Seraph

I don't have a problem with small-market teams winning it. I also don't have a problem with Bettman's goal of expanding hockey by making smaller market teams more competitive. A team with moderate success is going to be more effective at attracting new fans than a team with a snowball's chance in hell at even making the playoffs. What bothers me is that the cap disassembles all the talent of all of these teams right after they win the cup. The stupidity of Bettman's plan is that after generating interest in the smaller markets, their team falls apart the next season, allowing the fans to return to not caring. It just doesn't make sense. We'll probably see it with the Ducks. Giguere is going to want a lot of money to stay (like Khabibulin did after Tampa won), and as soon as the young stars get older and better, the team won't be able to sustain them anymore. We'll probably see the same thing happen with the Penguins and other developing teams. I think this is a problem that needs to be addressed somehow. EDIT: And to elaborate further, I'd like to point out that the teams that have really good fanbases are usually the ones that have the same players showing up year after year. Without Yzerman, McCarty, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Draper, Maltby and eventually Shanahan coming back each year, the Wings of the '90s would have lost their personality and appeal. Their fanbase wouldn't be where it is today if these players were shuttled out after each successful year. Why do you think there is so much damn nostalgia on these boards to bring back Feds, Kozzie, McCarty and other older players? You think the current Anaheim fans will feel the same way after their players leave in a few seasons? Probably not as much. You just can't design a system in which a team's core players are continually being exported to newer teams and expect fans to continue caring. It's dumb.

Oh boy. Bettman was pissing me off even more. He needed to shut up. Don't worry everyone, Cheli will scribble out Pronger's name next year...

Draper sounds hungry. I would be too. I will NEVER, NEVER forget that goal number 8 scored on us. That will forever be ingrained in my memory. Holy crap. I've gone and put myself in shock again.

Yeah, I gotta admit I liked the intermission today. When he's on it doesn't feel mechanical like when Ray Ferraro talks. It feels like you're sitting around bulls***ting with friends about hockey.

GO SENS GO!

If it's legal, people will try it as a primary tactic, therefore increasing the intensity and frequency of sharp blades fluttering around the net.

I recently got my friend into hockey and he made an interesting point. He says he didn't watch hockey before primarily because never had a history in it as a kid. People don't care about the game because no one knows anything about it. No one has played it. He also said watching players make incredible moves wasn't very exciting because he had never played and couldn't gauge the difficulty of what they were doing. I think if the NHL wants to become more popular, it should start by trying to make the game more accessible to the youth. It's difficult with all the equipment to get kids started when basketball only requires a ball and a hoop. Bettman nor anyone else has a quick fix to this problem. It's going to take a lot of time and effort to establish the game to the US market.

I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for what happened. Let's just wait for Professor Pronger of physics to deliver his next enlightening lecture.

Probably because the players have sharp metal attached to their feet. Just a thought.

You know they show the games on TV and how the goals are scored? It's not fixed. Just watch.

We're a new team. He's the old team. We're building something special the way it is now. Let's keep adding new parts, not throwing in old ones.

If you said the new Wings jerseys in the above links look stupid, you'd be right.

Players sign contracts with teams that commit them for X number of years. After X number of years, they are free to accept contracts from new teams. Each year, several players' contracts run out and they become eligible to receive contracts from new teams (=free agency). Teams spend the off season trying to acquire these players.

I'm glad the Wings made it exciting in the third period. My hopes were high for a while. Haha, I actually live near Portland, Oregon. I watched the game on the big screen in a sports bar with my friend and we both had on Red Wings jerseys. The third period effort was so moving that we got the whole place cheering "Let's go Red Wings" before face-offs. They were getting into it--in some random bar on the west coast! I was sad to see us getting scored on in exactly the same way four times. Shot from the point, snow angel set up, scrum, confusion, and then it's in the back of the net. That's unfortunate. I want to give props to Filppula for his effort. He was literally busting his ass the whole game. I'm looking forward to continue watching him play. We've got a good team to cheer for. Our efforts weren't wasted by any means. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and keeping it classy, LGW. I look forward to next year.

Multiply those hitting averages by the number of pounds behind them. Then we're definitely behind.

I'm nervous on this one. I think we'll find ourselves in a hole early. Then we'll realize the urgency of the situation like we always do when we're in a hole, and slice through their "Prongerless" defense.

We got our revenge over the Flames... Now let's roast some Duck in retribution!!! GO WINGS!

I issued a red alert on this one. Bad title!

DET vs NYR would be my preference. I'm pals with a really cool NYR fan at school. We've been having so much fun. It'd be great to face his team.

Believe.

It isn't being let go because the puck certainly DID cross the line. They just don't have any video showing that because Lundqvist got his pad over the puck just in time. Talk about a hairline save. If the refs had called it a goal, it would have counted. The "inconclusive" video favors whatever was called on the ice by the refs.

That's what I was going to say. Sharks were having problems finishing. The score is not at all representative of how much they outplayed us. They literally had more open nets than a bankrupt hockey equipment factory.

As much as I love the rules now and would die if they changed, I can totally understand how a casual fan would stop caring when they don't have stakes in a team after 1, 2, or 3, dead-locked 5v5 overtimes. For us, it's easy because we understand it. Hockey is already the best sport to us. Shanahan is being a business man here.

My friend and former band-mate is a touring musician going through California. As soon as I heard he'd be nearby, I called him up and told him that I had bought him a ticket that he could pick up at the will-call. I'm sooo going to be on the phone with him during the game. Go Wings! I am predicting the Wings will strike first. Sharks will get a few chances and capitalize. Then there will be overtime. I don't predict winners but I have faith.

I think this series is pretty interesting because both the fans and coaches seem to be seeing different things out there. It doesn't matter if the Sharks don't think we're outplaying them. We can not outplay them all the way to four wins. I don't give two thirds of a crap. As far as Hasek goes. He always makes me so nervous when goes for a stroll in the park to blindly flip the puck behind him and saunter back to the crease.