The Time Has Finally Arrived. NHL HOCKEY IS BACK!

The Night that most of us hockey fans have finally arrived as the NHL has kicked off the 2010-2001 NHL Season. There has been a lot that has gone down in hockey since the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in June. The big surprise in the off season was the fire sale the Champion Hawks had during the summer. The team traded away the likes of Dustin Buflygin Ben Eager and Brent Sopel to Atlanta then sent Kris Versteeg to Toronto and walked away from goalie Antti Niemi in salary arbitration and Niemi went on to sign with the San Jose Sharks after the Sharks bought out Evgani Nabak0v.

The 2 biggest signings during the off season had to be the Ottawa Senators snagging Sergi Gonchar for 3 years at $16.5 million and then Ilya Kovalchuck signed a 15 year $100 Million contract with the Devils. Both signings made major waves in the league and were a shake up to hockey epically the Kovalchuck signing. Here are some more notable moves. New Jersey Signing Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder Andy Sutton signing with Anaheim, Jordan Leopold and Rob Neidermeyer in Buffalo, Oli Jokinen and Alex Tanguay in Calgary Mike Modano with Detroit Paul Martin in Pittsburgh Jaroslav Halak in St Louis. Other than that it was major resignings to teams.

Now its time for predictions in the divisions:

Atlantic:

1-Flyers

2-Penguins

3-Devils

4-Rangers

5-Islanders

Northeast:

1- Buffalo

2-Boston

3-Ottawa

4-Montreal

5-Toronto

Southeast:

1-Washington

2-Carolina

3-Atlanta

4-Tampa Bay

5- Florida

Central:

1-Chicago

2-Detroit

3-St Louis

4-Nashville

5-Columbus

Northwest:

1-Vancouver

2-Calgary

3-Minnesota

4-Colorado

5-Edmonton

Pacific:

1-San Jose

2-Los Angeles

3-Dallas

4-Anaheim

5- Phoenix

So there you have it. The season preview in a nutshell. Keep checking the website for updates every week and for all things NHL

Islanders Hit with Injury Bug and THE SEASON HASN'T STARTED YET

Reports coming from nhl.com say that the Islanders will be without the services of both Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo for the bulk of the season. Here is the story from nhl.com:

The New York Islanders suffered their second devastating blow this week and it's still early.

The team announced Tuesday that forward Kyle Okposo's ailing right shoulder will require surgery that will keep him out indefinitely. This news comes roughly 48 hours after the team announced that defenseman Mark Streit would miss the bulk of the season after undergoing surgery to repair damage to his left shoulder that is reported to be a torn rotator cuff and labrum.

The Islanders have now lost both of their alternate captains to extended shoulder injuries and the season hasn't even started.

The team also announced it has signed former New Jersey defenseman Mike Mottau to a two-year contract. Mottau, 32, spent the last three seasons with the Devils and last season recorded a career-high 18 points in 79 games.

"Mike is a solid puck-moving defenseman who will bring more experience to our blue line," GM Garth Snow said in a statement.

Okposo finished second on the team last season with 19 goals and 52 points in 80 games. He had 18 goals and 39 points as a rookie two seasons ago. It is unclear when he suffered his shoulder injury, though there is speculation that it happened during an intrasquad scrimmage last week.

The story was published about a half an hour ago. These are 2 huge losses for the Isles. Streit is by far there best defenseman, but now with the new additions he might not be AS big of a loss then say this time last year. And as far as Okposo is concerned, he is one of the teams best playmakers and offensive threats. The Islanders just better hope the new additions to the team can step up and fill the holes or this could be another long season for us Islanders fans.

Full NHL Preview will come next week so keep checking often

NFL Week 3 Winners and Losers

Week 3 of the NFL season has come and gone and had a few changes in the league. Due to the recent struggles of the Buffalo Bills they have cut ties with Quarterback Trent Edwards. In yesterdays contest the Bills went with Ryan Fitzpatrick instead of Edwards and the BIlls ALMOST pulled a huge upset but fell 38-30 to the New Englad Patriots. In this game CJ Spiller started to show some flash and giving Bills fans a little bit of hope when he returned a 95 yard punt for a touchdown in the First Half. Fitzpatrick actually gave Brady a run for his money which may have been why the Bills let go Edwards.

The biggest game of the week had to be the sunday night contest between the Jets and Dolphins. In what was a very exciting game the Jets pulled out a 31-23 win improving to 2-1 and handing Miami their first loss of the season. Mark Sanchez again threw 3 touchdown passes. The only problem from the Jets perspective was that Brandon Marshall was matched up against rookie Kyle Wilson because of Derell Revis being out with a hamstring injury. No word as of yet whether Revis will play against the Bills sunday.

Taking a look at the standings overall in the NFL there are a few surprises. One being the fact the Dallas Cowboys are 1-2 after beating previously undefeated Texans. The reason I call this a surprise is because right now it don't look too good for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who made the prediction that his Boys will be playing in the Super Bowl this year, which by the way happens to be in Dallas. SDo it just seems a little shocking and somewhat good to see this happening. I just love it when owners run their mouths and end up with egg on their face.

For more news on football go to nfl.com

NFL Week 2: Payton Wins Manning Bowl and Jets Beat Pats

Week 2 has come and gone in the National Football League. The 2 big games in my mind were the Manning Bowl, as in Peyton's Colts against Eli's Giants, and the Jets taking on division rival New England. We start with the Manning Bowl where it was Peyton's Colts coming out on top by a score of 38-14 over Eli and the Giants. Peyton went 20 of 26 for 255 Yards and 3 TD's. His favorite Targets was Reggie Wayne who caught 7 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown. The other 2 touchdowns were caught by Dallas Clark and Austin Collie. Meanwhile Eli when 13 of 24 for 161 yards 2 touchdowns and a pick. Manningham was Eli's favorite target as he caught 4 passes for 75 yards. The Colts were rushing Eli and the rest of the Giants forcing the turnovers and allowing the Colts high powered offense to do it's job and come away with the victory.

As for the Jets it was a totally different story from the week 1 loss to the Ravens. The first quarter was quiet and then the 2nd was when the offenses finally decided to wake up. New England got on the board first thanks to a 6-yard TD reception by Wes Welker. The Jets came back and scored to tie the game on a Braylon Edwards 10 Yard TD Catch. The Pats took the lead 14-7 with a incredible one handed TD Catch. The half ended with a Jets field goal to make it 14-10. 2nd half was a nightmare for the Pats as Brady was picked off twice and Sanchez threw 2 TD passes one in the 3rd quarter to Cotchery and the other to Keller. Mark Sanchez ended the game throwing 3 TD passes and went 21 of 30 for 220 yards. Now for a look at the rest of the interesting games in week 2.

The Buffalo Bills once again failed to show up as they got blasted 34-7 by the Green Bay Packers. Michael Vick made his first start for the Eagles and his first start in the NFL since December of 2006 as the Eagles beat the Lions 35-32. The win was good enough to earn Vick the starting job again for the Eagles again this Sunday. The biggest surprise of the first 2 weeks has to be the play of the Huston Texans who started the season off 2-0. The Texans beat the Colts in week 1 and then here in week 2 beat the Redskins 30-27 in Overtime. The Monday Night game saw the San Fransisco 49ers put up a valiant effort but came up short to the defending Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints as the Saints won 25-22 on a last second field goal. This all coming after the 49ers made an amazing drive down the field to take the lead only to see the Saints win it on the final field goal.

Looking ahead to week 3 in the NFL is as follows. The New York Giants will play host to the Tennessee Titans at 1pm at the New Meadowlands. Eli Manning will look to have a bounce back game after dropping the Manning Bowl to older brother Payton. Meanwhile the Buffalo Bills will have to travel to New England to take on the Patriots at 1pm. As for the New York Jets they will have to travel to Miami to take on the Dolphins on NBC in the Sunday night game. Other interesting matchups in week 3 are Monday NIght Football as the Green Bay Packers head to Soilder Field to take on the Chicago Bears. Also Michael Vick will get the start for the Eagles as they take on the Jaguars.

After Long Last Ilya Kovalchuck is Finally A New Jersey Devil!

After a very long holdout and debate the Ilya Kovalchuck saga is finally over as he was signed by the New Jersey Devils this past saturday. The following was the story posted on nhl.com:

Kovalchuk will be a New Jersey Devil after all, and the circumvention investigations of the contracts for Roberto Luongo, Marc Savard, Chris Pronger and Marian Hossa will not be pursued.

Early Saturday morning, the National Hockey League and the NHL Players' Association agreed to a global settlement to cease the investigations linked to cap circumvention for the above contracts while adopting regulations to govern long-term contracts of five or more years.

The regulations will be added as a supplement to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and apply to all contracts signed from today. As a result, NHL officials agreed to register the new Kovalchuk contract as it was submitted by New Jersey last week and terminate their reviews of the contracts already registered for Luongo, Savard, Pronger and Hossa.

The Kovalchuk contract reportedly calls for him to make $100 million across 15 years, including $90 million in the first 10 years and $10 million over the last five -- with an annual salary cap hit of $6.67 million. Kovalchuk, who turned 27 in April, will be 42 upon completion of the contract.

Kovalchuk originally had agreed to a 17-year, $102 million contract that was rejected by the NHL based on circumvention of the CBA. That rejection was upheld through arbitration after the NHLPA filed a grievance on Kovalchuk's behalf.

Once system arbitrator Richard Bloch ruled in favor of the NHL's position that the original contract had circumvented the CBA, the League and the NHLPA began working toward today's settlement and regulations.

"We're pleased to be able to establish bright line rules for these contracts going forward and are happy we can turn the page on existing contracts so we're looking forward, not backward," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com. "From start to finish of the process the Players' Association was responsive, interested and shared our objective to create certainty in this area."

The NHLPA released a statement from Roland Lee, Director of Salary Cap/Marketplace & Associate Counsel for the NHLPA:

"We are pleased to finalize an agreement which ends the League's circumvention investigations and also establishes rules on long-term contracts that will provide players, their certified agents and general managers clarity for the negotiation of new contracts," Lee said. "Turning the page on this process is something that will benefit all parties involved."

The agreement includes two major regulations that go into effect immediately and will be a part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement until its expiration on Sept. 15, 2012. If there is no CBA at the start of the 2012-13 NHL season, the rules will be grandfathered until a new CBA is negotiated:

1. While players and clubs can continue to negotiate long-term contracts (five years or longer) that include contract years in a player's 40s, for purposes of salary-cap calculation the contract will effectively be cut off in the year of the contract in which the player turns 41.

This basically means that if a 33-year-old player signs an eight-year contract, the amount owed to him in the first seven years of the contract will be averaged for the purposes of salary-cap computation. Then, in Year 8 of the contract, the salary he will make for that particular season will determine his salary-cap hit for that season.

So, if Kovalchuk's contract applied to this rule, the average of what he's owed in the first 13 years would be applied to the Devils salary cap from 2010-2023 and the cap hit would be $7.15 million because he is reportedly due to make $93 million across that span. Then, per the reported terms, the cap hit would change to $3 million in 2023-24 (as Kovalchuk turns 41 in April of that season) and $4 million in 2024-25.

2. In any long-term contract that averages more than $5.75 million for the three highest-compensation seasons, the cap charge will be a minimum of $1 million for every season in which the player is 36-39 years of age. That $1 million value will then be used to determine the salary cap hit for the entire contract. If the contract takes the player into his 40s, the previous rule goes into effect.

For example, Savard's contract reportedly calls for him to make $525,000 per season in the final two years of his seven-year, $28 million deal. He will be 38 and 39 in those seasons. If his contract was subject to these new regulations, for purposes of calculating the salary cap the final two years on his deal will reflect as if he was making $1 million. That would make his reported $4 million cap hit go up to $4.14 million.

The club and player still can agree to a contract that pays a player less than $1 million when he is at those ages, but for salary-cap purposes the number applied to the team's annual average salary will be $1 million.

The regulations are designed to keep diveback numbers in contracts to a minimum.


So there you have it. The biggest fish in this year's free agent market in the NHL is signed finally. More on NHL Free Agent news to come. NFL Preview coming up this weekend

New York's All-Time Best by Uniform Number!

OK so I was rummaging through my room the other day and stumbled on to something very interesting I saved from a copy of Newsday, the Long Island Daily Newspaper, from December of 2006. It is the best of New York Sports (Downstate only) by Jersey number. Now I know this is out of date by about 4 years but still I think it will make for great debate anyway. So now here is the Best of New York Sports from #1 to #99 Enjoy!

1- Pee Wee Reese Shortstop Brooklyn Dodgers
2- Derek Jeter Shortstop Yankees
3- Babe Ruth Outfielder Yankees
4- Lou Gehrig 1st Base Yankees
5- Joe DiMaggio Center Field Yankees
6- Joe Torre Manager Yankees
7- Mickey Mantle Center Field Yankees
8- Yogi Berra Catcher Yankees, Mets
9- Roger Marris Right Field Yankees
10- Walt Frazier Point Guard Knicks
11- Mark Messier Center Rangers
12- Joe Namath Quarterback Jets
13- Don Maynard Wide Reciver Jets
14- Gil Hodges 1st Base Dodgers Mets
15- Dick McGuire Guard Knicks
16- Whitey Ford Pitcher Yankees
17- Keith Hernandez 1st Base Mets
18- Darryl Strawberry Outfield Mets Yankees
19- Willis Reed Center Knicks
20- Monte Irvin Outfielder Giants
21- Tiki Barber Running Back Giants
22- Mike Bossy Right Wing Islanders
23- Don Mattingly 1st Base Yankees
24- Willie Mays Center Field Giants Mets
25- Bruiser Kinard Offensive Tackle Giants
26- Dusty Rhodes Outfielder Giants
27- Pete Reiser Outfielder Dodgers
28- Curtis Martin Running Back Jets
29- Alex Webster Running Back Giants
30- Martin Brodeur Goalie Devils
31- Billy Smith Goaile Islanders
32- Julius Erving Center Nets
33- Patrick Ewing Center Knicks
34- Charles Oakley Forward Knicks
35- Mike Richter Goalie Rangers
36- David Cone Pitcher Mets Yankees
37- Casey Stengle Manager Mets Yankees Dodger Giants
38- Roger Craig Pitcher Mets
39- Roy ACampanella Catcher Dodgers
40- Joe Morrison Fullback Giants
41- Tom Sever Pitcher Mets
42- Jackie Robinson 2nd Base Dodgers
43- Johnny Antonelli Pitcher Giants
44- Reggie Jackson Outfield Yankees
45- Emelen TYunnell Defensive Back Giants
46- Andy Pettitte Pitcher Yankees
47- Jesse Orosco Pitcher Mets Yankees
48- Karl Spooner Pitcher Dodgers
49- Ron Guidry Pitcher Yankees
50- Ken Strong Kicker Giants
51- bernie Williams Outfield Yankees
52- Pepper Johnson Linebacker Giants
53- Harry Carson Linebacker Giants
54- Goose Gossage Pitcher Yankees
55- Stout Steve Owens Defensive Tackle Giants
56- Lawerance Taylor Linebacker Giants
57- Mo Lewis Linebacker Jets
58- Carl Banks Linebacker Giants
59- Kyle Clifton Quarterback Jets
60- Larry Grantham Linebacker Giants
61- Bob Talamini Guard Jets
62- Al Atkinson Linebacker Jets
63- Karl Nelson Right Tackle Giants
64- Jim Burt Tackle Giants
65- Joe Fields Center Jets
66- Jack Stroud Offensive Line Giants
67- Dave Herman Right Guard Jets
68- Jaromir Jagr Right Wing Rangers
69- Jason Fabini Guard Jets
70- Sam Huff Linebacker Giants
71- Bob Lurtsema Linebacker Giants
72- Osi Umenyora Defensive Tackle Giants
73- Joe Klecko Defensive End Jets
74- Abdul salaam Defensive Tackle Jets
75- Winston Hill Offensive Line Jets
76- Rosey Grier Offensive Line Giants
77- Red Grange Running Back Football Yankees
78- Al DeRogatis Defensive Tackle Giants
79- Roosevelt Brown Iffensive Tackle Giants
80- Wayne Chrebet Wide Reciever Jets
81- Andy Robustelli Defensive End Giants
82- Mickey Shuler Tight End JEts
83- George Sauer Wide Reciever Jets
84- Art Powell Wide Reciever Titans
85- Del Shofner Wide Reciever Giants
86- Verlon Biggs Defensive End Jets
87- Laveranues Coles Wide Reciever Jets
88- Al Toon Wide Reciever Jets
89- Mark Bavaro Tight End Giants
90- Dennis Byrd Defensive End Jets
91- Butch Goring Center Islanders
92- Michael Strahan Defensive End Giants
93- Mary Lyons Defensive Tackle Jets
94- John Abraham Defensive Tackle Jets
95- Rick Lyle Defensive Lineman Jets
96- Bill Voiselle Pitcher Giants
97- Marvin Washington Defensive Lineman Jets
98- Jessie Armstead Linebacker Giants
99- Wayne Gretzky Center Rangers

The 2010 MLG All Star Game Goes in Favor of The National League.

For the first time since 1996 the National League was victorious in the All Star Game. This year was very kind to the NL as they were able to finally defeat the AL in the mid-summer classic by a 3-1 score and were able to gain home field advantage in this years World Series. The festivities began with a moment of silence for late Yankees owner George Steinbrener who passed away yesterday at the age of 80 from a massive heart attack. The highlight of the game offensively was the bases clearing double hit byu eventual game MVP and Braves catcher Bryan McCann. Matt Capps of the Nationals got the win, Phill Hughes of the Yankees was credited with the loss and Jonathan Broxton of the Dodgers got the save. Now as most of you know none of the stats collected in the all-star game affect regular season numbers. So anyway besides McCann getting the big hit for the NL, the only other big highlight of the night was the baserunning blunder by Elvis Andrus of the Texas Rangers. In the 7th inning with 1 out and the American League down by 2, Andrus is on 1st. He takes off to steal 2nd and initially makes it in safely on a high throw to Reds 2nd Baseman Joey Votto. The throw pulled Votto off the bag and Andrus slid right under but overshot 2nd base. As he is looking around for the ball he forgets to put his foot back on the bag and is tagged out by Joey Votto who had the ball he whole time.

Now as I stated before, this was the first time the National League had won an All-Star game since 1996 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The NL took that game by a score of 6-0. John Smoltz of the Braves got the win while Charles Nagy of the Indians took the loss. There were 2 long balls hit in the contest, one by the games MVP Mike Piazza of the Dodgers, and the other by Ken Caminiti of the Padres.

Ever since that 1996 All Star game the American League has taken every one, other than the tie a few years back at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Now with the win by the National League this year, tehy get home field advantage in the World Series, which to me really is a stupid concept. But that is besides the point. So now that the All-Star game is out of the way lets take a quick look at what is coming up in teh 2nd half of the season.

For the Mets, they start the 2nd half of the year off on a 10-game west coast road trip starting tomorrow night in San Fransisco against the Giants. As for the Yankees they start the 2nd half off with a homestand against the Toronto Blue Jays firday night at the stadium.

Also something else to look forward to in the 2nd half of the season, here are some milestone achievements that indivudal players are close to catching:

Batters
600 Home Runs
Alex Rodriguez: 3

450 Home Runs
Chipper Jones: 18

400 Home Runs
Albert Pujols: 13
Jim Edmonds: 14

350 Home Runs
Paul Konerko: 4

1,500 Runs Batted In
Chipper Jones: 22

1,000 Runs Batted In
Jorge Posada: 7
Aramis Ramírez: 22
Derrek Lee: 25

500 Doubles
Chipper Jones: 12

100 Triples
Carl Crawford: 2
Johnny Damon: 3
Jimmy Rollins: 4

2,500 Hits
Chipper Jones: 33

1,500 Runs Scored
Chipper Jones: 9

1,000 Runs Scored
Derrek Lee: 12
Luis Castillo: 14

And for pitchers:
200 Wins
Tim Wakefield: 8

150 Wins
Javier Vazquez: 1
CC Sabathia: 2

100 Wins
Cliff Lee: 2
Joel Pineiro: 4

600 Saves
Trevor Hoffman: 4

550 Saves
Mariano Rivera: 4

200 Saves
Jose Valverde: 14
Brian Fuentes: 21

1,500 Strikeouts
Kerry Wood: 12
Ryan Dempster: 14
Tim Hudson: 37

So there you have it. A recap of this years All-Star game and some things to look forward to in what should be a very exciting 2nd half to the Major League Baseball Season!