Opie

A TV show put on by the Boston Herald was just mocking Bettman and the League for the suspensions of Datsyuk and Lidstrom. This is not going to look good for the league, I am not sure if should be happy that this happened and make Bettman look bad, or be upset at the fact that this is yet another shot in the arm of the NHL.

Penalize a player a regular season game, for missing an exhibition game fluff session. Makes perfect cent$ to me

I have injured my hip flexor and you know what, standing is a pain in your ass, well hip actually, sitting is a pain in your ass, the only thing that doesn't aggravate it is laying down!! Riding in a plane is not going to help, standing around for hours on end is not going to help. Why not say everyone voted (fans or players) has to go to the meet and greets. It is the same if they were injured yesterday or 6 months ago. Show up and shake hands with your broken ankle, dislocated shoulder, whatever your ailment be there, just to shake hands though not play. F*&K the ASG, just have a mites tourney instead

Are you trying to compare playing injured in a regular season game to a F-ing exhibition ASG?? Really the two are similar to you? Hmm playing injured to help your team secure home ice throughout the playoffs (which proved to be helpful last season) is the same as playing injured or having ride in a plane for a exhibition game and some handshakes, really? Hmm interesting!

Are you sure the contracts are not overseen by the NHL, I do believe the team draws up the contract, negotiates with the players to term and length but the contract is with the team, not the NHL. It may be a contract that has to be approved by the league but that is to keep fair play. Right that is why the NHLPA is there to make sure the League is not favoring the Owners and the BOG is there for visa versa? At least that was my understanding, if not than I retract my last statement and just say that if I call out sick, no matter what is going on my employer can not force me to show up. They can put parameters around when I must call out by, which is similar to what is going on here. But I still think it is a BS suspension.

Yes but the players are what brought the game to this level, if not for great players doing great things in the regular season the league let alone the asg would be moot. Dats and Lids are employed by the Red Wings therefore you comparison of you and the players is incorrect. The NHL is the league, sort of like the SEC oversees the stock market, but if I am a trader on the floor I work for Fidelity not the SEC. My commitment is to my employer, if they ask me to attend I can say no, but I know the risks. If I am the best trader in the world and the SEC wants me to speak at a convention and I say no, they have no jurisdiction or right to punish.

Amen, brother!! OR Get rid of the whole thing altogether! ASGs were great before the advent of Cable and internet streaming. It was done so that fans from all parts of the country could see the best players play. Now if you want to see the best players play, you can find a way. I hate all ASGs/Pro bowls/ exhibitions in F-ing Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka wants the best players in the world to play at their rinks, I have an idea. Go out, get a s*** load of sponsors and start your own league, when it is better than the NHL the players will show up and people in Sri Lanka can watch the best players in the world, until then shut you cake-hole and buy center ice.

What is all of this crap about suspending Brodeur he didn't miss either game around the ASG. How can the league lie like that and reporters not call them out. Brodeur started the game before and the game after the ASG and Tim Thomas took his place at the ASG?? WTF???

BULLs***!!! Come'on duck guy, players bail on this every year, no one that I have ever heard of got suspended a game because of it. I asked the question earlier, didn't Ralf go last year because of Personnal reasons for another player? How did Neids end up their, because people backed out. Whether the injury is 3 weeks, 3 days, or 3 minutes before the game, these players have a responsibility to their team. If Dats or Lids feel they can not go at 100% and don't want to go to shake a bunch of hands it is their right. What if a guy gets in a car accident on his way to Montreal, the hospital won't let him leave, yet he is cleared to play the next day, is he suspend able after the ASG too? NOWHERE in the CBA does it say attendance is mandatory, Bettman is suspending them based off of an understanding! Lets take a look at Dats, he didn't finish last game due to injury, yet he is suspended for the game he gets back??? What the F**K is that. He missed time in his last game due to injury. It is not like all of the sudden this popped up like Lids.

And a well worded opinion at that. I may not be the biggest fight fan on these boards, but my distaste for it comes from the Goons. I love watching Lucic skate around the ice, the plays he makes, his fighting his whole style of play really. But to piggy back off of you point and some one else's; Boulerice is bad for the game, the players, and the league, as the game stands today. You remove the instigator and let him try his s*** then. The reason that a Probie fight was great is there was something to it, either from that game or the last game, but some one did something they shouldn't have and Probie let them know. How many times did Probie drop gloves with some one for no reason. Even the Kocur fight, IMO, was to show Kocur that he was still the man! But I agree you remove fighting and teams that are outmatched on the ice will start to do what they can to win. Lets say that last years Flyers with no fighting in the game, they goon their way to the cup with 1 good line, and a bunch of goons. cheapshotting and dirty hits galore. Possible but not probable. BTW Enforcer/Fighter does not = goon!

Just so you know, I wholeheartedly hate the instigator rule!!!

Or the "Wind at his back" move in the WC or absolutely owning Sydor the last time they played to create the Homer tap in.

Again for me it is the whole package, those games had some of the hardest hits, best fights, best players, great goaltending, out and out hatred for each other, coaches going at it, and more often than not whomever won the playoff round out of the two hoisted the cup. I love a good fight, when I lived in Maine and saw the Lewiston Maineiacs play they would clear the benches almost every night. It was exciting it was fun, but most importantly is was done because some one took a cheapshot. It wasn't a fight for the sake of fighting. Much like what you referenced above. But like I said in my response about Mac, fighting is great but not the only reason for hockey being exciting. Were the fights the only reason that the Avs Wings a must watch, really, just the fighting?

Yeah there was reason to go, to see Mac make his comeback, a fan favorite who (at the time) was a big part of 3 cups, had just about thrown his career away, and now was working his ass off to make it back on a team. He provided something different, instead of going to see the Wings (odds are) win another game ho hum, there was no reason for people in the poorest city in the US (or worst economic crunch whatever) to spend the extra $$$. Mac was making his comeback, it was a big night for a guy who was a fan fav. It wasn't solely the fact that he might fight, in fact the odds of him fighting in that game were low. I love how some people think fighting and fighting only is the reason for empty or full seats, there is more than one impacting factor here. Did the place sell out for Downey's first game? No, why, because the cost of going to the games (esp in Det) was not viable for a lot of people. Mac didn't just represent a potential fight, there were so many reasons to be there rooting for Mac, hoping he would fight was probably one of the reasons, but not the only.

10 years is scary, have any of the LONG term deals worked out for the team yet. I can think of Dipietro and Vinny as two that suck the bag for the team, any that actually look good for that length?

So a player can so "No, I have a planned family trip" and miss it with no problems, but an injury is a problem?????? Correct me if I am wrong but didn't some one last year skip out for family reasons and that is how Ralf got in??

ME!!!

Very, Very True and I am a Sammy supporter!! Russian 5 with out a doubt, the D was better. fetisov and Lids wash in my bood, Vlad >>>>>>>> Kronner. The forwards were sick, Feds, Professor, and Kozlov!!! HOLY SHAT!!! No slam to the Swedish 5, but Holmer is no match for Kozlov, Kozlov was deadly all over the ice, wicked wicked wrister/snap shot whatever that shot from the face off circle was. The professor was well the professor, he was just that good.

You could call him Fern I guess, but I doubt he would like it. Does that make Babs Charlotte??????? Think about the way he talks about Sammy!! Now I am a Sammy defender, but Babs and I differ on how good he really is!

LOL!!! or maybe the Runt Wilbur!! (Sorry for those of you not from America, Wilbur was a reference to the book Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, Wilbur was a runt pig saved by the farmers daughter from early termination, so to speak)

WOW Really that is what you came up with, well played sir! Moving on, I never said he doesn't deserve the Hall or that he would not get in, I said I didn't think he was Hall of Fame, that was my opinion. I am just defending it in a debate with a few posters. In my opinion his numbers and two great years (1 I have admitted was UNREAL) are not HOF worthy. Same for Neely, and he is in the hall, I think Dino deserves it and he is not. I am ok with that it is life, I am ok with other people having different opinions. Just defending mine and debating others.

Could very well be, but like I said, there are people in the Hall already I don't think should be. Everyone in the hall of fame has a Stanley cup? No we've already proven that people can get it with no cups, so why then would it be a deciding factor? NorrisNick, thanks for adding so much, you're a tool.

I can not, though I would love to, argue with that!!!

OK bare with me here long thought, at home from work, recreating. It took Bowman to put Feds back there correct? Or had he played in Russia? I don't know that he did so this thought is under that assumption. Bowman is a once in a league's existence type of coach, have you ever seen anyone try Dats at the position of D? I haven't. What I can assume though is that based upon the heady way he plays the game, similar to Lids in the heady way not D Skill, that he would be able to have the same vision, add that to the fact that he is extremely responsible in his own end already, I don't think it is a stretch to believe he can play it. He is just as good of a Defensive forward as Feds, the fact Feds proved he could play the position of D lead me to give him the edge.

See Cam Neely, what is your point, I never said people that I thought didn't deserve it weren't in the Hall! So some one with lesser numbers got in, that means I think he deserved it? Or are you trying to say that 600 and 1300 is not like 300 wins?