Sting 11

The team's already there. While I was working ATC radar in Toledo Friday night I watched "Redbird 1" (N682RW) depart DTW for Port Columbus.

Purdue has no business going to a bowl game...going 2-5 down the stretch is pathetic. I'm embarrassed. I'm also worried that, with Oregon losing, Oklahoma losing, one of Missouri and Kansas destined to lose, and all the conference championship games yet to come...there's a chance OSU may back into the national championship game.

When I grew up the only sport in the house was NASCAR. Mind you we're talking mid-80s, when NASCAR was just starting to get full flag-to-flag coverage on cable. So, I was a NASCAR fan before I discovered the stick-and-ball sports. I've had a front row seat to the rise and fall of NASCAR...and I can tell you, racing in the mid-80s through the mid-90s was fantastic. Then, just as NASCAR started to try to go national, it began to suffer. It abandoned some of it's classic, unique tracks for 1.5 mile "cookie-cutter" high capacity facilities. The big network TV deal, common templates, and now finally the "car of tomorrow" are the final nails in the coffin for the traditional fan. I still watch NASCAR, but I don't follow it as closely as football or hockey. I see the NHL to be a far different situation from NASCAR. I don't think there is a hard ceiling to hockey's popularity. With NASCAR, you have something that pushes the definition of sports and athletics. With hockey you still have two teams, timekeeping, and a score...not unfamiliar to fans of other stick-and-ball sports. Hockey needs only a few things to be nationally successful, in my opinion. It obviously needs positive national media coverage. It needs to emphasize the speed, skill, and unpredictability of the game. It needs to control, but not eliminate, fighting...so it loses the "Slapshot" image but doesn't alienate the fight fans. And it needs to heavily promote a low-cost, no-ice version of the game that can be played by anyone...like street hockey. That's part of NASCAR's problem right now...it's Gordon and Johnson...every blessed week. (This coming from a massively frustrated Ryan Newman fan...)

:banana: More than makes up for MSU pummeling my Boilers (since they were already long out of the picture).

Here I am at last night's unofficial Toledo Tower Halloween party thrashing out a tune on Guitar Hero 3...

If that's the case then he never should have come over to begin with. He should have known that in order to avoid the fate of most rookies (a stint in the minors) and eventually surpass his Russian salary, he would need to be extraordinary. As it stands right now, he's wasting everybody's time including his own.

That kind of attitude just doesn't fly, not just in hockey, but in any job. When you're new you must pay your dues and earn both experience and respect. The fact that he is ignoring this bit of common sense tells me he's not long for this team. In effect, he's rejecting reality and substituting it with his own. And that goes without mentioning the fact he hasn't done jack squat in GR. So, stick a fork in him. Such a shame, too.

That was special. I'm looking forward to seeing Toews and Kane make Chicago competitive again...makes for a healthy rivalry.

There was a time when I would have definitely wanted Forsberg on the team, but for about the last several years, ehh...not so much. You can't count on getting enough healthy games out of him to warrant the investment.

We all have our bad experiences with other teams' fans that shape our opinions of who has the "worst fans". Because of my experiences, my vote goes to Ohio State. The Ohio State fans I work with never went to school there, but are all, "like, the biggest OSU fans ever". Whenever they make fun of my Boilers (and they always do), I always have to explain that I'm a Purdue fan because I went there for four years and have a bachelor's degree from there, and then I ask "and why are you an Ohio State fan again?" It's so easy to latch onto the local team that wins all the time...it's hard to be a fan of a team that is average and gets little attention. Worst instance of all: I was washing my Liberty, which has a Boilermakers spare tire cover, in my driveway one evening. A guy who lives in my additon was walking by and saw my tire cover, and told me he was a 1998 or so graduate from Purdue. Well, I start talking about how I'm a 2002 AvTech major and we talked about the residence halls and campus stuff. We started to talk about the football team and I asked him if he followed the team much. He said he used to but now that he lives in Ohio, he's now an Ohio State fan. I shot him the dirtiest "WTF?" look and he seemed to get the message. :nonono: Support your alma mater, dammit, not the local flavor of the month.

Now that my alma mater (Purdue) has been exposed and is done, I now have to pin my hopes on anyone who can take down Ohio State...Penn State and Michigan, I'm looking your way. Otherwise, ultimate BCS chaos seems to be a good bet. If South Florida gets past Rutgers next week, I think they win out. BC has Va Tech, Florida State, Maryland, and Clemson the next four weeks, so I strongly doubt they'll win out. It's going to be fun to watch, and completely stress free for me since I'll be pulling against OSU instead of for any one particular team.

This quote makes it painfully obvious that the players union needs to get involved.

Buckeye Cable in Toledo was not blacked out. I had the game on FSN HD, ch. 643. So it sounds like a problem exclusive to DirecTV. Evidently Buckeye doesn't have a deal to carry Center Ice yet, however.

These jerseys were a flat-out stupid move. Unfortunately in this life, when flat-out stupid moves are made, admission and retraction rarely happens.

It should go back to the days where each team chose their jersey manufacturer. Having one manufacturer, with a radical new design, forced down the entire league's throat was not a good move.

No. No, no, no, no, no. Especially not Vegas. Maybe Winnipeg...but I'd prefer to see an existing team move there, as awful as that sounds. No more teams!

We're already discussing it over here: http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=43948 Thread locked.

Bruce MacLeod continues to unload on Grigorenko. from MacLeod's blog:

The stars home jersey has the player's number under the DALLAS type, too. Who do they think they are, the Mavericks?

Yes. They now have one of the league's best uniforms. In practice they look even better...the numbers and letters are a classic block font. The only problem is they have their numbers on the upper right chest (opposite the captain letters) much like Buffalo had last year. In fact, several teams now have that. I remember Tampa (talk about an awful kit BTW) has them now too, and a couple more do as well.

But then there's San Jose and Boston that go with an absolutely classic look...meaning it's not mandatory that these teams go with these crazy striping and piping schemes.

OMG @ Dallas! They went from one of the nicest dark jerseys in the league to...whiskey tango foxtrot. I really hate these new uniforms in general. A few teams actually made improvements, but a large number went the route of, say, the Oregon Ducks football team...and that's a bad route to take.

I think it's too plain...it needs the bottom double stripe. It does look like a practice jersey. Also, they should have taken the opportunity to go back to the old-style logo like they had on their thirds last year IMO.

I'm enjoying the network a lot. Friday Night Tailgate is a hoot, it brings back a lot of campus memories.

If you can't beat Notre Dame or Michigan State, I don't think you'll beat Purdue either.