2009-10 NHL Thread

[Ivaden]

lol



I agree, but ffs at this point I'm pretty sure NBC is just a Pittsburgh local channel.

I can only hope. Come playoff time when they're the only ones broadcasting, we'll have plenty of waved off goals in our favor due to not sending all the feed to Toronto. 8-)

[Ishido]

Blind squirrel finds a nut eventually.
In the past 6 years, Canada has won 3 more Gold's than the USA has won since its inception ('77).


According to Wiki, which I presume would be kept moderately up to date:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Penguins

12 Canadian players
4 Euros
6 Americans (Eaton, Golionoski, Guerin, Johnosn, Oprik, Rupp)

Oh, your owner is Canadian too, but hey atleast your coach is american?


kill yourself.

I am not a Penguins fan.

General lineup for the Wings is usually

7 Canadians (8 if you include Osgood)
7 Europeans (8 if Franzen was back)
5 Americans

Pretty balanced.

Glad the Canadians in this thread are mad about their teams being bad though (except the Canucks fans, since the Sedin sisters are actually good this year...).

[NynJa]

If Gary Bettman werent such a stupid fuck, half the american teams wouldnt even exist.

Remove the following teams:
East: Thrashers, Islanders, Panthers, Tampa Bay
West: Preds, Blue Jackets.

Move Coyotes back to Winnipeg, move Carolina back to Hartford (like anyone would notice in Raleigh), Move Sharks to Quebec (California needs three teams?), and go back to 8/8 divisions. Killing off 6 teams would get rid of about 200 shitty players from the league, and therefor compress the talent pool.

Theres a reason the NBA has ONE canadian team. How the fuck are you going to market an ICE sport in places that havent seen ice outside of their refrigerators?

[Ishido]

If Gary Bettman werent such a stupid fuck, half the american teams wouldnt even exist.

Remove the following teams:
East: Thrashers, Islanders, Panthers, Tampa Bay
West: Preds, Blue Jackets.

Move Coyotes back to Winnipeg, move Carolina back to Hartford (like anyone would notice in Raleigh), Move Sharks to Quebec (California needs three teams?), and go back to 8/8 divisions. Killing off 6 teams would get rid of about 200 shitty players from the league, and therefor compress the talent pool.

Theres a reason the NBA has ONE canadian team. How the fuck are you going to market an ICE sport in places that havent seen ice outside of their refrigerators?

Sharks? They average a sellout, have higher attendance and are a better team than the other two California teams.

[Callisto]

Ugh, first home game in 3 weeks and the Hawks drop one to the fucking Blues.

[Selamis]

Totally off topic but Callisto, I saw a toon on Unicorn just now with your name as an elvaan monk. Is that you on a server change? I sent them a tell but they replied with translator saying they don't speak english lol.

[Ishido]

Typical Wings game tonight, first goal on a point shot deflecting off a random Wing in front of the net, second goal going off the hand of a Duck (which was off his stick, moving toward the net...), and Hiller making about a dozen ridiculous saves.

Calgary wins, out of a playoff spot again!

[Vaspinne]

Calgary wins, out of a playoff spot again!

We're on a hot streak. Managed to beat both the 29th placed team and 30th placed team in the league.

Shitty sarcasm aside, the team played with a lot of intensity and effort tonight. And while we took 9 penalties in the game, we managed to kill 8 of em. If we can beat some better teams, hell, beat one of the cup contenders, then I'll be pleased with the trades. For now, I'm still on the fence. Albeit, Stajan's goal tonight was quite pretty.

[Bregor]

Remove the following teams:
East: Islanders

Someone's never been to Long Island, and since we have no old Mike Bossy homers in this thread, I'll take up the charge. This is a franchise with a proud history and a good fan base, last season their attendance percentages were right around other teams that struggled despite loyal fans (Colorado, St. Louis) and while their figures have dropped so far this year, so have the whole league's. Still, the only teams below the 75% threshold are Atlanta and Phoenix. As the ghosts of Milbury are slowly being exercised, I'm guessing the Islanders will return to perennial respectability.

If I were Bettman for a day, I'd axe Atlanta, Nashville, Florida and Columbus. Tampa could still survive I think. But I really don't have a problem with there being 30 teams rather than 24 or 26, it's just where they're located. Moving out of Hartford, Winnipeg, Quebec and the Twin Cities was retarded, and only one has been lucky enough to get a team back. Meanwhile, would anyone in San Jose care about the Sharks if they had 50 points right now instead of 80? And I'm not gonna lie, Washington has had that problem in the past. Pre-Boudreau we were terrible, no one was showing up, and the franchise was losing money hand over fist.

Long story short, I think everyone can agree the league needs to contract and/or migrate north.

[Sepukku]

NynJa is just a racist little French fuck. Hes trying desperately to hold on to the one truly good thing Canada has ever done. Winnipeg? Are you for real? Where the fuck even is Winnipeg? I'm guessing Manitoba and the Arctic Shelf deserve teams too?

The league needs to expand south, beyond America, because that is the model this Great Nation's forefathers set - colonialism and conquering the weak. In Brazil there's the potential for teams like the Rio de Janiero Ransomed and the Amazon River Mouth Machetes.

[Arnwulf]

Why would you get rid of the Bluejackets? Even with as terrible as we are right now we still sell 90% of our tickets even on weeknights. The market is most definitely here for a hockey team, they just got a shit deal on the arena and are losing money like crazy, but that will get fixed.

By your logic we should get rid of the Edmonton Oilers too, unless you're just eliminating teams you don't like.

[Bregor]

By your logic we should get rid of the Edmonton Oilers too, unless you're just eliminating teams you don't like.

Do you know how fast all the Gretzky-ites would ragequit life if the Oilers were contracted?

Columbus is an interesting case. To be honest, I picked them because they're one of the newest franchises, don't have any playoff history and are in a small-ish market. True, they have drawn well, but I'm just wondering if it's sustainable.

[Arnwulf]

It's a new market for professional hockey, but we've had semi-pro or otherwise in this town since the 60's and it's always had a rabid following. The Columbus Chill used to always have standing room only in the 5,000 person stadium they played in at the fairgrounds, the games were a total party atmosphere and it was near impossible to get tickets.

I don't think the NHL needs to get rid of any teams, although I do think that the Coyotes would benefit from a better stadium location. Their stadium location is abysmal, requires almost a 30minute drive from anywhere to get to it lol. I actually think the NHL is about to hit an upswing in popularity in the States, starting with the Olympics this year. ESPN is talking about hockey now more than ever, even when they carried the games, heck, the last time the Caps/Pens played, the highlights were at the top of Sportscenter and they had several debates during the broadcast about whether Ovechkin/Crosby or Kobe/Lebron were the better rivalry.

[Bregor]

ESPN is talking about hockey now more than ever, even when they carried the games

You just hit the nail on the head, this has been the biggest problem for hockey in the US for the past few years. SportsCenter rarely highlights a regular season game, even though there's usually one or two hockey "Top Plays." True, the Ovie/Crosby discussion was all well and good, but the next night they went back to spending 95% of the broadcast on the NFL, NBA and college hoops.

The real problem is ESPN hasn't carried any regular season or playoff NHL games since the lockout, which is just a nightmare for national exposure. Versus and NBC's combined product can at best be described as "meh." And as much as I think Emrick and Olczyk do an okay job, they're not strong enough to carry a broadcast for people who aren't already big hockey fans, especially when you have Milbury and McGuire weighing it down. When I look at how polished and knowledgeable other similar teams are, especially the ABC/ESPN college football team, it's just a shame that hockey doesn't have those kinds of personalities on the air right now. I mean, NBC's studio segments make FOX, Jeanne Zelasko and Kevin Kennedy look like geniuses. Needs way more Clement and Melrose.

[Arnwulf]

I think that ESPN is ramping up coverage in hopes of making a bid for hockey broadcasting rights once the Versus deal is up after next season. They even made Mike and Mike talk about hockey for a few minutes this week during Super Bowl coverage.

[Ratatapa]

I do agree with Nynja that some teams in USA needs to disappear

and i keep on my vote that Tampa bay or Florida needs to go. Both attendance suck and maybe if 1 goes the other one might get a bit better (yeah right)

[Ratatapa]

Also i wanna congratulates the Edmonton oilers for winning a 2nd straight game for the first time in 2-3months?

[Ratatapa]

ans while i'm spamming the fuck i wanna say watch out for the sens

If i remember at the beginning of the season i was the only one to put them in playoffs. 10 win straight so watch them out!


Also the lolleafs are only at 10pts of a playoff spot lol

[Palin]

I do agree with Nynja that some teams in USA needs to disappear

and i keep on my vote that Tampa bay or Florida needs to go. Both attendance suck and maybe if 1 goes the other one might get a bit better (yeah right)

As someone who's been both to Lightning and Panthers games, I wouldn't count out the Bolts. Tampa has pretty good attendance tbh and a loyal fan base. Mismanagement has plagued them the past few years but they still get decent turnouts.

Florida.. yea it could go.

[Ratatapa]

Tampa bay got good attendance due to Lecavalier Stamkos and St-louis and that they won the cup in 2004?

Florida lost attendance ever since Vanbiesbrouck (SP) left