"Everybody is just on their feet screaming "Kill! Kill! Kill!" THIS IS HOCKEY!"
Posted on 01/08/2013 1:16:44 PM PST by shove_it
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. You know when a player who really loves his team and city gets traded, and he gives an emotional speech about how sometimes you forget hockey is a business, and that sometimes makes it unpleasant? Let this lockout be a lesson that the same goes for fans. During that 113-day ordeal, you were repeatedly condescended to, taken advantage of, and lied to, by both sides of the argument. But never forget that the contents of your wallet, like one of the podded-up humans in The Matrix, are nothing but fuel for a machine that cruelly exploits you....
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.sports.yahoo.com ...
We love Trotzy as a coach and he’s an even better man.
The league gets my money. Last year it was Penguins, Blue Jackets and Coyotes. This year year I’ll try to visit another arena.
Looking forward to seeing -
*Sidney Crosby be his usual great self even with less than optimal wings.
*Hope to see Brandon Saad make the Chicago BlackHawks team.
*Want to see the LA Kings which is my Stanley Cup favorite. Let the games begin!
And how have the Habs done since ‘93? The chlorine in a pool harms that cup - that is desecration. Like when the Rangers won the cup in 1940 and burned the lease in it - look at what happened to them.
As I see it, the strikes of recent years are because the cup has been mistreated. The League has goons walking around with it now. Keep the cup from the players, the game will leave them too. Without the cup, there is no game.
The cup belongs to each player who won it until another team wins it. You can do whatever you want with the cup - but if you harm it, you and your team will suffer the consequences.
It's yours if you win it - do anything you want with it. Harm the cup, what I am calling desecration, and you and you team may never see it again. That's how it works.
Is it 'how it works?" The Cup is not like the piece of the Holy Cross. It was a cheep trophy that some guy named Stanley picked up in a shop on one of his trips to London. It is a piece of metal.... (and BTW, the one being given out now is just a replica of the original, which was damaged beyond repair by 'desecration' in your words, forty years ago.
IMHO, the players who win that cup should be allowed to have some fun with it, and that is the very reason the Stanley Cup is so unique from other sports.
It is not the object itself. It is the spirit of the game and the spirit of the young men who give all for the opportunity to have a day with that cup signifying that they were on a team that reached the top of their profession.
Quit being so damn sanctimonious and enjoy the tradition.
It's not the flag. It's not a religious relic. It's a nice looking hunk of metal that is more valuable because of the stories generations of players can tell about how they "desecrated" it on their day as opposed to having it locked up in some unapproachable 'white glove only' vault.
Have you ever known any NHL players? I have. Regardless of background they are Blue Collar guys with Blue Collar ethics. Every one that I have known would tell you to lighten up. They are great guys who love to party and unlike other pro jocks I have met, they don't take themselves or the game as seriously as you seem to. That is why I have especially liked those hockey players.
They would tell you, IT'S JUST A GAME! Enjoy it.
One problem is that there are only nine teams with really strong fan bases ... and by this I mean teams that will draw 15,000+ fans to a late-season game even if the team is out of playoff contention. These teams are the "Original Six" (New York Rangers, Montreal, Boston, Toronto, Detroit and Chicago), plus Philadelphia, Buffalo and Edmonton.
Buffalo is borderline because it's a city in decline, but it's got a great core of fans and some great regional rivalries. Edmonton may be the most hockey-crazed city in North America, but it's a small city by major-league standards and had a winning tradition in the 1980s that it will never match again.
Take these nine teams and add another nine that cover large metro areas in the U.S., teams with strong winning traditions, and a couple of mid-sized markets in Canada ... and you've got a good core for the NHL. I would consider these nine possibilities:
10. St. Louis
11. Los Angeles
12. Ottawa
13. Vancouver
14. New Jersey
15. Pittsburgh
16. Minneapolis
17. Denver
18. Washington
"Bettman sucks! ... Bettman sucks! ... Bettman sucks!"
LOL.
"Everybody is just on their feet screaming "Kill! Kill! Kill!" THIS IS HOCKEY!"
Diehard? Reread the title of this thread. I really don't give a damn about hockey. Whatever was done or will be done will be totally forgotten in 5 to 10 years. As far as I'm concerned hockey should be played on natural ice using natural light.
Yeah, when the cup came through my town last summer the streets were thick with fans. A lot of Kings live around here. We lost the most by not having the season start. :( love that cup. We lost that Mo. Can’t wait to go to a game.
Forgiving doesnt allow you to hold it over the heads of the offenders. This guy is a snark
I think thr Kings gained by not having the season start on time. That Stanley Cup hangover is real. Now they can get together and if the coach doesn’t try to insert a new system (why the Pens didn’t repeat) they should be in very good shape for another run. With that defense and Quick, it won’t take much goal scoring to make them unstoppable.
Gotta say it...
“Let’s go Rangers...clap clap clap-clap-clap”
Let the games begin!!
The legend of the Octopus ...
http://hockeycoparchives.blogspot.com/2011/02/detroit-red-wings-honorable-mention.html
The Pittsburgh Penguins will offer FREE selected concession items and “half off” all merchandise at the team’s first four games at CONSOL Energy Center.
Every fan attending each of those games will receive a voucher for three free concession items. Fans may choose from among hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, nachos, popcorn, pretzels, salads and fountain drinks.
All merchandise at “PensGear” stores will be half off for the first four games. The PensGear store in the main lobby of CONSOL Energy Center and PensGear at SouthSide Works will offer the half-off discount throughout the day on the first four home dates.
In addition, the Penguins will hold a week-long program of contests for fans to win exciting prizes leading up to the home opener. The contests will be held via social media and the team’s website. Prizes include:
•A pair of tickets to every home game during the 2013 regular season
•A road trip for two to see the Penguins play the Rangers in New York City (airfare, accommodations, tickets)
•Three autographed jerseys – one each from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury
•Four seats in the first row at the home opener, including dinner in the Lexus Club and limo service to and from the game
•Two five-game mini-plans
•Six lower bowl tickets to any regular season game
•$700 of merchandise at PensGear
Training camp sessions at CONSOL Energy Center will be open to the public (free admission).
The Penguins will distribute promotional items at each of the first 15 home games. All fans attending the home opener will receive a gold “Great Day For Hockey” t-shirt.
Sounds like Mario’s feeling guilty or maybe worried about getting his fans back. I checked the Wings website - Mike Ilich apparently doesn’t see the need to even pop for a free pizza to get his fans back.
They've treated their fans better than any other fan base in the league, IMHO. There's a long history of Mario giving back to the fans, including “Rush Week” where they give $10 tickets to students (including players dropping by to hand out free pizza to the kids in line), “Mario's TV” - a big screen TV outside, during away playoff games.
No, the Penguins are a class act. That's why so many players come back to retire here. Billy Geurin being the latest.
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