SouthernWingsFan

The lines are our friends! Stay within the lines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the moment there are no more threads about Crosby, I'm going to buy everybody a margarita and celebrate (FYI, I neither like or dislike him).

I'm pretty sure Bettman has some awareness of this, but whenever I hear or read things about Bettman in regards of this, he seems in denial every time that fans aren't happy with him. I guess that can be attributed some to what the last poster said about Bettman/NHL/economics etc. Bettman has to please the owners first and make sure the franchises are making $$$, not please us fans first. Not fair to us sometimes, but he's in the business of making money before making fans satisifed.

Happy birthday to the three of you!

I have never watched Star Trek so indifferent on that. Have little doubt that Nik Kronwall would make a great father. The person below me thinks the rainforests are worth saving, but want to smack the silly rainforest activists.

Dream On - Aerosmith

Nah, I usually just think of how gooey and sticky feeling they might be (never have seen/held an Octopus). The person below me has idiotically placed their hand on a blowtorch or Panini grill (or something toastable) for fun. *shrugs*

I picked disapprove, reason I didn't pick strongly disapprove because he gets a lot of blame throw his way. As a higher up, it's not uncommon to take more blame than normal or get more credit when you might not have done as much. Bettman is far from my favorite, and I wander if he actually does listen to a majority of fans want. For instance, the scheduling, which I am assuming most fans heavily wanted a change to, at the very minimum, face every team at least once. It happened, but I remember reading or hearing somewhere that he was hesitant about. Basically like we all thought the fans were satisifed with the current schedule layout, but decided in the end to change it, something like that. However, as much as us as fans might be getting the raw deal in what I am about to say, his first job is to make sure the owners are happy and that the frachises in the NHL are making money and profitable. If the owners are happy, Bettman isn't going anywhere. Does making sure your fans are happy appear in this business model for Bettman and the NHL owners? Of course, but it isn't at the top of the pyramid model. Making money is. I'll re-emphasize that Bettman is far from my favorite and I think he's downright creepy and a kook at times, but the owners interests will take precedence over the fans with him the majority of the time. Sure it is fun/easy sometimes to blame the boss or make fun of the popular guy or big wig in control, but things happen in the league sometimes both good and bad that are beyond his control.

Generally speaking, no, that are what bruisers and enforcers are for. Very rarely your top-paid players will probably be asked to drop the gloves on even an inconsistent basis in my opinion. That being said though, not everything is predictable, see Pronger vs. Cleary fight a season or two ago when Cleary, who definitely plays a gritty game, doesn't fight. Even if a "non-fighter" or "non-enforcer" might rough somebody else up on a play or injure them, I'd rather the tough guy go at it with the other team's tough guy to answer the call, because the non-enforcer dude probably won't even drop the gloves even after he might've caused the hit or injury.

'Tis is true, it isn't uncommon for the Saints to play down to the level of their competition, I've seen it plenty which is why I don't invest much in this team emotionally even though I rarely miss watching a game. But watching the game down here on Sunday, it was just sad unfortunately. I'm not one to talk trash or rub wins in the faces of other fans or get into all that stuff, but other than a few really hard hits off/on throughout the games, once it got to be 21-7/28-7, most of the guys on the Lions outside their runnning back really just didn't give a damn it seems. Sure the Saints played and executed fairly well, but a lot of that can be attributed to the Lions players just dillying around. They quit on the franchise and the fans this game. I feel sorry for Lions fans, you all deserve a better product on the field.

Kinda tired, more wine would do the trick, but I've still got a few things to do this late evening. The person below me wanders how Santa Claus gets down all those chimneys being how fat he is. The person below me also wanders how Santa Claus doesn't lose any weight jumping down every chimney of every house in the world, because that has got to involve some good exercise.

I've barely ever watched Maury before in my life, and I haven't eaten any Pringles in a good while, so there is your answer. The person below me thinks Tweety Bird is a little bit of a snoot sometimes instead of a "good guy character", but gets a kick out of when he says "Putty Tat".

Here is Reunion Arena where the Dallas Stars as well as the Mavericks used to play. Much like JLA, just a simple bowl shape with two levels. The one concourse in both instances is a bit of a pain when waiting for food/drinks and having to relieve yourself (especially if you are a woman, one of the very few things I like better about being a male over female ), but like the very few times I've been to JLA, the few times I went to Reunion Arena before the Stars/Mavericks relocated I did not have one bad seat or experience when I was there. I remember one Wings-Stars game I attended my seats were on the very top row of the 2nd level. Could see EVERYTHING and the players and game flow were still pretty close, and the arena got loud fast. Where the Stars play now in the AA center is definitely nicer than Reunion Arena, and I can certainly appreciate things like this. But there is just something about old and simple barn looks to me where crowds are jammed close together (but still comfortable). I don't yell loud or cheer much or stuff like that during games, but things like this make for better fan experiences for me. http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictu...as_reunion2.jpg

Nope, just A/C heater as it doesn't get too cold consistently to get a handy dandy furnace. The person below me wanders how/why James Bond gets all the chicks.

From the Web site of Fox Sports, pictures/slideshow of getting Wrigley Field ready. Enjoy! http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/pgStory?conte...p;photo=8966630

You are more the Negative Nancy than usual today. Would be hard to win in the playoffs with this type of defense, but that's why the season is 80+ games and the playoffs don't start for a while. They have time to fix it before then. And who knows, the other team they meet in the playoffs might not play the best defense when facing the Wings either.

Everytime I hear that line in that movie, it cracks me up! Would you like a cookie?

Voted for ya.

No, probably because it's been nearly 75 degrees here the whole week after being 40-50 the week before (with a day of snow actually). The weather down here is retarded. The person below me has pushed all the buttons in the elevator before just to hear the funny noises.

Being in the hall of fame/team jersey #'s being retired aren't directly related obviously, but you'd think there would be some cases where if you were good enough to get into the hall of fame, you're number is retired somewhere. From a team basis, it's probably attributed if you spent plenty of time there, produced, etc. etc.

I read or heard Rafalski said that he already had a personal vacation planned for the few days with his family. Doubt it had anything to do with too many Wings players. And in terms of the all-star game, if 20 Wings go or if none of them go, doesn't really matter to me. I like the whole concept of all-star games, they are fun, but it is largely a popularity contest that gets the people in IMO, not necessarily always the best players during a season or up to the point of the All-Star game.

Detonators and bombs can blow that up, perhaps even the legendary "Bob Omb".

Yes, and I'm thankful that I haven't had to use it in my new living quarters yet. The person below me has gotten into a Silly String fight before.

Fort Knox treasure baby!

This is the main thing more or less I think is ridiculous for all the hoopla Crosby gets. Let me get this out of the way. Yes this is a message board and I can say whatever I want yadda yadda yadda. Please nobody respond with me with that cliche response. I get that since Crosby is one of the more popular names, he'll probably have a topic created about him over somebody like Mark Hartigan. I get that it is easier to pick on the more household name sometimes. Crosby is overrated. Crosby complains. Those things to me just get so incredibly overused here and people go off the deep end with them when he definitely isn't overrated and everybody whines sometimes at their jobs, I just either don't see the complaining, or if he does complain a bit, it doesn't phase me. These are things that make some of these Crosby topics get so ridiculous I think.