NJ Panther

Devs up 1-0

I'm really hoping we play Carolina in the 1st round. I now live in NC so at least I'll get to see the Devils if we play them.

Martin to 4th.

2nd

I thought you didn't care about the points until the last 10 races??

It will be fun to knock you guys out of the playoffs!!

I bet the Devils won.

ok.

What about Biffle???

Devils up 4 -2

Kennseth McMurray might be good too.

Player Poll: Who will be top underdog of playoffs?The Hockey News If the New Jersey Devils secure a playoff berth, beating them in the postseason will be no easy feat. That's the verdict of NHL players who collectively tabbed the Devils as the underdog team that has the best chance in the playoffs. In a poll of 30 players, one from each team, eight (27 percent) named New Jersey as the NHL's top underdog of the playoffs. Edmonton was close behind with seven votes (23 percent), while Montreal finished in third with four (14 percent). Several players pointed to New Jersey's playoff experience and goalie Martin Brodeur as significant pluses for the Devils. "They've been there before with Brodeur," Detroit goalie Chris Osgood said. "They'd be the team nobody wants to play." Edmonton got the nod from Montreal defenseman Sheldon Souray. "They have a lot of playoff experience," he said. "They're built for the new rules." Here are the results from each team. Players were not allowed to name their own team and some respondents asked to remain anonymous.

And Jimmie is 1st. Right where he belongs.

Who did you pick?

He is stil way way way ahead of Biffle.

Foul weather aside, Knaus glad to be back in NASCAR foldNextel Cup qualifying canceled at Tennessee track By DAVID POOLEThe Charlotte Observer BRISTOL, Tenn. - The weather was just plain ugly on Friday, but Bristol Motor Speedway looked great to Chad Knaus. "It's great to be back," Knaus said on a day when cold rain and even a few snow flurries kept Nextel Cup and Busch cars off the track all day. "I have been looking forward to coming to Bristol probably for the first time in my career." Knaus returns to the track this week as crew chief for Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolets after serving out a four-race suspension for a rules violation found in inspection following qualifying for the Daytona 500. In Knaus' absence, Johnson and the team Knaus helped put together won the Daytona 500 and also won at Las Vegas, finished second at California and was sixth on Monday at Atlanta. That has Johnson first in the Nextel Cup standings as Knaus returns to action. "I am really proud of what my guys were able to accomplish," Knaus said. "Those guys, when they came to the race track, they came with a goal, and that was to uphold the integrity of the team and show everybody out there what this team is capable of doing and they did that. I could not be prouder of that." Knaus said it was "tough, very tough" for him to sit at home and watch his team's races on television as he sat out more than a month's worth of action. "It's something we had to go through because I made a mistake," he said. "I went out there and did something that wasn't to NASCAR's liking and I had to stay home for four races because of that. "That was probably the most painful thing in my life. There's nothing in the world that means more to me than this race team. I have been a part of it since its inception. Some of those guys were barely out of high school when I hired them. To see them go out there on their own and run those races and me not be there was extremely painful. But it was also very cool at the same time." Darian Grubb served as interim crew chief in Knaus' absence, and several other members of the Hendrick Motorsports-owned team stepped up to take on additional responsibilities. "We had a plan in place, but it's very hard to have everything play out as planned," Johnson said. "Once practice or the race started it was between Darian and I to communicate and the other guys in the pits to work with Darian and to share information and talk and come up with the ideas. "I have to admit California was stressful for all of us going into it. We didn't know what to expect. We didn't know how it was going to unfold. In the middle of the race the car wasn't handling like we needed it to and we started making the right adjustments and rallied back to finish second." Knaus said that the suspension forced him to learn a lesson he already knew he needed to learn last year. Johnson led the Nextel Cup standings for much of the early part of the 2005 season as the team was once again in contention for its first Nextel Cup title, but Knaus said that he, Johnson and team owner Rick Hendrick had decided in the offseason that a different approach was necessary. "I am my own worst enemy," Knaus said. "Last year we were in such a dogfight trying to continue to lead the points and be there at the end and be the dominant team. ...I got tired, I got worn out. ...I have to be able to pull back, to take a day off. "I hate to say it, but I was forced to learn that these past four weeks. Now it is a matter of whether I can keep it going. We will be better and maybe we will win the championship if I do that."

Fan favorite 'Dan-O' sees his No. 3 retiredAssociated Press EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Growing up in Edmonton, Ken Daneyko used to carry around a garbage can and pretend it was the Stanley Cup, little knowing that one day he would hoist the genuine article three times and etch his name in NHL history. The New Jersey Devils raised Daneyko's No. 3 jersey to the rafters in Continental Airlines Arena on Friday night before their game against the Boston Bruins, honoring a player who rode out the lean times in the franchise's early years and reaped the glories during its heyday. Before he walked out on the ice to a four-minute standing ovation that turned into chants of "Dan-o! Dan-o!" the scoreboard screen showed highlights of the gap-toothed Daneyko carrying the Stanley Cup -- the real one -- with the Devils in 1995, '00 and '03. He was described as "a guy who wasn't the best skater, wasn't the best stickhandler" but managed to play 20 NHL seasons, win three Stanley Cups and play in a team-record 1,283 regular season games. Daneyko recalled answering the phone as an 18-year-old to find out he'd been drafted and then nearly forgetting to ask which team. When he found it was New Jersey, he realized he had no idea where New Jersey was. "It didn't matter because I would have run 3,000 miles from Edmonton just to get an opportunity to play," he said. Daneyko was the second Devils player to have his number retired by a franchise that had not bestowed the honor on anyone until earlier this month when former defenseman Scott Stevens had his No. 4 retired. Daneyko had been with the Devils for nine seasons before Stevens arrived in 1991 and had endured a stretch that included just two seasons with a record of better than .500. But the two defensemen became bulwarks of a team that would win three Stanley Cups in a span of nine years. "I knew in my heart that one day we would turn it around and we'd do something special here," Daneyko said Friday. Daneyko, who will turn 42 next month, had 36 goals, 142 assists and more than 2,500 penalty minutes. He once played in 388 consecutive games, another team record, and he is one of only five players to have been a part of all three of New Jersey's Stanley Cup championship teams. The others are Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and current Devils Sergei Brylin and Martin Brodeur. Daneyko choked up when he gave his thanks to late Devils owner John McMullen, who supported Daneyko in 1997 when he left the Devils to confront an alcohol-abuse problem. Daneyko also displayed his sense of humor when he nearly dropped an expensive piece of crystal given to him by current Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek, blaming it on his bad hands. Later, he said, "That pretty well summed my career: fumbled it, but made a great recovery." After leaving the ice to repeat chants of his name, Daneyko offered a theory of why he became such a popular player with the fans. "I think I was a blue-collar guy, and I think the state of New Jersey thinks of itself as that," he said.

we won.

We have no shot against any playff team.

He's an Earnhardt fan didn't that tell ya he was brain dead!! j/k

It was JJ's week to finish 2nd. 1st 2nd 1st 2nd now he will win Bristol!!

Good thing I'll be home tommorow so I'll get to watch it!!

So who did you go with?