Ticket sales may anoint a Boss beyond Bruce

Could there be a new Boss in Newark?

With the New Jersey Devils dispatching the favored Philadelphia Flyers in five games, Prudential Center will be hosting its first conference championship since its 2007 opening. It couldn’t possibly come at a better time — the team’s financial problems and potential losses through free agency are both looming large in the offseason, and playoff games are pure profit for team owners, as players don’t collect salaries during the postseason. If you’re going to attract someone — whether a new ticket-buyer, a new co-owner or your current captain — it’s a lot easier to do it as a winner, just ask Newt Gingrich. (Or, rather, don't.)

Getting to the third round pushes ticket prices higher and assures the Devils at least two more home games that are certain to be sellouts. Depending on the opponent, though, those ticket sales could drive a huge premium on the secondary market — the Devils are slated to play the winner of the series between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers.

The Prudential Center’s access to mass transit makes it easier to get to from Manhattan than most places in Jersey, which should create plenty of demand on the smellier side of the Hudson — particularly for the center-ice seats that the well-to-do corporate crowd can afford. There’s also the storied rivalry between the two teams, which makes the Wild West look like a mere food fight in a middle school cafeteria.

But to the Boss. When Bruce Springsteen rocked the Rock last week, the holder of one suite told us Bruce is tops when it comes to demand for those seats, but that a Devils-Rangers playoff game would be right up there with him.

Hey, Bruce is as spry at 62 as he was at 22, and can bend over backwards farther than me, even though he’s twice my age. But he’s gotta pass the torch sometime. Perhaps, even if for only a couple of days next week, the new Boss will be Zach Parise.

I’m even more irreverent on Twitter @joe_arney.