Cern

I'd say that Winnipeg would make for a better location that Hamilton. Hamilton has both Toronto and Buffalo (hell, even Detroit) within close proximity. Winnipeg is more remote which bodes well for placing teams into untapped markets. I think I posted this in another thread but as a counter to eva unit zero, me and a few guys came up with the setup of cutting the league down to 24 - remove Nashville Columbus Phoenix and Anaheim in the West, Florida Atlanta Tampa and NYI in the East, with one team from each conference relocating instead of disappating. This would leave a potential lineup of PACIFIC Vancouver Calgary Edmonton SJ LA Colorado CENTRAL Detroit STL Chicago Dallas Minnesota (Winnipeg?/Wisconsin?) NORTHEAST Toronto Montreal Ottawa Buffalo Boston (Hartford?/Quebec?/Hamilton?) ATLANTIC NYR NJ Carolina Washington Pittsburgh Philly

Oh god. YOU. WIN.

Thank god. They're going to exhaust one another just in time for the Detroit matchup

His pubey facial hair still makes me laugh

Yep. I remember seeing one clip where he gets love-tapped in the back with a stick and he goes down like he was hit by a car. It's ******* absurd.

Whoever thinks the East series are more entertaining haven't watched the West enough. These last two Dallas/SJ games have been insane.

As long as there are teams that can potentially kick Pittsburgh out on its ass I'll retain interest in the East. If that horse-faced diver gets his name etched on a Cup it'll be the final, confirming piece of evidence that Stanley Cups are all but handed out by the NHL's front office. I'll bet they'll win it in overtime in Game 7 with Crosby scoring the game winning goal. Hey, exactly like the Winter Classic. What a ******* joke.

I'll support anyone that can potentially knock Horse-Face Crosby off the playoff tree. I feel Philly has a better chance of it than Montreal would have, so in that sense I'm kinda happy with the result.

Because they don't fight. Even for Don the xenophobia seems pretty blatant tonight.

Wow, Don flat-out called European players 'rats'

9 goals in a four-game series. Franzen beat a record set by Gordie Howe. Wow. He's ******* EARNED his numbers on my blank jersey.

That's nothing. I have a friend who dosen't follow hockey at all, he thought I was wearing a Flames jersey.

Are you one of those guys who keeps the sticker on the brim of the hat? What the heck is up with that trend, it looks so stupid.

Well, Bettman calls for a sunshine team vs. a canadian team. So it'll be SJ/Dallas vs. Montreal this year.

My best friend is from Texas and she's currently in Austin; she always calls it the state's 'great exception'

Honestly, what annoys me more than Cherry's xenophobia is his increasing dedication of his timeslot spent talking about how unbelievably awesome the armed forces/war is. I need regular reminding that I'm watching hockey and not The National.

This is a city that went into riot mode when Maurice Richard punched a ref in the face. What's going on after the first round is small flies for Montreal. Honestly I imagine it'd probably be worse if the LOST the playoffs instead of winning the cup. In any case this stuff is blown out of proportion and most of it wasn't even done by the fans. Barring a couple people who took excessive advantage of the public situation, this isn't too far removed from the kind of stuff that happens on the Red Mile.

If you're out of Canada just use a Canada-based proxy

Either they're unwilling to pay that much for EVERY time it happens (I imagine they'll increase the fine price after repeated occurances), or they simply don't find it to be that big of a deal.

Has an online petition ever, EVER worked? You wanna target this issue properly, do it at the Joe itself. Swing the octopus over your own head before throwing it onto the ice. Get a plush octopus and swing it over your head during the game. Add a fake 10 000$ cheque to Bettman tied to the octopus when you throw it. If one guy isn't allowed to follow tradition, have several thousand take his place.

Both Kelly and Ron on CBC's 'Behind the Mask' think the restriction is bogus, but they made the good point that riling up the crowd ultimately dosen't win hockey games; if it did the Wings would have won every home playoff game for ages now.

Are you s***ting me? I was about to say he should just do it anyway and take the fine.

I'd say the ideal counter for this is for octopus-throwing fans to swing it around themselves before launching it onto the ice.

Any kind of specification as to how large this 'fine' is?

Lovely, it's only been the intro video-montage and already it's solidly been established as NASHVILLE LOOKING TO LENGTHEN STREAK instead of DETROIT LOOKING TO REGAIN SERIES LEAD.