Mr. Raycroft may have an objection to the last number there, Craig.

As I said earlier in another thread, Leigh, these are the times that try men's souls.

As I said earlier in another thread, Leigh, these are the times that try men's souls.

Or, as the motto for the Olympic Track and Field Timekeepers Union says, "These are the souls that time men's tries."

For Bauxites living in America who also love hockey, NHL Centre Ice is the best money you'll ever spend. ALL HNIC games, including playoffs, all season and for the first and second rounds. Plus nearly every other game!

I can't get into the Canucks. Let's have a comeback, Flames!

Predictions (bet the opposite if you want to win money):

1st Round

West
Detroit over Nashville, 4-1 San Jose over St. Louis, 4-3
Vancouver over Calgary, 4-2 Dallas over Colorado, 4-2
East
Tampa Bay over Islanders, 4-0 Boston over Montreal, 4-2 (sorry Craig)
New Jersey over Philadelphia, 4-2 Toronto over Ottawa, 4-1

2nd Round

West
Detroit over Dallas, 4-2 Vancouver over San Jose, 4-3
East
New Jersey over Tampa Bay, 4-2 Toronto over Boston, 4-3

Conference Finals

Detroit over Vancouver, 4-1
New Jersey over Toronto, 4-3

Stanley Cup Finals

New Jersey over Detroit, 4-3
Conn Smythe Trophy: Scott Gomez

Ugh-a NJ/Det final? What could be more boring. Both in terms of been there done that recently and the style of hockey. I played hockey for over ten years so I love to watch it-but watching the Devils trapping style is truly not very fun. So I hope you're wrong David! But I do like the number of series (esp. after the 1st round) you predict will go 7.

http://economics.about.com
1986

I've only got one thing to say about the above:



Cheers,

Mike

Dallas, which is a football town first through ninth, a basketball town tenth, a baseball town hardly at all and a hockey town only when the Stars are winning, is as uninterested in hockey as it's been since Minnesota's North Stars moved south.

And Marty Turco, who when on his game is one of the top five goalies I've ever seen, managed a cosmetic 22-of-25 saves last night as he was completely outplayed by David Aebischer.

I smell one-and-done in Big D and like Detroit to hoist the cup this year, although the AP wire story's comparison of Manny Legace to Jean-Sebastien Giguere seems ... misplaced.

http://mothershipconnection.blogspot.com/
It's kind of sad, but the Bruins are perpetually the team that gets buried in the back pages of the sports section; even when our team has a superlative season like this one, it can barely drum up any kind of significant interest. The Sox overshadow everything, with the Patriots pulling even closer with every Super Bowl win. Even the sad-sack Celtics get more coverage than the B's. Call it a microcosm of hockey in general if you will, but there's some great games being played that people are truly missing out on, like last night's drubbing of the Habs. (Sorry Craig, but Les Habitants are our hockey equivalent of the Yankees, without the "Canadiens Suck" chants.)

watching the Devils trapping style is truly not very fun

The Devils may get a bad rap for their style, but they're right in the middle of the pack this year in terms of goals scored; their defensive style does exactly what it is supposed to do - prevent goals without compromising their offense. I disagree that they make the game boring by their style of play, hockey by nature is a low scoring game, that's what makes it so enjoyable to watch because every goal scored is relevant to the outcome of the game.

If the Devils win the Cup and the Pistons with the NBA title (not likely, but not far-fetched), does that put the anemic-offense, prevent-scoring onus on baseball?

The World Champion ... Dodgers?

Canadian media dont give us any respect. Behold!

Coming into this season:

Over the 4 seasons from 2000-2003, the Devils were 5th in the league in goals scored.... 1 ahead of the Avalanche. Patrick Elias is one of the best scorers in the league, if not the best. He is not held back by the Devils' "system". Rafalski, Niedermayer... two great puck-moving defensemen who actually move the puck all the time. NJ has scored 10% more goals than the league average, while allowed 15% less. Replace Brodeur with a pretty good goalie, and you are probably talking about a perfectly balanced team, and style of play. I'm not sure what's so boring about the Devils. I find them pretty exciting.

Here is the data coming into this season, for the last 4 seasons, relative to league average, ordered by best team to worst (by differential):

GF	GA	Team
119%	91%	Detroit Red Wings
116%	91%	Ottawa Senators
110%	85%	New-Jersey Devils
110%	86%	Colorado Avalanche
111%	87%	St.-Louis Blues
105%	84%	Philadelphia Flyers
103%	85%	Dallas Stars
109%	96%	Toronto Maple Leafs
112%	101%	Vancouver Canucks
103%	96%	San Jose Sharks
103%	96%	Edmonton Oilers
104%	98%	Los-Angeles Kings
103%	98%	Washington Capitals
95%	92%	Buffalo Sabres
100%	100%	Phoenix Coyotes
104%	106%	Boston Bruins
99%	105%	Chicago Blackhawks
92%	99%	Montreal Canadiens
89%	98%	Anaheim Mighty Ducks
93%	102%	Carolina Hurricanes
85%	95%	Minnesota Wild
103%	113%	Pittsburgh Penguins
87%	99%	Nashville Predators
103%	116%	New-York Rangers
91%	107%	Florida Panthers
90%	107%	Calgary Flames
96%	113%	New-York Islanders
91%	116%	Tampa-Bay Lightning
86%	114%	Columbus Blue Jackets
90%	133%	Atlanta Thrashers