MulesWillFly93

I'm against the logistics of cheerleading at a hockey game.  It just doesn't work out with the way the rink is set up.  No sidelines, plus you can't get too carried away on the ice during intermissions or else you'll fall on your face and crack your head open.

Plus, I'm not really against cheerleading in general, although I think there comes a point where there's a fine line between cheerleading and looking like you're performing the pre-strip portion of an exotic dance (take the Panthers' cheerleaders, for example).  Also, since I wasn't really up on what cheerleaders do these days, I looked up the Cowboys cheerleaders on YouTube, and I have to say, I'm kind of unimpressed.  I mean, they're good dancers and all, but at my high school they used to do flips and those human pyramid things and all kinds of acrobatic stuff.  These girls just dance.  I was going to say that it would be lame because hockey cheerleaders couldn't do anything very acrobatic because of the surface they're on, but I guess football cheerleaders don't do that kind of stuff either.  In that case, meh, I think the whole thing's kind of boring.

If they want to do it, fine, but if they wanted to save money, I could live without it.  I mean, baseball doesn't have cheerleaders and they play on grass, which is much more conducive to being danced on than ice is, so why try to force it when football's really the only sport that does it?

I definitely think they need to step it up, but I also think they could use a little more time to adjust.  I mean, I don't want to be sitting here saying the same thing in January -  "Just give them more time!" - but they've only played 6 games so far (which makes this the 6th game ever that Mo has played with us), so I think they still have time to make it happen.

If this continues to not work, though, I'd say maybe move up Eaves, but him and Helm always do so well together that I hate to break them up.  Who knows, though, maybe Eaves would do even better with a guy like Modano.  Well, let's cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess.

That was the worst hate article I've ever read. A Blackhawks fan could do much better than this garbage.

Yeah, the fact that it's a hate article doesn't bother me, but what does is that her arguments are logically unsound, and she doesn't even try to back them up (although if you're just flat-out wrong, it would be kind of hard to find examples to support your argument).  Heck, I could probably write a better article about why other fans hate us, really.

My favorite part is the "Red Wings are arrogant" line.  Come the eff on.  I can't think of ANY current players who act cocky.  I can think of a lot of reasons other fans don't like our players - Homer is a pain in the butt (or rather his butt is a pain in your face), Bertuzzi is a thug, etc. - but arrogant?!  Yeah, that Lidstrom, man, he really talks a lot of crap about other teams, doesn't he?     I can think of two whole players in recent history who might be said to have inflated egos: Fedorov and Avery, and Avery got shown the door for that exact reason.  Plus, we Wings fans get to share Avery's "legacy" with the Stars, which doesn't exactly help the author one-up us.

Now, I do heartily agree that we FANS are a bunch of arrogant bastards - as The Chief would say, we've got SWAGGER, *******!  We're probably obnoxious at times, too.  However, I absolutely 100% disagree that we are some of the least knowledgeable hockey fans out there...if she ever visited this forum she'd know she was wrong.  Yeah, there are a couple of yokels here like me, but for the most part I've never met a more informed bunch of people all in one place, period.

Man, if I'm a bandwagon fan, so be it.  Nothing's going to stop me from cheering for the Wings.

Aww, I love a good bromance!  Ahem, anyway, after this year's lines were announced, I couldn't help but think about whether it'd be better to have Homer or Franzen on the 1st line (off-season ponderings, you know how it goes).  Since they're both worthy, I couldn't decide, but if Mule and Bert are going to work together so well, then great!  Keep 'em on the same line!  Whew, now I don't have to think about it anymore, heh.

On the subject of Bert, I agree with the OP.  I don't necessarily want him to start fighting a lot; I'd just like to see him play with a little extra RAWR in his step and take care of business when business really needs to be taken care of, such as yesterday.  Good job, Bert!

This will be interesting to watch...if you live in a remote village in Alaska, and you just got hooked up with cable TV for the first time in your life and are excited to finally get to see real NHL players in living color.

The Ducks are jerks; the Pens are jerks/whiners.  That's two strikes against the Pens, so I guess I hate them more.  Plus, the Ducks are only average jerks now with Getzlaf and Perry. The turd came out of the punchbowl when Pronger left...now all that's left is a bad taste.

I don't see how it benefits a place like Québec City to go into debt to build a new arena when they've already got one.  Yeah, it's old, but they could update it like the Oilers have (as someone mentioned in the comments).  It's not like they need to try extra hard to lure the people there into going to games with the bait of a state-of-the-art facility; I'd imagine that the rabid, hockey-starved fanbase would show up come hell or high water at this point.  And hey, if they really want a new one, why not just hang out at the old one for a few years, keep costs down, and then build a new one with money in hand?

And why the heck does the League care either way as long as it meets minimal standards?  Do they profit from this in some way I don't understand?  And why is QC so eager to do this when Bettman has been yanking around Winnipeg, who has already built a new, NHL-spec arena, for a while now?

As for an actual opinion, I'd love to see QC and Winnipeg both get new teams, especially since Winny has already built an arena and QC is going to; I'd hate to see them go through all the trouble and then have Bettman thumb his nose at them.  Winnipeg Coyotes and Québec City Thrashers FTW!

Howard deserves his own cereal box and he'd kick everybody's ass in here in a Boggle tournament!

I give this an f-yeah, but I also think Franzen at the very least needs one too.

However, I just want to know if Howard's glove is held out in such a way that the Crosby action figure's face is easily insertable into it.

I know you think he's cute, but please re-think becoming a Crosby stalker.

1. I think it's crappy not to let Russian players play in their home country when they might not get another chance.
2. There is probably less chance of them getting injured at the Olympics that there is at an NHL game.
3. I think this is basically all about NHL rinks sitting empty and not making any money, end of story.

As for the exposure issue, I agree that these Olympics will probably bring less exposure than Vancouver's, but I still think the Olympics creates a certain amount of at least a temporary awareness of any sport.  I also think that if they want the people who did watch hockey for the first time and liked what they saw to transition over to the NHL, it would behoove the NHL to have their players there to give these people a preview of what they're going to see.  So when somebody watches and thinks, "I wonder who that Russian guy is who fakes out the defense with those crazy cool moves," he can look up #13 and find out that it's Pavel Datsyuk, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings, and gee, maybe he should start watching the Wings after this thing is over!  Much better than finding out it's some random college kid from Minnesota whom you'll probably never hear from again.

Also, from a fan perspective, I hear a lot of people say this should be the time for amateur players to shine, but...I don't know.  I like seeing my favorite players change it up and play with different people (even if it doesn't exactly pan out...it was still cool seeing Datsyuk play with Ovi, for instance), and it's better than the All-Star game because it's an actual tournament, and they're playing for national pride.  It's like the soccer World Cup - they've got to have SOMETHING that's special to everybody and is a place where the players can play for their countries, and since the World Championships are every year and kinda lame, it's got to be the Olympics.

The only thing I will say is that it does kind of break a team's momentum.  Well, except it helped ours this year, but that's because we got so many players back from injuries right after that.  In general, though, I can see how a team not practicing or playing together for a couple of weeks could mess up your rhythm.  I think it's worth it, though, and I'd feel really bad if all the Russian guys didn't get a chance to play.  It's only once every 4 years, after all.

I just want Homer and Modano on a line together so I can sing, "Chip and Daaale's Rescuue Raangers!" every time they come on the ice.

I'll watch it.  I don't like that they're repeating teams already, and yes, I'd still be complaining if it was the Wings again instead of the Pens.  It just makes the day seem a little less special because you know it's less about tradition, which I thought was sort of the point of an OUTDOOR hockey game, and more about having it be an all-star game type of situation.  I know this is philosophical BS and that the NHL is just trying to make money, but the WC seems like the one day where they ought to throw a bone to the knowledgeable fans with a sense of history (since it is a throwback sort of game and all) and stop trying to wow us with the latest & greatest.  Whatever...it's hockey, it's outdoors, it's fun...I'll watch.  Plus I hate football.  Habs/Leafs for 2012, dammit.

Yeah, I gotta say, I was one of the ones who was a little worried at first, but he definitely put in the effort and made a difference once he got going.  And then there was that hat trick... Yeah, I'm pretty darn content with that.

and GetFlaf too!

Heh, every time I see that post title I crack up... I don't know what getting flaffed is, but I'm not really sure I want to find out.  Especially since Ryan is involved...dude can't even have a conversation about his stick and keep a straight face.

Ahem.



Yeah, yeah, I know it was only once, but come on, was that not the best thing ever?

Also, I like Abdelkader for his fire, and I liked Miller's penalty box trash talking during the Coyotes series.  I think Ericsson needs to step it up a little, but he has potential.