The Canes picked a good year to do that, too. New Coach, New GM and President, and no big off season moves till some of the deadweight is gone(thanks a lot, Rutherford.)
I agree. However, I think the owner is a little starstruck and likes the idea of having the heroes from the glory days around.
It’s the anti-vaxxing idiots. Once a certain percentage of people are not vaccinated, the germs are everywhere, and if your immune system’s having an off day, blammo.
In news almost as bad as the mumps, the NHL is clearly very interested in putting a team in Las Vegas.
Complaining about the NHL’s obsession with hockey in southern markets to the exclusion of places with hockey fans is such old hat I would have thought there was no chance I’d have anything to say about this but holy shit, they’ve outdone themselves. Vegas is just an insanely terrible place for a team. If Phoenix is a disaster Vegas will be twice as bad. Within five years, you won’t have 4,000 fans at any game who paid for their tickets.
Speaking of bad attendance, Florida is now at a mind-boggling 8,800 per game, about 51% capacity. It’s the lowest attendance rate since Carolina in 1999, but that number is artificially low because at the time the Hurricanes could not actually play in their own home city; they were stuck in Greensboro, which is way outside of Raleigh. It’d be like the Pittsburgh Penguins having to play their games in Akron.
To some extent the Panthers’ attendance really has been this bad all along; they have long been giving away huge numbers of free tickets and counting that as attendance. They’re in an arena for which they got a sweetheart deal but now looks like the worst decision ever; they’re 32 miles from Miami in the outer part of a suburb of a suburb. The franchise is by all accounts bleeding money. It’s difficult to imagine the team could possibly stay in Sunrise. even though they’d have to pay a penalty to leave; within a few years paying the penalty and moving somewhere with hockey fans would be less costly than staying.
Move Florida to Quebec City. I will not be surprised when this actually happens.
Well, if we don’t win the Cup, I’m going to blame them.
I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.
I discovered why their attendance is for shit.
I’m in Florida (just north of Miami) for the next few weeks, so I thought I would catch a couple games down there. Yeah right, for a team that’s struggling to entice fans, their ticket prices are insanely high!?
Although, I suppose I could just buy nosebleeders then move right up to the glass 
Supposedly the Russian economic crisis is affecting the KHL and several teams are bankrupt. Could be interesting if some KHL teams fold or if the league suspends operations. Wonder if the Devils would welcome Kovalchuk?
Don’t worry the Russian mafia will find money to keep floating the league.
Great, now Olli Maatta has the mumps!!! Grrrr!!!
In lighter news, has anyone seen the Pens’ spoof of “Christmas Vacation”?
Record since that post:
0-2-4 :smack:
with 6 total goals. :smack:
Yeah…
Come over to my bandwagon. :smack:
Or mine.:smack:
I don’t know where you sat, but I once saw a Panthers game for seven dollars.
Pro sports teams kind of have to keep the tickets reasonably high because if demand DOES surge - like, you know, if the Panthers ever actually won anything - you can’t then quadruple your prices. Cheapening the product is a terrible scenario; you’re probably not going to actually increase attendance much, because someone who doesn’t want to watch hockey isn’t going to change their mind because the tickets are cheap. And when the demand’s back you will infuriate people with what they will perceive as price gouging, even if it’s an unfair perception and you were actually giving them a bargain.
The Panthers are just about the most geographically stupidly situated team in the NHL; I don’t know who thought “you know where we should put a hockey team is in the outskirts of a suburb of a near-tropical city” but in fairness the Tampa Bay Lightning do pretty well. The Panthers could draw well if only they would actually provide their customers with some professional hockey, but when was the last time THAT happened? They’ve made the playoffs once in the last 14 years and it was a fluke. They’re playing okay right now but they’re still on the outside looking in and quite honestly I think their record NOW is flukey; they’ll finish like 12th. They don’t even have anyone interesting save Aaron Eckblad.
Except for the huge markets, you are always going to have trouble selling tickets if the team is really terrible. Let’s be honest; the Nordiques didn’t leave town because the attendance was great. I love Quebec City but it’s a VERY small market, probably smaller than any other in the NHL (Winnipeg has fewer people by some measures but far more corporate sponsorship available) and the smallest in any of the major sports except Green Bay. The lack of corporate sponsors is a major weakness, as there is, given the population, no room for failure. If a team there had a dry spell or the Canadian dollar dropped again they’d be in deep trouble in no time.
If an NHL team is to move, Quebec City just isn’t a good place for it, as much as I’d love for the fans there to get their team back. Really, the absolute, no-doubt-about-it best place for a team to start up in or relocate to is somewhere in Toronto.
Lou Lamoriello has gone stark raving mad. He’s going to use 2 coaches, Adam Oates and Scott Stevens as well being behind the bench himself. This is a horrible idea and the Devils will rival the Oilers for the worst record. The Devils are a veteran team, they aren’t going to react well to this gimmick.
Another team that thinks firing the coach will fix years of bad drafting…
Winter Classic on Thursday. Does that generate much interest other than from the fans of the teams involved?
I watch it when I’m not working, but I am a diehard hockey fan.
I just wish they’d stop picking the same teams every year.
They don’t. But let’s face it, there are only so many cities that could host an outdoor hockey game.
2008 Pittsburgh Penguins Buffalo Sabres
2009 Detroit Red Wings Chicago Blackhawks
2010 Philadelphia Flyers Boston Bruins
2011 Washington Capitals Pittsburgh Penguins
2012 New York Rangers Philadelphia Flyers
2014 Toronto Maple Leafs Detroit Red Wings
2015 Chicago Blackhawks Washington Capitals