Carman

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/399836-angry-chicago-fan-to-file-suit-against-chris-pronger-for-stealing-puck I laughed.

Awesome, 2 year deal shouldmean we got him for a fair price.

He was injured.

Well not all the changes are bad. * Passes from behind the defensive blue line to the attacking blue line will be considered legal. The center red line will be ignored for purposes of the "two line pass". * "The Tag-up Rule" will permit play to continue if offensive players who preceded the puck into the zone return to the blue line and "tag" it. * Icing the puck offenses still will be penalized by a face-off in the defensive zone of the team that ices the puck. * A team that ices the puck cannot make a line change prior to the ensuing face-off. * The neutral-zone edges of the blue lines will be positioned 64 feet from the attacking goal line and 75 feet from the end boards in the attacking zone. The addition of four feet in each of the offensive zones should encourage more offensive play, particularly on power-plays. * The goal lines will be positioned 11 feet from the end boards, two feet closer to the end boards than previously. * The size of the neutral zone will be reduced to 50' from 54'. * The blue lines and center line will remain at 12 inches in width. Are just some of the changes the past couple years that have made hockey "better". In my opinion. I agree I hate the chintzy stick penalities.

I'd rather see Pronger and Philly with the cup then Chicago. Pronger winning a Conn Smythe won't put his career over Lidstrom's anyways. At least not with level headed fans.

I don't agree that the game has been as "bastardized" as you state.

Now I see wherein your point of view really does stand. How are they screwing the loyal ones? What is the definition of a "loyal" fan? Am I not loyal? I have a shared season ticket package even though I'm still paying my way through college? I've played hockey my whole life, I even played in a semi professional league. I love the game of hockey, and I want it to be a successful sport that can capture the world. A sport has to be a corporation or else it's just not going to survive. Is every other major sport ruined now because they are "Americanized"? You seem to just want the game of hockey to be a niche sport of a couple teams and just never grow. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree if that's the case.

I fail to see the problem with most of the points you've made. The scoring is not even close to what it was in the mid 80's early 90's. The game has to evolve rule wise, I really don't have an issue with the game itself besides the hooking penalties and shootouts so I understand where you're coming from. But you have to make sacrifices to insure a future product, a league isn't just going to survive on past models/success. Hockey is growing as a sport, and in order to grow you have to adjust the game. Every sport has had to change, hockey is not going to be any different. Marketing is about creating and promoting to new fans, not to cater to the fan that has been watching his whole life. And the league needs new fans in order to grow and be successful, it seems to me a necessary "evil". As long as they don't completely change the on-ice product(ban fighting etc.) I'm ok with almost anything they do to get new fans. I don't get why people hate the new "bandwagon" fans. As a fan you have to start off at some point, and even though they may be annoying there is still a chance as the season's go by that they will learn the nuances and tradition of the game and become great and loyal fans. And to me that's what a "marketing" campaign should do.

I'll take exception to this statement. Saying other people aren't "real hockey fans" is just a lame excuse instead of just facing the fact that other people have a different opinion on the representation of a player that practically no one here has a direct connection to in the real world. If you think I don't understand hockey because I happen to enjoy watching a hockey player rack up 500 points before he's 22 then you are strongly mistaken.

Well atleast we can say that there are bad calls in every sport.

I don't get why the first reply had to jab at Bettman/Pittsburgh. On to the topic at hand it's great the see the game starting to draw in the ratings, it's definitely good news that the game is growing.

The statistic that stands out to me is how much the Wings draw when they play away, 98%!

Oh agreed I have them both much higher then those numbers. I was merely making an example. Both are part of the elite of their positions.

Depends on how much you value a certain position. (Just for example off points) Is the 24th best foward better than the 9th best defenseman?

They won't have the excuses I gave them last year now.

Good post, although I would caution you on taking some posters too seriously . Remember that the people that aren't happy are usually much louder then the people who are

Playing Devil's advocate. Well when I play hockey I tend to spit everywhere and not even realize it, it's not the right thing to do, but it's not like he spit at a player. And the puck thing is a move to get under the skin of the opposition. It's pretty low, but it's nothing completely outrageous. He's playing the media and trying to throw Chicago off. It's about the only chance he has to win the Stanley Cup.

Let me put on my cool face. Problem officer?

Pronger is such a good troll. He's played very well too.

Actually I do think the Red Wings have enough talent for a championship. Kronwall will need to take a big leap and hopefully our roster can stay healthier. Red Wings showed that they can still be dominate when healthy(key word). I really think we have better odds if we just make small editions rather then completely turning over the roster and essentially guess that Babcock can create chemistry with free agents( which doesn't usually pan out).

Great job by the marketing team. Good idea to change it up a little.

Yeah he does get 2 minutes less PP time on average then other 90+ point players. Would be interesting to see how he would do, then again a lot of his points do come off the transition after a great back check by him.

Well Montreal did do well in the playoffs and have a rabid fan base. If Toronto wasn't the worst team in the league I could see them getting there instead though. I don't think it's too bad, I guess I'd prefer to see Vancouver in there though but we'll see next year.

He's great, but I don't see him improving from his 08-09 97 point year. Hopefully he can put up 90+ numbers this year if the top 6 can stay healthy.

Guess that wasn't clear enough. Sorry your comprehension is lacking. What I meant to convey was his comment on the "casual" hockey fan barely existing being wrong, not if who gets chosen to play in the actual game is fair.