On The Verge of Tears

While the New Jersey Nets have taken the solo lead in the race for the “worst basketball team” by losing every single game they’ve played this season so far (0-8), the Devils have been kicking ass.   Of course, it’s way early in the season, but without Elias for most of this season so far, and losing damn near every top player in the past few years (Niedermayer, Stevens, Gomez, Madden, Gionta), they’re one of the top teams in the entire league right now, let alone topping Pittsburgh and New York in their division.

Now, it sucks that the Devs barely ever sell out that new stadium, and they don’t have enough money to keep top talent, but that guy Lou really knows how to run a team.  No wonder he was just inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Hiring Jacques Lemaire looks like a master stroke now that the Devils have a 12-4 record and haven’t lost a single away game this season (8-0)!

So, it’s bad enough that New Jersey’s one good team gets no respect from almost every resident.  I know, cause I’ve been to plenty of home games, and I can pretty much sit where ever I want.  One time, we had seats that were like 15 rows from the top of the whole stadium, and when I said to the usher guarding the lower level section directly behind the net, “hey man, we’re sitting all the way up there, and if you let us through, we won’t cause any trouble,” he looked around, nodded his head towards the ice, and there we were, 15 rows from the ice instead.  Trust me, it’s not crowded.  And it’s sure easy to hold a regular volume conversation in that building pretty much at any time.

Okay, I know, they have a few friends living in the Oranges, but c’mon.  I’m not saying that you can’t be a Flyers fan, or even hope that the Devils don’t make the playoffs, but a little respect would be nice once in a while.  Shit, in the past 15 years they’ve won 3 Stanley Cups, 4 Conference Championships, and 8 Division Championships.  Oh, and they’ve also taken a rookie goalie and made him the most winingest goalie in the history of professional hockey, along with helping him break almost every record set by Sawchuck, Roy and Parent.

So here I am, wanting to watch the damned game tonight and guess what, I can’t.  Firstly, even if I did have cable, I couldn’t get the game because the NEW JERSEY DEVILS Comcast and Verizon consider out of market, namely, the New York market.  WTF is that logic?  Course, they’re on the NHL Network tonight, which you would think means I’m in, but alas, not so fast.  I have to count on the local bar having the exact sports package that includes NHL Network to be able to see it, and sometimes that isn’t always the case.  Believe me, I’ve tried.  And even if I manage to track down a bar that indeed does have NHL Network, since the Flyers are playing, I’ll have to ask for them to put on the Devils, and hope that they’ll comply.  I’ll also have to compete with everyone else in the bar who will be watching Thursday night football.

Hockey isn’t this country’s best loved sports, but for your money, it’s damn exciting to watch.  Imagine any other sport in which the referees allow people to air their grievances with fists on occasion.  And what other sport regularly has guys leave the ice bleeding, get 10 stitches, and return the same period for a few shifts?  Well, whatever your poison is, at least admit the Devils kick some ass.  We don’t get the Jets or the Giants, we’ve got no baseball team, our basketball team is a national joke, but the Devils stand alone as something this state should be proud of.  They go for a perfect 9-0 on-the-road start tonight…wish them luck.

–~r

This entry was posted on November 12, 2009 at 5:46 PM and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.