bonan78

This incident was suspension-worthy, but I admit that 4 games is excessive. Definitely a cheap-shot, definitely intent to injure, Carcillo had his glov es off and was cocked and ready before Bradley was even facing him, and while Bradley clearly was getting ready to defend himself, Carcillo was obviously trying to get the drop on him rather than a clean fair fight. And also for those comparing this to McCarty/Lemieux, two major differences: 1) In the 'bloodbath', McCarty was already squaring off with another Avs player when he saw Lemieux skating in his direction and decided to go after him instead. 2) D-Mac still had his glove on when he got the first shot in on Lemieux. Obvious bias aside (I cheered my head of when D-Mac pounded on The Turtle), there is a degree of honor involved with fighting in the NHL as a rule, and Carcillo showed a complete lack of it in this situation. Again, suspension worthy for sure, but 4 games is excessive and shows a glaring lack of consistently on the part of Campbell and the disciplinarians at NHL HQ.

Draper is our new offensive superstar...yikes. BTW, love the NCAA-style cage Eaves is sporting

Portland. Here's why: 22nd largest TV market in the US (ahead of Raleigh, Nashville, Columbus, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh) Only one other pro sports team to compete with locally Relatively new arena that holds 17,544 for hockey Far enough from nearby existing markets (San Jose and Vancouver) to worry about competing for fans, but close enough to create a rivalry But most of all, if they put another team in the West, they might move the Red Wings to the East where they belong.

Looking forward to a solid performance by Howard, really excited to see Kindl's debut, and hopefully the backup goalie for the Oilers (whatever his ridiculously long French hyphenated last name is) will break the curse of the backups looking like all-stars against us. 5-2 Red Wings Zetterberg, Leino (fingers crossed), Datsyuk x2, Abdelkader Kindl gets a PP assist and is -1 Who cares who scores for Edmonton, I can't really think of anyone who plays for them that isn't injured.

He's Czech

Nice!!!!

I love this Miller kid!!!!!

Love it, the refs invent new penalties on the fly, no longer masking their irrational prejudice against the Red Wings.

Blasphemy ...oh wait, I see what you did there

If not for my deep-seated hatred for the Yankees, I would say why not. I wouldn't want Steinbrenner to buy the Islanders, though, because I work for Charles Wang, and even though he has made some poor management choices, he is 100% committed to his franchise and making it successful again. It would be cool to see pinstriped sweaters, I just couldn't stand to see the Yankees logo on the ice, I can't watch hockey and fight the gag reflex at the same time.

Because San Jose is a great hockey market, they have a loyal fan base in the Bay area as well as across the country, and the franchise is not struggling I am moving teams based on interest and financial stability, I just included the past success as in indicator of both. The Hurricanes are not struggling financially and have a rabid fan base, as do the Ducks and Stars, which is in large part due to the fact that the franchises have been successful on the ice in the recent past Based on what? Nashville can't even get the name sponsor of their stadium to pay their bills on time, whereas the Islanders have an owner who has deep pockets and only has threatened to move the franchise in an effort to rally support for a badly needed new stadium My plan is actually the result of the combined thoughts of about 15 of my co-workers and I, but since I am the only Red Wings fan in the group, I am the only one posting it here. I don't know if they belong to any forums, but you may see similar plans posted on boards for the Penguins, Habs, Leafs, Rangers, Devils, Bruins, Sabres, and Blackhawks. The company I work for is directly involved in the sports marketing field, so not only is everyone here a sports fan, but very knowledgeable about the business of sports. We came up with a plan that would get NHL teams out of struggling markets and into markets where hockey is a more natural fit (climate wise), have the necessary infrastructure to support a professional franchise (Kansas City has a stadium built that is just waiting for a tenant, SLC , Milwaukee and Portland have facilities that could easily accommodate hockey) and would not alienate fans of teams that have thrived despite not being in what most would consider "hockey markets". All right, I'll concede you that point, mainly because reading it makes me dizzy. But don't you realize that the NHL already has teams playing each other an odd number of times, last time I checked 1 is an odd number. Points are points, the only situation in which your scenario would apply is if there were a tie in the standings, in which case there are a number of tie-breakers, which according to NHL.com are as follows: Division leaders are seeded 1, 2, and 3 in Conference standings. If two or more clubs are tied in points during the regular season, the standing of the clubs is determined in the following order: * The fewer number of games played (i.e., superior points percentage). * The greater number of games won. * The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs. If two clubs are tied, and have not played an equal number of home games against each other, points earned in the first game played in the city that had the extra game shall not be included. If more than two clubs are tied, the higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs, and not including any "odd" games, shall be used to determine the standing. * The greater differential between goals for and against for the entire regular season.

Here's my proposed expansion/realignment plan, I already put this in another thread a while ago, but just to recap: Two Expansion teams, one in Toronto and one in Montreal (we all know both of those markets could support a second team) All "Southern" teams that have not won a Stanley Cup get relocated (Atlanta, Florida, LA, Nashville, Phoenix) move them to the following cities arbitrarily: Portland, OR; Winnipeg, MB; Salt Lake City, UT; Kansas City, MO; Milwaukee, WI 4 divisions of 8 teams apiece, conferences composed of divisions 1 & 2, 3 & 4 as listed below Division #1 (call it the Atlantic, Eastern, whatever): NY Rangers NY Islanders New Jersey Philadelphia Boston Washington Carolina Tampa Bay Division # 2 (call it the Northern, Northeast, whatever): Montreal Montreal Toronto Toronto Buffalo Pittsburgh Columbus Ottawa Division # 3 (call it the Central, Midwest, whatever): Detroit Chicago Milwaukee St. Louis Kansas City Winnipeg Dallas Minnesota Division # 4 (call it the Western, Pacific, whatever): Vancouver Edmonton Calgary Portland San Jose Anaheim Salt Lake City Colorado Increase the schedule to 84 games, each team plays non-conference teams twice a season (home & away), plays non-division teams in the same conference 3 times, and division teams 4 times each. Same playoff structure I also propose that the shootout be extended to best of 5 shooters, I like the shootout but they are over too quickly IMO.

Finally, Babcock is mixing things up, Miller on Zetterberg's wing, he definitely earned that tonight.

Typo, or dating advice??

It's on NHL Network, which you should have already if you have CI. It should be either channel 289 or 822 on Comcast

I am a Red Wings fan first, a hockey fan 2nd. The only way I would stop pulling fr the Red Wings is if by some cruel twist of fate they ceased to exist, then I would have no choice but to find a new team. Since I know that would never happen, there is no way I would allow myself to cheer less for my favorite team in any sport just because they are struggling. In fact, I think I would cheer even harder during the lean years because deep down I would know that it would make the successful times that much sweeter. I guess it's the optimist in me, but I could not change loyalties for any reason than the complete lack of existence of the object of said loyalty.

As others have said, it's a good thing because he is developing a physical side to his game that we have never seen before (i.e the Ovechkin hit), but at the same time it's a sad commentary because the forwards that are supposed to be our best (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen) have been battling injuries, or just haven't really found their game yet. I hope Filppula continues to play well, especially with Leino, those two seem to have a sixth sense for each other out there, much like Datsyuk and Zetterberg have had, but I recognize that for the Red Wings to be successful, Datsyuk and Zetterberg have to step up and play like the MVP candidates they are capable of being.

I really hope Datsyuk can go tonight, because the though of Williams on the first line is frightening. I would rather see Babcock split up Filppula and Leino and risk losing the chemistry they have than see Jason Williams AND Todd Bertuzzi on the first line, YUK.

I work for NHL GameCenter, in technical support. If anyone reading this thread has specific questions about it, please PM me, as I see incorrect information posted in here already (the one month option, for example, which does not exist).

If you are still having problems, PM me. I work in support for GameCenter. We probably haven't gotten to your email yet because there are so many.

I agree with the minimal expansion/realignment strategies, here's my scenario: I took all of the southern teams and moved the ones that have never won a cup (Florida, Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix, and LA) and sent them packing for colder weather. I added two expansion teams, again in natural hockey markets, and I eliminated the Eastern/Western conferences and made 4 8-team divisions, based more loosely on geography. Here are the divisions: -Western Division- Anaheim San Jose Portland Vancouver Calgary Edmonton Colorado Salt Lake City -Midwest Division- Dallas Minnesota Milwaukee Winnipeg Kansas City Chicago Detroit St. Louis -Northeast Division- Montrealx2 Torontox2 Ottawa Buffalo Columbus Pittsburgh -Eastern Division- Boston Tampa Bay Carolina Washington New York Rangers New York Islanders New Jersey Devils Notice I said "loosely" based on geography, because I wanted to keep Detroit in the same division as the Blackhawks for rivalry purposes (I mean, they kept the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East to maintain the rivalries with the Giants and Redskins), I could care less about other team's rivalries. Drop the schedule from 82 games to 80 (who came up with an 82-game schedule anyway), each team plays the teams in their division 6 times, the neighboring division twice (i.e. Western vs. Midwest, Northeast vs. Eastern) and then the remaining 16 teams once per season. Playoffs are seeded 1-16 based on record, the division champs getting the first 4 seeds, then each of the remaining teams by overall record. That way, there could conceivably be a Stanley Cup Finals matchup between division rivals. See the attached map for details on the alignment (I reassigned the teams arbitrarily, and put expansion teams in Toronto and Montreal, two huge hockey markets that could easily support a second team).

Thanks to Holmstrom, I now have something positive to associate with the phrase "Demolition Man" Nothing more *** than a Stallone movie with a blond Wesley Snipes.

as usual, atdhe.net has a link

Again, let me defend GameCenter Live. I work for the company that maintains the service for the NHL, and all of last season there were a total of 2 times that the streams went bad and it was actually our fault. The blackouts are determined by TV markets, and have not changed, nor will they until the league signs a new contract with the TV networks. I understand that people are entitled to their opinions, but none of what has been said about GameCenter in this thread is true. Yes, it costs about $170, but it does work as advertised, and there is always live support available during games, by phone or email. I am not trying to persuade anyone in either direction, but I need to clear up the misinformation.

+1 They look great playing together. Looking forward to watching them again tonight. Flip had 20+ minutes last night, and they have him on the 1st line tonight, let's see how his conditioning holds up. I'll be watching on ATDHE