Statistics will easily prove the latter. Vancouver, Calgary and Minnesota are the only teams in the current Top 8 in the Western Conference with losing records on the road. Only St. Louis and Philadelphia have scored fewer goals than the division-leading Canucks. They are the only team in the West's Top 8, and--along with Boston--the only team in either Top 8, to have surrendered more goals than they've scored, and that's just the first place team! It won't be long before the Blackhawks have lapped all five of them. Nine Eastern Conference teams would have at least a share of the Northwest lead if they played in it. While it may be competitive, the Northwest Division is lousy anywhere else.
I was down at the new Devils arena building in Newark, NJ this past week, and man oh man is she going to be beautiful. They've almost finished the roof, and they're about to begin working on the already gorgeous looking building's interior. Mark my words: Hockey fans from around America and Canada will want to see this building. It will be the same as many people have said places like Nationwide Arena in Columbus and Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis are marquee locations to watch a game. It will be absolutely stunning, and the Devils will sell out every game. Well, maybe that last part was a joke, but seriously, get your tickets when they go on sale next Fall.
ESPN will get back into hockey next year. Rumors making the rounds right now speculate that the NHL will split the rights between Versus (On Mondays and Tuesdays) and ESPN2 (Thursday or Friday). Add this in to NBC, who will have increased coverage, and HDNet, which broadcasts two games a week and will get added exposure on cable systems next year, and hockey fans will have four or five national games to watch next year each week. "Casual Sports Fans" will no longer be able to complain that they can't find games. Plus, there will be an American NHL Network next year, so the 10 folks with cable systems who get that will have round-the-puck coverage.
Speaking of ESPN, former NHL2Night host John Buccigross thinks we should quit our whining about ESPN not accepting advertising from the NHL. "ESPN never accepted promotion from the NBA when they didn't have the rights," claims Bucci.
Bloggers, especially in hockey, continue to make their way into mainstream hockey writing. Paul Kukla is at NHL.com, Eric McErlain (of OffwingOpinion) is on NBCSports.com, and now Mike Chen, a solid writer for his own blog and the Battle of California blog, is now up at FOXSports.com. Ahem, hello Sportsline! ESPN.com, I'm waiting! Well, maybe wishful thinking.
Hockey continues to be a premiere option for people around the holidays. College kids are home, everybody has money their families gave them, hockey's the best sport to watch in person. It has added up to consecutive sellouts for the Islanders, plus season-highs in attendance in New Jersey, Ottawa, Florida, St. Louis, Phoenix and Chicago. Hopefully, teams can keep that holiday attendance spirit going throughout the year.
Why are the World Junior Championships not on regular U.S. TV? For those of us who can't afford Center Ice, it is really troubling. Add that to the fact that TSN blocks out American viewers from watching their Web casts, that makes it hard to follow for us U.S. puck-heads who wanna see some prospects. This is exactly the reason the WJC's should be done at the Olympics every four years, so we have somewhere to showcase young talent like the Johnsons, and Jonathan Toews and others who've been having a good week of hockey.
-SFM-
