Letters! We get letters! (Well, a few anyway.)

It's been a long time since I did the old mailbag, so why not now?
Here's a bushel basket of replies from the home office in West Hartford,
CT (via Middletown, CT) & thanks to everyone who has written in or left
comments. As always, I can be reached at nyiforlife (at) yahoo.com.

BLAKE55--Yes, it's true Jason is having a tough season in Toronto and
yes, I bet every morning he wakes up that he wishes he was back with the
Islanders and away from the Toronto media circus. Simply put, however,
the lack of scoring by our boys may not have been appreciably better if
Blake had remained an Islander. He year-to-date stats translate to a
projected 14 goal season. At what he is making, I'm sorry, but that is
a bust after potting 40 last season.

Viktor Kozlov is projecting to a seven goal season. He's really
lighting it up in Washington with 4 goals so far this year, eh? Did
that in one game vs. the Rangers last year. His Caps teammate, Tom
Poti, was a minus-1 player and had 44 points for the Islanders. This
season he's projected at minus-sixteen and 24 points. Maybe that is why
he was booed by Ranger fans when he played at MSG.

What does this all mean? Well, it means that Ted Nolan is a pretty damn
good coach who knows how to get what he can out of his players. But if
you take the numbers as they are and add them to the NYI roster, you can
see that the new teams these players are on are simply not getting what
they paid for. I mean, Kozlov is projecting Andy Hilbert numbers at
four times Hilbert's salary. Doesn't add up.


Philly--I still think Forsberg ends up with the Flyers or Colorado if he
comes back. Last thing I read was that he dropped out of a tournament
in December when his feet weren't yet comfortable in his skates. He has
since had another procedure and is going to be going to camp with Team
Sweden very soon. If he thinks he is fit and can withstand the rigors
of the Stanley Cup playoffs, he will find many suitors in the NHL.
Sixteen of them, perhaps.


Shazbot--Thanks for the kind words about the wrestling reviews. I will
try to get more of the WWE 24/7 programming reviews up on the site when
I can. I like to use the site more for my hockey writing than anything
else because that's how I roll.

I feel that it is hard to compare the Bret Hart book to the Chris
Jericho book because of the different tone each takes. Jericho's is
more like Mick Foley's writing in that both guys are funny and are using
the humor to help them describe what it was like to realize their
dreams. Bret's book is serious as heck throughout. Sure, there are
passages where you can almost see that sideways smirk of his but most of
it is laid out in a no-nonsense kind of way. (Search this site for my
review, keyword Bret Hart.)

Saying that, both are worth reading. If I were to read them again, I'd
reach for the Hart book first.

And no, I haven't seen the Best of RAW DVD yet. All I know is that
Stone Cold whacking Vince with the bed pan simply has to be on there.


Ron--Glad you asked about the NHL Network. I would suggest calling your
cable operator as soon as you can. I know that it is available to
Comcast digital subscribers but I am not sure if it is on some kind of
programming tier or not. You didn't hear it from me but I would also
recommend making many DVDs for summer viewing. That's my advice.


Lastly, I want to recommend John Buccigross' interview with the dean of
NHL TV, John Shannon. You can find it at the link above.

Also, a big ol' uppercase THANK YOU to John for asking about the audio
of the NHL game presentations. They really, really need to work on
that. The FSN crew is guilty of not miking the crowds in a way that is
not indicative of the genuine crowd reaction at the games. Watch
anything on the NHL Network from the 1980s and you can hear the passion
and excitement in the building. We need to get that juice back on TV.