For the second game in a row, the NHL's website has refused to acknowledge the Devils on their front page (despite interesting story lines), and has cut the highlights out short. Here are the links to the two instances:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2011020999

http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2011021018&navid=sb:recap

The question is: what is going on? I believe the NHL is purposely attempting to stifle interest in the Devils out of spite for the current financial situation. I am sickened by the NHL's actions. I've never seen anything like this before in my life. Any stories relating to the Devils have been stifled, and the highlights have been broken. Tonight's highlights lasted a total of six (SIX) seconds. This is despicable. I don't know what's going on but I'm getting fed up. Anybody have any ideas for boycotting this biased league? LET'S DO SOMETHING!!!

I just did some quick calculations to determine the points distribution between the divisions and conferences.

As of 2/14/11 at 10:05 pm:

Atlantic Division: 339 points

Northeast Division: 307 points

Southeast Division: 291 points

Central Division: 326 points

Northwest Division: 303 points

Pacific Division: 308 points

Eastern Conference: 937 points

Western Conference: 937 points

Atlantic division is the best in the league by a decent margin. The Southeast sucks (duh). Eastern and Western conferences are dead even. Maybe realignment wouldn't be so bad for the Devils after all. Thoughts?

I was watching tonight's roller coaster Stars-Avalanche game, and during the overtime period coincidental minors resulted in a short glimpse at 3-on-3 hockey, and my god, was it entertaining. So much open ice, so much speed, so much action.

It led me to think about the NHL's current overtime format. The gimmicky shootout is enjoyable, and when your team is 3-1 in them, there isn't much to complain about. But few true hockey fans seem to think a shootout is a judicious way to find a winner. 

I haven't taken a close look into whether they've tried it out in the R&D camps, but personally, I think a 3-on-3 period following the 5 minute 4-on-4 would be a great idea. It's real ice hockey, and it usually results in a lot of scoring chances.

What do you guys think?

It seems so obvious... so simple. Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk are two of the NHL's brightest stars, throw them on a line together and you'll get magic. At the beginning of this season I was an advocate for this line; memories of the experiment's failure at the beginning of last season were overpowered by the logic that these two players are far too skilled to fail.

But as we've learned, for the second time, over the past couple of games... they don't work together. They have incompatible skills, and putting them on a line together is destroying what both Zach and Kovy are good at.

For Kovalchuk, that's owning the ice: taking the puck and playing as a one-man team in the offensive zone, looking for the net and shutting out the rest of the world. Having Zach out there with him is tempting Ilya into making bad passes, because he feels obligated to get the puck to his equally skilled line-mate.

For Zach, a player who's calling card is his excellent team play, he looks lost out there while Kovy skates around in circles desperately looking for a lane. Zach needs line-mates who are team players, willing to go out there and work as a unit. 

The experiment needs to end now; we've only won one game since it began, that win coming mostly because of a three-goal performance by the second line, with almost no contribution from Parisalchuk. 

We can be a winning team again, of course our issues are far deeper than a lack of production from the first line - but if we were to split it up, and give Zach line-mates who will play with him, and Kovy line-mates he can over shine,  it'll certainly fix one of our issues. 

What do you think? Chime in in the comments section.

NHL 11 is being officially released tomorrow, so in celebration of that I thought I'd analyze this year's player rankings. The first surprise is admittedly a pleasant one. Alex Ovechkin is ranked a 94 this year, while Crosby is a 93. For those of us who are on "Team Ovechkin" in the Crosby vs. Ovechkin battle, this has to be considered a win. Crosby has been ranked better in just about every hockey video game with the two of them in it as of yet. On to my problems with the rankings. The #1 issue I have with these rankings has to be the goalie rankings. Did they really give Martin Brodeur an 88 ranking and 7 goalies with an 89 or higher. Seriously??? Miller, Luongo, Lundqvist, Kipprusoff, Vokoun, Backstrom and Marc Andre-Fleury are all apparently better goalies than Marty Brodeur. And CAM WARD is also an 88. WHATTT???? Plus they have Bryzgalov at an 87. The EA scouts must be brain dead. Here's some other messed up Devil related rankings: Patrik Elias is an 85, Travis Zajac is an 84 and Rob Davison is a 79 (The same as Tallinder, Greene, Clarkson, and Zubrus) Meanwhile, in other ridiculous rankings news, Robin Reghyr is an 88 (the same as Marty hahahahha) and Derek Boogaard is an 81 (2 points better than Clarky, Zubes and Greene) 

Here's the full Devils team player Rankings:

Kovalchuk 91
Parise 89
Brodeur 88
Elias 85
Volchenkov 85
Langenbrunner 85
Zajac 84
Arnott 83
White 82
Salvador 81
Rolston 81
Hedberg 80
Tallinder 79
Davison 79
Clarkson 79
Greene 79
Zubrus 79
Mottau 77
Salmela 76
McAmmond 75
Fraser 75
Zharkov 75
Pelley 75
Leblond 74

Let's all give a big hand to EA for putting Rob Davison on our roster as well as Mottau and McAmmond. After the jump is a list of the top teams based on the average rankings of their top 5 players. Not exactly accurate for ranking the teams as a whole, but for many of the teams, the top 5 players is all that's available at this point. We can call this number every teams star power rankings. (P.S. the Penguins are largely inflated based on Fleury's ridiculous 89 ranking and Malkin's equally ridiculous 92) (By the way these rankings have been confirmed by multiple sources)

Continue reading this post »

A couple of hours ago (10:08 pm on 9/1/10) Larry Brooks of the New York Post broke news of a new chapter in the Ilya Kovalchuk contract saga. The NHL has essentially taken the new Ilya Kovalchuk 15-year/$100 million contract, as well as Roberto Luongo's tentative 12-year extension, under hostage and has given the NHLPA an ultimatum: place a limit on future SPCs that prevents multi-year deals to extend players beyond the age of 40, or we'll kill both contracts! (and do something bad to Marian Hossa's contract as well) [Insert sinister Bettman laugh]

Continue reading this post »

A lot of reports have been talking about how the Devils can potentially be fined should Bloch uphold the NHL's rejection, many of them saying that it's likely going to be used by the NHL as a scare tactic to stop other teams from front loading deals in the future.

But come on, if the NHL does penalize the Devils, such as taking away salary cap space, that would just be ridiculous. In that scenario we most likely would already have a difficult time retaining Kovy, and if they tack on a million dollar salary cap penalty we would NOT be able to sign him, seeing as we'd already have to increase his cap hit, most likely to 7 million or more. 

Not only would that be incredibly unfair, seeing as the deal didn't directly violate any clearly outlined rules in the CBA, but rivals of ours, such as the hated division competitor Flyers, have already taken advantage of a similar - but slightly less outrageous - deal without being penalized or even raising a red flag. 

And if they decide to take draft picks as well, ugh, I won't even get into how unjust that would be. To quote James Mirtle,

How can an agent and team negotiate a deal that doesn't circumvent the cap if what constitutes circumvention is unclear?

NHL, if you're going to shoot down this contract, please do it with some dignity. Don't further punish this team and fanbase who would have potentially been robbed of a dream worthy contract, and possibly a few stanley cups thanks to your actions.

The above link is a side by side comparison of the fan confidence polls for the atlantic division teams.

I thought it might be interesting to compare. Flyers and Rangers fans seem to be losing confidence in their teams, meanwhile, Islanders fans seem to be delusional. Penguins fans are always confident, but if you ask me Martin and Michalek can't replace Gonchar, nor will their team be the juggernaut they were a couple years back after having to trade off their core to make cap room. Us Devils supporters have happily become more confident since the free agent signings and Kovalchuk signing. Weigh in with your thoughts below.

I figure with the signings of Volchenkov, Tallinder and Hedberg that the Devils are out of the Kovy sweepstakes, barring a flurry of miraculous roster transactions by Lou. We currently have 18 players signed to NHL contracts and are only $4,248,333 under the cap. The remaining roster spots will more than likely be filled by rookies. 

With the arsenal of players we have under contract currently, and I know it's early, I'd like to hear your predictions on what our Lineup will look like on opening night October 8th. Here's mine:

Forwards:

Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner

Elias-Arnott-Zubrus

Rolston-Clarkson-Zharkov

Tedenby-Pelley-Josefson 

Defense:

Volchenkov-White

Tallinder-Salvador

Greene-Salmella (Corrente, Eckford, Fraser)

Goalies:

Brodeur

Hedberg

Not too shabby a lineup if you ask me. What do you think?

So, after tonight's romping of the New York Islanders we can only end up playing three different teams in the first round, the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens or Philadelphia Flyers. This will be decided after an exciting slate of games taking place tomorrow. 

Should we beat the Sabres tomorrow, we will end up with 103 points giving us the second seed. If we lose in OT, we will still end up the second seed, as we will be tied with the Sabres at 102 points, but will have the tiebreaker with one extra win.

If the Devils end up as the second seed they will either play the Canadiens or Flyers. This depends on who wins the Rangers-Flyers game at 3 pm tomorrow. If the Flyers win, they will tie the Canadiens at 88 points, but will end up as the seventh seed with two more wins than the Canadiens. If the Rangers win they will tie the Canadiens at 88 points as well, but the Canadiens will get the seventh seed as they won the season series between the two teams, with a record of 3-0-1.

If the Devils lose to the Sabres in regulation tomorrow, we'll end up as the third seed playing the Bruins, who have already locked up the sixth seed. 

So the question is, who would you prefer that the Devils play, and why. Only three potential opponents remain, who do you think the Devils matchup best against and why. Vote in the poll and leave a comment. LETS GO DEVILS!

ESPN's Rumor Central is claiming the Devils might be in on the Kovalchuk trade talks. 

"The New York Rangers have reportedly offered a package to theAtlanta Thrashers for Ilya Kovalchuk, but the New York Post reports that they were "low-ball" offers. (Plus, New York may not have enough assets to trade for him.) Meanwhile, the Post writes that Thrashers GM Don Waddell was scouting the Los Angeles Kings, which might mean he's cherry-picking the guys he wants in a deal with L.A.

But what about their rivals from across the Hudson River? We've heard rumblings that the Devils might step up to the plate for Kovalchuk (and Denis Potvin mentioned the possibility on XM radio on Tuesday), in spite of the fact that Lou Lamoriello usually stays away from the big-ticket players at the trade deadline. The organization is usually pretty quiet about deals until they come to pass, but this would be a very surprising move for a team that rarely chases superstars and their pricey contract demands."

http://insider.espn.go.com/nhl/features/rumors

What does everyone else think, the idea of Kovalchuk in a Devils jersey for the playoffs this year gives me a boner. Weigh in below.

To begin, I'm going to assume that most of those who are reading this are Americans, but our goalie, Martin Brodeur, is playing in his 4th olympics, and looking to redeem himself after a disappointing all-around performance from the Canadian olympic team at Turin in 2006. There will be tremendous pressure on Marty to bring the gold to Canada in 2010 seeing as the olympics will be held in Vancouver. So who are you rooting for come february? Note there will be pressure on Parise carrying the offensive load for the US, as well as Elias being the captain of the Czech Republic's team.

Does anybody think there is any validity to the recent Dion Phaneuf trade rumors? According to ESPN.com and hockeybuzz.com, the Devils and Islanders are both in hot pursuit of Phaneuf. The source claims that the asking price would be a current NHL defenseman, a prospect, and two first round picks. It's an expensive fee to pay, but Phaneuf is only 24 years old, we haven't seen anybody with the type of hitting ability that Phaneuf possesses since #4 retired, and who knows, this guy could be the second coming. Anybody else here excited at the possibility of this coming to fruition? Our offense has been pretty strong, regardless of who's in the lineup, and we lack that intimidation factor we had when Stevens was patrolling the D line. Besides, Phaneuf has a passionate hate for Sean Avery, one thing he shares with every Devils player and fan, and there is nothing more I would love to see than Dion Phaneuf knocking avery clean on his ass. Let me know what you think...

Here's a link to the original story from HockeyBuzz.com: Islanders and Devils Interested in Phaneuf