Sunday night, the headline on the Minnesota Wild's website read "By the way Chicago …. you’re welcome” :-)

Kane brought back the playoff mullet. Wonder what Bobby Loo thinks of that?

Image

Image

Not only that, he is brining back the Vanilla Ice "lines" too...

Image


Word to your mutha!

:-)

Whatever works, Mike. :-)

Image

"Homer"'s name is Mickey Redmond. I thought a hockey fan like yourself would know who he is. I mean, he was the seventh player in NHL history and the first Red Wing to score 50 goals in a season. As a broadcaster he's been on: CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, ESPN National Hockey Night, NHL on Fox, and done many NBC-broadcast Wings games for WDIV.

He does get jabbed on local sports radio for being a homer but the guys knows his stuff.

I enjoy Redmond. As long as a guy knows his hockey and gives credit where credit is due to the opposing team, I don't mind him being a "homer". Dale Tallon was that for years in Chicago, Pat Foley and John Weidemann root for the Hawks too, and I am just fine with it that way.

Mike, c'mon and tell me Drew Remenda doesn't fit that mold. :-)

I didn't know him by name, but I know I've seen him on CBC. Honestly, when CBC carries a game that is otherwise only on Versus, I ALWAYS watch it on CBC. We get it as a local channel 9 in Detroit, they are very knowledgable and easy to watch. Similar to you Tom, I don't mind if the broadcasters are homers, so long as they know their stuff and give credit to the team who deserves it. CBC guys would lean toward the Leafs when I used to see Wings/Leafs games on CBC growing up, but they always knew the ins and outs of both teams and gave credit where it was due.

The Versus guys, especially in the first couple years, were terrible. They still get all side-tracked like they're at the bar chit-chatting and forget they're supposed to be calling a game. A game where someone watching might actually care what's going on. I can't tell you how many times a player will go down with an injury, cut to commercial, and you never hear a peap from those clowns as to the status. They rarely ever replay a questionable call, etc. It's like amatuer hour.

I dunno, Mike, I like Eddie O. I know I many be in the minority, but so be it.

[quote=357;1234127]"Homer"'s name is Mickey Redmond. I thought a hockey fan like yourself would know who he is. I mean, he was the seventh player in NHL history and the first Red Wing to score 50 goals in a season. As a broadcaster he's been on: CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, ESPN National Hockey Night, NHL on Fox, and done many NBC-broadcast Wings games for WDIV.

He does get jabbed on local sports radio for being a homer but the guys knows his stuff]

:-). Sorry I tend to tune out people like that regardless of what he's done I can't take him. Sorry
Just saying the Boston color Guy sounds like he's about to have a pleasurable release in his pants during any fight. Announcers like that just are tough to listen to

I'm not a fan. He has moments, but that's about it.

At this stage it's just a province, Montreal's still there to split the nations attention. Hell, they shifted the french language leaders debate in our current general election from Thursday night to Wednesday night so politics wouldn't have to compete for attention (and lose abysmally) with a Habs game :-)

As for Luongo, he's got a HORRIBLE playoff record but this year he's actually rested and doesn't have Byfuglien to deal with in his crease. I still think Luongo was too much of a pansy last year and that's what cost the Canucks the series. All Roberto had to do was decide to man up and take a single 2 minute minor for chopping Byfuglien's ankles out the first time he encroached on the crease. Not enough to injure, just to enough to get the message across that if you crash/park my cease it's going to HURT. If he'd done that it would have been a different series.

Either way, even if Luongo does go into his usual playoff mode..... in Cory Schneider we still have a backup who would have been the starting goalie on almost every other team in the league this year :-)

Should be a very good series!

I also think the NHL needs to seriously look at ditching the conference system all together. Yet again this year you have teams from the west, Dallas and Calgary, that finish with better records and more points than the 8th seeded team in the East yet they're off to the links while the Rangers prepare for a first round exit.

I like the idea of top 16 qualify regardless of conference or division. Then the teams pick like on a schoolyard; #1 picks their choice of first round opponent from the bottom 8, #2 then does the same followed by #3, #4, #5 and so on and so until all the 1st round matchups are decided. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds then move in a traditional tournament ladder based on the winners of the 1st round. That actually rewards the top placing teams for their effort and consistency over the regular season, prevents teams like this year's Rangers from piping teams with better records and makes for a more exciting playoffs.

I apologize for the semantics, Geoff, my bad.:-)

Looking forward to a great series as well. :-)

That doesnt work because of the unbalanced schedule. For example the Canucks played some of the worst teams in the west more. It effects their standing.

You can't have an unlevel field all year and then level it for the playoff. Conference and division play a large factor already. I just see no logic in throwing that out at the end. Sure everyone has a different view.

You'd have to eliminate the conferences all together. The only reason that that that Canucks played some of the worst teams in the west more often is because their division just happened to be stacked with teams in rebuilding stages. That's definitely something that contributed to the Canucks winning the Presidents Trophy and it'll be interesting to see how they handle the playoffs.

I get the concept that the NHL is trying to go with where you play "local" teams more often creating a rivalry, etc. which in theory makes the regular season more exciting but I think it's failing when you have the 18th ranked team in the league in the playoffs and the 16th and 17th out and on the golf course. Just doesn't make sense. Plus it also means that local fans rarely get to see teams outside their own division or conference.

There are 30 teams in the NHL, I rather see it so each team plays the entire league 3 times as the regular season (or even just 2 times so that the regular season is shortened and hockey doesn't run so deep into summer anymore). That way there's no weak vs strong division/conference skewing results and the best 16 teams are in the playoffs regardless of whether the quota for eastern or western teams is filled. I'd also be quite happy to see a return to best of 5 playoff series for at least the first round and possibly the second as well.

No argument on that what so ever. I hate the unbalanced schedule. There are teams you only get to see every other year. Its a joke. All I was saying is that in the current creation you just can't do it. I would love to see the whole thing changed and then a true top16 playoff.

I think one of the main reasons it has not happened is cost. The league in some areas is barely holding. Add in a lot more travel and it will strain them more. Also I think a lot of teams don't want the travel. The studies on the impact of travel on teams like the canucks a few years ago. Teams look at that and think they don't want that. Especially many eastern clubs.

NHL draft lottery is streaming on nhl.com right now

Frankly the cost is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. The only teams that is an issue for are those in the questionable (at best) hockey markets that Bettman advocated/forced expansion into. Capitalism says sink or swim, there are a lot of smaller market cities in Canada that are more than capable of supporting an NHL team and Toronto can easily support 2 franchises + a team in Hamilton. It'd be a novel concept for many of the southern US market teams to move to Winnipeg, Hamilton, Regina, Victoria, etc and actually see sold out crowds instead of $30 tickets still resulting in thousands of empty seats every game. It's nothing against those teams or cities, they're just not hockey markets because the people that live there just have different interests.

As for travel schedules, these guys are big boys that are VERY well compensated for what they do. Their job is to play jockey whenever and wherever the league deems is best for the advancement of the game.....

Teams I am cheering for in the first round:

Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, Nashville, Montreal, Buffalo, New York and of course Pittsburgh.


:-)

:-)

:-)