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My boss is friends with Shawn Burr and he was telling me that during a big on ice brawl one time Burr hit Gretsky.....the next time the two teams played the Wings coach sent Burr out on to the ice without Probert or Kocur..... and when Burr saw McSorley matching up with him on the puck drop he realized he didnt have Probie or Kocur with him and he tried to skate back to the bench....the Wings coach apparently stopped him from getting back on the bench and told him "You need to learn that you don't hit 99"... he then preceded to have his face pounded in by McSorley....just shows how much respect they had for stars back in the day and how well the enforcer system actually worked. I mean a coach allowed his own player to have his ass beat for being a little rough with an opposing star lol gotta get rid of that instigator rule.....do-gooders think theyre helping people but they're just destroying the sport we love, the sport our parents loved, and the sport they're parents loved.....my kids won't even know what real hockey is by the time the baby-proofers get done with it

how do zetterberg's balls pair with pete schweddy's? can he hang with schweddy dominating the ball market? i tend to lean towards scheddy ball's at the moment. however, Z's balls have grabbed my attention and not juggling my options would be nuts.

Great short story. Thanks to Dmitry Chesnokov. http://dchesnokov.tumblr.com/post/30056452315/good-deeds

I do have to get mine tended to, but I don't mind. It's 13 years old, and has been so faithful and good. I buy it whatever it wants, since it doesn't ever ask for much. The person below me cooked dinner tonight and now the house smells like a restaurant.

LOL @ The AXE. Hmmm my other who loves feds and who hates feds post hit the second page, lets take a page out of Blue Adams book and..... Repost but change topic title and no one will know this is a who else loves Feds thread!

I interpreted this topic differently - I thought you meant "Start over a career that looked so promising but then something happened and went horribly wrong". The first guy I thought of was Igor Grigorenko, who was the prospect who flamed out after a car crash derailed his career. Fischer wouldn't work because his problem was congenital and just a part of who he is.

all I could think of reading thread title:

Probably not, since its an official NHL event, with the NHL logos and names and all of that. That being said, it could easily go ahead re-branded as something else since its being held in a non-nhl venue. Probably without the current names and logos...maybe some old throwback names and logos would do the trick (Detroit Cougars vs. Toronto St. Patricks, for example).

There's a lot of flawed logic in this post, but I'll respond for now to the lowest hanging fruit, which is the players role in all of this. Typically the players complaining about getting hit in the head aren't the ones who are headhunting. I don't remember Raffi Torres saying they need to protect players heads. You're talking about hundreds upon hundreds of people here. They're not all going to speak with the same voice and play the game the same way. As long as headhunting and running at guys gets a 4th liner more minutes and an NHL contract, there'll be dirtbags willing to do it. That's pretty much how competition works. Most players want to do almost anything they can to win, but there's also a mutual respect (among most) as professional hockey players. Haven't you ever seen to guys drop the gloves and go at it, then pat each other on the back when the fight ends? There's a big difference between trying to win a game and dealing with your career and financial well being. In the latter they all have similar interests, the former they don't. How exactly are they self absorbed?? Are they too busy checking their reflection in a mirror or writing in their diaries to hear what Bettman is saying? And I have no idea what playing overseas has to do with anything. No one is portraying these guys to be saints, but the players are nowhere near as guilty as the other parties. They don't put a gun to anyones head when they're offered a contract. They made massive concessions in the last CBA. Not just the cap, but linking that cap to revenue while having absolutely zero say in how the team or league is run. Yes of course they're self interested. They want their fair share of the pie. But in the list of culprits for a potential lockout, Bettman and most franchise owners are at the very top and the players are at the very bottom. Fehr and the union leadership are somewhere in the middle.

The Captain

His 24 goals and 29 assists for 53 points last year in 82 games says otherwise. And he only got 64 points the year prior with 26 goals in 80 games. So Franzen outscores him for goals, last year he got a whopping 3 more points than Hudler and in the past 2 seasons, hip point per game percentage is the same as Flips, who so many guys are willing to trade along with our top prospects for Ryan. Heatley's value has plummeted.

I guess he shouldn't have to, but he shouldn't back away from the rough stuff. When you absolutely clock the opposing team's star players, clean hit or not, guys are gonna come after you. Don't just stand there as they all beat on you. He shouldn't be afraid to fight. If the opposition even touched Yzerman in the '80s, Probert, Kocur, and Gallant beat 'em into the ice. If the opposition even touched Gretzky in the '80s, Semenko and McSorley beat 'em into the ice. Didn't matter whether the hits were clean or not. Eventually, players were forced to answer the bell. I think it is annoying that a mugging ensues after every clean hard hit, though. Take a hit and play the game. In essence, what that kind of stuff does is it deters clean, hard hitting.

So the NHL has been around since 1917....almost 100 years.....and thousands of fighters have taken to NHL ice in that time, and you have a list of 6 players???? I know there have been a couple of unusual tough guy deaths recently....but those deaths are just that....NOT USUAL. And most of those suicide deaths were guys who struggled with addiction, not to mention you have no idea what other problems besides addiction that they were dealing with in their personal lives as well....yet you wanna pin the whole suicide on the fact that hockey allowed him to get hit in the head a lot? Sorry but even if I was anti-fighting I would still call this a very poor argument. The enforcer system was the best system out there. It was run and facilitated by the players and coaches themselves and worked better than the system in place today. Enforcers made sure dirty crap didn't happen and if it did you got punished for it. Then the enforcers also had their own little side game...which was the heavy weight bouts that were just as much for the fans as they were for themselves...You had big name fighters like Probie and Domi who would square up just to see who would win that round and prove that they are the bigger, tougher, better fighter....you would have thought they hated each other but they actually had huge respect for each other....these were big, tough, nasty.....yet honorable men Nowadays guys are running everyone, slamming heads into boards, hitting to the head, flopping, the list goes on and on. And the NHL keeps trying to make more and more and more rules to stop it....but you can't stop it. Let the players handle it, they did a better job at handling it than the NHL has, despite their best efforts. Let them handle it, they know best... instead we have baby-proofing do-gooders stepping in and telling them how to play their own sport. In the players poll last year it was something like 99% of NHL players said fighting should not be removed from hockey....they want fighting just as much as the fans do. It has a place....even in this post-lockout league. And don't get me started on your fighting versus hitting argument....by your logic we would have to remove hitting as well....anddd just as many if not more health concerns arise from hitting, just not as many to the head.

Sad way for Homer to retire... I love that man

Personally I'd like to see the entire roster in GR...at least the Griffs would finally make the playoffs

Pass on Kovalev. We already have enough floaters on the roster.

They damn well better show them. I think I'm more excited about the alum games than the actual Winter Classic