Winter Classic today. Start time moved to 3 eastern.
http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/sports/nouvelles/archives/2012/01/20120102-113156.html
Last season, I said that there was a lot of bad blood forming between Subban and his other teammates, in response to accusations he was getting an unfair shake versus other D-bags like Brad Marchand.
Well, unless my French has completely gone to pot, looks like I was right! Between the Krys Barch crap and this, P.K. Subban is turning into an enormous lightning rod in Montreal.
I still maintain that Subban gets worse stuff hurled at him than douchebags like Marchand…whatever Subban is in the locker room and on the ice in terms of chatter, at least with him it STAYS in the locker room or on the ice. He doesn’t go out to newspapers and radio and insult or trashtalk players on other teams, yet Subban is hated while assholes like Marchand and Lucic get a free ride. This summer, Subban’s raising money for Haiti, Lucic is gloating to the cops about winning the Cup after abusing his girlfriend. Who is the classier guy? Who gets more media/fan hate thrown at him?
But…yeah… it seems pretty clear that something’s up in the locker room, and he does need to grow up. He’s reached that point in his career where raw talent has gotten him so far, but now discipline, responsibility and team work need to be used a lot more to get further. Though I don’t put much stock in what Cammalleri may have said to Subban…Cammalleri has been floating and acting like a primadonna all season (being outscored by Travis Moen hurts his fragile ego). Subban does stupid shit, but at least he’s out there looking like he gives a damn. Plekanec…I don’t know. I don’t think he’s ever liked Subban, but I think Plekanec is a quiet workhorse type of guy who doesn’t like excitement too much.
The two fought in a practice last year, too. It ignited the team…for a while. I’d rather see them look like they care, finally.
I guess the next Winter Classic will be held in North Carolina since NBC seems to want a Staal in each game!
Or in Montreal…oh, wait, no, that would be a stall. Dammit.
I’ve seen a rumour - possibly entirely baseless - of Detroit v Toronto. I like the idea of the Winter Classic being an Original Six match up, but the NHL doesn’t want GOOD hockey for these events, they want MARKETING hockey and you don’t need to try and sell hockey to Torontonians (though “good” hockey is something they aren’t very familiar with… :cheapshot:)
Random observations (having just turned on the TV now): Philly’s "classic’ uniform screams “we have nothing classic, so let’s go with this” to me…they are weird and ugly, and their white name banners on the orange jersey always make me think of prison uniforms. I hate that orange colour even more in HD.
I wouldn’t want to go to such a game, given how far away the seats are from the rink.
I am not impressed with Pierre Gauthier basically throwing his coach under the bus with his “apology” for signing an anglophone and pretty much declaring that Cunneyworth has no chance in hell of keeping his job, even if the team’s fortunes turn around. If that’s the trust he has in his coach, he should have kept Jacques Martin.
I do like the Josh Gorges signing, though a $3.9M cap hit might be a little high when you look at his stats. You can’t buy that kind of heart and leadership, though, and Gorges is one of my favourite players. He’s faster and better than ever now that he actually has an ACL in his knee (a repaired one is better than none, apparently!). Josh Gorges for Captain!
I’ve also heard Detroit vs Toronto for the next Winter Classic and it might make some sense for NBC to pump the USA vs Canada hype for the game. NBC will have just broadcast the Summer Olympics.
I know NBC wants a game in Yankee Stadium, but that won’t happen next year with the Rangers in this game and there is some minor college bowl played during this time anyway.
It will be interesting to see if NBC can continue to rotate the classic among their big market Eastern conference teams plus Chicago and Detroit.
Won’t be Toronto. CBC has the Heritage Classic for Canadian teams, and NBC doesn’t have the Canadian broadcast rights for the Winter Classic, so no Canadian teams. Detroit and Washington have more or less been guaranteed opportunities to host in the next 1-3 years.
Except that the NHL has only done the so-called “Heritage” classic a couple of times - it’s not happening this year because apparently it’s too hard to organize :rolleyes: Do “fans” really want to see the same 3 teams over and over in this? Canadian teams generate more revenue for the NHL than American ones…based on last year, it was about 33% revenue, from 20% of the teams. Last year’s Heritage Classic, in terms of advertising was a joke and an insult - the promotional tour involved a truck going to Canadian Tires starting in TORONTO and heading west, despite Montreal being one of the teams involved. Compare it to the whore-fest that is 24/7 and the lead up to the Winter Classic, and perhaps you can see how fans of Canadian teams are feeling pretty shafted in all this.
Detroit and Toronto both have massive international fan bases that probably spread further and involve more fans than Philly, Pittsburgh or Washington (the Rangers have a big fan base, though I don’t know how wide spread it is). It would be a good Classic, with Original Six teams and would stop the on-going alienation of the Canadian fan bases. (this is, btw, part of why so many people hate Gary Bettman…it’s obviously his fault!)
NBC doesn’t have ANY Canadian broadcasting rights for the NHL, so I don’t really know what that has to do with anything. The CBC has the Canadian broadcast for the Winter Classic in English, and RDS in French. We get the NBC feed if we have it in our cable package, so the fact is that even with the CBC airing the game, NBC can get Canadian viewers. There’s nothing to lose for NBC there.
ETA: and if NBC wants to air more games to make money off of Canadian team fans, they just have to ring up Bettman and ask…I’m sure he’d jizz just thinking about it
The orange has ALWAYS been ugly. Maybe it’s part of the Flyers’ attempt to be douchey?
Do you have an English translation of that?
Mike Rupp’s Jagr salute was classic. I really miss that guy.
To add wild speculation onto baseless. The rumor I heard was Detroit v Toronto in Michigan stadium, to reset the record for spectators at a Hockey game.
The orange has ALWAYS been ugly. Maybe it’s part of the Flyers’ attempt to be douchey?
Do you have an English translation of that?
Mike Rupp’s Jagr salute was classic. I really miss that guy.
Okay, admittedly its a year old but as a Caps fan I have to look back that far to find something to be happy about 
Oh that’s a good one – although they misspelled Fleury. (But then, they’re Nazis, they’d do that)
Fuck, I did NOT mean to post that twice. (I just realized that now)
Thanks.
Not at all! Though I highly recommend translating the French version through google chrome. Translating RDS articles always gives me a chuckle. 
Four games do not a season make but right now the Caps are fun to watch again. For me (a relatively casual hockey fan) the biggest difference under the new coach is they seem to play hard even when behind late in the game. Under Bruce they would seem to give up if behind in the third by more than a goal or two.
From the Calgary game, you gotta love Rene Bourque. Holding penalty in his own zone on the first shift leads to a PP goal. Lifts his elbow as he skates by Backstrom, hits him in the head and still has this post-game quote:
That might be a little bit of confirmation bias on your part.
There’s nothing that breaks down the specific scores, so you may be right about 2+ goal leads, but last year Washington led the League with a .489 win percentage when being scored on first and was second in the League with a .267 win percentage when trailing after two periods, and they were even better in both categories the year before.
That suggests pretty strongly that they didn’t give up on games. For all their firepower they did seem to play from behind quite often (they were scored on first in 47 of their 82 games last year), but they were pretty good about overcoming such deficits.
I’m going out on a limb here and I am going to ask that Shanahan gives Dan Carcillo a really nice long break from hockey.
I don’t know Dan Carcillo and for all I know he may be a really swell guy, but he is a cheap piece of shit as a hockey player. He has offended numerous times and doesn’t seem to learn. Maybe losing 1/4 to 1/3 of his salary may get him to change his game…but probably not.
Still waiting on whether or not Krys Barch will get a suspension. It’s an odd case, because the claim that he said something racist is coming from a linesman, not Subban or any other players. Apparently other players heard whatever was said, though.
I know I’m always ranting that the officials tend to be incompetent, but this is one hell of a firestorm to set off - I have to think the linesman really did hear something rather offensive.
Barch is a relative nobody…not a superstar, no points this season, plays few minutes. The PR aspect of this, especially after the Simmonds banana incident and the Simmonds/Avery “faggot” incident makes me think the league will issue some sort of suspension, to make a point.
Since the Panthers don’t play until tomorrow, and apparently the NHLPA is rather busy, the hearing has been pushed back, again, until tomorrow.
The whole thing is rather bizarre.