2008/2009 Hockey Thread v2.0

[Pizza]

I'm living in the Hamilton area now and I find that while they love the Leafs, there's a lot of resentment at the price and inaccessibility of the tickets. The Leafs could be the worst team in the league for 10 years in a row and they'll still sell out. I mean yes I'm sure there's plenty of people who get tickets in and around Hamilton, but from what almost everyone in the lab I work in feel is that if there were a team in Hamilton, they'd go to see them because it gives them a real hometown team (Toronto's about an hour away for those unsure), it'd hopefully be cheaper than the Leafs, they wouldn't have to try to brave the traffic to get to Toronto for 7pm and it's nigh impossible to get Leafs tickets anyways considering that most of the tickets belong to companies, and the rest have been in the same family for 75 years and they'll keep getting passed down, so a lot diehard Leafs or even just hockey fans are stuck paying well over 100 bucks a ticket to sit in the nosebleeds or just not going.

I'd be more concerned if I were Buffalo than Toronto. Toronto has and always will be a money making machine, with or without a team in Hamilton.

I live in the Toronto area and am a Leafs fan, and I've never gone to a Leafs game because of the price. It was cheaper to go to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Carolina in 2006 than it is to go to a regular season Leafs game.

[Guest Zeddy]

My point was TV coverage. If Hamilton got a team, Hamilton/Niagara-area fans wouldn't be able to see Leafs regional games (Sportsnet/Leafs TV/maybe still some TSN ones), Toronto-area fans wouldn't get to see the new team's regional games, and the rest of Southern Ontario would also be forced into one or the other.

[Clawson]

If I get stuck watching the Hamilton Steelers over the Leafs I'll kill someone.

[Plubby]

I'm living in the Hamilton area now and I find that while they love the Leafs, there's a lot of resentment at the price and inaccessibility of the tickets. The Leafs could be the worst team in the league for 10 years in a row and they'll still sell out. I mean yes I'm sure there's plenty of people who get tickets in and around Hamilton, but from what almost everyone in the lab I work in feel is that if there were a team in Hamilton, they'd go to see them because it gives them a real hometown team (Toronto's about an hour away for those unsure), it'd hopefully be cheaper than the Leafs, they wouldn't have to try to brave the traffic to get to Toronto for 7pm and it's nigh impossible to get Leafs tickets anyways considering that most of the tickets belong to companies, and the rest have been in the same family for 75 years and they'll keep getting passed down, so a lot diehard Leafs or even just hockey fans are stuck paying well over 100 bucks a ticket to sit in the nosebleeds or just not going.

I'd be more concerned if I were Buffalo than Toronto. Toronto has and always will be a money making machine, with or without a team in Hamilton.

OH MY GOD BASHA IS ALIVE!

[Toe]

If I get stuck watching the Hamilton Steelers over the Leafs I'll kill someone.

I am with you on that one.

[Gabriel]

If I get stuck watching the Hamilton Steelers over the Leafs I'll kill someone.

I am with you on that one.

The Coyotes roster has more to be excited about than the Leafs roster.

If I lived in Ontario, I would be praying for a team with that much talent coming up in the system. The Coyotes are going to explode much like the Hawks did... and like the Penguins before them.

It's just too bad that they'll probably end up staying in Phoenix, where half the fans at every game are there to see the visiting team.

[Ananas]

If one were coming from the perspective of someone with no sentimental attachment to any existing team that's fine, but don't pretend that 80% of southern Ontario aren't Leafs fans. A few seasons out of the playoffs isn't going to make everyone clamor for new allegiances. Are you actually saying if the Flames sucked and some great team moved to Red Deer, you'd be excited to see their games instead of the Flames? Of course not, you'd want to keep watching while they pulled themselves out of it and became a contender again.

[Gabriel]

If one were coming from the perspective of someone with no sentimental attachment to any existing team that's fine, but don't pretend that 80% of southern Ontario aren't Leafs fans. A few seasons out of the playoffs isn't going to make everyone clamor for new allegiances. Are you actually saying if the Flames sucked and some great team moved to Red Deer, you'd be excited to see their games instead of the Flames? Of course not, you'd want to keep watching while they pulled themselves out of it and became a contender again.

Of course I would want to keep watching them dig themselves out.

But I wouldn't be opposed to having more variety of games to watch.

Besides, the way we're headed, I've got a feeling that certain teams are going to start signing deals with specific networks to exclusively air their games... ie, maybe the Leafs sign a deal with CBC, so that TSN can't show any Toronto games, and in exchange, Leafs games take precedence over everything else on the CBC network.

I think that's where we're headed, where teams start signing exclusive deals with networks. It'll get muddled and become a huge clusterfuck eventually, but I see it happening sooner than later.

[Guest Zeddy]

I think the NHL would never let that happen, they get more money from national rights.

[Hajjhowe]

Besides, the way we're headed, I've got a feeling that certain teams are going to start signing deals with specific networks to exclusively air their games... ie, maybe the Leafs sign a deal with CBC, so that TSN can't show any Toronto games, and in exchange, Leafs games take precedence over everything else on the CBC network.

How is that different from now

[Enter Blue Guy]

I wasn't paying any attention, but did any teams get shafted for like three Hockey Night in Canada's last season? Because the Leafs did. I don't know why, I don't care, but this should never happen again unless we are invited to participate in a Winter Classic in exchange.

Edited May 25, 2009 by Enter Blue Guy

[Ruki]

So, Pat Quinn is in as head coach for the Oilers.

[Enter Blue Guy]

RIP Peter Zezel!

[Guest The Great Root Bear]

RIP to the greatest faceoff-taker who ever lived.

Anyone else find it weird that Zezel retired ten years ago...and he's still three years younger than Chelios?

[Clawson]

I've told this story a few times today but one of my earliest hockey memories was Peter Zezel getting hit in a way that made him cartwheel. Thus he was one of my early favourite hockey players along with Dougy and Wendel.

RIP

[Enter Blue Guy]

Zezel gave it all, man, skating around the ice like a bull. I remembered he had almost like a cult following. Reading and hearing what people have to say about him, I guess I remember correctly. I loved him, but then again my dad tells me I used to like Kent Manderville too because he had big, goofy ears, so I guess it wasn't hard for me to buy into a player.

I was at the Gardens for one of my first games and Zezel did something of note and I stood up a yelled something like "Yay Peter Zezel!". The guy in front of us turned around and introduced himself as Peter Zezel's dad. So that was pretty cool.

My heart truly aches for his family. 44, gone way too soon.

[Guest King Waldorf]

Zezel gave it all, man, skating around the ice like a bull. I remembered he had almost like a cult following. Reading and hearing what people have to say about him, I guess I remember correctly. I loved him, but then again my dad tells me I used to like Kent Manderville too because he had big, goofy ears, so I guess it wasn't hard for me to buy into a player.

I was at the Gardens for one of my first games and Zezel did something of note and I stood up a yelled something like "Yay Peter Zezel!". The guy in front of us turned around and introduced himself as Peter Zezel's dad. So that was pretty cool.

My heart truly aches for his family. 44, gone way too soon.

I was always under the impression (thanks, Howard Berger's book) that Baumgartner was the guy everybody liked from that era for his mis-shapen face. Also I forgot about Zezel being linemates (at least in EA's first PC NHL game) with Mike Foligno, who is best known for refusing to give me an autograph.

[Enter Blue Guy]

The only things I remember about Baumgartner were that he'd fight anything that was breathing and he looked a lot like Kelly Gruber.

That's right. I dusted off Kelly Gruber's name and threw it out there.

[Guest King Waldorf]

You're right, though, Uncanny resemblance.

[Gabriel]

Very good game tonight.

As much as I wanted to see Chicago win this series... I didn't want them to prolong it only to lose, and then make us wait more than a week for the finals to begin.

Pittsburgh over Detroit in 5.

The Red Wings are a decimated group, and as much as some of their guys are stepping up, you can see them slow down over the course of the game.

The Penguins are a machine, and they just seem to keep rolling through at 100% efficiency.

I should have saw this coming last year, when Crosby, with half his face melted off to reveal his robot skeleton, told Scott Oake, and I quote "We'll be Back."