Kovalchuk Makes the Devils Must-See TV

Normally, tonight would have been a good night to go get a pie, a bottle and a record needle for the old turntable.

Except for the Phoenix/Chicago game at 8:30 Eastern, the Friday night NHL playlist would not match up well with what I can throw on the record machine. Then the big trade popped up on the radar, and now the Lounge will have to go with the Toronto/New Jersey game on the big screen and the Atlanta/Washington game on the small screen.

Both start at 7 Eastern. Ilya Kovalchuk, formerly a Thrasher, will skate as a Devil. Phaneuf, as a Leaf, perhaps lining him up. The Capitals are on a run. The Devils have been in a scoring funk, but now they, or perhaps their fans, are feeling ready for a Cup run.

Ilya Baby, that tall order is on you.



Yes, the band is registered under the name Smith in the Lounge jukebox. (I know what has you puzzled. Leslie Uggams had a TV show? Ten episodes and out in 1969. Check out who is centering a line of Jim Nabors and Jackie Vernon in Episode 5. Smith had to go end to end that night. Not a lot of scoring punch otherwise.)

And while Ilya Baby takes the ice in Newark -- and if there is an argument for an NHL team in Hamilton that I WILL agree with, it's that the NHL is in Newark -- the Thrashers will put their young ones through the grinder again tonight. They have been hanging in there, but now the franchise will have to rely solely on the youngsters, that is, if it doesn't cannibalize its own future as well as it's present.

And with that, I give you the Buoys, who had a little tune about strange meat, and we're not talking about the dirty water hot dogs bobbing for customers at the vendor cart in front of the Adult Video Arcade on Eighth Avenue and 40th Street here in Manhattan.

Talk to you tomorrow.