I’m not that concerned about Babcock leaving. I’m not going to sour grapes, but a change might be a bit of a spark, and Blashill deserves a chance.
I will of course be rooting for Toronto to continue to be a clusterfusk for a long time 
It doesn’t matter to MLSE. They have plenty of cash and the organization looks like they’re finally prepared to make some major changes.
It’s going to be interesting.
You mean it isn’t $50 million a year?
I think even the Leafs would have a hard time with that.
Not sure what he can do for them though. The players are who they are. No stud prospects coming. Accountability, maybe… I dunno. They’ve gone from being a shitty team, to being a shitty team with an expensive coach. I was hoping he’d go to Buffalo.
In the last three years the core members of the Leafs have made the playoffs, and melted down in game 7 against Boston.
Melted down and missed almost certain playoff spots in two years in a row.
The core talent isn’t terrible. Clearly the motivation down the stretch and in the playoffs is lacking.
The Leafs don’t have enough talent to go anywhere except maybe the first round of the playoffs. I hope they’re getting serious this time, and time will tell. It’s (once again) a five year building plan, IMHO.
…and the Ducks decided to end the game on time tonight.
Crap! The Blackhawks are the only team left in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs that I care about even a tiny bit.
Holy crap, please save us from an Anaheim-Tampa final. I won’t watch a single minute of it should it come to pass. We could have an all Original Six final but instead we might well get a crap fest featuring a team named for a second-rate kids movie.
I’m sure NBC is avidly praying as well.
Amen to this. The only good thing I can think of is that I won’t have the dilemma of whether to root for the Hawks where my heart is, or for the Rangers because Lundqvist should have a Cup. If it is, as it looks like being, Duck-Bolts, then I can just watch baseball instead. Crap it is.
Really? You won’t watch the two best teams play because you don’t like a name (that they don’t use anymore)?
Partially. Naming the team The Mighty Ducks was about the stupidest corporate stunt I can remember. I object to Anaheim even having a team- why does the LA area deserve two teams? One is more than they should have. Why does Tampa have a team and why does Florida have two? I wish the NHL would confine itself to regions that know and appreciate hockey and not try to create fan bases where none exist.
Both Tampa and Anaheim fill over 98% of their arena for home dates (granted, I don’t know if they pad those stats by giving tickets away) - higher than the “appreciative” regions of Colorado, Ottawa and Buffalo. I realize it isn’t as simple as that, but these two teams aren’t the basket cases of the NHL. And even if it was a Arizona/Carolina final - the fact that they would be the two best teams should make any fan want to watch, regardless of the home market situation.
Well, Anaheim may be one of the two best teams as long as the Blackhawks are down a key defenseman and they can focus on playing bangball with the Hawks’ defense. If they had to play hockey I think the Hawks would eat them up.
If you want to throw Brian Bickell in there, they are down a left winger too…
As an Islanders fan, any finals NOT involving the Rangers would be entirely watchable.
I remember this guy named Wayne who came to our little backwater town of Los Angeles…got the whole town in an uproar and a generation of kids who dropped mitts, pigskins, and hoopballs and picked up hockey sticks instead…and some of those kids were coached by fathers who saw this Wayne guy play…and now even some of those kids are playing in the NHL, and the little backwater town(s) around the L.A. area have fans that are just as knowledgeable as those who live on the north side of the snow wall…
May the best two teams, regardless of where they come from, make it to the Cup Final.
Matter of fact, my son played against a couple of kids who are in this article… California hockey grows with Ducks, Kings, Wayne Gretzky | Sunday Long Read
Trust me, there is a fan base for two teams here in SoCal… especially with 3 Cups in the last 8 years…Mickey Mouse Company or not…
The Kings franchise is almost fifty-years-old. I think they’ve more than proved that they “deserve” to be around. :dubious:
The Penguins took a bit to get going too, but then once we got some kid from Montreal, things sure picked up! 