selkie

The glass is designed to absorb impact of players going outward, and not people shoving it inward. So banning the banging could actually cut down on wear & tear of the system.

I just don't get how the Center Ice commercials always totally disregard Red Wing Nation, unless they figure we don't need to be advertised to and that we'll just subscribe anyways. But I'd like for them to show a little love for the group that probably accounts for a good 25% of their American revenue for that programming option.

Big Keith Primeau's lackluster play and lack of effort was definitely noticed by the fans. He was actually more of a fan whipping boy than several of the goalie du jours of the early 90s, and it's actually kind of impressive when a guy manages to be more hated than Bobbin' Bob Essensa for his quality of play.

I'm guessing the infamous Habs-Wings game where Roy utterly imploded, giving up 9 goals in the process, and was the final straw in him being traded to Colorado a few days later.

But Florida in particular works well for this kind of business model. Tons of Northeast/Midwest/eastern Canada snowbirds down here every winter, most of them with money to spare even after paying their greens fees, and a perfectly logical group to market to if you're familiar with Florida demographics.

But the problem is that he's still too penalty-prone in the crease to really be reliable. And then when he's at net for probably a good 45+ minutes over the course of a game, it means trouble. Though at least designating Ozzy to serve his inevitable penalties would make him more useful than he is just charting lines on the bench.

Arena Football! Which I actually find more entertaining than standard field size football.

I'd far rather have the NHL's penalty system, flaws and all, than the NBA's penalty system which has come to mean that any remotely close game will take about 30-40 minutes of 'real' time to play the last three minutes of the game clock because of the parade of slap and tickle fouls and trips to the fre throw line.

The San Jose Exploratorium's web page even has an app to do the math for you if you want to do force calculations: http://www.exploratorium.edu/hockey/checking2.html Granted, it's about ten years old so their sample player list is a bit funny/out of date, but the numbers get impressive because skating is inherently faster than running is.

Hockey can and does work in the South when you have a winning team and reasonably priced tickets. The Louisiana IceGators in the booming metropolis of Lafayette (I consider myself pretty good with geography and I'd have a hard time finding Lafayette, LA on a map) averaged 11K+ paid attendance for a couple years in the late 90s when they were flagrantly violating the ECHL salary cap, and consequently winning games left and right.

Remember that Columbus settled with her parents for $1.2 million in the Brittanie Cecil case.

When the two teams have something like one playoff appearance and no playoff wins in a combined 20 seasons of existence, I mean we're talking hard core futility, and the only traditional market that tolerates that level of suck and comes back is Maple Leafs fans.

So just what could a fan say to Rypien that he wouldn't have already heard from Sean Avery a zillion times before? Plenty of NHLers are very brutal with the words on ice trying to get under the other guy's skin.

This. I mean if we actually make it to game ten of a season without an extended discussion of how the reainmated corpse of Terry Sawchuck would be better in goal, even if he was missing his blocker because his decayed arm fell off mid-period, then we're bored with the team and not really trying.

It really was the perfect blend of highest skill and utter hatred and you just don't see many rivalries where both of those categories manage to be turned up to 11 like that.

He's a relatively old player with a really bad head injury in the recent past. I suspect that a number of teams didn't want to take a chance on him because another significant concussion could easily push him into retirement, and that 'damaged goods' tag is why Detroit was never going to offer him two years. (aren't there also some sort of salary cap implications for over 35 players who retire before their contract runs out?) But if a team is willing to take a chance he'll stay injury-free, then he's going to be a good value for the contract amount he'll make.

So the weather's finally cooling off (today's daytime high is only supposed to be 85F) and it's finally time for hockey that counts again. Wings 2, Anaheim Franchise 1 I've got a feeling it's gonna be one of those nights where we make the other team's goalie look far better than he really is.

While it's nothing like being on The Big Club, he's got a good job in a nice city for someone his age, and a high enough paycheck that he doesn't need to get a summer job like the ECHL guys do to pay the bills. And the odds aren't bad for him to get traded to a team with injury issues this year or make it back to the NHL next. I wish him well.

The Lightning are now reporting a spike in season ticket sales and season ticket renewals. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/lightning/content/steve-yzerman-effect-tampa-bay-lightning-reports-spike-ticket-sales

That was the previous Tampa ownership group that was so good at driving away fans in the area that some people were convinced that OK Hockey was actually trying to pull a reverse Slap Shot and use the falling attendance as an excuse to move the team to Winnipeg/Hamilton. Every hockey fan in Florida was thrilled to see them sell the team to Vinik earlier this year. The new ownership really does seem to want to see the Bolts healthy and strong in the Bay area for the long term, and thrilled to find someone who comes from the a culture of excellence and 'much will be given; much will be expected'. From today's SPT: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hockey/lightning/article1097857.ece

Since the Davidson family sold the team, the Lightning have gone through ownership groups like Spinal Tap went through drummers. The previous ownership group left the team even more of a mess off the ice than on the ice, and there had to be housecleaning to move forward. Jeff Vinik, the latest in that line of owners, seems to be in it for the long run and willing to give plenty of time to see if the Yzerman era works out. From the palm tree side: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hockey/lightning/by-picking-tampa-bay-yzerman-revives-hockey-faith/1097734

If the back up goalie dresses for the game, it counts as one of the 41 or 1 for cup purposes even if he doesn't get onto the ice during the actual game. Odd to see the question come up because it's been that way as long as I remember.

Seems like the award has turned into who survived the most gory near-death experience. Anyone on the list take a skate to the neck this year? Because that kind of thing is typically a guaranteed win.

From a statistics point of view, a 7% sample size isn't bad.