Nev

Yep, definately Rugby - it has all the physical intensity of the NFL,only without the body armour and constant breaks in play. It would be hard to say which is the toughest Rugby tournament, the Rugby World Cup has too many meaningless games against minnows when there are realistically only 6 teams that can win it. Also, would it be fair to say the NFL has the most rampant drug abuse of any sport anywhere in the world?

Out of all the football leagues, tournaments etc, the Champions League is definately the hardest to win, as proven by the fact that since it was introduced, no team has ever retained the trophy since its inception, whereas in the old European Cup teams regularly won 2 or 3 on the bounce. Even the current Barcelona side, widely hailed as perhaps the greatest club team of all time haven't been able to win back-to-back CLs. I should make clear I'm claiming its as hard physically as the Stanley Cup, or TdF, because it isn't.

You wouldn't give up a borderline NHLer for first dibs on the top FA on the market?

Of the North American sports, its obviously a toss-up between the NFL and NHL. Don't forget the inclement weather that some of those playoff games are played in.....brrrrr! Overall though, I think it would be hard to top the Tour De France. 21 stages in 23 days, 150km+ in the saddle everyday, in baking heat and freezing rain, up the sides of enormous mountains, then down the other side at 50, 60, 70mph with no protection. Broken collarbones are to professional cyclists what missing teeth are to hockey players.

Hey, he's an ass-hat - I never said he wasn't. But to somehow suggest that Orr and his contempories didn't act like this is ridiculous. Difference is that everywhere you go these days you're surrounded by people with cameras that can instantly upload your pics to the internet. Of course, you can suggest that this should make Kane modify his behaviour accordingly, but jocks will be jocks, and always have been,

Hahaha, great tweet and a nice way to lighten up what is an understandably somber and emotional thread.

Well damn. I feared this day after the look of despair on his face in the Nashville series. His departure leaves a far bigger hole than Stevies retirement - Z & Dats had already stepped up to the plate as Stevie slipped down the depth chart. There's a lot of responsibility on Kronwalls shoulders now. :champs: :champs:

Thankyou indeed. For your calmness, your proffesionalism, for bringing the same game night after night after night after night. For never getting injured, and then playing when you were injured. For your outlet pass, for your heads-up slapshot, for your ability to keep the puck in at the blue line better than anyone. For burying the Cherryism that no European captain would ever lift the Stanley Cup. For your arrival which directly coincided with our rise to success, for your departure which now bookmarks what all future generations of Redwings fans will call "The Lidstrom Era". Thankyou for it all. :champs: :champs:

Talk about ice in your veins, pulling a move like that in OT of a Stanley Cup Final game.

Yeah, because players in the 70s never used to get drunk and hit on women. And everyone had camera-phones in those days too, they just chose to respect the privacy of sports stars in that era

That, and they'll probly want the age cutoff where a player hits UFA to be reduced by a year as well. ISTR that was in the last CBA (currently 27? 28?)

I think the league (if not the owners) want to put an end to the decade long, front loaded contracts, which I think is fair enough. Maybe a 7 year limit on contract length? The owners also want to make it easier (and cheaper) to buy a player out - I'm not so keen on that, I think if a GM makes a bad contract he has to learn to pay the consequences. I don't want to see a situataion like the NFL were players are signed and then cut on a whim with little to no damage to the team, and nothing for the player. Obviously revenue split is going to be the big sticking point. Greedy owners always want more, rich players don't want to give any up. Bettman was very clever at the last lockout when put the minimum salary up from $350,000 to $500,000. Approx 40% of the NHLPA are on minimum salary contracts, so thats a large group of players who had a vested intrest in that going through. Don't be surprised to see another increase in minimum salary. edit: And if there is another lockout, then one condition of any agreement is that Bettman MUST go. 3 lockouts on one mans watch is more than enough.

So a younger team that are this seasons favourites for the Stanley Cup have drafted better in recent years than an aging, declining team that is on the verge of a transition? Well no $h!t Sherlock! Also, I'd love to know how many picks they've had as opposed to Detroit in the time frame mentioned. ISTR in the mid-2000s Sather realised his strategy of throwing $$$$ at every UFA in sight wasn't working and started trading players for picks. Wings as a perreniel contender have used picks to acquire players at the deadline - 1st and 4th for Lang, couple of 2nds for Schneider, 2nd and a 4th for Stuart etc So apart from having more draft picks, higher draft picks, and more space on the roster for prospects to progress, yes the Rangers have done a better job.

Maybe in the regular season. But in the playoffs, when it really mattered - well, the numbers speak for themselves. Its just such a shame that the manner of his departure has been allowed to tarnish everything he did as a Wing.

Just wait till he gets elected to the HOF - probly sometime after his 3rd lockout........

I can't deny that. Just wish he'd had the surgery during the regular season.

I don't think his broken ribs would have bothered him all season. I've bust my ribs a couple of times, they don't take that long to heal, and they're not too painful except in certain situations. I doubt he would even have noticed them unless he got hit a certain way.

Much as I dislike Bettman, and think there are a great many legitimate reasons to criticise him, believe you me, he isn't the worst person to be running a major sport We get up in arms about Bettman and the Coyotes and "Colie" and disciplne, and their conflicts of intrest, but they are amateurs in the field of corruption and self intrest compared to these guys.

Isn't it on Eurosport? It always used to be in the past. Alas I only have freeview, so I no longer get Eurosport.

Nice job on ignoring all my qualifiers and adjectives

So on average every team in the league had at least 1 player with more goals than Franzen? Yes I can - and I said his production "wasn't the issue". Maybe I should clarify that. His regular season production is adequate. But given his lack of effort, and the fact that he is playing with one of the elite playmakers in the NHL, what do you think he could achieve if he actually tried on a nightly basis? He is capable of so much more. He's scored 30 goals once. An ancient Brett Hull playing in the dead puck era got 30, 37 and 25 with Datsyuk. An ancient and decrepit Shanny who could barely skate got 40. Hossa (who apparantly didn't "gel" with Dats) got 40. Maybe age, injuries, and wingers who don't pull their weight don't help either? WRONG! People were moaning about his lack of effort all season - and all of last season too. All regualr season it was the same, wait till the playoffs, wait till the playoffs. Well now we've had 2 consecutive playoff no-shows, and 2 consecutive half-assed regular seasons. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail as Roy Keane used to say.

I think it points more to a lack of goalscorers on our team that we think 29 goals is a big deal. Bertuzzi is 37 and a shell of his former self, who generally tries as hard as his old bones will let him, and plays and acts like he actually gives a damn. You reckon? A broken down Cleary (equivalent to a no-effort Franzen) with no real playmaking talent alongside him got what, 11 goals? You may have a point, but whether he is playing in the role of top-line sniper with the elite playmaker feeding him the puck, or 3rd line big-body with the hands to score some goals, he still has to put the effort in!!!!!! His production isn't the problem. His role isn't the problem. His complete lack of effort, lack of accountablity and lack of shame is.

Given that the Jack Adams should be renamed the "coach who for one season got an average team to perform at an above average level and will most likely be out of work in a couple of seasons", then MacLean should be the favourite, although it would be nice to see Hitchcock win it, to make up for the one he didn't win when he was in Dallas. Really, it is the biggest joke of all the NHL awards. How has Pat freakin Burns got more of them than Scotty Bowman? (3 to 2). Quenville more than Babcock? [/rant]

No, I think you're correct WL. As I said in another thread, if we bomb out in Free Agency and miss out on Parise, Suter, Doan etc then next season goes into rebuild mode and we might end up seeing a lot of our youngsters. But be careful what you wish for, we might also see a lot more losing.

This "scapegoating" of Franzen isn't a new thing. People really started to notice his lack of effort in 2010-11. It had been apparent in some games the season before that, but last season was when it really became an issue. Is he the only reason we lost? Of course not. But he is the most under-achieving, least effort-giving floater on this team. If he didn't have one of the hardest working, most insanely talented players you've ever seen on his line do you really think he still could have coasted his way to 29 goals?