InKennyWeTrust

I live about 30 minutes outside of Columbus- the Blue Jackets will never be as popular as OSU Football, but they're making inroads and I think it would be devistating for the city to lose them. Could it happen though? Yeah- Ohio's geting rocked pretty hard by the economy (not as much as Michigan, but some of the smaller municipalities are above 15% unemployment and climbing.) People just aren't going to go to games unless there's something to watch, and Rick Nash isn't a good enough reason on his own. Another playoff run this year would help out, but who knows.

Maybe Datz and Z own General Electric stock?

That's really a shame- I know Bettman trashing is the favorite sport of many, including myself, good hockey is good hockey. I was really excited with the moves they made at the trade deadline last year, given they were major sellers. I'm starting to see an interesting dynamic- the southern half of the United States can only support one NHL franchise at a time successfully. 80's Kings rolled into the 90's Stars into the 2000's Tampa, who quickly passed the torch to the omni-second Hurricanes. How a city can go from having an avid base one year to not filling an arena the next is beyond me.

Assuming no injuries and we had somehow managed to get the two trades (Gretzky and Bure) pulled off without losing our Lidstrom and Federov picks, can you imagine that 2002 team? Shanahan-Gretzky-Hull Yzerman-Federov-Bure Robitaille-Larionov-Holmstrom Maltby-Draper-McCarty Lidstrom-Chelios Dandenault-Duchesne Olausson-Fischer Hasek Legace (Williams/Avery/Datsyuk) Guys- the best stuff in the world just got better. I know, injuries, retirements, blah blah blah, but just imagine this lineup for a second... If Gretz doesn't retire and Bure doesn't degenerate, this is the best hockey team I've ever seen.

A goalie who is slower than Ozzie? You still have to have the defense getting to the rebounds before the forwards can get there, I'm not sure having Lebda and Meech in the lineup every day is the way to accomplish that...

I was a fan of the NHL 2002 music- Gob's I Hear You Calling and Treble Charger's Brand New Low. That was the first time I'd heard either of those bands, now I'm stuck thinking hockey everytime I hear them.

Lidstrom, the only defenseman in the NHL the other team will plan their entire gameplan around.

Yeah, about that... I'm pretty sure it's not a penalty anymore. It seems to be an acceptable tactic to use 6 skaters in the playoffs, anyway.