First off, get out there and vote if you have not done so already.  This afternoon we deliver a hockey message for voters out there.  Many in New Jersey forget that before the Prudential Center became reality, there was another potential venue for the new Devils arena.  That location was none other than Rahway, New Jersey.  Yes it also happens to be my hometown.  This fight in the early 2000’s was more heated than   Between 2002 and 2004, people often forget that Newark was not the first choice as a matter of fact there were many meetings between soon to be deposed Mayor James Kennedy and top brass from the Devils organization.  Below is a picture of what Rahway, NJ is probably most known for other than that whole prison thing.  No, the prison is in Avenel, just for those that still ask to this day.

(Photo Credit: NJ.com)

Here is the problem when your town is controlled by one party for over a century.  If anyone wonders why I have such a passionate interest in voting, it is because today may have been one of the few days where there was a real chance to get the current regime out. The Mayor is already leaving due to a federal investigation on about $87,000 or so of unpaid taxes.  Don’t you love tax evasion?  I certainly do not when its the mayor messing around with his own personal finances.  The city’s is another matter with increased taxes, less services, and extravagant spending on what I have no idea.

It is even nicer than the town is full of pretty looking new buildings that are 3/4 unoccupied and the town is still building.  Yet this town could have saved itself so many headaches if it had just built a new arena for the Devils instead of plunging money into a pit of a downtown that has seen its biggest downturn in 80 years.

Back in 2002, Rahway was considered as one of the three finalists for a new arena along with Newark and Iselin (Edison Township). Rahway was a potential front runner because its location was more centralized in New Jersey and two main rail lines merged there.  The location in Newark was not the current one two blocks from Penn Station as it was further away.  It was well known that Rahway was actually the preferred destination for the Devils.  The funny thing was seeing Lou Lamoriello more times in a six month stretch than I ever saw him near the Meadowlands.  There was no secret that the Devils had a real tangible shot of being in downtown Rahway for the 2006-07 NHL season.

So what did exactly go wrong?  A lot to be honest.  Tax breaks were going to be needed to get this done and they were not in the hundreds of thousands that the Devils wound up getting from Newark.  The team back then did not ask for nearly as much from the town as they did from Newark.  However the mayor was greedy about losing certain land that was valued very high by his appraisers and according to his business administrator was a chip he would never bargain.

Sure enough the Mayor never yielded and the Devils eventually wound up in Newark.  Just two years later, the final deal was approved by the Newark City Council in October of 2004 and just three years later the Devils would be playing at the Prudential Center.  Just one aside, the proposed arena in Rahway would not have been built over Indian Burial Ground (insert Poltergeist reference here).  Many in the town wonder what could have been.  Instead of a small ice rink, Rahway could have had an NHL team in town for a good 50-100 million less than Newark wound up paying.

The price paid now is far greater than the price that would have been paid then and is part of the reason why Rahway is in the financial shape it is in.  So when you hear that quote “greed is good”, pause for a second.  Really it is far from it and today on Election Day, many of us hockey fans were glad to not vote for the Mayor’s friends.

Now tomorrow is Election Day and most Americans are going to go out there and vote for our new President. It will be either John McCain or Barrack Obama. Many have asked me who I am voting for. I have seen so many nauseating posts on facebook and other ads on tv about it that I want to puke. To add a final insult, Monday Night Football at halftime has these two clowns on the airwaves…why? I want to watch football….not politics. Thankfully there is the Hawks-Avs game on CSN Sportsnet.

Back to this election thing….something just stinks about these two guys and I know this has some ramifications on how the free world will go over the next 4 or 8 years. Well frankly I am taking the road less voted. My vote is for something that is so glorious that it has a whole night dedicated for it in Canada ironically. If you are thinking what I am thinking…then you are probably right.

Gordie Howe Hat Trick done By C. Perry

On behalf of hockey fans around the nation, I am voting tomorrow for hockey….that’s fricken right….HOCKEY!! Thank you Corey Perry for a nice, proper Gordie Howe Hat Trick (Goal, Assist, Fight). Hockey is the one thing in my life that though it does let me down often….it comes back just about every year aside from that whole lockout thing. However, hockey has always been there. It has been there through the good, bad, and ugly times. Hockey has seen me in my darkest moments and my happiest.

I have more DVD’s, videos, jerseys, and autographs of hockey than anything else. I have hockey pins and pennants and foam fingers as well. No I don’t have any of these for the two candidates up for the presidency tomorrow. And no, neither one did not get my vote. I voted early…and did write in hockey as my vote. It won’t make a difference surely but in my heart it matters to me. I am a hockey fan first and foremost.

That is my pride, my heart, and my soul. I bleed hockey!!! Or as the classic song goes….me like hockey…me like hockey!!! Thank you to the coolest game on Earth for making my decision so much easier this election season. Take that you two pencil-neck paper pushers!!