commadore183

He won't find a consistent NHL gig anywhere else. He's too inconsistent.

Christ.....
What we need are less people to side with one side or the other and more people who want to see BOTH sides work out a deal. Lets make sure as fans of the sport that we want to see an NHL season. To hell with one side over the other. Its a sport with 3.3 billion dollars of revenue. They should be able to work out a deal and not sacrifice part or all of the season. If there are any games lost, or a season lost, I will be blaming both sides equally for being idiots. After all, it was both sides that contributed to the last lockout.

Of the North American sports, its obviously a toss-up between the NFL and NHL. Don't forget the inclement weather that some of those playoff games are played in.....brrrrr!
Overall though, I think it would be hard to top the Tour De France. 21 stages in 23 days, 150km+ in the saddle everyday, in baking heat and freezing rain, up the sides of enormous mountains, then down the other side at 50, 60, 70mph with no protection. Broken collarbones are to professional cyclists what missing teeth are to hockey players.

Would it really be worse than the Conklin situation this season?

Thanks for the kudos, and I agree that profits are the bottom line. But it's not just that, increasing the market share and the profile of the game makes the sport more viable in terms of talent too. If there are more fans, and more people viewing the game as something other than the odd man out between the NBA, NFL, and MLB then more kids start playing at an early age, and more high quality athletes are likely to play hockey rather than one of the others. There's a lot to be said for expanding the game, but I think people tend to lose sight of that when all they focus on is a struggling team in Atlanta or Phoenix.

Last I knew Gary Bettman didn't become commissioner of the NHL through a coup d'etat. The league brought him in with the expressed desire to increase the profile of the league and expand the sport. If revenue increases from 400 million to 3 billion per year are any indication, he's done exactly what he was hired to do. Personally, I don't like his expansion policies, and some of the rule changes are garbage, but it's not like the league didn't know what they were getting. There's plenty to criticize Bettman about, but I think alot of the criticism that Bettman receives should be focused on the Board of Governors rather than the commissioner considering they obviously wanted the changes he's made.

I don't care how much they make and I think Bettman lucked out because hockey was getting more popular in the U.S. anyway because of the "Miracle on Ice" and International success the U.S has had since then. And as is evidenced by their spending before the Cap the board of governors aren't exactly the brightest bunch

It was all part of Bettman's plans to further parity (parody). He sold the board on governors on the need for parity to market the game and especially to give newer markets a chance
It was all part of Bettman's plans to further parity (parody). He sold the board of governors on the need for parity to market the game and especially to give newer markets a chance to compete and thus become more marketable.

Just taking a second here to thank Matt and the rest of the LGW staff for another great LGW.com season of Red Wings hockey. Cheers to you all for all the hard work that you do to keep this great site running! :beerbuddy:

I'm getting so damn tired of seeing fights after clean hits. It seems goons are taking over this game in a bad way...


I think this looks clean to me, the announcers seem like morons...

Bieksa had a pretty nice hit on Brown not to long after the altercation, and that's all that should happen. It should be, if you hit our guy hard, we're going to hit you hard. Not, if you hit our guy hard, we're going to try to punch your face in.

I can't believe so many people have their panties in a bunch, it was a stupid play, he got away with it, that makes it funny. Qui being so damn cranky.

Ahh, the "you've never done it so you dont' know like I do" explanation.
You're making this sound like it was a run of the mill hook that didn't get called. Of course they're going to miss some things like that. Hockey is a fast moving game. Missing something behind the play is a lot more understandable. Missing something this obvious when it happens to the puck carrier is baffling.
This was like it was straight out of Slapshot. A player from the bench reached his stick over and interfered with the puck carrier. That's beer league crap. And everyone saw it except the two referees.
It's shocking that it was missed when it was so obvious. And both the tactic by Clowe and the fact he got away with it makes the NHL reffing look like a joke. Add to that it would've put the Kings on a 5 on 3 powerplay. That's not a little blown call. That's a major screw up by the refs.
This isn't the best clip, but here's the YT of it. The image is overexposed so it's hard to see the stick, but it shows how it happened near center ice to the puck carrier. The ESPN clip is better.

learn what? not to hit? do you even understand the premise of this hit?

He even dives in shootouts!
esteef

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.

Dumbest. Decision. Ever. This is the Detroit Red Wings, not the Michigan Wolverines. The Winter Classic should be held in Detroit, not in an over-rated stadium that isn't even close to the Detroit city limits. I would rather the state of Michigan not have a Winter Classic than play it in a place other than Detroit. Hell, I'd rather Toronto host the WC than Ann Arbor. Hell, there's even an unused lot not far from Comerica that could be put to some use.
And I guess this puts to rest the idea that Illich supports the city of Detroit. This is a plain money grab by him. Period. He does not have Detroit's best interest at heart, or it would have been held at Comerica Park.
Detroit, once again, gets screwed out of a Winter Classic. f*** raw numbers, f*** the money, play the goddamn thing in Detroit or move it to Toronto. I certainly won't be watching it in 2013.