Nightfall

If you know how much that kind of thing costs, then you should also know the bandwidth costs. Don't try to bulls*** a bulls***ter. Video bandwidth is not free. If you run 11 legal websites that deal in video on demand, the bandwidth is one of the biggest costs you are going to have.

They don't charge for the games, they charge for the bandwidth. Bandwidth is not free.

I say your best bet is to try out both services. You can do that quite easily by signing up for a trial and just paying for a few days of Streams. I think you have to pay for a month of gamecenter. After you get a chance to see the quality, you can decide for yourself. I subscribed to Streams this year after being on gamecenter last year. Streams is much better IMHO.

I have used NHL Gamecenter live and hockeystreams.com as well. Both are very good. I like hockeystreams.com a little better because they have every game, a little cheaper, a cheaper trial period where you can buy a couple days of games to see how it works for you, archives, no blackouts, and have a lot more than just the NHL on.

For most people who say the refereeing is terrible, they wouldn't be so quick to judge if it was called against a Red Wing player. Just sayin.... I didn't see any video of the situation. Until I see a video, I am not going to draw a conclusion. The league will handle it the right way I am sure.

I agree. Osgood should have won 4 cups if the Wings would have taken game 6 or 7, but I digress. The Wings are not losing because of Osgoods play right now. They are losing because the Pens played all their starters. If we had all our starters in, the game would be much different. The Ozzie haters will all pile on the hate bandwagon though. Injury?

I agree. The Wings didn't dress a lot of their starters. The Pens dressed almost all their starters. Mainly because this is the opening night of their new arena. Anyone saying that the Wings are doomed this season are talking out their collective asses.

Ding! 3-1!

Konnan511, I do have to agree with most of your comments. I will say that the expansion years were a mistake in a lot of markets. Bringing hockey back to Minnesota was a great thing. Bringing hockey to Phoenix and Nashville, markets that are struggling, was a stretch. As a result, the talent diluted. I think 24 teams would be better than 30 teams. -A labor strike that reduced the season to 48 games, and the other a lockout that lost an entire season. You this pissed off when the other major sports had lockouts? Lockouts happen, and you can blame the owners and players as a whole. -I'm a hockey fan and I can't watch many games without shelling out money for those channels. Same with the MLB, NBA, and NFL. Hell, the NFL and directv make oodles of money for the Sunday Ticket. -$600 million with ESPN in 1998 to $72.5 with Versus in 2008 ESPN offered $60m in this last round of negotiations. I am glad they went with Versus for the extra cash. Those are the most egregious points. I won't waste my time on the others.

I suppose a commissioner is not allowed to look at the problems in a league and make changes to it in response? At least some credit has to go to him on fixing these issues. You are right. In the end though, he will get tabbed as the guy who did it or not. As right or unjustified as that might be. Its the same thing as being a CEO. The failings of a company will in effect hit the CEO. Just as if the company does well. The CEO may have not done anything, and it was the people below him, but the CEO gets credit. I agree with you somewhat here. Some of the expansions should have never happened. Giving expansion clubs to questionable markets is really horrible. His job is to please the owners, but I still think the fans is what he should be concentrating on more. After all, he is marketing to us. As for the quality of gameplay and officiating, I believe it is quite good. The NHL Officials are the best out there. As a referee, I can tell you that it is not easy to do even at a rec league or youth hockey official. These guys are like professional athletes. There really is not as much of an officiating problem in my mind. The real issue is fixing the gameplay problems such as removing the instigator rule. I would add no touch icing to reduce some injury. Those are just a couple examples. I believe there is some room for improvement for sure. I also believe that there are better people out there. I also believe that there will be some dud commissioners in the NHL that will really do nothing down the road. Take a look at the history of commissioners in the league, and you will see that there were a few one year wonders who did nothing for the game. Then you have people like Clarance Campbell who held their post for 20+ years. You forgot your /sarcasm tags.

Well, now that we got that out of the way. I will move along then.

I really like the NHL Network this year. Last year, there weren't many preseason games on TV. This year, there are one a day at least. Thats awesome for the hockey fan in all of us.

The Saturday game will be televised as well at Chicago. Two days of Wings hockey on the NHL Network. http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=58058

Real fans don't hang players on their team out to dry. These are your Red Wings, take em or leave em. Mistakes happen in the game. Players have bad seasons and a bad stretch of luck. Its hockey. This is why its a team sport. Win as a team. Lose as a team.

Pronger is one of those players if you don't have him on your team, you hate him. Remember Chelios before the trade? Wings fans hated him because he was a warrior for the Blackhawks. When he was traded, Wings fans warmed up to him quickly. I am sure if Pronger was here in Detroit, then many fans would be singing a different tune.

I agree. The Griffins really had problems last year due to lack of veteran leadership. A couple years ago they had McCarty, Downey, and Haydar to really help the team along and they were a contender. This year, they started with Nylander and really hit their stride when they came home and won 9 straight games. When Nylander left, I feel they really lost their veteran leadership. This year, they will probably have Maltby, Meech, and maybe Lilja and another Red Wings player that may get sent down. This is great news for a team that is really searching for a guy that has NHL experience.

This really is an excellent article. I think Steve will have a lot of success in Tampa Bay this year and down the road. Sure, they may not be a Cup contender this year, but I think they will be playoff bound this year and many years to come. It still is my hope that when Holland retires, they will get permission to talk to Yzerman about taking the job in Detroit.

I am sure someone will say this is a bad thing, but I can tell you that this is not an uncommon thing. Sure, you want to think that everyone on the team gets along, but that doesn't happen all the time. Even I don't get along with everyone on the teams I play with in rec league hockey. In the end though, you are having fun playing the game as a whole even with those people you don't see eye to eye with. You are all together trying to accomplish a common goal.

I was listening to another Team Preview on NHL Home Ice (which I posted in the forums BTW) and I have to agree with a comment that was made. They said that they are still waiting for the next big influx of young talent. So far, that hasn't happened yet. Just like when Zetterberg and Dats came into the league, there hasn't been anything like that in the last 6 years. Sure, you aren't going to get star players every year, but you have to wonder who the young players are that are going to carry the torch for this team as the core ages. Just like when Yzerman and Shanny were getting old, they had Dats and then Zetterberg coming up. Now that Dats and Zetterberg are the scoring leaders, where is the young talent that will come in and dominate? I know that Detroit will keep reloading for many years to come, but I worry about the quality of the youth in the club right now (or lack of).

I am an avid listener of NHL Home Ice on XM/Sirius Satellite Radio. They had the Detroit Red Wings preview on a couple weeks ago and I missed about half of it. Well, I found it today while looking around on their website and I thought I would share it with everyone here. http://xmhomeice.com/audio/NHL%20Team%20Previews%202010/Detroit%20Red%20Wings%20Team%20Preview%20on%20NHL%20Home%20Ice%20(Recorded%20Aug%202010'>http://xmhomeice.com/audio/NHL%20Team%20Previews%202010/Detroit%20Red%20Wings%20Team%20Preview%20on%20NHL%20Home%20Ice%20(Recorded%20Aug%202010).mp3 You can see more team previews here http://xmhomeice.com/audio/NHL%20Team%20Previews%202010/ The interview with Ken Kal was excellent and I really enjoyed their 5 burning questions. They do bring up a lot of good points. Its about 45 minutes long but well worth listening to.

I watched the 2009 SCF Game 7 on the NHL Network not that long ago. Was it painful? Yes. Anytime you don't win your last game, its a sad ending to the season. Even in rec league hockey to me, its very tough to lose your last game of the season. No sense of getting your panties in a bunch about it though. Its hockey. Anyone can win on any given night. That night was the pens night and they deserved to win it. The Wings had 2 opportunities to close out the Pens and failed to do so.

Remembering how long I waited as a fan to see the Wings lift the cup back in 1997, that was a great game. Seeing McCarty score that goal made me jump out of my chair and cheer at home. Still, the best game 7 for the Wings was that game against Colorado. The best finals game was the one you pointed out in 1997.

There are some mistakes that we never get done paying for. I have played hockey for a long time, and I can tell you that while it may have not been a clean hit, it certainly could have been avoided. Liambas hit a guy in a vulnerable position causing an injury. I too think the punishment was quite harsh, and there are others who have been hurt just as bad without that much punishment. Look at the Lemieux hit on Draper. Exposed position? Hit to the head from behind? Injury? All these things are in common with this hit. Lemieux got less of a suspension.

I don't know about that. Kenny obviously will have to step down before Yzerman gets an opportunity. You can bet that they will interview Yzerman when that happens. Until then, with 4 cups to his name, Holland deserves to be the GM until he steps down.

Wow! An excellent job done!