Last Nights Events

9 Games last night, lets see how they drew.

1. Washington @ NYI - 11,655 - Caps win 5-4 in OT. Evgeni Malkin in an interview posted yesterday, "You won't believe it, but Islanders are the most difficult..." (Puck Daddy)
   
2. Colorado @ Philadelphia - 19,219 - Philly wins 5-2. Philly has only dropped below 19,000 spectators once this season thus far. Sunday, November 2nd, when the Edmonton Oilers visited. They still pulled 18,227, as the Oilers rank 27th in Avg. Road Attendance (ESPN)
3. Montreal @ Carolina - 16,434 - Canes win 3-2. The retired Habs fanatics must have somewhat of a hold in Raleigh, as the Canes broke 16K for the first time since their second home game (sellout, 15 games below 16K).
4. New Jersey @ Toronto - 19,315 (Sellout) - Leafs win 3-2 in a SO. Not surprising, the leafs have yet to dip below 19K this season for any game. What is kind of surprising is that this team is supposed to be in full-on rebuilding mode, but is playing .500 hockey and is only 3 points from a playoff spot.
5. Atlanta @ Ottawa - 18,746 - Atlanta with a 3 goal 3rd to win 4-1. At just a glance, Ottawa may be the most inconsistent draw in the league night in and night out. With that said, they are still averaging around 18,800. (ESPN)
   
6. Calgary @ St. Louis - 16,426 - Calgary wins 6-3. Before the last 2 home games for the Blues (including this one), they had sold out 10 out of 13 games. Not bad for another rebuilding club in last place. Calgary and San Jose (game before Calgary) are two top clubs in the west too, so I might have to look into St. Louis.
7. Phoenix @ Dallas - 15,387 - Dallas 2-1 in OT. Hmm, they are only 2 spots below their average this year; I'm sure being in 2nd to last doesn't help in Texas though. (ESPN)
8. Chicago @ Edmonton - 16,839 (Sellout) - Chicago wins 9-2. I'm sure half of that were left for the end of the game after a 5 goal 2nd by the Hawks. Edmonton has had the least home games thus far of anyone with only 11. And although Rexall Place fits just over 17,000, they never announce higher than 16,839. That doesn't exactly help the league average, but nonetheless Edmonton is a a fairly stable market. (Wikipedia - Seating capacity)
9. Finally, NYR @ Anaheim - where 16,921 showed up to see my Rangers beat my brother's Ducks 3-1. A handful of blueshirts in the crowd, so there was a slight boost from the Manhattan bunch coming out west. What I really like about the Ducks is their TV broadcast. I watched that on Center Ice instead of MSG last night, they do solid interviews and the camera work is generally better than most.

So that's that. A quick review:
- Last nights Average: 16,771 - Ehhh, I guess I'll take it for being a Tuesday night and some of the games in weak markets.
- Total Sellouts: 2

That's it for now, check back later as I'm not going snowboarding so I'm sure I'll have something.

Rob