Devils players Andy Greene and Bryce Salvador in Yankee Stadium

With the 2013-14 NHL season just weeks away now (camps open in about a month) it’s easy to start thinking ahead.  Especially if you’re a baseball fan and both your teams’ season is pretty much shot – yes even the mighty Yankees are most likely playing meaningless games this year.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be big games in Yankee Stadium when the weather gets colder out though.  This year, one of baseball’s meccas will play host to not one, but two outdoor NHL games in a unique facet of the NHL’s ‘Stadium Series’, where the Rangers will take on the Devils on Sunday, January 26 at 12:30 PM…with yet another outdoor game three nights later, this time a Rangers-Isles showdown at 7:30 PM on Wednesday night.  Both games will highlight the Battle of the Hudson to nationwide audiences, with the Sunday game on NBC and the Wednesday night game on NBCSN, as commisioner Gary Bettman was among the many to speak at yesterday’s press conference:

“The rivalries between the Rangers, Islanders and Devils are among the most heated in sports.  These games in this venue will showcase our players and our sport to a national viewing audience as well as to a variety of visitors who we anticipate will be in the area at that time.  I hear a rumor that there is a football game in New Jersey sometime later that week.”

Of course the commissioner was referring to this year’s Super Bowl, which will take place in MetLife for the first time at a cold-weather site, highlighting a truly unique sports week in the Metro area.  Hockey fans get a pretty good appetizer though with two competitive division games – with division games meaning even more given the NHL’s new playoff format, where you’re in direct competition with your rivals not only to make the playoffs but also playing off in almost all first and second-round matchups.  As Ranger, Isle and Devil fans can all attest though – Metro matchups will always be intense no matter what’s on the line.

However the game turns out, it’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Devil and Islander fans – since neither franchise has yet participated in an outdoor game, while Ranger fans get games in their home state this time after playing a Winter Classic in Philly a couple years ago.  Surely it’ll be a nice showcase for 41-year old Martin Brodeur in what may or may not be his final NHL season, and as the new cover boy of NHL14’s video game to boot.  Not to mention Jaromir Jagr getting to play in another outdoor game against one of his (many) former teams in what may be his final season as well.  Fellow teammates Bryce Salvador and Andy Greene represented the Devils at yesterday’s joint press conference, along with GM Lou Lamoriello, who admitted that he had prior concerns about an outdoor game due to ice safety and logistics, but was ‘glad to be proven wrong’.  Interestingly, Greene was pictured with an A on his sweater – perhaps he was given the departed Ilya Kovalchuk‘s letter for next season.

Maybe  by then the Devils will finally have new ownership…actually if beat guys Tom Gulutti and Rich Chere are to be believed, the sale of the Devils is imminent and could happen in days.  While I hate to see Jeff Vanderbeek go in one aspect (he never had a problem spending, and was clearly devoted to the Devils without being meddlesome), it will be nice to finally put two years of speculation behind us, most of it nonsense from the same two places – Forbes and the NY Post.  It was Forbes who published yesterday the Devils would be taken over by the NHL if the team wasn’t sold before the season started.  Naturally, commisioner Bettman denied the league was set to take over the team at yesterday’s media event.

Admittedly I’m just writing this blog for the most part to finally get my feet wet with this new WordPress format although the ownership bit is real news, especially when we finally learn the identity of the buyer and the terms of the sale.  There may or may not be anything else to report for another month until camps open, other than perhaps an Adam Henrique signing, as the RFA is said to be mulling over two deals – one short-term and one long-term option.  Other moves may still happen as Lou himself promised more ‘additions and deletions’ some time back.