SouthernWingsFan

Nope, no dream. The person below me has put a lampshade on their head before and looked really funny with it on.

Deadmau5 - Hi Friend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh-ckGDE3x4

I don't see any body guards. I see this just an overdramatization on Crosby like countless others in the past from plenty. That has less to do with Crosby and more with putting too much marketing focus on him. Blame NHL higher ups for this, not Crosby so much. I'm all for marketing all players. To the original point in the thread though, it is pretty impossible to deny that Ovechkin has a lot of pizzaz, character, whatever you want to call it to make him pretty easy to like.

How so? Is it because all teams should simply be north of Canada only?

For better/worse they make themselves easy targets for fans. Is everything that McGuire says idiotic? No. Is everything Gary Bettman's fault all the time? Of course not. Again though, they make themselves easy targets, and more often than not fans will go way off the deep end with the easy targets, whether it is justified or not, logical or not. It's not really hard to see that the suspensions are pretty silly. A 3-year old could've made this distinction in all likelihood. Am I shocked that McGuire made this distinction? No. Do I think he is a mindless idiot? Not really.

I took those vitamins before but never wandered that until now. The person below me tried to stick tiny things in holes of electric sockets when they were a kid.

And this is another reason why I pay no more attention to sports media than necessary, part of their jobs is to create controversy to yank people's chains and piss fans off, and sometimes that makes them look ridiculous. They probably wouldn't even be doing this outside their jobs. Excess fluff like this is not worth my attention and not worth getting me all pissed off.

Posted this in the other thread regarding the hoopla of the All-Star game, but will do it again in here. No, I don't join the hating Crosby and Bettman fanclubs like everybody else 24-7-365 does on here because people often go off the deep end with them and either obsessively hate Crosby when it is unnecessary or blame Bettman for everything when sometimes stuff actually isn't his fault. However, with that being said... Would it surprise me if in this whole frackas in my limited knowledge and reading is Crosby getting special treatment? Wouldn't surprise me. Has Bettman handled this well? Absolutely not. I'm pretty sure Datstyuk and Lidstrom are honored to be selected to play in the All-Star game, but they shouldn't have to report to the NHL higher ups or execs. They are employed by the Detroit Red Wings, they should do their reporting to them, not the higher ups. Meh, regardless I'll probably still glance at the game tomorrow evening cause I was always going to anyways, and it's just a 1-game suspension. Not going to lose my marbles or sleep over this even though it is a wee bit silly.

What is charisma? And I'd watch the generalizations of French Canadians here...

Currently yes and always yes. The person below me has spun around in a circle really fast just for kicks before.

I don't play the Crosby disliking game like people do in here either but it honestly wouldn't shock me.

Sad story to hear, hope he gets better!

Lidstrom. I love Hossa, but it's not even that close.

I haven't read all the pages in this thread, and I don't villify Bettman over everything like a lot do in here, generally speaking, and stay out of the blame Bettman game, but these suspensions are silly I think. True I'm probably biased since they are players of my favorite team, but these guys aren't employed by NHL execs or higher ups, they report and are employed by the team they play for, the Detroit Red Wings. They shouldn't have to report to Bettman or higher ups. But, this is just one doof's opinion so I dunno...

Before the game... Greektown has some good restaurants and the like even though the area is pretty small/compact. Don't need to be 21 to go to the restaurants. Google Greektown and you'll probably find some info. Site lines are good I think. The arena is a basic bowl shape of just 1 or 2 levels so it's hard to have a bad seat I think. I went to a few games where the Dallas Stars used to play in Reunion arena and it was just two basic levels as well with one concourse level. Great seats. As long as you don't act like a lunatic, I think you'll be fine. I went up to see the Wings-Avs in the playoffs last year in the 2nd round and obviously saw a few Avs apparel here/there and other than some friendly ribbing, no fans on either side were acting out of line or anything.

As much as we complain here about the state of hockey, generally speaking, it isn't going away any time soon. It's never going to come close to being as popular as baseball or football here, but I'm fine with that. It's not my job to promote the NHL to people and convert them down here where it is especially less popular. And I'm not comparing it or trying to make it as popular or "good" as baseball or basketball or football in terms of general popularity. There's little/no point to that. The sport isn't going away soon, I enjoy watching it even if I don't live in an area where it is as popular, that's more than fine for me.

While traveling in the Western Conference is hard, I will sympathize with the Canucks regarding that, there are 14 other teams that have pretty grueling travel schedules in that conference as well. You think Vancouver has it bad for travel? Dallas should be the first team with gripes. They have the biggest distance to travel just to play conference opponents I think (Phoenix, LA, Anaheim, San Jose).

I don't know, the question sure confused the hell out of me. The person below me has recently played a fun game of hide an seek.

Alice in Chains - Sea of Sorrow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpRwbGVzVC0

I picked the 3rd choiced, but for me it would be a combo of 2nd/3rd if I could choose both. I went back up to check out one of my alma mater's football games live that wasn't going to be on TV anywhere. We've always been a solid I-A program with a few top-25 finishes here/there since I went to school there from 1999-2004, this year we finished 11-2 and in the top-10. Anyways the game was against a I-AA opponent. As long as my school took the game seriously and didn't turn the ball over or shoot themselves in the foot, no reason for it to be a fairly easy win by at least 30 points. We were up 42-7 at halftime, and won 67-7. Would I have felt guilty? No. Because after the first series of the 2nd half where my school scored, all the starters weree pretty much done for the night around the beginning of the 2nd half. The backups still took it to them. I wouldn't apologize for that. What do you expect them to do, acccidentally fall down so you don't score a rushing touchdown. Kneel 20 plays in a row just to kill time? I'm not going to intentionally run up any score against an overmatched opponent or when a game is all but settled early by keeping starters or stars in the game. But if my backups are in, they better damned well still try hard and execute the game plan given the current game situation. I'm not going to purposefully not score. It wasn't their fault the other defense couldn't stop the 2nd/3rd stringers.

I haven't read all the pages in this thread but to answer the original thread question, I'm not surprised it's not done yet and nor am I nervous. It hasn't really been taking that "long" either as plenty of people go unsigned to when a hockey season done. It's negotiations and this is perfectly normal. In these kinda things you dot every lower case j and cross every f to make sure all the details are correct. It doesn't happen overnight.

As much as I like all the Swedes on this team right now, it's not even close. When the Russian 5 back in the day were on, they were just magnifique to watch.

Lovely stuff letting the kid spend a day with the team, great touching story of reaching out.

Fighting will always have or should have its part in the game. Stuff like concussions or smacking your head on the ice is a risk people take. What about getting a puck to the face from a slapshot. Skate blade to the face? Those are all risks you take as well. Are we going to ban slapshots or reduce the sharpness of blades on the skates then? I'm not one who goes extra ga-ga when a fight happens, I don't get any more or less excited by a fight than by such things as good skating, a great snap shot, glove save, etc., but it should always have its part in the game.

Not now, but sometimes I do. The person below me is as easily amused by watching this brief clip as I am.