Gizmo

The good news is that the the designs could have been a heck of a lot worse... There's no piping on the sleeves!!! That said, I do think that the changes are aesthetically a small step backwards. The new "shirt tail" being the worst of the changes.

The UHL contracted to 6 teams after the end of last season. One of the remaining teams is the Ft. Wayne Komets. Their owners, The Frakes family, bought the assets of the IHL when it folded in 2001. So a decision was made to "re-brand" the league and make it a mid-western based AA league, and upon agreement with the Frakes', using the more familiar "IHL" name in an effort to revive the league's fortunes.

All things considered, they could have been a lot worse. The changes are pretty much benign. My guess is the lowering of the bands on the sleeves was so they'd miss the "armpit" panel of fabric that runs along the inside of the sleeve.

I saw a couple of them for "display only" at the Detroit game worn jersey expo last September. The dealer that had them was from the Wisconsin area and picked them up at the post-game auction. He said they went pretty cheap, but in the collecting world they became instant "classics". Jersey collectors from all over wanted one!

How can they miss the hockey jersey that was so ugly it was beautiful: The "Bob Eucker Night" Jersey...

Hee, hee!!!!

Sorry... I was just going by the 2006-2007 media guide. The historical data was only updated through the end of the 2005-2006 season. I've correct the error above.

The following #'s have never been worn (regular season only?): 49 50 53-54 56-70 73-76 78-84 86-90 92-95 97-99 The following #'s have only been used once: 45 - Quincey 46 - Marc Potvin 47 - Jim Cummins 72 - Brad Smith 77 - Coffey 85 - Klima 91 - Federov 96 - Homer

I researched this recently and you're correct. Per the 2006-2007 media guide Homer started his 2nd season with #15 and switched to #96 mid-season. Mironov brought over the #15 with him when he was aquired by the Wings. Also, a bit of team trivia... #15 is the most worn number in Wings history!

I read it last winter and it's a great book. I didn't think it was very flattering towards the Avs or the Denver media in general. The author paints a Pearl Harbor analogy (waking a sleeping giant) when it comes to the Draper incident. It also shines a not so good light on the character flaws of some of the more infamous Avs (like the fact that Roy may be the only Goalie in NHL history to trash a locker room in a temper tantrum because his team won). If you're in Michigan, check your nearest Barnes & Noble. I spotted the book on the shelves of ours in the Sports section when I was in there last week.

It'll be interesting to see if they dump the whole season's inventory at once like last year or go back to the "few months at a time" approach. I'm sure the reason for the change last year was due to the special "Captain's Packages" for Yzerman Night, but I hope they go ahead and open up all of the games at once again. I found I got a lot better seats last season than for 2005-06. I suspect it was because we were "fighting" over a larger ticket pool last Fall. They still sold out JLA for the regular season games and the Wings front office got ticket revenue for later season games a lot sooner last season.

Yes, Drop-in is no replacement for leagues... but it can certainly serve a purpose. For me it's a place for me to "cut my teeth" in playing the game. I don't have to worry about ticking off teammates if I blow a play and let the other team score an easy goal. Also remember that Drop-in has a different "look and feel" depending on where (and even when) you go. We have a stable group of guys (and gals) (about 75% constant players) and the teams are usually the same core groups of people and are pretty evenly split skill wise.

I play in a local "Over 40" weekly drop-in game. I've only started playing in the last 1 1/2 years and haven't played in a league. The thing I like with our "gang" is that it's "no pressure". If someone screws up, we all just laugh about it. There's no "winning" or "losing". We're just out there to knock the puck around and have fun. We have a mix of skill levels from novices to people that have been playing their whole life (we even has a guy that used to ref IHL, NCAA, and some NHL pre-season games play).

Unless I trip and fall on it, I think it'll last a while... I don't have a strong shot!

For skates I like my Easton Z-air's. They were like new and I got them for $30 from a teenager that outgrew them. My favorite stick is the Bauer Vapor XXX Lite. It's a Jason Williams game used that I got at JLA for $100. My pants are CCM, ditto for helmet. I use a set of really nice CCM Pro gloves that I also got at JLA for $50 and appear to have been used in prospect camp.

Thank you Lord!!!!!

I'm guessing they are just using the NHL hosted site as a temporary site. I think they've got something else in the works.

I'm only familiar with the "Gordie Howe" entrance and the parking garages across the street from there. I'm planning on going to the equipment sale at The Joe this weekend, but am not sure how to get to the "free parking". From the RW web site: How to you get to the Execute lot from the Lodge???

Heck yah!!!!

I read stories about two months ago that the Toledo ECHL franchise was being courted by the UHL to join the UHL/IHL/Whatever. Here's a story referring to the possible name change: Link Looks like I've been behind in my reading, there FIVE teams left in the Unstable Hockey League Link

I think what the OP was refering to was a news story that came out a couple of months ago about possible changes to the UHL. The UHL is teetering on the brink of not having enough teams to remain a viable league in the future. As of now there are only 7 teams left (down from 15 two years ago), with Chicago imploding last week, Elmira running off to the ECHL, and Rockford transforming into the relocated Cincy Mighty Ducks AHL franchise. The story was that the UHL would join forces with parts or all of another hockey league and be "re-born" as the "IHL".

That story reminds me of these ladies from LA!!!

It was a very good season indeed... We saw a heck of a lot of great hockey and I think they certainly had a great play-off run. Shoulda-woulda-coulda... that's how hockey goes. A flukey bounce here, and funny tip there, and it all could have been different. No shame.

I'm afraid that you wouldn't likely be able to get a whole lot for it unless you had documentation that the auto's are real. Such "proof" could be in the form of photos of the players signing it or a letter of authenticity from someone trained in recognizing such auto's. Unfortunately there is SO much fraud when it comes to undocumented auto'ed items (cough-eBay-cough) that many people are very reluctant to shell out $$$ for such things. The condition, as you described it, wouldn't help the price either.

If you actually bother to read the rulebook you'll see the angle of the check in relation to the boards doesn't make a wit of difference!!! Show me where it talks about "boards" or "angles".