And now, a positive story about the state of New Jersey. And to be honest with you, I’m actually happy this story has nothing to do with the New York Islanders for once. For once, a landmark – epic deal (17 years!? I’m going to have a teenager before Kovalchuck and the Devils are done with this contract!!) does not involve Charles Wang and the Islanders (see: Alexei Yashin; Rick DiPietro) – for Gods-sake Yashin’s deal seems very tame now (except the fact that he is not of the same caliber of hockey player as Kovalchuck, but why would that minor detail have mattered to Mike Milbury and the Islanders of the early 2000′s??).
My birthday was months ago, but yesterday sure as hell felt like it (without the cake, unfortunately!), with both the New York Rangers and New York Islanders losing, I was on cloud nine. Why would I, an Islander fan, be happy they lost!? Because it gives us a better position in the draft – and yes, it puts us in the 5th and final spot of the lottery, but that’s huge – sure, the chances of winning the lottery and moving to slot #1 are slim at best, being that the chance is 8.1% !! But even if they don’t win the lottery (saying it’s a long-shot would be an understatement) they are going to get a solid prospect to help them along with their “rebuild” (which I hope gets some sort of Free Agent Injection come July).
I watched the Devils score 3 late goals last night to welcome in Ilya Kovalchuk and stun the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs (keep trading away Toronto, it will never make a difference!) and I ended up speaking to a native New Jerseyan this morning (Nicholas) about all things Devils. We reminisced about Scott Stevens, and it instantly made me think of something. The Devils played the Leafs last night . . . Stevens was brought up this morning . . . ahh . . . my memory took me back to the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Tie Domi was a member of one of the dirtiest NHL teams – in fact – Domi should’ve been captain of that team just to symbolize how dirty they actually were. Here’s the clip:
NHL Hockey, Sports | admin | July 20, 2010 | 
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Alexander Mogilny, Alexei Yashin, Devils, Ilya Kovalchuck, Islanders, Isles, Jersey, Kovalchuck, New Jersey, New Jersey Devils, New York, New York Islanders, Pavel Bure, Rangers, Rick DiPietro
