[Promoted from the Diaries - Joe]

This is not a post about the Colorado Avalanche, rather a statistical analysis on the strength of each NHL division in the 2006-07 season. As I don’t have a hockey blog, I post it here.

I thought: "How do you know if a team has benefited from playing in division X or Y." And then I thought "Well, you could do that if you follow a premise". That is, if each team plays 82 games, 32 within its division, 40 against the other divisions in its conference and 10 games against teams in the other conference, in an "ideal" (let’s call it that) world, each team would do 32/82 of their points in divisional games, 40/82 in conference games and 10/82 in interconference games...

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I think the Avalanche finished all periods, specially the first and third very badly with the Stars attacking a lot. The final part of the game was just frightening, I couldn't believe this could be happening again: all the players seemed lost on the ice trying to avoid the game tying goal.

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With the new season coming close and after one more boring summer, it's time to check how the divisions look on the paper. And I have no doubt: the Northwest division is the strongest in the NHL.

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I was browsing hockey clips on YouTube and I found this one that is absolutely great. A few years ago, the Chicago Blackhawks were plaing at Pepsi Center in Denver and Steve Sullivan was injured by Alex Tanguay's stick. As he was going to the bench with a towel on his head, he was insulted by a fan. Later in the game, after having scored two shorthanded goals, Steve Sullivan got his revenge without doing nothing. God aka Karma aka Patrick Roy dumped the puck behind the net and the puck went over the glass and hit the same fan who had insulted Sullivan on the forehead.

"If you do good things, good things will happen to you. If you do bad things, bad things will happen to you"

The fact that I'm relatively new to the sport is an explanation for the fact that sometimes I don't understand some things. Like 15 year contracts. Then again, maybe it's not me, maybe that's just insane really.

But this is about the news I just read: the Blackhawks signed their first overall pick in this year's draft to an entry-level contract. Is this really a wise choice?

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Well, let me introduce myself. I live in Portugal and I'm an Avs fan since... Since I became an ice hockey fan. A few years ago. Why? EA Sports' NHL of course. But not only. Here in Portugal, the second main sport (after what we call football, soccer for you) is rink (also known as roller or quad) hockey. Portugal is the nation with most titles in the sport and my town has one of the biggest and best teams in the country, so, I used to see the games with my father when I was younger; now I go by myself. So, anyway, it wasn't that difficult to like ice hockey. It's just faster, less tactical and more spectacular in my opinion. And rougher as well, even though rink hockey is not for pussies.

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