octopusonice

To me, the bigger frustration is that hockey coverage overall has declined. First we were reduced to watching VS, now you cannot get it if you have Direct TV. If that wasn't enough, my roomies have decided to get ultra-basic cable, so I'm pretty much limited to watching when NBC covers it, camping out in sports bars or watching over the net on my dinosaur computer. I think I share a lot of the same problems that everyone else has with ESPN. Heaven help you if you're not a Yankees/Red Sox fan during baseball season, but that's another rant for another day, and as I said earlier, I don't even get ESPN, so griping about them is wasted effort. It's definitely going to be a challenge to stay in the loop with hockey this season, but at least I have the internet.

What's the 'dick move'? I thought Chicago traded him to Detroit. If he left the Hawks for greener pastures and signed as a free agent with the Wings, I could see what you mean.

The only way around this would be to have cable and Direct TV at your home--not cheap. I wish there was a way to get the channel a la carte, without having to buy a package. I thought some games were available online. Maybe this is the only alternative or would you be able to get it on NHL Center Ice?

If any area is considered a plausible alternative to Detroit as Hockeytown, it's certainly not Pittsburgh. I am willing to give them props for winning the Cup and turning around a franchise that was about to call in the moving vans, but from a cultural standpoint, football is what dominates that area. Western Pennsylvania/Eastern Ohio is a big-time football region. In fact, it's where American football originated. It goes back to the days of the Allegheny Athletic Association. Think of some the great players from that area like Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino and Johnny Unitas, and that's just the quarterbacks! There's also the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the history and tradition of the Steelers, the terrible towels and the Steel Curtain. I'll give the Pens their due, but there's no way that a couple of Cup Finals appearances, with one Cup, trumps the influence of football on that region.

>>>You can make the uni's more appealing but still use the colors. You're right. I didn't have a problem with the unis the Padres wore from 85-90. They used the white at home, gray for the road and the numbers were brown with orange trim. Nothing wrong with those. But please, no brown tops or an entire uni in mustard yellow. I don't want to get a headache watching the team play. >>>Anyhow, the original Sabres logo, the second (white buffalo head) logo, ANYTHING but the buffaslug! Yes. Agreed. The Buffalo with the two swords or the black and red with the buffalo head are better than the slug.

The Padres have used navy blue since 1991, so it's not a new thing for them. They substituted the sand color for orange in 2004. Whatever color they have now is definitely an improvement over the Taco Bell unis they used to have with brown, orange and gold. Almost no one wants to see those again. Also, I would like to see them use the sand color as a trim color instead of making the enire road unis in that color.

As long as the Wings make it into the playoffs solidly (no 'backing in') they have a shot to win the Cup. This team still has a solid roster in spite of the loss of free agents. I'll take their playoff experience over anyone else's. The reality is that KH's hands were tied and there wasn't much he could do under the circumstances. To sign a big name person at a big name salary would have meant mortgaging the future. I would rather see the team risk not going as far in 2009-10 than to bet everything on the next season and be in salary cap hell for five years. After the 2009-10 season, it looks like some cap room will open up and KH will have more options. Hopefully the next cap stays about the same.

The one that puzzles me the most is the Sharks. It's an interesting paradox. Yeah, I'm intimidated by the sharp teeth and the efficiency with which a shark kills its prey, but how are you going to win the friggin game with a broken hockey stick?

That's Rick Jeanneret, who has been doing Sabres games since the wheel was invented. edit: spelling

Too bad this happened to Cheli. The forty-something in me was rooting for him. It does make things more interesting as far as rounding out the roster goes.

That's pretty neat that you got a chance to do that. I haven't seen any hockey teams in training camp, but I have seen the Chargers do their training camp a couple of times out here in San Diego.

He's in good company: Ernie Davis, Reggie Jackson, George Gervin, Henry Aaron all wore that number.

I'm OK with it, except for the numbers. It should be solid white with red outlines, so that it is easier to see from the nosebleeds.

I would choose Montreal because of the tradition, but if Quebec secedes, they will have to change the logo to a Q.

Is it Andrew Siciliano?

While there are affluent fans, I think there's some truth to what you say. Part of the latest stadium/arena building craze the last decade has been to add more luxury suites. As a result it attracts people who are more interested in entertaining clients and writing it off, than getting into the game. Some of that mindset I think, carries over into the regular ticketed sections.

A couple of things I had forgotten: 1. Wings-Avs was once a rivalry 2. The teams wearing white jerseys at home; dark on the road. It was strange to see someone in red score a goal without the cheer from the crowd and the horn blasts.

Second

Interesting that there's a 'poison pill' provision to discourage the Jets from trading him to Minnesota. If they did, they have to give up three first rounders: http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8...mp;confirm=true (4th paragraph)

Holy moly, that's got good detail! When I was scrolling through this topic, initially, I thought this was a real photo of Lids.

You are no more informed to be supportive of Brett Favre, than I am to be critical of him. Although I do not have insider access to this saga, I am still entitled to form an opinion on it. Life is not something that you live in a vacuum simply because you don't have first hand knowledge about everything you observe. I didn't know George Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, George W. Bush, Al Gore or John Kerry personally. I did not participate in their campaigns, nor did I know their mindsets. Yet myself and millions of others had the audacity to vote for some of these people (and by implication we voted against the others, thus 'passing judgement' on them) in presidential elections. Just as I don't watch All My Children or Days of Our Lives, I probably will quit watching ESPN for awhile. edit: clarity

Good points. Part of the reason this is a media circus is because of the media itself. Favre is the only group of those players to waffle on retirement, however. Favre's actions have put the Packers in an untenable situation, because if they are to go with Favre, then when he finally does retire (for real this time), Rodgers will likely be disgruntled and leave when his contract is up and Green Bay will have to do a bigger rebuild.

My remarks were more along the line that Favre is always going to come up with an excuse for why he has to delay his decision (and the ensuing media circus) on an annual basis. It makes you wonder what are the excuses in 2009 or 2010 going to be? I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about his wife; I will not give him the benefit of the doubt the other times. When he does it this often, and when he can't make up his mind, he begins to look more like someone who needs public attention than someone who is legitimately contemplating their options. As long as he can walk, he's going to keep doing this until he's 50, or until the public sentiment is so high against him that he stops doing it. I have watched football for over 30 years and have followed the stories of many football greats contemplate retirement: Staubach, Bradshaw, Montana, Young and Elway to name a few. All are comparable (some perhaps are greater) in their iconic status to Favre; none of them manipulated the media as much and none of them had the drama that Favre does.

Shoreline, All I am is a person writing in an online forum. Nothing I write, supportive or otherwise, is going to have any effect on Brett Favre or his decision making process. You say he's indecisive, I say he's a guy that has to always be in the spotlight, and can't let go of it, now that he is facing the end of his athletic career. Well, I've rarely seen an athlete make a soap opera out of his career decisions. Whatever disdain his detractors have for him is his own damn fault. I can't even watch training camp coverage of my favorite NFL team without it being interrupted by inconsequential news about what Favre is doing next: (No news from Favre, Favre is getting on a plane, Favre just got a Big Mac, Favre just combed his hair). For awhile, the guy had his own section on the crawl at the bottom of the screen on ESPN2. Totally ridiculous. If knowing someone personally is a criterion for having an opinion about them then you can't say anything good about them either, because you also probably don't know him. You might as well not have elections, courtroom juries or this forum for that matter. All involve one group of people forming opinions about other people that they do not know personally.