Kp-Wings

Most sports journalists don't care about the NHL. The only ones who do are usually from Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, or Boston. After that, it's scarce. It's like what others said: the only time anybody would give someone like Crosby actual mainstream media attention is if he either killed someone, was having illegal sex and it was made public (prostitution), he was busted for having drugs, if he abused animals (ala Michael Vick), or if he beat his wife, or girlfriend, or a women in general. It's a proven fact: the majority of sports media likes villians and bad guys. They don't actually care about the sport itself. They only want stories that they think the American public with a 5 second attention span will find interesting. Killing, drugs, and most of that other stuff I mentioned all falls into that catagory. That's generally why the NHL is left out: there aren't a lot of bad people in the NHL like there is in the NFL, NBA, etc. etc. That's just how it goes. edited for grammar

Three Days Grace - Never Too Late

Yeah, I guess you could say that.

Good signing for Nashville. Gelinas is one of the best clutch players in the league.

Ahahahahaha This is great. I love to see things get shoved up Brian Burke's ass like this. He'll be crushed against the Cap wall if he does accept, and if he doesn't, loses a good young prospect. Great move there Kevin, even though I'm assuming you just went crazy. Still, it pleases me to see things go downhill for Burke. Now, if Neidermayer and Selanne also retire, that team is done. Their only replacements would have been our two over-the-hill players of Schneider and Bertuzzi. All in all a pretty entertaining day so far.

You seem quite sure of yourself for something hasn't happened yet. By the way, I love how you throw in your "private party" example like that. Is that supposed to be some way to make us all jealous or something, kinda like your lame attempt with your avatar?

Columbus is a very good market. They have great fan support for being such a crappy team. It's unfortunate that Columbus has such a bad team considering they have great fans, while Nashville has a great team but no one cares. It's really annoying. Replace Columbus with Anaheim and you're set.

Thanks for understand SWF and Lou. Yeah, I get what you're saying about people hating ESPN simpily because they don't have the NHL, and it really is annoying. I'm sure people around here would ***** about ESPN if it did have the NHL, because I guerentee that their coverage would be very scarce. As much as this may surprise people (sarcasm noted), ESPN doesn't respect the NHL, and with good reason. The ratings for this years SCF give it no arguement to do so. I have my own problems with ESPN, none of which has anything to do with hockey.

I have no problem with the programming itself (the sports themselves, the programs like Around the Horn make me sick). Or the fact that they dumped the NHL. I don't hate ESPN for that sole reason like others do. I hate it mainly because the people they have on the network and the shows other than sports they have. It just bothers me that a one time great network has reduced itself to crap in my opinion. Again though: don't think I hate ESPN because they dumped the NHL. That really has no effect on me at all. I understand the fact that the NHL is not very popular for the average sports fan.

It's comparable to say that Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford never had very good teams compared to the current day Nashville Predators. Winnipeg never won a division in their entire NHL history. They've also never made it past the Division Semi-final. Generally, their arena was also smaller than Nashville's arena. Quebec won a total of 2 divisional titles in their NHL history. In the 80's they were a pretty good team. Even during the 90's, when they really sucked, they still averaged decent attendance, better than which the current Nashville organization averages on a game-to-game basis. Quebec's only problem is that they don't have an NHL facility to put a team, because their current arena is small and old. Hartford won 1 divisional title in their NHL history, but also only once won a playoff series. They were a horribly managed team, yet still had fairly decent fan support. I can imagine that if the Whalers had been successful, they would have had great fan support, far better than what Nashville is getting right now. Winnipeg is the only one you can that couldn't beat out Nashville for attendance. Comparably, it was a bad market, as they were more successful than current day Nashville, yet still had worse attandence. Quebec and Hartford, on the other hand, were both pretty bad teams for the most part, but still had decent fan support. In fact, they average about the same amount of people per game with mediocre teams as what Nashville currently does with a great team. Honestly: I really hate the fact that Nashville has a team. I'm sorry, I just think it's a horrible market. It's not only because their from the south either. I'd advocate moving them to Houston if it were possible.

Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing

He'll retire if he doesn't play in Anaheim. I really do hope he would sign with the Wings, but I just don't think it'll happen. Selanne has his priorties set. I feel that he'll probably retire.

Seriously, I have never seen someone support ESPN like you do. It's a lame ass network in my opinion. ESPN has gone to s*** over the years, and this has nothing to do with not having the NHL. The shows they play are pathetic, the news anchors are so damn stupid that it surprises me they've even graduated from the 5th grade, and the network in general is a pile of s***. This has nothing to do with stuff like eating contests and all that. This comes down to the fact that the people who are on the network probably don't even like sports, and don't know anything about it. Half of them are on there just to criticize sports it seems like. It's the same thing all the time: The NHL sucks, the MLB is boring, the NBA is a joke, NASCAR is for hillbillies, etc. etc. I could dig up tapes of SportsCenter from a year ago, and it would probably be the exact same cliches and bad jokes that rot the network now. I can't stand watching it, and it's quite a shame that a one time excellent highlight show has gone the way of some stupid s*** you'd see on an ABC sitcom. Again, this has nothing to do with not having the NHL. I hate ESPN in general now. The people they have on there talk like a bunch of women sitting in the lobby of a doctors office who have never seen a sports game in their lives. But hey, if that's ok with people, then this means nothing.

True, he isn't the only reason, since the Wings lacked grit and passion in that series too. I still firmly believe though, that if Legace wouldn't have crumbled, we still would have beat Edmonton. Half of their goals came on wrap-around shots. What kind of goalie lets that happen to him as many times as Legace did?

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=214405&hubname=nhl Surprising move, considering the Blues already have a ton of depth at the goaltending position. This should give Marek Schwarz some competition for "goalie of the future" in St. Louis.

But didn't you hear? Selanne will be playing in Philly this year!!!!!!!!!11 Sorry, I couldn't resist. I have to poke fun at Eklunds stupidity. I don't know why he would even think Selanne would go to a loser team like Philly. I swear, Eklund really is a homer sometimes. He lives in Philly, and is a Flyers fan, so half of these rumors are all things he'd like to see.

Pittsburgh had bad attendance when they had a bad team. Look at it this year. They put together a solid team, and now they average a pretty good share of sellouts. Nashville, on the other hand, had an ever better team, yet couldn't manage to put together any sort of sellout streak at all. The fans excuses are so damn lame too. "We don't like to go watch teams like Columbus and Phoenix. That's why we don't sell out". You know, most fans who have good teams usually go watch, no matter who their playing. I didn't see the Sabres not selling out when the Flyers were in town. I don't understand the support for Nashville. It's pretty clear it's been a failure of a market. Just because the fans had a rally to sell tickets doesn't mean they are all of a sudden a good market. The only reason it's happening is because their teams is in danger of moving. If Leipold had kept the team, nothing would be happening at all right now, and it'd be the same thing next year as it was this year. Nobody would really care. There are better US markets that could support a team. Houston, for example, would be a much better market to have a team over Nashville. It's probably the best southern market to not currently have a team at that matter. KC and Salt Lake City would also be better in my opinion.

You have it exactly the wrong way. Cujo played great in that Calgary series... we never lost because of him. Think about it. We had two consectutive 1-0 losses. How exactly is that the goalie's fault? Sounds more like scoring problems to me... Legace, on the other hand, folds like a tent come playoff time. He did it in the Nashville series in 2004, and the Edmonton series in 2006. That's twice in a row he bombed out. He's not getting a bad wrap at all. Any criticism he gets is all true, as he was just plain awful for the Wings during the playoffs. If the Wings had a decent goalie during the 2006 playoffs, I really think we could have, at least, beat Edmonton. Maybe not win the Cup, because we also lacked grit, but we should have gotten past the first round. Legace is the reason why we lost to Edmonton that year, hands down.

A one year contract signing Selanne would be amazing. Could you imagine putting him on a line with Datsyuk or Zetterberg? Both of those guys could be 100 point scorers with Selanne. The only problem has been already mentioned a million times: he likes it Anaheim, and it's very doubtful he'll want to leave a situation that he's very comfortable with down there.

Turek was not a lousy goalie for in St. Louis. In 2 seasons with the Blues, he compiled a 66-33-19 record which included 13 shutouts, and a 1.95 GAA and 2.28 GAA in those two seasons respectivily. He also had a .912 and .901 Save% in those 2 seasons, and currently holds the St. Louis Blues all time record for GAA with 2.10. In his first season, he also won the William M. Jennings Memorial Trophy for fewest goals against in the entire league, and that over a course of 67 games. Turek was a great goalie for the Blues, and the trade to Calgary is one of the most lopsided trades I've ever seen. Fred Brathwaite was never a starting goalie in St. Louis, Daniel Tkaczuk (Keith Tkachuk's cousin) never played a single game for the Blues, and Sergei Varlamov is/was a career minor leaguer. The draft pick that the Blues got, Grant Jacobsen, never played a single NHL game to date. While Turek was never steller in the playoffs for the Blues, that may be contributed the fact that he never had a reliable backup goalie. Still though, he was a great goalie in his 2 years in St. Louis.

Aye, where be' th' Cap'n OsGOD?

I do believe some could. Those being the Lang fans here at this board.

Ok, glad we got that settled.

Chelios is an amazing guy. I met him before down at GLSC ice arena in Fraser when his son was playing, and always a treat talking to him. He's really a great guy.

Aye, good be joinin' th' crew.