I do agree with the need to widen the rinks, simply because the players are now double the size that they were when this league started. However, I do not think that you will ever see that because there will be too many problems renovating the houses that they now use and the possibility of losing any seats up front will not fly with most of the owners.

No rooting for two teams in the same division allowed. The rule is to have your team and then despise everyone else in their division. I'm an unabashed Devils fan. I therefore, to conform, must espouse absolute hatred and venom toward the Rangers, Flyers, Islanders and Pittsburgh. When the schedule does come out, I'll post a list of Devils dates. Those who even casually make fun of hockey and have not gone to a live game will have their opinion changed even if it's not that great of a night for either team.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Sat down at a table in the hotel bar and within a minute the waiter greeted me with an unsolicited caipirhinia. Am I that predictable?

:eek: :p

And can you get that idiotic Devils' PA announcer to quit screaming into the mike as he draws out the names of the players in a cheap imitation of Michael Buffer introducing a World Champion? His voice ends up sounding like fingernails being drawn across a blackboard.

Apparently so. :cool:

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Count me in! I don't follow any particular hockey team but do think it's one of if not THE best sport to watch live.

While I agree that it's a bad Buffer impersonation, it just doesn't get the same reaction from me that it does you. I'm just used to it, I guess. So I take it if I organize a Penalty Box Devils DO, you won't be attending? :D

I don't think that you can count on the NJ Devils to produce interesting games night in and night out. Some of their regular season games are consummate stinkers where the only event of any interest is watching Brodeur correct any mistakes that slip thru the trap.

Apparently today was National Dont Have Anything to DO On the Road While Consulting Day as it took me 30 plus minutes just to read the box. WHat is up folks?

I'm in. I can be the HR/Payroll guy. Y'all do want to get paid, don't you?

With enough to drink and dinner at Don Pepe before the game, I guess I can tolerate that moron for a few hours. I will however be rooting for whoever the visiting team happens to be.

While I love hockey as a spectator watch, my ADD has prevented me from taking the time to truly learn the sport. ooooh, what's that? ;)

Thank you all for making the Box into a novel which I am compelled to read as soon as I get off of work. ;)

Can't wait to see what it's like after I'm gone for seven days on my honeymoon.

It will take you at least seven more days to clean up the wisecracks made about what you might be doing on that honeymoon. ;)

Two points: on the interest of the game, you're right. That's why you go on nights where the visitor is a top-flight opponent. I remember griping in the Box last winter that the Devil A-game gets misplaced against crappy teams. You run a risk of a home team loss, but that's the price you pay to see really good hockey. And Brodeur correcting the mistakes is why he will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. When he's on, there is still no one better. There's a few youngins that are almost ready to take the mantle, but Marty has a few good years left in him.

Secondly, the Devils don't play a trap* any more, or at least not nearly as much as they did because the league is watching now. That is part of why the Sutter run 'n gun system had defensive weaknesses. The re-acquisition of Holik and Rolston should make this season somewhat more offensively interesting.

* - Wiki insertion for the not-so-hockey among us.