Reminder: NHL 11 Demo Available Tomorrow!!

The NHL 11 Demo will be available tomorrow Tuesday August 17th in North America for both PS3 and Xbox360.  The team at EA Sports has yet again made vast improvements to the game like the new physics engine and a new game mode called Hockey Ultimate Team.  But unlike in Madden and Fifa, the game mode will come free with the game. 

The demo will feature short demo version of Ultimate Team that if you happen to complete, you will receive a bonus Starter Pack for the game mode when the full version hits stores.  You will also get to play the final 5 minutes of the 3rd period of a Battle For The Cup Mode Game 7 between the Flyers and Blakchawks.  The demo is free so go ahead and download it to get a taste of the game.  The full version of the game comes out on September 7th for $59.99.

Here is a preview of Hockey Ultimate Team:

Was The Stanley Cup Worth It??

I think as a Ranger Fan that if we ever got to the Stanley Cup Finals again I would be pretty excited.  But what if right after they won the Cup they had to trade away or not re-sign almost half of the team that just brought the Cup back to The Garden.  This most likely bothers most Blackhawks fans to a certain level but knowing that the team has kept the top six players on the team and the fact that they just won the Cup probably eases that disapproval.  But with that said they have still lost some key players.

The players lost that will have the biggest impact will definitely be Kris Versteeg and Dustin Byfuglien. But with all the players traded away, they have received some good young players and draft picks in return that will help keep this good young team alive for years to come while still having good young pieces to play with if things get down.  They managed to keep the main core group of stars and top end talent and now have some rebuilding pieces for the future.  Of course not all of the pieces they received in return will work out but it is a good way to keep the team running for years with filtering young stars to play along side the already proven stars of the Hawks.

Join me after this to see a recap of trades and all the players who have left and my thoughts on each move: