Hockey Day In Peterborough

Peterborough, Ontario is a great hockey town with a good OHL team. It's a blue-collar town just 78 miles northeast of Toronto, and is home to a few major operations for companies like Quaker Oats and General Electric. This Saturday, however, they will welcome a pile of CBC employees to the town as CBC's Scotiabank Hockey Day In Canada takes over in Peterborough for a day of hockey and fun. Get your snacks and beverages because CBC will have about three days of hockey crammed into ten hours on Saturday!

According to the CBC press release,

This year’s broadcast begins at 12 noon ET/9 a.m. PT with Ron MacLean live from Peterborough and the Under the Lock Hockey Tournament at the Peterborough Lift Lock National Historic Site on the Trent-Severn Waterway. Don Cherry joins MacLean later in the day as the scene shifts to an OHL game between the Peterborough Petes and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. From there, MacLean and Cherry will be joined by NHL Alumni to bring Canadians a full day of exciting events.

So it sounds like this will be another fun event as a ton of NHL alumni, NHL games, and Peterborough-centric events are covered. Having been to a Hockey Day In Canada in my time, it's a great community event, and everyone in Peterborough who attends should have a good time.

Starting Thursday, the CBC personalities and NHL alumni will be hosting a pile of hockey-related events around the city of Peterborough. Wendel Clark, Lanny McDonald, Steve Larmer, Darcy Tucker and Mark Napier are the confirmed NHL alumni scheduled to be in Peterborough this weekend, so it looks like the Leafs will have a strong presence in a neighbouring city. Along with some of the CBC personalities, they will be hosting on-ice clinics for young players, receptions at Scotiabank branches, visits to local schools, and a special kickoff at the Peterborough YMCA on Thursday morning.

Not only does Peterborough get the CBC celebrities and the NHL alumni visiting, but the Stanley Cup will also make an appearance this weekend for photo opportunities for kids and adults. If you've ever dreamed of seeing the Stanley Cup up close, this would be the time to do so. While you can't hoist the Cup like the players do, it's still pretty cool to see and touch the Silver Chalice.

Not only will the CBC be bringing you highlights of all the fun from Peterborough, but from events across the country as well. Olympians Tessa Bonhomme and Sami Jo Small will be in St. John's, Newfoundland at the Scotiabank Girls' Hockeyfest where they will be instructing up-and-coming Olympians in a pile of drills. Out in Montreal, Mike Keenan and Olympian Ron Davidson will be teaching youngsters on- and off-ice hockey skills for Hyundai Hockey Nation at Sportplexe 4 Glaces. Out west, Banff, Alberta will be hosting a three-on-three ball tournament all day on Saturday on Banff Avenue. More than thirty teams have qualified for the tournament, and only one will stand as champions at the end of the day.

For those of us not in the vicinity of any of those events, there's a pile of hockey on TV that should keep your bum on the couch. Starting at 2PM ET/11AM PT, viewers in Alberta and BC will get the Detroit-Edmonton game while viewers in Saskatchewan and east of Saskatchewan will get the Ottawa-Winnipeg game. The 7PM ET/4PM PT game features the Toronto Maple Leafs in Montreal to play the Canadiens while the late game sees the Calgary Flames visiting the Vancouver Canucks in a Northwest Division battle. All of the additional segments - Scotiabank Hockey Tonight, After Hours, and the between-periods stuff - will be on the air as well.

Despite all of the corporate branding of every segment and event surrounding the day, I'm excited for Hockey Day In Canada. It's just a good day of hockey fun, and it should be experienced live if you have the ability to see it. With Scotiabank Girls' Hockeyfest coming to Winnipeg the following week, it's a great lead-in to a fantastic hockey event held in my hometown!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

I'm So Sick Of This

It was all supposed to be over. Everyone was going to be happy after Greg Jamison finally ended the drama in the desert with his purchase of the Coyotes franchise and the takeover of the Jobing.com arena. The NHL was to be satisfied, Jamison would get his team, the people of Glendale would be off the hook - more or less - for the franchise, and everything would be back to normal for the hockey world. Instead, Jamison missed his deadline for the arena lease, the NHL hasn't finalized the sale of the hockey club yet, the city of Glendale is behind on its payments to the NHL, and the hockey world is still waiting for a resolution to the longest conflict that has plagued the NHL. It seems we're back to square one in the desert.

The NHL didn't wait this long to move the Thrashers. Heck, the NHL didn't wait this long to move the Jets, the Nordiques, the North Stars, the Seals, the Barons, the Flames, the Scouts, or the Rockies, yet we sit here and await the next great hype to come along and save the Coyotes.

If Quebec City wants the franchise, let the Coyotes play out the season in the desert, and then move the team to La Belle Province. The life support that this team continually requires to keep itself afloat in the desert should be capped at a limit. The NHL can do that by simply opening up the bidding to any and all prospective owners with no preventative measures to keep the team in Glendale.

If the NHL wants to become stronger, it's time for them to stop propping up failing franchises. It isn't working in Arizona, and it's never going to work when clowns like Jamison appear on the horizon with a tin badge and white hat riding a valiant steed of misdirection and poor financial backing. It's time to cut ties on the old west, and allow this team to move northeast where they will be financially profitable and successful.

Like Wile E. Coyote, the NHL continually takes an anvil to the head when chasing these prospective buyers. It's time for the NHL to re-examine its plans and find a better way to avoid the anvil while catching its roadrunner. They can start by looking outside the desert.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Baltimore's Jacks

Congratulations go out to the Baltimore Ravens who captured the Super Bowl tonight over the San Francisco 49ers. I'll be quite honest in telling everyone that I watched all of 1:43 of the game in the dying minutes as San Francisco's late drive stalled. The hype over Ray Lewis, the hype over Colin Kaepernick, and the hype over the game really means nothing to me, so I can't tell you any meaningless stats about who scored first, which player caused the first fumble, and which player's mouthguard hit the turf first. The only thing I know is that Baltimore is the best football team south of the border, and they deserve congratulations on their efforts.

When it comes to extraordinary efforts, Baltimore has seen a few in hockey with respect to teams staying in Baltimore despite any drama surrounding the team. There have been a number of iterations of hockey in Baltimore, from the ECHL to the Southern Professional League to the Eastern Hockey League. The one team that seemed to have any sort of longevity to their stay in Baltimore, though, was the Baltimore Skipjacks of the AHL. We'll look at this team in honor of the Ravens bringing home a championship to Maryland.

The Skipjacks were founded in 1981 as a member of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. The team went 22-23-3 on the season under head coach Morris "Moose" Lallo, finishing third in the ACHL. John Meredith was the leading scorer with 14 goals and 33 assists for 47 points and Gary Conn scored 23 goals to go along with 23 helpers as the team's leading goal scorer.

The ACHL in that season saw two teams drop out midway through the season. The Fitchburg Trappers only lasted six games, while the Schenectady Chiefs lasted a mere nine games. A seven-team league became a five-team league after a few weeks into their inaugural season. To make matters worse, the Cape Cod Buccaneers closed up shop after 39 games, leaving the remaining four teams to battle for the championship.

In true minor-pro hockey fashion, the playoffs featured incredible scoring and very little defence as the third-place Skipjacks faced off with with the second-place Mohawk Valley Stars. Check out these scores of the seven-game series between the Skipjacks and Stars:

• Stars win Game One in overtime by a 5-4 score.
• Skipjacks respond with an 8-7 overtime win in Game Two.
• Skipjacks throw another eight-spot on the board with an 8-3 win.
• Stars even the series with a 5-1 win.
• Stars down the Skipjacks 7-5 to take a 3-2 series lead.
• Skipjacks force Game Seven with a 4-3 win.
• Stars win the series on the strength of a 9-3 victory in Game Seven.

If you're brushing up on your math, the Skipjacks scored 33 goals and gave up 39 in the seven games they played against the eventual ACHL champions. That, readers, is downright ridiculous in terms of "defence winning championships".

While the ACHL would last for another five seasons, the Skipjacks would leave the ACHL for bigger leagues. The Erie Blades, playing in the AHL's South Division, and the Skipjacks merged together with the Skipjacks retaining their name while taking Erie's spot in the AHL. Erie, for what it is worth, had a pile of talent despite their 22-52-6 record. Players such as Mike Krushelnyski, Dave Hannan, Craig MacTavish, and Jim Craig played for the Blades, but they couldn't string together wins against some of the better AHL teams.

The Skipjacks jumped into the AHL by finishing fifth in the AHL's South Division with a 35-36-9 record. Despite missing the playoffs, the Skipjacks showed that they had some good, young talent coming up as they featured youngsters such as Phil Bourque, Ian Turnbull, and Rod Buskas on the team. Mitch Lamoureux was named as Rookie of the Year, and defenceman Greg Tebbutt was named as the AHL's Best Defenceman. Things were looking up for the first-year squad. The 1982-83 season would be the only season the Skipjacks were affiliated with the Boston Bruins.

The Skipjacks took the AHL by storm in 1983-84 as they jumped to a 46-24-10 record as the affiliate for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and that record was good for first overall in the AHL. Head coach Gene Ubriaco was named as the AHL's Coach of the Year, and he guided the Skipjacks into the Calder Cup Playoffs against the Springfield Indians. After a four-game sweep, the Skipjacks ran into the defending Calder Cup Champions in the Rochester Americans. The Americans would handle the Skipjacks in six games, sending the regular season champs home without hardware. The Skipjacks served notice, though, that they had arrived.

The 1984-85 Skipjacks featured a pile of characters that led them to second-place in the South Division with a 45-27-8 record. The Skipjacks set a record of sixteen straight wins in February and March, finally seeing this streak snapped by the Hershey Bears on March 24 in a 5-3 loss. Steve Carlson, Bob Errey, Marty McSorley, and Phil Bourque scored and played some inspired defence, and the fans saw some incredible goaltending from Jon Casey. Casey posted a 2.63 GAA and a .908 save percentage which was incredible considering the era, but his record of 30-11-4 is still one of the most impressive goaltending records of all-time. Casey captured the Best Goaltender and Lowest GAA Awards in helping the Skipjacks capture Baltimore's imagination.

Baltimore downed Rochester 4-1 in the opening round of the Calder Cup Playoffs before taking down the AHL regular season champion Binghamton Whalers in a four-game sweep. However, the Skipjacks ran into a Sherbrooke Canadiens team that featured Brian Skrudland, Ric Nattress, Serge Boisvert, and a young goaltender named Patrick Roy. Roy and playoff MVP Brian Skrudland led the Canadiens to a 4-2 upset of the Skipjacks, but the Baltimore franchise was making a name for itself in only its third season.

For all the good that the Skipjacks had done in '84-85, the 1985-86 season was quite the opposite. The 'Jacks went 28-44-8 to finish dead-last in the AHL's South Division. Jon Casey had moved on, some of the scoring threats had left, and there was a plethora of excellent young coaches in the AHL this year including Bill Dineen, Terry Crisp, John Paddock, and Robbie Ftorek. While Gene Ubriaco was one of the veteran coaches, he couldn't will his team out of the cellar, and the '85-86 season closed with disappointment in Baltimore.

Baltimore was looking to rebound in the 1986-87 season, and they saw improvement as Alain Lemieux racked up 97 points to finish second in league scoring. However, Lemieux finished an incredible 47 points ahead of the next highest Skipjacks scorer, and the goaltending was still spotty at best. Ubriaco helped his team to a 35-37-8 record, but the fifth-place finish in the South Division meant another quiet spring for hockey fans in Baltimore. Another low point struck when the Penguins announced they would not be renewing their affiliation with the Skipjacks.

If fans in Baltimore were expecting another season of improvement, the 1987-88 season may have been the most disappointing yet as they went into the season with no affiliation. The Skipjacks were the worst team in the AHL from start to finish as they finished 13-58-9, a full 28 points back of the next worst team in the Springfield Indians. They started the season with sixteen straight losses, prompting head coach Gene Ubriaco to say, "It's like being dead without being buried." In short, this season was one of the worst ever turned in by any AHL team ever. Despite having solid talent like Doug Shedden, Stephane Richer, and Claude Julien, the Skipjacks were felled by some of the worst goaltending and defence anyone has ever seen. The six goaltenders that stood in the blue paint for the Skipjacks put up a horrific 5.79 GAA for the season. If you surrender five or six goals a game, consider yourself lucky to have won thirteen games.

After the worst season in franchise history, Gene Ubriaco was replaced by Terry Murray behind the bench to start the '88-89 season as the Washington Capitals started up an affiliation with the Skipjacks. An overhaul in the goaltending department saw Don Beaupre, Alain Raymond, and Jim Hrivnak backstop the Skipjacks to a 30-46-4 record - an improvement, but still a sixth-place finish in the AHL South Division. Mike Richard finished fourth in league scoring, but the Skipjacks would miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

The Skipjacks entered the 1989-90 season looking to break out of four-season slump they were in, and they jumped out to 26-17-2 record under Terry Murray. Murray, however, was plucked out of Baltimore to coach the Washington Capitals, leading to Doug MacLean's hiring. Goaltending continued its upward swing as Jim Hrivnak provided solid netminding with a 24-19-2 record and a 3.06 GAA. Baltimore would finish in third-place in the South Division with a 43-30-7 record, earning them a playoff date with the Adirondack Red Wings. Despite the high scoring of the Wings, Baltimore would move into the second round after a 4-2 series win. Unfortunately, the Skipjacks ran into the Rochester Americans again, and Rochester would oust the Skipjacks from the playoffs after six games. After four dark seasons, the Skipjacks appeared to be turning the corner once more.

Rob Laird would be behind the bench to start the season as the Skipjacks experienced another coaching change. Alongside Laird would be a young Barry Trotz as the 'Jacks assistant coach. Players such as Tim Taylor, Reggie Savage, and Joel Quenneville helped to keep the Skipjacks above .500, and the tandem of Jim Hrivnak and Olaf Kolzig were solid in the net. Baltimore would finish in third-place in the South Division again, compiling a record of 39-34-7 in '90-91. Baltimore would draw the newly-named Binghamton Rangers in their opening series, but wouldn't find the same success as the previous year. The Skipjacks fell to the Rangers in six games, but certainly had something to build on for the following season.

The AHL split the teams into three divisions for the 1991-92 season, and the Skipjacks would find themselves with the Binghamton Rangers, Rochester Americans, Hershey Bears, and Utica Devils in the South Division. Needless to say, this new division had some powerhouses in it, and Baltimore would need to be at their best if they hoped to grab a playoff spot. Three goalies would share duties in Baltimore this season as Byron Dafoe, Olaf Kolzig, and Jim Hrivnak would all play more than 20 games.

Compared to the other teams in their division, the Skipjacks simply didn't have the firepower or the defence to hold their opponents at bay. They played hard, won a few games, but finished in the cellar of the South Division with a 28-42-10 record. The Skipjacks missed the playoffs after two seasons of improved play. Simon Wheeldon was a bright spot as he finished ninth in league scoring with 91 points, but the Skipjacks didn't have much to celebrate beyond that.

Current Predators head coach Barry Trotz took over for the 1992-93 season, and his impact would be seen immediately as the Skipjacks began playing more aggressive. Players such as Steve Konowalchuk, John Slaney, and Jason Woolley played solid roles this season, but the 'Jacks record saw a slight improvement as they finished 28-40-12. The big difference was that both Hershey and the expansion Hamilton Canucks faltered, allowing the twelve-games-below-.500 Skipjacks to make the playoffs!

If goaltending wins playoff games, it should be noted that Byron Dafoe, as the anointed starter, went 16-20-7 with an abysmal 4.38 GAA and an .865 save percentage. The Skipjacks, with their sub-.500 record, met the Binghamton Rangers who had only set the AHL record with 124 points in the regular season on the strength of a 57-13-10 campaign. And wouldn't you know it, but the Baltimore Skipjacks and Binghamton Rangers needed all seven games to determine a winner. A 5-3 victory in Game Seven would send Binghamton into the second round, but the plucky Baltimore Skipjacks showed everyone that all a team needs is a chance.

Unfortunately for Baltimore hockey fans, that would be the last chance the Skipjacks had to win a Calder Cup in Maryland. Citing lagging attendance and community support, owner Tom Ebright decided to move the franchise to Portland, Maine for the 1993-94 season, just one season after the Maine Mariners moved to Providence, Rhode Island. To add a little salt to the wound, the newly-located Portland Pirates would go on to win the Calder Cup in their first year in Maine.

Franchises continue to come and go from Baltimore, and it seems that none have the staying power that the Skipjacks did. The Skipjacks saw a ton of great players work their system, and it is clear that Baltimore has a solid hockey history.

I'll leave you with a bench-clearing brawl between the Skipjacks and Rochester Americans that is very reminiscent of old-time minor league hockey. Enjoy, and maybe we'll see the return of hockey to Baltimore, Maryland in the near future!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Why Not Rebuild?

I often wonder why NHL general managers choose to "re-tool" when their team is an eighth seed or worse at best. While the core of the team may certainly be strong, sometimes a major change is needed in order to change the fate of the organization. This change can be in attitude, personality, or leadership, but sometimes things need to get worse before it gets better. There are examples of this throughout hockey in recent memory, and the evidence is recent success by a number of teams.

If you look at the image above, it's clearly in the colours of Lego, but there's also one hockey team that wears this colour combination on the ice. If you guessed the Calgary Flames, you'd not only be right, but you may have seen the game against Chicago last night on CBC. While I appreciate the idea of keeping the core of the Flames happy, players like Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff, and Jay Bouwmeester have not gotten the Flames any closer to a Stanley Cup than when they lost in the Stanley Cup Final in 2004. Are they good players? Absolutely, but it might be time for the Flames to be honest with their fans and tell them that it's time for a full rebuild.

People will say that rebuilds are not the way to develop fans. I say these people are wrong. If you don't believe me, ask fans in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, and Manhatten about changing the internal workings of a dressing room through a full rebuild.

People will say that no one wants to cheer for a losing franchise, and I'd have to agree with you. But if a handful of lean years leads to a decade of playoff appearances and some long playoff runs, I'd be inclined to say that most fans will take a few years of missed playoffs for playoff payoff.

The Calgary Flames have only one top-ten draft pick in their lineup this season, and that player - Jay Bouwmeester - was drafted by Florida. Chicago has three top-ten picks, but none of their picks were higher than 16th overall. Pittsburgh has three top-ten picks as well, and five of their seven first-rounders were no higher than 18th. Boston also has three top-ten picks in their lineup, and the New York Rangers carry three first-rounders as well.

Of course, you can point to the standings and say, "Teebz, the Rangers aren't in a playoff spot this season", and I'd agree with you. I'll point you to last season's standings, though, where the Flames finished in ninth-place. The Flames had 16 overtime/shootout losses - the most in the Western Conference - and missed the playoffs by a measly five points. You change five of those 16 losses in extra time to wins, and the Flames make the playoffs as the eighth-seed by virtue of having more wins than the Los Angeles Kings. Suddenly, history changes dramatically.

The reason I point this out is that the Rangers were 12-7 in overtime/shootout games last season for an additional 12 points. Calgary was 5-16 in overtime/shootout games. Normally, you send your most skilled players over the boards when overtime and the shootout are on. Even this season, the Rangers are 1-0 while the Flames are 0-2. It might be time to start looking at why the Flames are missing the playoffs by a handful of points while teams like the Rangers are winning President's Trophies.

So why do I speak of rebuilding when looking at overtime and shootout points? The vast majority of players you see on the ice in overtime and lining up for shootouts are highly-skilled players who, most times, are early first-round picks. Don't believe me?

2011-12 Shootout Leaders

Scorer	Rank	Goals/Attempts	Drafted
Ilya Kovachuk	1	11/14	1st - 2001
Evgeni Malkin	2	8/11	2nd - 2004
Zach Parise	3	8/16	17th - 2003
Frans Nielsen	4	7/11	87th - 2002
Matt Cullen	5	7/16	35th - 1996
Sam Gagner	6	6/9	6th - 2007
Alex Burrows	7	6/10	undrafted
Jason Spezza	7	6/10	2nd - 2001
Milan Hejduk	9	6/11	87th - 1994
Ray Whitney	9	6/11	23rd - 1991
Patrick Kane	11	6/12	1st - 2007
Tyler Seguin	11	6/12	2nd - 2010
Patrik Elias	11	6/12	51st - 1994
Daniel Alfredsson	14	5/6	133rd - 1994
Matt Hendricks	14	5/6	131st - 2000

So looking at this table, we have eight first-round picks of the top-15 players, and two legitimate superstars from Europe in Elias and Alfredsson from draft years when it was harder to bring over European players. Calgary's top shootout player last season? Olli Jokinen at 53rd overall with three goals on eight attempts. Despite Jokinen being a first-overall pick of the Los Angeles Kings, the Flames simply don't have the talent to win many shootouts.

The leader in overtime goals last season was Steven Stamkos with five, but New York's Marian Gaborik was the next best scorer in extra time with three. New York's Ryan Callahan had a pair of overtime winners. Calgary's Matt Stajan and Blair Jones scored the only overtime goals for the Flames last season, and it's easy to see why the Flames grabbed 16 charity points rather than earning the second point available.

While I'm not suggesting that the Flames begin dealing their superstars away for early first-round picks, I am suggesting that if they would like to continue retooling, they need to invest heavily in scouting and development. Being a mediocre team isn't delivering superior young talent in early first-round picks, and the talent they are developing isn't pushing this team to new heights.

If anything, they just need some good young talent to help them pick up a few additional points in the standings. In a short season, every point is valuable, and losing to Chicago tonight in the shootout isn't going to help them make the playoffs.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Great Time For A Vacation?

There aren't many times during a season that a team can take a night off. This is especially true in a short season such as the one that we're watching right now, but it seems that anytime a trip to the state of Florida is mentioned, the Winnipeg Jets have their bags packed and their flip-flops ready for some relaxation. After giving up five third periods goals to the Florida Panthers in a 6-3 loss, tonight's debacle against the Tampa Bay Lightning showed that the Jets are far from being an elite team in their own division.

If you'll excuse the sarcasm in the title of this article, the Jets cannot afford games like tonight's horror show if they want to make the playoffs. They allowed two division rivals in back-to-back games to earn the two points off the Jets, and the impressive games against Pittsburgh and Washington mean nothing now as the Jets find themselves in tenth spot in the Eastern Conference after having played the most games thus far of all Eastern Conference teams and giving up the most goals of all Eastern Conference teams. In short, this team isn't very good.

I had said earlier this week on Twitter that the Jets would be wise to add some much needed depth and scoring by claiming Zach Boychuk off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes. By doing so, they'd also weaken a divisional rival, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that strategy. By claiming Boychuk, even as a reserve player, they could have returned Mark Scheifele to the OHL's Barrie Colts where he can continue his strong play and development under the watchful eye of Dale Hawerchuk. Instead, they allowed the Pittsburgh Penguins to swoop in and grab the two-time World Junior gold medalist, adding yet another gun to Pittsburgh's impressive arsenal of weapons. Mark Scheifele still sits in Winnipeg's press box, watching games instead of playing in those games due to his contract status.

Player movement aside, the Jets looked horrific in their play tonight, and I'm not sure exactly what to make of it. Far too often, they left Ondrej Pavelec out to dry. Far too often, they found themselves in the penalty box. Far too often, they took unnecessary risks with the puck. Far too often, the red light behind the Jets' net was illuminated.

I'm not sure what the mentality of the Jets squad is right now, but I'm pretty sure I'd be enraged if I were head coach Claude Noel. The Jets led 3-1 after two periods on Thursday before the Panthers erupted for five goals en route to their 6-3 win. The Jets then played tonight in Tampa Bay and found themselves down 6-0 after two periods. In three periods of play, the Jets were outscored 11-0 by divisional opponents. That simply cannot happen. Not if you have visions of a playoff appearance, anyway.

And remember how the Jets had given up the least shorthanded chances in the NHL? Not any longer. The Jets gave up three first-period powerplay goals tonight, and were guilty of five minor penalties and a major for checking from behind. The Jets also gave up three powerplay goals to Florida on Thursday as they were guilty of seven minor penalties, one major penalty, and a ten-minute misconduct. Anyone here see why they took two beatings at the hands of the Florida-based franchises?

The Jets return to the friendly confines of MTS Centre this Tuesday for a game against the Panthers. Needless to say, the Jets need to grab those two points to square the season series. They won't see the Lightning again until March, meaning there's time to lose from the mistakes they made tonight. What needs to be instilled once more into these Jets is simple hockey - clear it up the boards, dump-and-chase, go to the corners and get dirty, and work your tail off every shift. Just because the Jets played well against the Southeast teams last season doesn't mean that this season will be the same.

If anything, the Southeast is a lot more dangerous this year as a couple of wins within that division will change the entire Eastern Conference standings altogether. Tonight's game should be enough evidence of that.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!