeymoon ended halfway through there first season. Not even Heatley and Kovalchuk can fill that arena. Move the Thrashers to Hartford, Bettman owes them.

I'm incredibly festive, I've got joy and festivity up the whazoo.

oh by the way, Guns n' Roses (or should I say, Axle n' Posers) have cancelled the rest of there tour. so you lucked out Derek, probably got to see Axl on stage for the last time ever.

nothing like a healthy dose of toilet humor

the bettman era will be considered a dark one in NHL history, and he's going to be commish through what? 2007? I hope he resigns sometime soon, but I just don't see it happening.

I think it has to do with Bettman, the glow puck, classic arena's getting torn down & replaced by cookie cutter, overexpansion and relocation. Things change, I realize that, but there has been so much change in the league recently, the game needs to settle down a little.

I had an opinion on Ruutu, I knew about his whining and fights back in Vancouver. We don't need a Danton/Salomonsson hybrid who can't score. If you watched the Leaf/Devils game the other day, you would see that the Devils were the more physical team, no way they could beat us up physically.

Since he took over as NHL commissioner, Bettman has tried to increase the league's image through a lot of radical changes, alienating a lot of old fans and not bringing in many new ones. Pretty much everything he's tried has backfired and the league has slowly regressed in popularity since the 1993-94 season. This year attendance around the league has been pretty awful, ESPN has cut back on games to show NBA basketball, and I'm not even sure if ABC will continue to show games after the all star game. I'm just curious, who's going to be left after the lockout at the end of next season? Only the die hards, because the NHL is probably going to take another step back into the shadows, back to a cult following type sport.

true, it's not really Guns & Roses, just old Axl and a backing band full off wannabe posers.

he's been spooked since that 2001 playoff series against the canes. Lindros -concussion, Langkow- Concussion, Willis- Concussion, Francis- Concussion. scott's afraid he might kill somebody.

SBT, it's very rare to see those big hits you like nowadays in the NHL, players are afraid to be called for interference or charging & it's very difficult to line guys up and take them out.

sure tri, and they'll be afraid of Jarku Ruuto who isn't even good enough to be a regular on any teams 4th line. a team would be lucky to carry 1 big hitter on there roster, Scott Stevens can be devastating when he feels like it and Colin White can deliver some nasty checks too.

nothing that Jarko Ruutu can do that Dave Roche can't. right now the devils have a bunch of players who play physical hockey, Madden, Friesen, Langenbrunner, Stevenson, Berglund, McKenzie, Pandolfo, and 3 of their defensmen. you want to add Jarko Ruutu to the list, fine. But he won't play much, I don't even think he's better than a healthy Stevenson.