Hank

Exactly! If anyone's relying on ESPN, VS or NBC to give them loads of Wings coverage then you'd better get a newspaper subscription. Paying $150 for the Centre Ice Package is a good bargain for me. I don't have a lot of money to spend either but I'd rather blow $150 to watch every single Wings game, plus other NHL games. Besides, it's a much cheaper alternative than to actually go to games where the price of tickets is rediculous. There's nothing better than putting the kids to bed and then settling down in front of a fire with some cold pops, nachos and firing up the Wings game. And remember, almost every home game was in HD last year. My wife and I both said it's the next best thing to being at the Joe - but without the long lineups for the bathroom, $8.50 watered down beers, $20 parking and seats that barely fit a 4-year-old. $150 is not that much if you think about it. In a 4-month off-season that's basically $10 a week you need to save up. Well worth it in my books.

I wish we had Vladdy still too. Bowman said the Wings would have won at least 2 more Cups if he was healthy and I believe it. Lidstrom-Konstantinov Kronwall-Rafalski Fischer-Chelios Lebda-Quincy Yow!

LOL! In basketball, player picks up knife to cut some coke.

And yet where is this story on ESPN? If that were an NBA or NFL player it would be all over their news.

Western Conference 1. Detroit 2. San Jose 3. Colorado 4. Anaheim 5. Vancouver 6. Nashville 7. Calgary 8. Dallas Eastern Conference 1. Ottawa 2. Pittsburgh 3. Tampa Bay 4. NY Rangers 5. Philadelphia 7. Buffalo 8. New Jersey ***Toronto will find a way to suck - much to my delight*** I'd love to see both Washington and Columbus make it in. And there always seems to be some kind of surprise each year so who knows.

This reminds me of a story about a former Bruin that went by the nickname "Axe". Why? Because one day, after leaving a bar, he saw a man chasing a woman with a full-blown axe. The NHLer ran after the guy, tackled him, pummled him and then sat on him while puffing on a cigarrette until police arrived. I can't remember this guys name but I'll try to find it Don Cherry's autobiography.

Yeah, I've never heard one official word about an Yzerman DVD. If there was going to be one, I suppose they would have made it for release at the same time as his jersey retirement. Yzerman's so private he probably doesn't even want his old highlights to be packaged up.

They would have to either buy out Neidermayer or trade him to Detroit as I believe he has another 2 years on his contract. But even if Anaheim bought him out, 50% of his current salary would count against their cap for twice as long.

That's IF Selanne wants to keep playing. I have a feeling that since they signed Bert to way too much $$$ Selanne told Burke he's finished.

I don't think so. But what do I know. If Neids wants to take $1M a year to help out Burke maybe they can do it? But at the same time I'm sure Neidermayer, despite having enough money and won everything, wouldn't want to play on a team where Penner makes 4x as much as he does.

In all seriousness the articles right and it's one of the issues the NHL faces. Unfortunately that's what's wrong with sports today. Look at ESPN. They went from reporting scores and highlights to villifying athletes or putting them on a pedestal and promoting the poop out of them. They're creating legends out of thin air. You don't have to look any further than Michael Vick. Look at his stats and W-L record. This guy could be the most overrated QB of all time when you consider his endorsements, salary and exposure compared to what he's actually done. I mean, the hapless Lions shut him down a couple of years ago. That's embarassing when you see guys like Harrington light you up. There's nothing better than a scandal because it keeps the league in the public eye. Mark Cuban got ripped a new one for saying that the Kobe rape case would help the NBA but he wasn't wrong in saying that. I guarentee you if the NHL had loud mouths like T.O. or losers like Mike Vick or Pacman Jones we'd be getting a lot more exposure. But that's why I love the NHL. It's full of humble and NORMAL athletes.

Bingo! Like someone else her noted, this would serve a notice to all GM's that you better watch overspending when you've got RFA's to lock up. I don't think anyone here would trade Neidermayer, Selanne and Penner for Bertuzzi and Schneider, but that's essentially what Burke is facing if some of those guys don't want to retire. Plus, can you imagine if the NHL enforces much smaller goalie equipment or larger nets? Giguere will look like a TERRIBLE investment at over $6M per year. With less stuffing or more room to shoot at he's a 4.00 GAA goalie.

I agree. I wouldn't even be surprised if Teemu took a very large pay cut to stay with the Ducks just to help Burke out. But you never know? He might love the idea of playing for an original 6 team and one as well run as Detroit. I'm just salivating at the thought of Teemu with Zetterberg. Of course, there is the whole Selanne-Chelios feud. But if Bert and Cheli can squash things, I'm sure Teemu could too.

Those numbers look right to me. I wonder what's going to happen if both Neids and Teemu decide to play one more year. Burke=Screwed. Hahahahaha! I love it! HEY Teemu! Number 8 hasn't been taken in Detroit!

Yup. But you know what? It's entertaining.

http://www.nascar.com/2005/news/headlines/...deal/index.html What bothers me is the way some sports reporters go out of their way to bash hockey. Some admit they know nothing about the sport (see Skip Clueless) and yet still feel the need to rip it apart. Regading the comment about basketball's ratings destroying hockey, I think there was an article in USAToday that showed that HNIC's overall North American ratings beat NBA's top Basketball night. But that person was right when they said that college basketball kills them. But college sports (football and basketball) destroy a lot of other sports in the ratings department - MLB, NBA and even NFL in some cases. Even my brother who was a DIEHARD NFL fan has slowly been tuning into college football more and more. He admitted that this year he's more interested in watching Big Ten games than NFL.

Excellent post. I agree that it would be great if the NHL was on a network with a lot more exposure but I like how VS treats the NHL. But I'd love to see how some of the commentators and sportscasters would change their tune if ESPN did get it back. They would have to go from bashing the game to pretending to love it.

Just to play devils advocate Sportsnet has almost no credibility. The hockey panel they have share a brain from a retarded monkey. And the Trade Deadline Show they put on featuring Eklund was BASHED to no end by every media circle you can think of for it's unprofessionalism. Also, he does have a segment on XM radio but if you listen to Boomer (who's one of the best hockey guys in all of media) you can almost hear the disdain dripping from his voice. On more than one occasion he'll challenge the 'rumours' that Eklund comes up with to which Eklund always says "yeah, I guess that makes sense. But that's what my 'sources' tell me". That's why I hate Eklund. I hate how he's infultrated the legit hockey shows or publications with outright lies. Just a few days ago, someone here posted a link to a Penguins blog where the owner of said blog was able to get one of his rumours posted on Ek's front site. The guy admitted on his blog that it was complete bogus and Eklund did NO follow up on anything he told him. Those are his sources. Just off the top of my head I've heard him say "Smyth to Calgary was an absolute lock" numerous times before July 1st". I'm not expert and I'm certianly not a hockey genius but anyone with half a brain could have looked at Calgary's current financial situation and their future free agents over the next two seasons and you could have determined that Smyth to Calgary would be impossible without losing either Iginla, Kipersoff, Tanguay or Phaneuf. And I don't think Sutter is going to rip away any of those guys for someone that hasn't even had one shift with the team. Or the outrageous claim from one of his sources that Hejduk for McCabe is being talked about. That in itself insults my intelligence. I know that every Maple Leaf fan out there would be salivating at that deal but short of having a labotomy I don't see Francois Giguere making this deal anytime soon. I do admit that there are some good writers on that site that deal with actual fact, but as far as Eklund's concerned he's an absolute liar and the fact that he refuses to reveal his identity only cements my notion that he's a fraud.

Agreed. Peklund is way more accurate and forthright in his intentions. http://peklundthephoneyhockeyblogger.blogspot.com/

I usually try to avoid threads like this due to the fact that I'm an ENORMOUS Yzerman slappy. Saying that, when you consider simply points and accomplishements, I'd have to say that he's in the top 5. Wayne, Mario, Orr and Gordie. But Stevie's career is noticeably two chapters. While guys like Wayne, Mario and even guys not in their stratosphere like Sakic and Lafontaine, have all been allowed to be offensive players their whole lives, Stevie had the reigns pulled on him during his prime years. Before Bowman, Yzerman (IMHO) was the 3rd greatest offensive player to ever play the game. Outside of Wayne and Mario I don't think there was anyone close. He made Bob freakin' Probert a 29 goal scorer for crying out loud. He was one of the rare players that could see the ice like he was watching it on TV. All those that played with him became instantly better and he could single handedly win games all on his own. But then Bowman made him more complete and he earned 3 Cups because of it. And yet, despite being given Bob Errey and a slew of other cement handed wingers to play with, he still managed to put up over a point a game, with a battered knee and damaged back and in an era fondly referred to as 'the dead puck era'. And lets not forget that he did this as a 30 something year old who was no bigger than 5'9". If you consider all the intangibles such as heart, desire, toughness, defense, etc. I dare say that I'd prefer to have a team built around Steve Yzerman than Lemieux and possibly even Gretzky. When considering the "full monty" I think Yzerman's in the same class as Bobby Orr (who was awesome in all 3 zones, would hit and was a terribly good fighter too), Mark Messier and Gordie Howe. I'd put him 3rd on the list behind Orr and Howe and he gets a nod over Messier because I believe he was a better scorer than Moose. All in all, I truly believe that if Yzerman never wrecked his knee or back he would have retired as the 2nd leading scorer in the history of the NHL. 1800+ points would have been a cinch for him and I believe that 2,000 might not have been out of the question. If you look at his points-per-game when he was hurt and even afterward, the man put up tremendous numbers. Sure, he had a great team to play with for the latter part of his career but this, at times, worked against his stats as he was slowly moved off the PP and did a lot of his ES work on the 3rd line. I love Stevie. He's easily my favourite hockey player of all time and always will be. Now if only he let someone write an indepth and upclose biography I'd be in Heaven.

You forgot about Rock-Paper-Scissors!!! Who can forget the excitment of a game where 5-year olds are your worst enemy?

Good points. I think it also lets them grow into seperate leadership roles. With both of them having the 'duty' of carrying their own lines it will help them blossom in the dressing room as well. Besides, I'm kind of selfish in that I like Z as a centre.

Hahaha. Not so much wholesome as truthful. And yes, the NFL forced them to shut it down. I thought it was a great show too. And hearing from former pros that it was bang-on to what they experienced in the league, it made it even better. You could never do a show like that with the NHL. Each episode would be about the guys playing their game, using cliches after the game and then going home with their wives and family. The harshest thing they'd deal with is the guys fighting over who's going to get to pick up the dinner check.

Hahaha! That reminds me of simpler days when MTV actually played music.

I have a theory that Rome goes out of his way to have idiots fill in for him when he's out on the road. That's not to say all the 'fill ins' are bad, but certainly having Bayless makes Rome look much better. It's for that reason, I believe, that he doesn't have Jay Mohr host more often. Mohr is great and a lot of the times I enjoy him more than Rome. P.S. Bayless = MORON.