Hossa7.4

the tv schedule in the first round, it's not like we're the defending champs or anything. it's marketing, despite the fact the 1.5million can show up for a parade in Detroit and 18,000 for an arena parking lot cup celebration when the arena parking lot team wins there is new-found excitment, t-shirts, jersey sales and merchandise goes way up, (it's always strong in hockey hot-beds like Detroit) and there is increase season ticket purchases for next year, and the chance that the hockey market in Carolina or Anaheim will grow. (which it won't see: Carolina) after a year or so the stanley cup fever will die down like in Carolina but there's just a chance that it could turn the market around. the wings have been great for 15 years at least, this is in stark contrast to the "everybody can win the cup, rotate the championship every year, salary cap , socialised world" or professional (north) american sports. the league hates that the wings are successful, they are a guaranteed market and the West's cash cow already, carolina, anaheim, phoenix, nashville aren't. it's really quite simple.

really? are you sure? this would be to the detriment of the Wings, especially against the Sucks. I've never understood why people feel there should be two sets of rules in hockey, one for the playoffs and one for the regular season. calling true penalties will benefit the more skilled team which is Detroit.

and then work on getting every hockey fan the ability to actually get NHL Network. especially ones who live in supposed hockey states like Wisconsin.

OMFG, a guy like chris pronger can elbow someone in the head from behind giving him a concussion (as a repeat offender as well) and get one game but don't trash talk you bad boys, give me a flipping break!! this league is really going downhill, check that, has been going downhill and I didn't think they could go any further. what a politically correct joke. and to all you people just relax, this kind of stuff truly does go on, at all levels of hockey, it's small potatos compared to the cheap shots that are meant to actually injur a player.

yes, Comcast owns Versus (should've just called Comcast sports Network, seems more legit to me) and Comcast also owns the Flyers, hence the reason for all the flyer games during the season and general east coast bias.

is there a free stream out there or only something you have to pay for?

I agree with everything you said, I also think it's the fact that we've been so good for so long -- that does take some of the "shine" off of things. If we hadn't been in the PO's for 10 years people would be more excited. Guaranteed. People trying to twist this into a Euro thing or no fighting thing are just playing politics. another thing that really bothers me is the JLA offered Jacket Backers **discounted** tickets to this game but the Wings organisation can't do that for it's own fans? How many people showed up for the free SC parade last year, 1.5 million? Don't tell me Detroit doesn't love their Wings. Better than 18,000 in the area parking lot like some franchises.

like anyone in Wis. that has crappy Charter cable, (one of the 2 largest cable providers in the state) ---- they don't offer it, don't even offer MLB extra innings for instance. This years PO's are shaping up as pretty bad for some. Red Wings fans.

some people live in apartments that face north or east and don't have the required southwest exposure making a sat. dish impossible. I really don't understand why some people just don't understand that some can't get a dish or can't get NHL Network???? Why jump to conclusions?

but VS is only set to show ONE game between Mont. and Bos, this is rediculous as this is a historically important matchup and a bitter rivalry going back generations. But then again in the new NHL history doesn't mean anything so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. so if you're in America outside of Michigan and without Center Ice and a Wings fan you're pretty much screwed. You'd think the league would give the defending champs a little more r-e-s-p-e-c-t

is this real or a joke?

so an MLS team has 15 sq inches of an ad on their jersey and that ruins it for you? every team has a crest/symbol and colors that are emblematic of their jerseys. That's the identity. There are no ads all over the field and NO commercials or timeouts during play. That's the flip side and benefit. You may not like it but that's the way it is , and there is an upside. what history and tradition in hockey are you talking about? they didn't have ads all over the ice or on the boards in Howes day so what tradition are you talking about? If there were ads on NHL jerseys there is no way it'd look like the Czech players and this would not stop people from buying them, they buy them now because it's what the players wear. and how would they all of a sudden look alike? You mean detroit wouldn't have red and white and edmonton wouldn't have blue jerseys because there'd be an ad on them? makes no sense whatsoever.

yeah , the nerve of soccer to show to 45min halves without commercials and get the game over in 2 hours without a bunch of crap and ads all over the field.

but that's not really the whole story, they may have ads on their jerseys but at least there are no TV commercial breaks, like the Olympics. There's a better flow to the game. Hockey isn't the worst sport in America for commercials for sure but I do find it interesting that the "threat" of an ad on the jersey causes such a harsh reaction when American sports are so commercialised it's gotten rediculous. How long does it take to play the last min. of a basketball game? Many NFL games are longer than 3 hours nowadays. How about when a team kicks an extra point in football and they take a commercial and come back and have the kickoff and then take another commercial break?

that's too bad IMO. If the Wings could have an ice surface wider would people think this could be a good thing in terms of uniquneness and home ice advantage?

I'd be curious to find out your opinions. If they would build a new arena would it be possible to have the ice surface olympic size? is this even allowed in the NHL bylaws? I think it would benefit the skating and puck possesion , skill - style of the red wings not to mention it would be a real home ice advantage if we would build the team around fast , skating players, even more so than we have now. It would be unique amongst the NHL rinks and prove to be a real home advantage IMO. not sure if this is even allowed but think of the old barns like the Gardens (TO, Bos) and Chicago stadium. (I know, different dimensions than talked about here). I also understand some of the advantage was the closeness of the fans and how loud the arenas could be. some of the clutch grab teams like Calgary or Anaheim would really struggle on such a surface - again for a team like Detroit it would be a real advantage. I like the wider surface so I suppose I'm biased and would like to have seen many of the new areas buit this way and understand that in multi-use facilities basketball is a consideration but I don't even think that'd be one here. I also think it's unfortunate that the coming Olympics are going to be played on NHL size ice, this was one of the real differences between the 2 types of hockey. any thoughts?

I was one of the few that thought of Gordie right away, and then Cheli if this was for active only. IMO the "article" was right on about Gordie in that he just didn't hang on collecting points as a sideshow. He often finished in the top ten in points league wide when he was in his 40's. He deserved to be on the ice. His longevity was one of his greatest attributes and something he had a ton more than Lemieux and Gretzky. This is one of the reasons I feel he is still underrated to this day. He was a complete player with amazing longevity and I still have him at #1 all time. What's one of the main arguments people bring up for Mario being better than Gretzky? If Mario had stayed healthy, if , if , if , well , IMO we have had that. That player was Howe. He was not only incredibly talented, he was healthy and had the best longevity of anybody to play the game.

when your method of fighting is punching a guy in the butt it doesn't matter if you are wearing a visor or not.

he called Moen's ex-girlfriend "sloppy seconds"

and the answers coaches and players give are all cliches as well. I wish they wouldn't do it at all. "well, we got to play better, get some shots on net, come out skating hard, blah blah blah, "

did you read the rest of his post that you quoted. He said it only happened twice since the lockout so the feeling is the odds are tremendously against it. I don't see it happening either.

chicago sports fans are very annoying... and bitter. but there is a very long - standing hatred from the blues fans. probably coming from all those PO defeats. One of Yzermans greatest moments surly was the double OT GWG when Gretzky was on thier team. How sweet that was! could anybody recap what went on during the game to cause this thread? I don't get to see too many games. Thanks.

there's good news in all of this. Crosby has announced that his prostrate is fine and there will be no charge for the examination. Sidney Crosby: solving the health care crisis one game at a time.

I turned on the Bruins v. Laughs game in the 3rd period and found the hockey difficult to watch becuase of the crazy camera work during the game. I would say about 40% of the time the puck wansn't even in the field of view. Other times when the Bruins would be skating the puck down the left wing side they would be so closely zoomed in you could only see literally 1/3 of the ice. The player would make a centering pass and you couldn't tell if or how many players were there in support of the play. In general they are constantly zooming in and out and of course in the middle of something they'll change to a close-up shot and ruin the flow so you can't tell what's going on out there. The camera was also unsteady like the cameraman had too much coffee as well. why can't they just back off and show the flow of the game and how the play develops? Is it always like this on Versus? I was amazed at the poor production of the game. Also I notice that the volume all of sudden gets quiter and then louder and I'm constantly messing with my remote. It was like that last year as well. Anybody else notice this? Do you also find it annoying?