NHL Notables 10/5:

New York Islander Fan Central | 10/05/2007 03:05:00 AM | | | | |
Globe and Mail: William Houston had high praise for Mike Milbury's debut on TSN and had the following:

He was excellent. He has a strong presence, is confidently opinionated and brings plenty of colour to his commentary.

* On the feud between GMS Brian Burke of Anaheim and Kevin Lowe of Edmonton:

“I just love it that Brian Burke is apoplectic out there in Anaheim and has a Kevin Lowe Voodoo Doll in his office and a lifetime supply of pins. This is war and it will not go away."


* On Montreal’s underachiever Alexei Kovalev:

“He can score, he can make plays and then the next night he barks like a dog. This guy has got to show up every night or he's going to kill the coach. Well, the coach has to kill him. Take away the keys to his plane and block the door to Chez ParĂ©e (a Montreal strip joint). Make him concentrate on hockey."


NYI Fan Central Comments:
There was Mike Milbury the other night on TSN picking the Rangers to win the Stanley Cup at the end of a segment. He's entitled to say what he likes. I guess that puts to bed any misconceptions he has ties to the Islanders or consulting Charles Wang any longer.

Milbury like him or hate him is good for the NHL. I hope he never sells himself out for a paycheck like so many in the business do but my guess is sooner or later he will. I also think when the Jacobs family dumps Peter Chiarelli after a second poor season his friend and personal coaching choice in Claude Julien will follow and Milbury will be back coaching the Bruins.

Dallas Morning News : Mike Heika reports on the Dallas Stars not selling out their home opener and notes the Colorado Avalanche did not sellout it's home opener either. He also notes the countless articles on the thousands of empty seats in Detroit who could not even sellout it's semi-final games.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
So let's recap:
Detroit cannot sellout home opener and pad attendance.
Dallas cannot sellout the home opener in a modern building.
Colorado cannot sellout the home opener in a modern building with Ryan Smyth.
Chicago has been a ghost town for years.
Rangers pad the attendance, announce sellouts and had seats available today.
Boston has significant attendance problems.
Devils historically have had significant attendance problems.
St Louis played in a building at around sixty percent of seats sold last year.

Sure I'm not including a lot of teams.

How can anyone blame the Islanders after all this time without winning for not having similar problems in a market where baseball and the other major sports dominate the media year round and coverage is limited.

Why is it Nashville needs 14,000 or they have to move again if Detroit cannot sellout a semi-final game or opening night after going to the conference finals?

Mike Ilitch as much as he likes cannot blame Nashville. The Stanley Cup champions were in town Wednesday and he could not fill his building. Did baseball take over Detroit like it did in Chicago, Boston and New York ?

NYI Fan Central Comments:
No article here because this is over a week old but Roberto Luongo threatening retirement if the nets are made larger brings a response from me of I bet Ed Belfour's billion dollars you will not retire if nets are made larger. Just be grateful goaltenders equipment is not reduced to where it used to be or we would see a dramatic improvement in scoring.

Let's do a quick check of NY Post coverage going into the opener:
Ranger previews two.
Devils previews two.
Islander previews zero.

Devils and Rangers played Thursday.

Even the News and Times did one article. How much does a blogger cost?

Where's my check !!!!!!!!