Zero

Ulan Bator? Ottawa is #2.

The guy who made the bid was on "Prime Time Sports" (FAN Radio / Sportsnet TV) this evening. He made a really interesting case by discussing the particulars of the bid and why it makes sense. Basically, the league as a single entity would keep the teams from competing with each other for essential services. Each franchise would have a certain budget, a lot of operations would be centralised to save money. Instead of competing with each other for certain revenue streams, the teams would cooperate to maximise them. Executives would be rewarded for bringing in more revenue and making local revenues national, and so on. Costs would be lower, revenues higher, and the labour situation would be entirely different since the league would be a single entity. You don't have to worry about the Rangers or Avalanche driving up the salary scale for smaller clubs anymore - which would be much less inflationary. He also gave examples of how all local TV contracts would be consolidated so that if you lived in Boston and the Bruins were not playing that night they could show another game in that market. In spite of the fact that it is a near impossibility that the league will actually sell (how can they possibly convince all 30 owners?), the system itself made a whole lot of sense. Too bad it's pie in the sky. What was not discussed and what I wonder is - would it be possible for the current NHL owners to form a new corporation and basically buy itself? The equity of each team's actual value could be equal to their stake in the new single entity, so the owner of the Red Wings would own a higher percentage than that of the Ducks. The current owners and execs could them become (true) franchisees. There is probably a legal reason why it can't happen and they'd still have the challenge of getting all 30 owners to agree to it.

Ooo, I'm special. There should be a special "boring lockout edition trivia" with Qs like: Who was the NHLPA president in 94? How many teams claim they lost money in 04? Where was Arthur Levitt born? Where does Gary Bettman buy his ties? Etc. OK maybe not.

Theodore has also played extremely well at the Worlds for Canada in 2000.

The Habs were not actively shopping Theodore back then. The only reason they were considering such a blockbuster move was because Savard was so hot for Kovalchuk and they had two great young goaltenders (Theodore and Garon), meaning one was expendable. Garon was one of the top NHL goaltending prospects (highly ranked by THN Future watch, etc) and Theodore had already begun emerging as a star. In 2000 he had the tied for the lowest GAA in the league (but lost the Crozier Award on a tiebreaker). His Win/Loss record suffered because Montr

http://nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/b...67222526070.xml It won't be the concept we have already seen. They are redesigning it.

That's probably what the Fleet Center in Boston will change it's name to. Plus I doubt the company would spend all that money to sponsor two arenas in the same league within 5 hours of each other. You never know but I'd bet on a different company buying the rights.

What are you going to do if there's no season? Nothing different. I don't even mind the lockout this time, if it means that the NHL finally fixes itself. I am thinking long term. As Devils fans we've been spoiled by great management that has succeeded in spite of the league's problems, but I'd like to see a healthier and stronger league than the one that's been running itself into the ground the past 10 years. The 94 lockout was bad. I missed hockey a lot and was desperate for the NHL to return. But looking back I wish the hardliners would have won that battle instead of capitulating. Then we'd not be here right now (and Qu

Hopefully Orca Bay will take their stupid whale logo with them.

EA's FIFA games do soccer even worse than their NHL counterparts do hockey. You should try the Winning Eleven series. It's easily the best sports game out there. Nothing even comes close. I wish KCET would try their genius at making a hockey game. Anyway, I also hope the EA NHL series gets on track one of these days. They have some cool licenses (WCH, Euro leagues) but they need to worry more about gameplay, instead of jersey textures, cutscenes, and other graphical minutia.

I think the price is lower because they are confident that they have a superior product. Not enough people give the series a chance, as they go for the "name brand". So, putting the game at $20 will see a lot more people will give it a shot or make an impulse purchase. It's a shame that the bugs, glitches, and interface still turn some people off but I'll bet (and I'll bet they are betting) even more people get hooked on the gameplay and decide to stay with the series for that reason.

I don't really know since I have not had a single crash or freeze-up, but from what I have read, the freezing problem is avoidable. It has something to do with injuries and lineups. That's why it happens more often when people sim entire seasons. The computer AI screws something up. If you monitor your own lineup or if you double check what it does you should be ok. I am not really sure. I think it was an Xbox specific problem too? I am not sure the details since I have a PS2 and no problems. Anyway, the solution is online for those with the problem. There really is no excuse for a game being this buggy, and it must be since a lot of people report major problems. Personally, none of the ones I have experiences are major though, just stupid mildly annoying mistakes (the Devils Xmas tree uniforms have orange numbers, wtf). These stupid bugs and oversights have been a hallmark of the 2K series ever since 2K2 (the original 2K was great). It's a shame, because the gameplay itself is exquisite. Hands down the best hockey game I have ever played. I can officially say that now, since I have had the game since it came out and I am utterly addicted to it. I have not experienced that kind of video-hockey-joy since the old days of the NHL Powerplay series.

Can't lose either way. This is easily my favourite version of Team Canada ever, but... I'd rather see Finland win. I love the underdog/upset/cinderella story. Plus, Saku Koivu is my favourite non-Devils player.

PS2 and Xbox only.

That's what adds to the realism Thorne's just as bad in the game as he is in real life. Paul Martin's last name isn't pronounced like Martin Brodeur's first name <{POST_SNAPBACK}> True! But what's really funny is that, like you say, they pronounce Paul Martin's surname as "Mar-taing", the French way, yet Brodeur's and St-Louis' given names are "Mar-Tin"! And St-Louis is on the cover! Unbelieveable. To their credit, they added the pronunciation for a lot of extra players to the database, such as prospects like Parise, Vrana, Khomutov, Kadeykin, Ovechkin, Perezhogin, Kastitsyn, as well as many old time players. That's a nice touch. ... Here's another interesting choice/oversight they made. In the Dream Team mode they have Brett Hull playing for "Canada 1". True he was born in Canada, but he has famously chosen to be American so it's just plain weird seeing him playing with a maple leaf on his chest! O_o

Henrik Zetterberg wears #40 as well.

NHL Hockey for Genesis was EA's first hockey game. The version with international teams was actually the European version of the original NHL Hockey. Around 95 or 96 they made a Swedish Eliteserien version too. I really really really enjoyed those old EA games back in the day, but I find they have aged terribly compared to modern games and are not very playable any more.

I got 2K5 last week and I think it's great. The bad news is that the game is somewhat buggy and sloppy. The developers made a lot of stupid mistakes (Ryder is not from Finaldn, Zherdev is not 30) and the interface is quite frustrating. The announcers are abysmal when it comes to pronunciation and mistakes, but I prefer turning them off anyway. But the good news is that the gameplay is stellar. Oh, and the goalies are fine. You can score on a wide variety of shots and strategies. It's really rewarding and realistic. It's great right out of the box, but there are sliders to tweak anything (injuries, penalties, passing accuracy, etc). I am really happy about this because I had not bought a hockey game in a few years because I really dislike EA's style of gameplay and the 2K series was buggy and frustrating. I gave 2K another shot this year thanks to the low price and I am really really pleased. Furthermore, "party mode" is an absolute blast and worth the price on it's own.

I think N

They're all good jerseys, you have good taste in players. Boos would be neat, since it's unusual. But it's so unusual people may think it's your name. Elias would be cool because Patrik is the man. Sweden has the best jersey in the world, if you get one you better pick the yellow (oh, and I love him but Naslund was lousy in the WC). The Finnish jerseys were great until they swapped Suomi for Finland in the crest and wrote Suomi on the bottom in giant letters. The Chara one will look funny in any size other than XXXXL.

The starter should be Vokoun.

For the first 7 years of the league there were only Canadian teams.

I don't know where I read it, but some time this year I read an article where one of them was sayingnice friendly things about the other - possibly about the chance of playing together in the World Cup? It was nice to see. I wish I could but I cannot remember the details. Basically it led me to believe that the one 'famous' quote Elias gave about them not speaking was either temporary, a misunderstanding, overblown, or taken out of context. Who knows. I believe they were never as close as the media made it out to be anyway. Maybe they just got sick of always being asked questions about each other. Or maybe Patrik was grumpy the day he gave that interview. Point being, too much was probably inferred from Elias' comments that time. I hope they play together for Czech. It'll be fun to watch, like old times.

I wish it was still a best of 3. Speculation: Maybe the NHLPA didn't want the players on the final two teams to play so many games?

Brodeur Forsberg Naslund Iginla Kovalchuk Koivu