Legionnaire11

excellent PK'ing to make up for the call.

It's a close call. Obviously there was no intent on Bertuzzi's part, and the blues guy was on his way to the ice, but the stick WAS above bertuzzi's shoulder so there is no way for them to really not call it. Tough break.

I guess i'd have to give my favorite other than Nashville.. easy. Philadelphia. Grew up there, still love the flyers. Clearly my favorite Eastern Conference team, and the Preds are favs in the west so it's easy to root for both. Preds get the nod head to head though.

Ouch, joined this game late and just saw that Mcgoo is reffing.... I'm sorry.

don't want to bring it up in here... but that "great play" by bertuzzi running over Norena, if it had been hartnell doing the same against detroit, would have made him a dirty SOB

Really? because a lot of people think Brodeur is the best all time. and a lot of those who don't, think that he will be when he retires. I'd definitely take brodeur over the other two. If anything, more people (outside of buffalo and detroit) would question Hasek of the three.

not sure where these lists are coming from that don't include Messier

Hmmm... Locks: Gretzky, Messier, Lemieux, Jagr, Roy, Brodeur, Yzerman, Bourque. Thats 8 of the top 10 already set. So it's really a battle for two other spots. Who could fill them? Sakic, Lidstrom, Stevens, Robitaille, Hull, Kurri, Coffey and Hasek are all great picks. and if you're just judging on pure ability and not taking into account longevity then we can add Bossy, Bure, Lindros, Lafontaine and Neely. I'd rather not finish out a top 10 list as several great players would be left off. But that would defeat the purpose of this thread if I didn't make a final list. 1. Gretzky 2. Messier 3. Lemieux 4. Yzerman 5. Roy 6. Brodeur 7. Jagr 8. Bourque 9. Lidstrom 10. Hasek

What if NASCAR had 5 races every day though? they wouldn't come close to selling out that many races, and they wouldn't have nearly the ratings that they get now simply because the fanbase would be spread out a lot thinner. I'm not saying that racing and golf aren't popular. But the reason that the support for those sports seems to be so unbelievable is that all the fans across the country are united together. They all watch the same event every week and when there is an event in their city it's likely the only chance all year that they will have to see the sport live so they show up in droves. The NHL would be the same way if they had that kind of schedule

I still believe that the NHL is more legit than NASCAR or the PGA. I mean, those "sports" only have one event each week. Each city only has one or two events all year and fans on television only have one event to watch each week. Imagine if the NHL had that kind of schedule, if Nashville only had two hockey games every year, we'd sell 40,000. And a place like Detroit could sell 100,000. Plus television ratings would be higher because everyone would be tuned in to the same game, and with one one game each week to watch, our hunger to see it would be higher so we'd be sure to watch rather than skipping the occasional game that we do now.

I agree that the NHL gets more negative press. But I don't think it's going to hurt the game. Just before the lockout we had the Bertuzzi thing, and then a whole season canceled. All we heard was about how the league may never come back, or how the league was going to come back and then fold a few years down the road and attendance was going to be horrible and the already crappy revenues would decline further... yet last season coming off the lockout the league had it's highest attendance ever and it's highest revenue intake ever. This season the league is on pace to beat both of those marks again. Despite what the media would like us to believe, it's not exactly the sinking ship that we were warned about.

we make a big deal about Modanos stick swinging. it was not a slash, it was swinging the stick as a weapon. I'm not going to go off the deep end like some preds fans and claim that he clubbed Tootoo and could have seriously injured him. But the fact is, he still swing his stick and hit Tootoo with it just a week after Simon is severely punished for using the stick as a weapon. What makes us ***** about it is that NOTHING happened at all to Modano, no penalty, no fine, no suspension. Even if they slap the guy with a $5k fine at least they acknowledge that he was out of line. Robidas goes out on a stretcher and they still gave him a penalty. But Modano gets nothing? why?

no compliments please. it inevitably starts the countdown to someone from LGW going over to the preds boards and finding me there, then coming back and telling everyone that I said mean things about the wings and my avatar says "red wings suck"... to which I will have to respond by saying "well yeah... i'm a preds fan, duh" and then explaining that the red wings do indeed suck and of course no one will understand it. ...can ya tell that i've been here a while??

I like when they talk hockey too. Heck, I like when Melrose talks hockey... but when I see the guy, I want to throw up. Come on Barry, clean yourself up!

did you read that before you posted it?

I still don't buy into NASCAR's popularity, and I live smack dab in the middle of "NASCAR Country". Think about it. one freaking race a week at a different venue every week. and even a few off weeks mixed in. Does anyone think that even Daytona would sell out 41 races a season? Maybe, but what about Poconos? Kansas? Dover? And if there were 10 races on at the same time for people to choose from, or if there were 4-5 races on every night, then the ratings for each race wouldn't be nearly as high. and UFC vs Boxing, there are a lot more boxing matches for people to attend and watch on TV than UFC events, so of course UFC is going to have higher ratings and attendance than boxing. To put it in other terms. If the NHL had the same schedule. Where each city only had 2 games every year, every single game would sell 30,000 with no problems. And if there was only 1 game to watch each week, on a sunday afternoon, the ratings would be much higher than the average game ratings now. And then we hear about one time events like a pre-season game in Kansas City selling out in 15 minutes... well, duh... it's their ONE chance to see hockey. What would they do over 41 home dates? any better in the long run than Nashville, Florida, Phoenix, Anaheim, New Jersey? doubt it. along another line of thought, why is the NHL trashed for attendance and not MLB? they rarely sell out unless it's Boston or New York. The NBA doesn't take near as much crap as the NHL does despite having similar or worse attendance numbers. It's all just a bias against the NHL.

too bad it never looks like that when you actually buy some. But I can't complain, they finally brought little caesars back to middle tennesse!!! it was here for the first year that I lived here, and then disappeared for the next 10. nothing like having pizza ready when you order it!

That was an awesome game. A large crowd from Nunavut came down for the game. I think it was a 3 day trip that the made. They had some good seats too in the lower bowl, they had their bodies painted in Nunavut colors and every time Jordin got on the ice (during stoppage of course), they would run up and down the aisle waving flags. It was really a pretty special thing to see.

I'm not defending what Tootoo did tonight. This along with the alleged biting incident on Tyler Wright (never anything proven, but it was alleged), are two black marks for Jordin. But show me they supposed laundry list from his other 163 games that make him the cheapest SOB in the league? Or is this like the supposed list of goalies that Scott Hartnell injures every night? Or all the times that Vokoun has shot off his mouth? With the occasional cheap shot, i'd still rather have Jordin on my team than play against him. He gets the opponent off their game. I've seen guys totally forget about the play and just chase Tootoo around the ice trying to hit him. He took a lot of penalties his first season, and still does, but now he's drawing a lot more penalties. If the Preds power play would ever get on a hot streak, they would be unstoppable. Again, not defending what he did tonight. Just that he's a guy that I want on the Preds. To be fair. I don't think Tootoo is really scared of any of the big guys. He's never been one to back down from anyone, i've seen him hit, takes hits and fight guys a lot bigger than him.

I'm not afraid of it being a black eye. It happened, there's no use hiding it. And really, for all of the negative press that we read about the league, how it's not a major sport any more and it's a sinking ship... the media never wants to talk about how attendance is the highest that it's EVER been and revenues are higher than they've EVER been.

I'd break this question down into three parts. If I were coaching a team for 1 season, and I could pick one of these goalies in their prime to play for me that 1 season... I'd pick Hasek. There were a few years that he was just UNBELIEVABLE. If the Sabres had a better team in front of him back then, they could have won 3-4 cups. Now, if i'm a GM and i'm starting a franchise, and I could pick one of these goalies as a rookie to build my team around... I'd pick Brodeur. He's a model of consistency. He's a leader in the locker room and on the ice. He's a "company man" (stolen from his book, yes) who will take a pay cut to keep the team competitive. And if i'm a coach who has to win one game and I can pick one of these goalies in his prime... I'd pick Roy. He had the ability to take over a game and single handedly defeat the opponent.

I don't understand... a few weeks ago everyone here was up in arms about Arnott getting his elbow up when he checked Lebda... but Kindl is praised for his hit on Drummond?

St. Louis improved a lot this year. Chicago and Columbus are a mystery, because every offseason we look at them and say "wow, they're going to be a lot better next season" and then they bomb.

ProudestMonkey already hit on it, but i'd like to clarify a little bit. There have been a few city-wide art projects in Nashville. Artists have the chance to decorate statues that are placed all around the downtown area. One year it was statues of Catfish. There was one out front of the GEC that was painted in Preds colors. It wasn't until that project that the catfish throwing started. It doesn't represent bottom feeding, we were really only bad for 4 seasons. The fifth season we were battling for the playoffs until Legwand was injured for the final 15 games (and coincidentally, we didn't win a single game that he was injured... and preds fans STILL debate how good he is). And then in seasons 6 and 7 we made the playoffs, and now we're in season 8. It's not like some huge thing either, I think there's a small pocket of Preds fans who are really big on the catfish throwing, but most of us didn't know if it would actually become a tradition or what would happen. When they replaced the catfish statues with Guitar statues, many of us even jokingly wondered if we would throw guitars on the ice during that season. Personally, I don't have a problem with it. I think it should be saved for big goals in big games. But I think that will work itself out eventually. As for this thread, most of you should be ashamed of yourselves for dragging the "classy wings fan" image through the mud. There are exceptions who are actually mature enough to discuss opponents, opposing fans and the city that they live in, and you know who you are. But the rest of you need to grow up and do a little bit of researching and thinking before you go blabbing like an idiot again.

Tom Kostopoulos has a long one that wraps around. Here's an interesting link too