I thought you guys might find this interesting: While the NHL was offline, I investigated other ways to distract my attention until I could get my hockey fix back. While surfing the channels, I found that there are actually some other “sports” played. They have teams officials and rules and everything. I put together this set of notes to keep them straight:
“Basket Ball” In this one, the puck is globe shaped, colored orange and big as your head. Instead of carrying the puck down the ice with the stick, they actually bounce the puck up and down with their hand while walking down towards the goal. Oh yeah, there was no ice, they just ran around, looking clumsy. A lot of these guys went through all kinds of motions to steal the puck from one another, I never did understand why they didn’t just check each other off the rink. I watched an entire game, but I never did see them get the goalie up there in front of the goal. I wonder where the goalie was.
“Base Ball” In this one, the puck was white and globe shaped, about the size of an apple. Some guy who looked like the team captain would throw the puck at his own goalie - I never did get exactly why - and someone on the opposing team would try to hit it away with his stick. There was still no ice. While I was watching, there was only ever one goalie from one team out there, you never saw both goalies from both teams at once. I guess they pull their goalies a lot in Base Ball.
“Foot Ball” In this one, the puck was oval shaped and brown. They threw the puck back and forth to each other, and spent a lot of time standing around talking. It was mostly boring, but they did get some really sweet checks in. Maybe if they put it on ice it would be interesting.
Conclusion: All these “sports” suck. Woo hoo! Hockey’s back!
Why do they insist on continuing to fiddle with the rules? I understand they need to make it more appealing, but a 2-minute penalty for shooting the puck into the stands?
If they want to do away with ties they should just keep the 4-on-4 OT and do as the NBA does and play as many OT periods as it takes for somebody to win, although they should probably extend the OT period to say, 10 minutes or so. That would drastically cut down on ties without really changing the game that much. 5 minutes is way too short for a sport where they only score a few times over the course of an hour.
And the shootout, while exciting, shouldn’t determine the outcome of a game, that’d be like deciding a baseball game with a homerun derby.
The reason for the lockout was not the rules, but terrible economics, and that problem has now been solved, and there isn’t a linear relationship between attendance and scoring.
Not this season. Even if they go hog wild into the free agent market and manage to attract some primo talent into a lousy market for hockey, they still have too many holes that need to be filled and given time to set. It’s still doubtfull that they’ll do any heavy shopping.
Nope. I think the big noise this season is going to be in the south. Tampa and San Jose are in good position to keep the parts that got them into the playoffs while their competition will likely lose some parts.
We should have a better idea around the beginning of August once the CBA gets all worked out and players start getting cut. There’s also the lotto draft or “Who gets Sidney Crosby?” Of course, he could jet off to Europe to get the big rookie bucks.
Don’t mind what Harborwolf says . Nash has some primo soft hands and is going to be filling the net for a long time. Now, whether the Blue Jackets actually go anywhere this year is another matter - they may make the playoffs if the playoffs do get expaneded by 2 teams in each confrence but they won’t go anywhere.
You no comprendo…It’s all about So-Cal! Everything east of the Colorado River, north of the 36th parallel (except for the 395 corridor to Mammoth Mountain and our adopted So-Cal city of Vegas), south of the Cali border and anything beyond Catalina is not So-Cal worthy. Everything else…well…SUCKS.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Kings taking down Detroit in the playoffs back in 2004 just as much as the Ducks SWEPT Detroit in the playoffs (payback!) back in 2003. That’s what a true So-Cal fan is all about…rooting for any So-Cal team that sends all the drunken transplants home…crying…mainly the fans from Detroit, Philly, Boston, Chicago, New Yawk and especially those anti-christs from No-Cal.
But I will give you this…if the Ducks and Kings are going head-to-head…Kings.
Hockey in southern California is ridiculous, a comical and offensive thing. Move the Kings to Hamilton, move the Mighty Ducks to Winnipeg, and leave L.A. to the movie stars and the crack dealers.
So after the craziness that was the first four days of free agency, how does your team stand?
The Leafs? Not so good. Signing Domi was expected but I still think it was too much money for him. I like the O’Neill trade but it still doesn’t give us a first line leftwinger or a second line centre.
Ideally, I’d like to see them go after Jason Allison and Anson Carter. Perhaps Paul Kariya could be had for cheap, I don’t really know. Except to say that, they didn’t properly prepare themselves for the impending cap and it’s biting us in the ass now. The Leafs will be the worst Canadian team this year as much as it pains me to say it.
As far as the Penguins go, we sure did get a lot healthier through the draft.
I love the Gonchar aquisition. Love it. Don’t know that Andre Roy is that good of a pick-up…it depends on how much the rule changes are actually enforced. I smell a bunch of one game suspensions between him and VandenBusshe.
You think it’s biting you in the ass? How do you think Colorado feels? They wanted to resign Forsberg and Foote and wound up with zippo. This season just ain’t gonna be the same
Poor Philadelphia. Clarke still wants to remake his hard hitting glory days. He should’ve left two of those defensemen behind and grabbed Khabibulin. Not to mention they are still slower than defending cup champion Tampa. At least it should be interesting to watch.
As for my team, Detroit is doing okay. They lost Dandenault, one of their speediest defensemen, but kept Schneider and Chelios. Shanahan exercised his option and Yzerman resigned. Franzen will be interesting to watch this season. I tend to get a little excited when the scouts say someone is ready to come over given the wings luck with the later rounds of the draft.
They still have to sign Datsyuk and Zetterberg. I’ve heard talk of Datsyuk to Boston for Thornton. It’s a nice rumor, but Thornton can make more money elsewhere. He’d have to take a good sized cut to play in Detroit.
If the wings are smart, they’ll take a run at Lindros. His head is a bit wonky, but he’s friends with Yzerman, still hella talented, and could be signed on the cheap. Could be a steal of a deal. I also expect Osgood to return, and I’ll be glad to have him. He may not be the best goalie, but he’s still one of my favorites and well worth the price.
The Sens will be in a very good position if they can re-sign their RFAs. The offense is perfectly suited to the open game that the NHL is trying to bring in. The defence is mobile enough to adapt, and hopefully Brian Murray is smart enough to keep Ottawa’s defensive philosophies mostly intact. The big question mark, as always, is in goal. Hasek was a great goalie, but if he can’t do it anymore, Ottawa is going to flame out in the first round again.
Rafalski, Malakhov, and McGillis to the Devils. Not a bad start to a team built on defense.
But we sure could use a speedy, playmaking forward to go with the usual “interchangeable flock [thereof].”
I’m psyched. I will be making the trip back from Boston for Opening Night against the Penguins.
Edmonton has picked up Chris Pronger and Mike Peca, so that should help the team significantly.
I can already see this deal working out better for the fans. Looks like there will be more parity in the league now. The smaller market teams may actually become competitive again.
I have to admit, I’m starting to feel some buzz for the NHL with all this crazy player movement, and I didn’t think I’d care that much after such a long layoff. I’m excited about the Flyers picking up Forsberg and Rathje, a little worried that the Sharks don’t seem to be doing anything (except losing Rathje). But then again, the Sharks were loaded with young talent that got them within a game or two of the Finals, so maybe they can afford to stand pat.
The thing that makes all this movement so wild is not just the element of guys shifting teams, but do you really know how these guys will play after a year’s layoff? I bet several teams are just not going to get the player they think they’re getting. Even the ones who played in European or other leagues last year may show a serious falloff in their game, especially the veterans with little left in the tank. The standings could really turn upside down this season; this might be the most wide open season that any professional sports league has had in a very long time. Should make it interesting.
Great to have a great game back. Around here we can sustain ourselves on college hockey. But… what were they thinking?
Detroit gets to play the Leafs and Canadiens exactly once each during the season, so they can play more games against the Columbus Freaking Blue Jackets???
The shootout. An abomination unto the Lord. It isn’t going to bring any new fans to the sport. All it’s going to do is annoy us older fans. A 20 minute overtime would have been better. Shootouts aren’t going to win fans over, it is compelling matchups and heated rivalries. There are simply too many teams in the league to provide these.
. Nash has some primo soft hands and is going to be filling the net for a long time. Now, whether the Blue Jackets actually go anywhere this year is another matter - they may make the playoffs if the playoffs do get expaneded by 2 teams in each confrence but they won’t go anywhere.
