hockey&beer

The way I see it, he shouldn't have even come out and said anything. The league should have told him he couldn't go. He's suspended, that's what that means. If he hadn't declined to go and the league allowed him to participate, I would be screaming BS with the suspensions of Pavs and Nick. Maybe, just maybe, someone asked Ovie to backout so the league wouldn't have to take a stand and tell one of it's most exciting players to stay home.

I'm all for more teams north of the border but, although numbers don't lie, they sure can tell a fib.

The average Canadian NHL arena holds 19000 rowdy fans. This is not taking "The 'Peg" into account since I'm unable to find current stats. The remaining 24 barns hold an average of 18375 puck heads. (If you do move Atlanta north the numbers only change slightly, 18429 Canada and 18368 US). The fun part comes in when you look at average price per ticket. All 6 Canadian teams are above the league mid-point. The NHL average as of last season is $54.25USD where the 6 teams north of the border average $76.49USD. That comes in at about 42% more per seat. Also keep in mind that league average seating capacity is 18500, 4 of 6 Canadian teams come in well above that with Montreal tops at 21273.

Just saying.


References
http://www.fancostex.../fci_pdfs/4.pdf
http://www2.canada.c...38aaeb&k=98487t

The big drawback to a new areana in that the sightlines and overall proximity to the ice will be lost. It's guaranteed that the luxury boxes will be in between the upper and lower bowls which will move the upper bowl seats up 20ft. A new areana will more than likely be the "norm" for new areanas: very little character, the fans are moved away from the playing surface, and it takes forever to get out of the building.

Not to mention the rumors seem to still be swirling that it will end up behing the Fox. WHich, as mentioned before, will be HELL to park. Especially if you consider it is entirely possible to have Wings, Lions and Tigers all playing, not to mention other happenings at the Fox, Second City, and Fillmore.

So over the years I haven't had many negative things to say about Valterri. But when it really comes down to it, what does he REALLY bring to this lineup other than solid defensive play? For his contract he really needs to either provide WAY more offense or be winning faceoffs, like all of them.

In addition, off topic oddly enough, Babcock said he would ice the team that provided the best chance of winning. Not to second guess the guy but, you have Hudler providing almost nothing (he IS there for offense) and Fil playing, ON THE POWER PLAY, not getting any points how is this the best lineup to win games? I've been around for a while and seem to recall that Drapes has a great FO% and Modano is known to have some skill putting the puck in the net. I really hope that MB makes a change or 2 to the lineup when the series shifts back home or we may be looking at the same outcome as last season.

Looks like someone is trying to stir things up. It really takes some big hairy ones to put Doughty and Keith before Nick. I admit that he isn't what he used to be but he never makes the mistake of rushing when he shouldn't (Doughty) or trying to out muscle a winger and then gets beaten cleanly to the outside (Keith).

Linky-poo

People defending Bertuzzi for the Moore incident...seriously, take the red and white goggles off.  There's no way you can defend that.  It would be interesting to see the thread on here right after the incident happened, I guarantee you he was getting ripped a new one.

What Bert did was no-doubt dirty as hell.

What Lemieux did to Draper was worse.

Everyone is going to have their own special feelings on this, but the people who think Bert skated up behind Moore and punched him thinking, "I'm going to break his neck" are in-freaking-sane. That play occurs damn-near every game and there's has been one serious injury, LET IT GO PEOPLE!

The Wings have been clearing the puck to the front of the net for years. The only problem is that the D doesn't always look before they throw it out there. As far as horrible turnovers go by Wings D, I'd put a vote in for Rafalski. He seems to give it away at the blue line at least once a game, if not a period.