| Poll Results |
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| | | In a close vote, Page 2 readers have decided they can live with the A-Line as a fitting nickname for the sensational Devils trio of Jason Arnott, Petr Sykora and Patrik Elias.
|  | | You've shown you think the A-Line should stick for, from left, Petr Sykora, Patrik Elias and Jason Arnott. |
Though we thought New Jersey's high-scoring unit could have used something more powerful, hard-core Devils fans were adamant that they didn't want to change the name they've grown accustomed to. The A-Line, with 1,011 votes (16.2 percent), whacked the "Sopranos"-inspired Bada Bing Line (964 votes and 15.4 percent) by a slim margin of 47 votes. Line of Fire was third with 847 votes (13.6 percent).
Though he favored the Devils' Triangle for its Bermuda Triangle reference, ESPN hockey analyst Bill Clement agreed with the peoples' choice because "because it's the Devils' No. 1 line, and Jason Arnott is the center. It's simple and straight-forward."
Another ESPN analyst, Brian Engblom would have borrowed the nickname of the famous Soviet unit Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Krutov, Slava Fetisov and Alexi Kasatonov, who were known as the Green Line. Just like that fivesome, the Devils' trio wear green jerseys in practice to represent the team's No. 1 line.
"They played as a five-man unit, but Petr Sykora, Patrik Elias and Jason Arnott are as good together as they were," Engblom said.
Page 2's editors liked the Elias Hockey Bureau, despite the different pronunciation from the statistics service, the Devils' Triangle and the Demonic Plague.
Thanks to the 6,219 of you who voted in the poll after we narrowed down the choices from more than 1,600 letters we received with nickname ideas. We hope you'll join us again next week when we open another case of The Berman Files.
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ESPN's John Saunders and Barry Melrose suggest a nickname for New Jersey's top line.