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Well that hurt, I really figured game one was the one Detroit needed to steal to make this a series.

Its to bad about DeKeyser because Smith looks like he is in over his head. Over all Detroit had a couple goal posts in the first and second so I think they hung well with the Hawks until late in the Third... Well I guess I can hope Babacock can channel his Ducks run.

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Having the Florida teams in Conference 2 is looking somewhat strange geographically.

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The reasoning is since no one gives a **** about hockey in Florida, all the Canadian Snowbirds will buy up the tickets so people go to those games.

The sad part is that that is clearly a pathetic stopgap. You aren't cultivating a fan base that way and it doesn't even work all season since those teams will have games against non-Canadian teams.

Fold Phoenix, Florida, Tampa and Carolina if they can't be fixed in the next 3 seasons.









I was at Wild Wings (kid night) last night when it was 1-1, Detroit looked fine, guess not.

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Does Nashville or Columbus have any fans? I say get rid of those joke teams first along with Phoenix obviously.

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I think they both do, except like Columbus is broken. Somehow they're a brand new team with like the worst arena deal in sports. Like how do you even get a franchise when something that big is that ****ed up?

Nashville has Mr. Carrie Underwood and I guess rednecks like the Preds. Well I'm sure if they keep missing the playoffs they won't. Seriously, stick a team in Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Quebec City, Hartford (try again), and then I guess Grand Forks and be done with it.

If we go by attendance though...................sorry Ulyaoth
http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance

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Not that that means **** but I kinda don't understand that as the last like ten home games had to have sold out. It's a moot point anyway as we already have a new arena deal in place no matter how much the old fans ***** about it.

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Gaaah I'm so pissed about the Kings Sharks game. Who the **** puts a team at a 3 on 5 with 2:40 left in a playoff game? What the ****!

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NM

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Ulyaoth said:

Not that that means **** but I kinda don't understand that as the last like ten home games had to have sold out. It's a moot point anyway as we already have a new arena deal in place no matter how much the old fans ***** about it.

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Yeah, and Barclays Center is a better building, more exclusive and is already basically max capacity for even those low attendance numbers I posted. Think Barclays is like 14,000. I think the Isles will be fine. Need to lock up consistent goaltending though.














Also, so the Kings have won 6 in a row against really good teams. I think if LA sweeps the Sharks we may as well bow down to our new hockey overlords. They barely showed up the first half the season and they're just sort of coasting through the playoffs.













Winter Classic info, just got an email. So since I won a lottery to buy tickets last season, I have to win a new lottery this season. *awesome*

Hello Jason,

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Your Toronto Maple Leafs are looking forward to playing in the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic^® and Hockeytown Winter Festival™ and we want you there!
On Friday, May 17^th we will hold a random draw from among all of those that have expressed interest for the opportunity to purchase
2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic^® and Hockeytown Winter Festival™ ticket packages.
If you are selected you will be contacted via email within the next two weeks with full details on how to activate your account and purchase ticket packages.
Your Toronto Maple Leafs^® are honoured to participate in the
2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic^® hosted by the Detroit Red Wings^® and we look forward to sharing in this great event with you!

Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club

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I WUB PUGS said:

Winter Classic info, just got an email. So since I won a lottery to buy tickets last season, I have to win a new lottery this season. *awesome*

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That is outrageous.

Random musings: Pittsburgh and LA look unstoppable at the moment. Crosby is on fire and the Kings just make winning in the playoffs look effortless.

I hope the Flyers buy out Bryz this summer. Anyone watching the IIHF World Championships? Bryzgalov and Team Russia got embarrassed by USA 8-3 the other day. It was glorious.

Go Sharks. Go Sens. Though I have little faith in either one of these teams at the moment...

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Oh for F-sake, I had good weather this morning so went to work on my lawn and completely missed the Wings beating the Hawks - **** **** ****... I'm never really going to get used to the West coast time issue.

GO WINGS if they can beat the Hawks I will be happy for the rest of the year - if they can even make this 7 game series I will be elated, game one made me doubt but now I ready to drink the kool-aid.

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I WUB PUGS said:

I think they both do, except like Columbus is broken. Somehow they're a brand new team with like the worst arena deal in sports. Like how do you even get a franchise when something that big is that ****ed up?

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Care to elaborate about the arena, I have no idea sadly. Have gotten a whole lot worse at keeping up with things since I canceled my subscription of a NHL paper some years ago.

Nashville has Mr. Carrie Underwood and I guess rednecks like the Preds. Well I'm sure if they keep missing the playoffs they won't. Seriously, stick a team in Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Quebec City, Hartford (try again), and then I guess Grand Forks and be done with it.

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But isn't that the case with many of those South East teams.
On a few occasions they're in the playoffs and everybody is suddenly crazy (i.e Atlanta), and besides those moments there aren't much to brag about.

BeastG33 said:

I hope the Flyers buy out Bryz this summer. Anyone watching the IIHF World Championships? Bryzgalov and Team Russia got embarrassed by USA 8-3 the other day. It was glorious.

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What's up with these stupid ass contracts?!? It's a bit risky.

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kings gonna repeat

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Cyrus, I'm not too up on the specifics but like even a year and a half ago the talk was the Columbus was just screwed, and they were filling the building, just had a raw deal for some reason. Here's a good article about how the franchise got saved *I think*.
http://www.columbusmonthly.com/February-2012/Saving-the-Blue-Jackets/

And yeah, the southern teams are "win or fold" all the way. Tampa has kept a good base, but I suspect deep discounts on tickets is what does it. Wonder how Nashville will do if they miss the playoffs again. They were going strong and were becoming part of the fabric of the community, but I suspect them missing consecutive years will hurt them.

The team that wins the LA-SJ series will be my favorite to win it all. I think Chicago has another gear, but I don't know if they're going to use it.

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A couple different things all unrelated:

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World Hockey, the Swiss looked surprising good.

2014 Olympics

Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament

Group A: Russia (1), Slovakia (6), USA (7), Slovenia (18)
Group B: Finland (2), Canada (5), Norway (8), Austria (15)
Group C: Czech Republic (3), Sweden (4), Switzerland (9), Latvia (11)

Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament

Group A: Canada (1), USA (2), Finland (3), Switzerland (4)
Group B: Sweden (5), Russia (6), Germany (8), Japan (11)

How come the Men's Groups spread out the top ranked teams but the best women's teams are concentrated in one Group - that looks like a an attempt to not have a US/Canada (or Finland) final via manipulation. I know Women's Hockey gets raged on for being only a 2-4 team sport but the Luge is the same (Greater Germany) and so is much of Swimming in the Summer (US and Australia - look up who has most all of the medals).

------------------------------

Seriously, stick a team in Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Quebec City, Hartford (try again), and then I guess Grand Forks and be done with it.

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The problem is the sort of simplistic 'it is a big market analyses' that is used to justify Little Gary's Expansion/relocation plans and so many blogers and media eat up like candy. Sure Phonix might be a big market but how many teams does it already have (all other major NA sports and a major University with its sports) you have to divide that market up by a lot of teams. Oh and then ther is the if they win thing - problem one of course Phoenix has been a decent team and it still loses money even with NHL subsidies, revenue sharing and and public money. How about Tampa Bay they have done well in last couple of years and have lots of flashy players and they are still bleeding red ink and boost attendance with what Forbes calls the lowest average ticket price in the NHL. If their figure is correct it costs me about the same to go see the Spoken Chiefs - that is pathetic. The same goes with ex Atlanta - sure big market, but again all the major NA sports and College and NASCAR etc. I mean even in Michigan back before the dot-compost as a Network Admin I usually snagged Wings tickets from vendors because the rest of the group wanted Pistons or UofM basketball tickets more.

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Crazy as it sounds, if the Hawks can play that hard and fast every game going forward and they easily go on. Best game in the playoffs thus far. Not easy to flip the switch after coasting through the first round. Just an unfortunate loss made worse by the the loss at home, which was a legit stinker by them.

Still not sold on Crawford. They love him because of his size. I distrust him because of that third goal. That just cannot happen, and it happens too much with him. He didn't even have a bad game all things considered. But those kinds of goals eliminate good teams.

We've seen the best from both teams. The Hawks are simply better. Everyone knows that. Even when Detroit thinks they are taking away space, the Hawks can glide. They initiated most of the contact in that game. And then thoroughly went into goon mode which of course didn't help.

In my mind this comes down to goalies now. I mean the Hawks hit the post 3 times and had the bad disallowed goal, but Howard can outplay Crawford. And that can out-factor any theoretical goal difference, especially in the playoffs. And that is the playoff goalie thing at work.

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Apparently the legend Patrick Roy is destined to be new Avs coach....

http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche...oy-will-be-new-avs-coach-according?source=pkg

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We've seen the best from both teams. The Hawks are simply better. Everyone knows that. Even when Detroit thinks they are taking away space, the Hawks can glide. They initiated most of the contact in that game. And then thoroughly went into goon mode which of course didn't help.

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I would agree Chicago is technically deeper and better - but not in goal and not behind the bench that can be the difference. I would also say the lack of discipline late in the game looks bad for Chicago

I mean the Hawks hit the post 3 times

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That never works becuse that you have to count the other teams posts too... As I recall Detroit his one or two in the 2nd period of game 1 that would have altered that one as well. Plus Its hard to have any sympathy for a waved off goal after it being almost a every game event for Holmstrom.

All that being said your right Chicago should be playing better, so I think Detroit to win really needs to win the next game or at least loose a close one and avoid any mental downs or letting Howard get hammered - otherwise the Hawks best players might relax and start winning.

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On a unrelated note any Edmonton fans know why the Local rags in Edmonton are pushing trading Linus Omark to Detroit so hard?

I mean I get he had good chemistry with Z and Brunner in the Swiss leauge and Detroit has lots of Europeans but he looks like a good late developing player who is just now hitting his stride. Is it Canadian bias, is he a jerk, did he tell management he hates Edmonton or what? Becuse otherwise it looks like the just hopes that Edmonton can get more than a conditional late round pick for him.

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conon394 said:

On a unrelated note any Edmonton fans know why the Local rags in Edmonton are pushing trading Linus Omark to Detroit so hard?

I mean I get he had good chemistry with Z and Brunner in the Swiss leauge and Detroit has lots of Europeans but he looks like a good late developing player who is just now hitting his stride. Is it Canadian bias, is he a jerk, did he tell management he hates Edmonton or what? Becuse otherwise it looks like the just hopes that Edmonton can get more than a conditional late round pick for him.

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I think he is too flamboyant in comparison to his current status which makes a lot of people want to put him in "his" place.

The problem for him is that he needs to play in a finely tuned scoring line and I don't think he have proved himself to be given such attention by a coach. I think his only chance to make it in the NHL is to get into a trade with a team that needs to make a cheap gamble on a playmaker for their 2nd scoring line.

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I think he is too flamboyant in comparison to his current status which makes a lot of people want to put him in "his" place.

The problem for him is that he needs to play in a finely tuned scoring line and I don't think he have proved himself to be given such attention by a coach. I think his only chance to make it in the NHL is to get into a trade with a team that needs to make a cheap gamble on a playmaker for their 2nd scoring line.

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Interesting, it still seems like Edmonton a team that has not exactly been running the table lately is on cusp of throwing away an asset. The Swiss performance at the worlds and the fact Olmark did better than a lot big names from the NHL kind of says he has talent. What I see is all too many teams in the NHL are just not willing to be patient enough with late developing Europeans who need extra time to adapt to the grueling NHL/AHL travel issues and small ice etc. Compare the way Detroit handled Brunner - I think if you go back and look at Babcock and Management and he were saying mid year was yet he is shell shocked by the change in play, the travel, the back to back games etc and what we need to do is give him time, rest and the right setup to work back into the game.

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I WUB PUGS said:

They traded Rask for Raycroft when Raycroft was the man in Boston and Rask was a nobody. Kessel is the ONLY player to be in the top 15 in Goals and Assists in the last 3 seasons. Do you read the correctly? THE ONLY PLAYER. Not Crosby. Malkin was until this season the only other player you could say that about, but since he was injured he didn't make the top 15 this season. Seguin got his only point of the series on the final goal. And Boston radio has been ripping on him and Marchand the entire series. And there were no chants of "KESSEL KESSEL KESSEL" in the Garden this series. All of his goals shut them right up.

You clearly didn't watch the games. And considering that's your 3rd post in the NHL thread ever, I'm not going to take you seriously. Rask had back to back 45 save games in games 3 and 4. Dunno if you know what that means, but any hockey fan/player with a brain knows who kept the Bruins in it.

The Leafs lost a game they should've won, but the Bruins nearly lost a series they were supposed to sweep.

So a team with terrible players, not a decent line to be found and needing more veterans took a Stanley Cup favorite to game 7 OT in a series they were supposed to be swept in. Call me totally ****ing happy with the result! It's cool though, you're a bandwagoner defending your city, you'll be gone just as soon as you arrived and the B's are on the down slide.

I'm proud of the team, and what I saw on the ice makes me eager for next season. In a 7 game series they had a terrible Game 1, two bad second periods in Games 3 and 4 and a bad last ten minutes in Game 7. The rest of the series was all Toronto and a whole lot of Tuuka Rask. Not too bad for a team with a terrible lineup, no veterans and no hope of going anywhere.

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I've been an avid Bruins fan for years. Do I need to take a picture of me in front of all my Bruins regalia? I'm a Boston man through and through, I've been going to games for years, and cheering them on for years. Hell my first video game was an NHL game. That was only my 3rd post in this thread because you post in here constantly and your typical reaction is single people out and call them names when your favorite team loses. It's really pretty pathetic.

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booo

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Ottawa should be a fun team to watch over the next few years. Definitely a team trending upwards. Not their year this year though, the Pens really seem to be kicking into gear.

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Oh **** the Hockey gods are good - I just need to figure out what domestic animal they need to allow Detroit to win game five... chickens, goats, a fat cow?

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Undoubtely an interesting way for Bruins to loose the game.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=0&id=250742&cmpid=embed-share-video

But it really looks like Rangers will be out of this season soon.

conon394 said:

Oh **** the Hockey gods are good - I just need to figure out what domestic animal they need to allow Detroit to win game five... chickens, goats, a fat cow?

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A giant squid, obviously.

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A giant squid, obviously.

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Hard to come by in the Colfax/Pullman region of Eastern WA. I suppose if I decide to full out superstitious fan I could burn an Order of Calamari from the new very good Mediterranean restaurant in the local area...

Watching Towes melt down was sweet but even better is watching Babcick out coach Jack Adams types like Quenneville and Boudreau out (or hopfuly out of) the playoffs. I still don't understand Qenneville - how come the same arguments for not giving it to Babcock when the Wing's had a stacked roster don't apply.

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Go Wings! I would love for them to knock off the Hawks. Nyquist is another prototypical Detroit gem, just an overall fantastic player. Created all kinds of offense and wreaked havoc upon the Chicago defense in game 4.

Finish them off on Saturday!

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Kings need to hang in there. I like it when things get all mixed up.

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Torts fired. My predictions for next year for the rags, they don't make the playoffs, lundqvist will suck, and will leave the rags.