News Article: News from Around the League - Part XXXVI

[Sir Fenwick Corsi]

See, that's why it's easier for me to get back into it. That and the fact that no Devils have even uttered a peep of inflammatory nonsense since the lockout began. I can't imagine how bitter I'd be if we'd lost Game 6 of the first round to the Panthers, and some guys were popping off at the mouth during this lockout. Even just the former happening would have made me a lot more ambivalent about hockey coming back.

And I do get what you're saying about the team as is possibly struggling now, especially with Marty's recent habit of needing two months to shake the rust off but personally I'll just be glad the Devils are back. Especially considering my two other sports teams are run just as badly as the NHL

I mean don't get me wrong, I do miss it. Last week I watched game 2 of the 06 quarterfinals against NYR, where Madden scored the hat trick. They were playing it on MSG. Anyways, I could tell that I still enjoyed watching hockey. It's a great sport, no two ways about it. But for most of us, we're very passionate / emotional about the team. Well where do you go when that's stripped away and it becomes ALL about $$$? I don't know, this lockout in particular, there wasn't too much good faith going around and its really disappointing. It was so obvious from the very first set of cancelled games that they were going to bring it to this point. It's like they never learn.

I will agree that NJ staying pretty quiet has helped though. It would definitely be way worse if the players were saying stupid **** on twitter and what not. I'm at least thankful for that.

 

[apice3*]

That's where the NHL will suffer greatly. The casual and on-the-fence fans aren't going to care. I bet some won't even know the lockout is over. It's not like ESPN is going to cover it for more than 15 seconds.

"Breaking news on SportsCenter: The NHL and Players have agreed to a new 10 year CBA and games will start in two weeks. Now to Skip Bayless to explain the top 20 reasons why Tim Tebow will excel as a Jaguar."

 

[NJDevs26]

fwiw LeBrun pretty much shot down the free Center Ice speculation the last couple days. Not too surprised although a bit dissapointing after Rimer said it was a distinct possibility.

Not that it really matters personally since we have 'three' local teams and other VS games, that's plenty for me though it would have been nice for the league to help get the casual fans back and make diehards happy. I don't really watch the league outside the Devils though - probably another reason why I'm willing to forgive and forget, I wasn't staying up till 1 AM watching Anaheim-San Jose for the heck of it.

I love hockey but I only care about the Devils, not the league as a whole. Don't get me wrong, I want the league as a whole to succeed in spite of themselves, but I also hope they feel the pinch in some markets for a while.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

If the NHLPA goes ahead and files DOI tonight despite all the progress we can kiss a season goodbye

I actually expect the NHLPA to do something that stupid

 

[CerebralGenesis]

If the NHLPA goes ahead and files DOI tonight despite all the progress we can kiss a season goodbye

I actually expect the NHLPA to do something that stupid

Ya if its filed its done and Beatlejuice can continue his march towards attacking the cap.

And I'm not going to worry about going to any games yet since there are no games scheduled for the foreseeable future.

 

[Brodeur]

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8...rricanes-forward-following-hip-surgery-source

Tuomo Ruutu out until early May after hip surgery.

 

[KidRobot]

I split a 2 ticket season ticket plan with 3 of my buddies and there's a snowballs chance in hell it gets picked up again.

I'm probably gonna try selling most of them, I just don't care if/when they come back. I'm rooting for a refund more than this season to be saved.

 

[Bleedred]

If in fact there is some balance of games this year, I think a lot of people craving the devils / hockey like crazy are going to wish it never started in the first place. Never mind all the ******** that came along with this lockout, when you get back to the hockey / team part, well NJ has a very good chance of struggling this season*. No more Parise. The team is older and they're also relying on two very old goaltenders who may not have enough time to get on a roll. Henrique is still hurt. This has the potential to be a pretty messy 3 months.

I'll be even more worried next year. I have a feeling if Zajac walks Lou won't do nothing except try to find another Butler on the cheap. I'm afraid he'll say we've got Yayo, Henrique, and Elias there's your top 9 centers! Or signing Gomez or something. Maybe it's unfair to blame Lou though, and the blame should be put on our hucksterbeek owner.

If we have a season this year I'm not worried about Marty too much. The layover won't be much longer than last years offseason. If he sits a whole year that's bad. He was not good at all in 05/06 for the first half. Despite what the Marty critics wanna believe about the last two seasons he was much worse that half season in 05. He also had a below 900 save percentage, and close to 3 GAA until Elias returned. I fully expect him to have bad rebound control early on again too. That's the main reason he struggled early last year. His rebound control was really bad, and that's the reason he struggled after the week layoff against the Panthers.

 

[Mr.Krinkle]

I split a 2 ticket season ticket plan with 3 of my buddies and there's a snowballs chance in hell it gets picked up again.

I'm probably gonna try selling most of them, I just don't care if/when they come back. I'm rooting for a refund more than this season to be saved.

I'm actually hoping the season gets axed at this point too. There's the fact that I really just don't care anymore since I'm finding hockey elsewhere. The fact that I really don't have the time to go to all these games as is and it's about to be horse racing season (much better investment of my money) and I need a new HDTV......

But,if they're saying what, 48 game season starting the 19th if a deal is signed by the 11th? That's 8 more games in that timeframe than what's scheduled now. I have a tough time making all the games as is, especially weekday ones, which is what we will probably be seeing a lot more of should we have a season.

Then comes the games I do intend on selling - you think the Devils aren't going to be handing tickets out like candy on Halloween trying to win fans back? Good luck getting 25 percent of your cost back on a pair of tickets. I'm going to call up my rep the day the lockout ends, if it ends, and demand a crate of Devils swag and hot dog/soda vouchers be sent to me so I can compete on the market with them

 

[NJDevs26]

But,if they're saying what, 48 game season starting the 19th if a deal is signed by the 11th? That's 8 more games in that timeframe than what's scheduled now. I have a tough time making all the games as is, especially weekday ones, which is what we will probably be seeing a lot more of should we have a season.

Just to be anal for a minute...even with only 40 games total they still had like 21-22 home games from the end of this month (the 31st) till whatever the end of the season was in the original schedule. 24 total home games from the 19th really isn't going to be that much different than what the schedule would have been as far as going to games with a 'normal' season this year

 

[Mr.Krinkle]

Just to be anal for a minute...even with only 40 games total they still had like 21-22 home games from the end of this month (the 31st) till whatever the end of the season was in the original schedule. 24 total home games from the 19th really isn't going to be that much different than what the schedule would have been as far as going to games with a 'normal' season this year

Ah true I was counting it as 8 home games. But, with this talk of 4 more playoff teams.....would the playoffs gonna start earlier or are we gonna be doing 4th of July BBQs watching the Finals?

 

[Devils1029]

Just to be anal for a minute...even with only 40 games total they still had like 21-22 home games from the end of this month (the 31st) till whatever the end of the season was in the original schedule. 24 total home games from the 19th really isn't going to be that much different than what the schedule would have been as far as going to games with a 'normal' season this year

and the fact that more of these games will be against the flyers, penguins, and Rangers which usually aren't dollar dog nights, etc....the with games against Mtl, Toronto, Boston, - these all should be easier tix to sell if you cant make the games. At least you won't have to try to dump tix for tougher draw teams like Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, etc.

I'm a STH too and weekday games are tough as well but I try to make it to about 60-70% of these anyway....even if I have to go alone...

 

[Zippy316]

Ah true I was counting it as 8 home games. But, with this talk of 4 more playoff teams.....would the playoffs gonna start earlier or are we gonna be doing 4th of July BBQs watching the Finals?

I think there are going to be some play-ins or that's how I interpreted it.

I don't understand how you can do a 10 and 10, no matter how I do the math, you still get at 5 teams in the second round.

Unless they do 7v10 and then 8v9 to see who gets in, but even then, that's just stupid.

 

[Mr.Krinkle]

and the fact that more of these games will be against the flyers, penguins, and Rangers which usually aren't dollar dog nights, etc....the with games against Mtl, Toronto, Boston, - these all should be easier tix to sell if you cant make the games. At least you won't have to try to dump tix for tougher draw teams like Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, etc.

I'm a STH too and weekday games are tough as well but I try to make it to about 60-70% of these anyway....even if I have to go alone...

Have they even said how they'd plan a 48 game season? Would we even see the Western Conference at all? Last year it was what, 6 times a pop at the other teams in the division, that's half the season right there, 24 games left you could do home and home with the rest of the conference and have 4 games left. I'm sure a lot is going to depend on travel as well so who the hell knows how they'll tackle it.

And I actually did better with the WC teams since they were so rare to see. Teams like Florida or Toronto were a ****show to dump

 

[Mr.Krinkle]

I think there are going to be some play-ins or that's how I interpreted it.

I don't understand how you can do a 10 and 10, no matter how I do the math, you still get at 5 teams in the second round.

Unless they do 7v10 and then 8v9 to see who gets in, but even then, that's just stupid.

More than half the league going in is just stupid. And yeah doing the bottom four seeds as a pre-round of 16 is moronic. You'll have the top 12 teams sitting idle too long.

This is the **** I was really afraid of. I could care less that we lose another season. It's the stupid **** these *******s concoct to "win back the regular fans" they just **** all over after said cancellations.

 

[Bleedred]

Have they even said how they'd plan a 48 game season? Would we even see the Western Conference at all? Last year it was what, 6 times a pop at the other teams in the division, that's half the season right there, 24 games left you could do home and home with the rest of the conference and have 4 games left. I'm sure a lot is going to depend on travel as well so who the hell knows how they'll tackle it.

And I actually did better with the WC teams since they were so rare to see. Teams like Florida or Toronto were a ****show to dump

It's been said 7 games against division. Don't know how the hell they work out who gets the 4 home games, and who gets the 3 road games. We'll probably get shafted, and have to go to MSG, and Philly 4 times just because we finished below them in the regular season!

We won't see any teams from the Western Conference. I've been confident of that since the talk of a 48 game season. Like in 95 the first interconference game of that season was game 1 of the SCF with us vs Detroit. That was a 48 game season as well. I also think it will end around the first of May the regular season. Just as it did that year.

 

[apice3*]

More than half the league going in is just stupid. And yeah doing the bottom four seeds as a pre-round of 16 is moronic. You'll have the top 12 teams sitting idle too long.

This is the **** I was really afraid of. I could care less that we lose another season. It's the stupid **** these *******s concoct to "win back the regular fans" they just **** all over after said cancellations.

More than half the league gets in the playoffs as is

There's nothing youcan really do when it comes to hockey. Bye weeks are mor disadvantageous than anything and you can't do one game playoffs so you have to have a 2^X number of teams in the postseason. 2-4-8-16-32-64, etc. Postseason is a marathon. I wouldn't be opposed to the first round going 5 games instead of 7. Not sure if that would be better or worse though.

 

[jkrdevil]

The NHL used to do byes in the 70's when it was a tweleve team playoff. It would likely be a best of 3 played in 4 nights. It isn't unheard of.

20 team work better with 4 conference/division format because then it makes it where each seeding position has a reward over the seed below. Actually would make the regular season more meaningful.

As for the proposed schedule for this year, there are reports it would by 7 games vs your division opponents and 2 vs non-division conference opponents. The Atlantic Division teams would be screwed over when you consider the Rangers, Penguins, Flyers and Devils had the 4 best records in the conference last year.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

If the NHLPA goes ahead and files DOI tonight despite all the progress we can kiss a season goodbye

I actually expect the NHLPA to do something that stupid

you told us like 2 weeks ago there wouldn't be a season NEXT year.

so excuse me for not listening to anything you say

 

[Bleedred]

Just like I said on the main board. I've been trying to tell everyone one more blowup will probably happen before this is over. It's obvious they're waiting until the drop dead date. And tonight is not that date. Lebrun tweeted how some on both sides are disappointed and everyone is getting all down on the whole thing. The meetings are still going on as we speak.

 

[njdevils1982]

The NHL used to do byes in the 70's when it was a tweleve team playoff. It would likely be a best of 3 played in 4 nights. It isn't unheard of.

20 team work better with 4 conference/division format because then it makes it where each seeding position has a reward over the seed below. Actually would make the regular season more meaningful.

As for the proposed schedule for this year, there are reports it would by 7 games vs your division opponents and 2 vs non-division conference opponents. The Atlantic Division teams would be screwed over when you consider the Rangers, Penguins, Flyers and Devils had the 4 best records in the conference last year.

just looking at those brackets from the 2nd half of the 70's is close to giving me an aneurysm.

no thanks.

 

[Saugus]

The PA is dumb enough to overplay its hand here. But there is a deal to be made here, it's been a while since we could say that and believe it.

 

[Bleedred]

I can't believe something stupid like pensions will keep this deal from not being made. It's even worse than when people were saying how dumb it was that the term limits for UFA, and the CBA length were keeping a deal from being made.

 

[DatBoyJPP]

Pensions won't stop this from getting done. The PA is just hoping in the next 3-5 the league offers something slightly better in that department

 

[jkrdevil]

just looking at those brackets from the 2nd half of the 70's is close to giving me an aneurysm.

no thanks.

So you have a problem looking at the NFL playoff brackets?

And in the 70's the league seeded everyone by points, but gave the division winners byes so you ended up with 11 seeds getting a bye. The was also 12 out of 18 teams making it. Would be cleaner now.