Fair enough. There’s an interesting dynamic in Pittsburgh - well, interesting to me. There’s a strong contingent of Penguins fans who actively dislike the Steelers. My sense is that they are jealous of the franchise’s success and popularity, but there’s a real us and them sense for these folks. I don’t feel the same way. I love both the Steelers and the Penguins, but I admit that I don’t follow hockey well enough otherwise to really contribute meaningfully to discussions. (Of course, I’m a bit odd around here in that I root for both the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State, but that comes from having grown up away from the area.)
So, bar me from the thread if you like - perhaps I deserve it.
Well, it wasn’t much of a contest the last time the Penguins and Blackhawks met for the Cup, but then again we don’t have #66 on the ice now.
Mike Cammalleri now has eleven goals these playoffs, the most since Vinny Damphousse scored eleven during the 1993 playoffs. The Habs went all four rounds that year and ended with a parade down Sherbrooke Street with a big shiny goblet in tow.
Cammy’s friggin’ awesome. The Habs record, by the way for playoff goals in a year is 15, by Yvan Cournoyer in 1973, over three rounds and another parade at the end.
Looks like Sami Salo took a puck in the bag in the first period of the Canucks game last night and is now day-to-day.
And the United States lost at the World Hockey Championship to that noted hockey power of Denmark, 2-1. The Yanks are now 0-2 after losing to Germany 2-1 in overtime last Friday.
Canada’s 2 for 2 after beating Italy and Latvia, their next game is Wednesday afternoon at 2 ET against Switzerland.
Cammalleri is awesome. I also called the Lapierre goal before the start of the game; I just had a sense that he’d get one tonight! And awesome game from Spacek, getting the winning goal on his first game back from a mysterious illness (reported to have been giving him vertigo).
I just realized that I mixed up the Spacek and Lapierre goal: Lapierre got the game winner on that beautiful play of his! Spacek had made it 3-2 with his bullet.
And in other news, talks with Ice Edge Holdings and the City of Glendale appear to have been halted over exclusivity issues. Meanwhile the NHL is asking the city, already sitting on a $15 million dollar deficit, to provide a guarantee that they would cover operating losses for the team…losses expected to be in the $20-30 million range.
Why would the taxpayers need to bail out the NHL when they bought the Coyotes from bankruptcy court. Shouldn’t they take the losses because they wanted it so bad that Jim Balsille couldn’t have it? Phoenix is getting screwed over. They build the arena for the Coyotes and now have to pay for operating the team? The NHL was stupid enough to go into Phoenix, they should pay the price. I really hope all the crappy NHL markets lose their teams and they all relocate to places where ice and cold weather are common. Cities in the northern parts of the States and even Canadian cities.
Perhaps they should start thinking of expanding into Europe. Have like a Europe conference, shrink the number of teams in US and Canada and then have the Cup finals between a Europe conference team vs North American team.
Once again Winnipeg gets mentioned and the city goes into a hopeful frenzy, only to have Bettman wave it away.
There are so many people that want Winnipeg to have a team that I think most of these rumours have almost no credibility. Wishful thinking rather than anything substantial.
It’s too bad though. I’d buy season tickets. The minor leagues just ain’t the same thing.
Fair enough. There’s an interesting dynamic in Pittsburgh - well, interesting to me. There’s a strong contingent of Penguins fans who actively dislike the Steelers. My sense is that they are jealous of the franchise’s success and popularity, but there’s a real us and them sense for these folks. I don’t feel the same way. I love both the Steelers and the Penguins, but I admit that I don’t follow hockey well enough otherwise to really contribute meaningfully to discussions. (Of course, I’m a bit odd around here in that I root for both the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State, but that comes from having grown up away from the area.)
They do better when I am not watching!