For the last 25 years, the New Jersey Devils called Continental Airlines Arena (soon to be Izod Center) home.  Starting in 1982 and continuing through the 2006-2007 season, the Devils were very successful in the Meadowlands, winning three Stanley Cups, and making the playoffs in 17 of the last 19 seasons.

In less than two hours though one hour, the Devils will leave all that behind for the Prudential Center situated in downtown Newark.  A city more notorious for its urban population and high crime rates will be introduced to Devils hockey, a team that was accustomed to former parking lot Cup celebrations.  When the Devils win another cup, they will finally be able to celebrate in a city (the largest of its kind in New Jersey).  They will have a mayor (Booker) hand them over the key to the city, while thousands of fans will be cheering and chanting their names.

For someone who has been to the CAA hundreds of times, I understand the importance of a new arena.  CAA lacked mass transportation outlets and contained merely 29 luxury suites compared with the United Center’s record-high 216- you be the judge.  In my opinion, the arena’s major dilemma, transportation, resulted in poor attendances even during the postseason.  Last season, the Devils managed to fill 14,495 or 76.1% of the arena for their first playoff game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. As I mentioned earlier, the Devils’ 82-game regular season generally extended for at least another seven-game series, and in some occasions longer.  They need a smaller, cozier arena, and have reduced seating from 19,040 to 17,165 in the Rock.

The Prudential Center has 76 luxury boxes and more importantly, mass transportation outlets.  I toured the Rock last weekend via the NJ Transit, which was a great relief.  If I ever wanted to attend the CAA, I would have needed to drive from my hometown of Teaneck, NJ.  There was not a single bus or train that led to the Meadowlands, except a special bus from the NY Penn Station on gamedays.  I mean Teaneck is only 15 minutes away, but nevertheless, it’s a pain in the ass sometimes.

Now, I can access the new arena from a variety of places, including New Jersey Transit, PATH, Newark Light Rail, and Amtrak.  While some will argue that the Devils attendance woes can be attributed to their location (in between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers) and the NHL’s small yet loyal fan base, I still feel that newer routes to the arena will only mean more occupied seats in the new place.

Tonight, the Devils face the Ottawa Senators in less than one hour. While they are struggling offensively to find the net and defensively to keep the puck out of the cage, they have definitely located a new home for the team.  From the small town of East Rutherford, the Devils have come a long way.  Former owner Dr. John McMullen, who has since passed, almost moved the team to Nashville after their struggling attendance and unproductive seasons.  However, he “fought through it,” and watched the Devils win three Stanley Cups in 1995, 2000, and 2003.

Without ripping apart Lou Lamoriello and owner John Vanderbeek too much for focusing on the new arena the last two years and not their own players, I will say that the Devils so far (3-5-1) do not look like playoff-material.  They resemble MLB’s Kansas City Royals more than the New York Yankees during their World Series run in the late 90’s.

In other words, I am not sure that the Devils are talented enough to upset the mighty Penguins, Rangers, Senators, and many other competitive Eastern Conference opponents.  Even the lowly Boston Bruins are playing well, as I mentioned in “Around the League.”  The Devils nemesis Carolina Hurricanes, who have defeated them in the playoffs before, are 6-2-3 (15 points) with 29 goals scored.  The Devils have tallied 21 goals over nine games, even during this new offensive-minded hockey era.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman decided to change league rules to improve league scoring and prevent goaltenders from playing the puck.  While I cannot say for certainty that not allowing Martin Brodeur to utilize his puck-handling skills will affect league scoring, I can say that Bettman has not improved league awareness.  Teams are still struggling to fill buildings, including the Detroit Red Wings.  Let me repeat that, the Red Wings are not filling seats.  If that continues to happen, the league will collapse.  Additionally, Versus televised the Stanley Cup Finals first two games last season.  Game one had a 0.72 rating, while game two generated a 0.6, pathetic numbers.  NBC hosted the final five Cup games, this system of cable and then a local channel, the only such system for the four major sports in the United States.  Even the NBA finals last season between the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers drew more than 8 million viewers per game rather than the 600,000 US households tuned in to the Cup Finals.  It’s understandable to have low ratings due to Youtube and Tivo.  But the numbers are not sufficient to generate a profit for the league or its teams.

The Prudential Center is a $375/380 million state-of-the-art facility that should generate full houses, maximum capacity crowds to each of the Devils home games this season and for many years to come.   I am confident that the players will to step up after this miserable non-Devils-like start to the 2007-8  campaign.   Head coach Brent Sutter is definitely frustrated by the  shitty performances of his players and knows that his job is on the line , especially with a testy general manager  (Lamoriello), who has a  small  window  for his coaches.  You come in here, take this team to the playoffs, or pack you bags and get the fuck out.

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