Hopefully the Devils get the chance to try...

We use to be friends MB. Why would you wish ill on my Rangers, smh. Fcuk off!! Rangers in 7!!

kings in 5

Kings-Devils then definitely. Kings-Rangers would go 7.

I don't know, they way the Kings are playing, it doesn't seem to matter. They rolled up the first second and third seeds in the west. If they break doesn't mess them up, I can't see them losing, but then again that's why they play the games....

The Kings prove the one main problem I have with playoffs after a long league season. Like the Giants in the NFL and Green Bay the year before, sometimes you just got to get hot at the right time.

hence the saying "just gottat get in"....

But with some teams looking to build new rinks this is the best time to move towards standardizing to a degree rink sizes between North America and Europe.

Larger ice surfaces would allow more skilful players and good skaters to express themselves. Russia won the World Championships with a perfect 10-0 record and the stick handling skills and vision were second to none led by Geno of course. First player since Gretzky to win the Art Ross and a world title in the same year.

Bettman might have hoped Phoenix reached the final for the sake of the franchise itself which has hardly been a rip roaring sucess much like the Thrashers. Why not move it to Seattle which used to have a NHL side I believe before the modern NHL emerged ?

Again, don't disagree with you about the rinks. And they can easily get around it by amending the rule to give the rink "guideline sizes". Right now it is very stringent. There would be an uproar from the older players but they'll get over it. The spectacle is definitely better, but not necessarily more skilled. I'll explain.

As the league has expanded there have been complaints the product has been watered down because there are less good players per team. while this is good for fringe players it does mean as a whole that the average of the players skill levels has declined. Add to that the fact that there are designated bangers and crashers whose hands don't need to be that good and you have watered the product down some more. Now make the rink bigger, and you have ruled out a lot of these bangers and crashers, which means you have to dig lower for skaters. So in the early years of this transformation you have a worser product, but one would hope as time goes by the skaters get better and you raise the level back up and beyond where it is today.

Another issue is all of the junior rinks that are around. It becomes harder to transition from Junior or AHL to NHL due to the extra lung capacity you will need. Definitely not a huge problem, but an issue none the less.

And on the Yotes, while Seattle would be a fine place to have a team, and yes, I think they did back in 1846, they do not have a building so will not be in the running. Quebec have a building with approvals, as does Kansas, so I would think they are more likely - particularly Quebec as they have an existing fan base. I would love to see a team in Seattle and have them in the same division as the Nucks. Heck, I'd go down 2 times a year for the craic.

That's a shame. I wouldn't mind seeing a team relocated to more of a hockey heartland in which case former followers of the Nordiques would welcome the current Coyotes with open arms and a rebrand as with Winnipeg.

About the transition from the WHL/OHL/CHL and other junior leagues I don't think it would be too much of a problem in physical terms. Faster line changes are one method used as one sees in the World Championships but it would affect to a slight degree the netminders and more especially setting up your PK/PP units.

That said the North American juniors when they come to Europe don't have much trouble acclimatizing where we Europeans prefer the bigger ice and less physical confrontation by and large despite some calls for the Elitserien to downsize rinks.

Part of the problem despite Canada's sucess in the WJC's at u20/u18 level is that in relative terms they have not gone ahead of the curve. The US development program has really come on leaps and bounds in part to using old style Soviet techniques in skills development.

Russia is resurgent as is Sweden and there are signs Czech hockey is picking up again.

The NHL is also having to face real competition from the KHL. Okay so it is still heavily reliant on oligarch money and with a few teething troubles inc.the horrific tragedy of Lokomotiv but it is growing and quite a few sides from Germany, Austria, Switzerland even from the SM-Liga are considering it as an option.

And while you still have many juniors venturing over to Canada many more of the youngsters outside and inside of Russia are deciding to stay put so that will affect the NHL to a degree. And when they see say someone like Komarov coming over for the Leafs after a couple of seasons in the KHL, they will see it better for themselves rather than playing in the AHL or stuck on a fourth line with precious few minutes.

In the long run that may be beneficial for all because too many juniors from Europe (Sweden seems an exception to this) seem to come off the rails in North America. If they wait a while and develop with more ice time they become better rounded and NHL calibre players.

The NHL has to be aware that it retains visibility in North America to the general fan. This year it fell behind MLS which isn't a great sign.

A rousing finals is definitely needed especially after the top seeds crashed out prematurely. To be honest neither the Rangers or Kings have excited me at all.

do you have a reference for this?

Ranger's I can see, but the run the kings have been on is impressive, it is something to behold.

yeah last I heard Hockey was gaining fans and Baseball was slipping.

2-0 after 1 period. Fuck me, this does not look good.

Is this the National Hurling League thread?

How does it look now?

Hard luck, DT, but your side didn't deserve it.

I'm just looking forward to some HD hockey now - finally! And a Kings series win would be nice...

So Devils v Kings in an unlikely final. Not really exciting me, to tell the truth.

I thought the Devils/Rangers series was a pretty good watch - much to my surprise.

Like I said - HD TV for me and no shitty streams = win.

It is ok, I guess, I gotta root for LA.

I'm pretty certain I remember listening to a couple of American sport's broadcasters talking about the relative decline of hockey in terms of viewing figures and attendance in comparison to other sports and how soccer as you call it had overtaken hockey in terms of those numbers.

American football topped the table followed by basketball, then baseball with soccer coming in fourth for the first time ahead of hockey.

Rugby union was on a par with lacrosse. Figures for Canada still showed hockey as the pre-eminent sport but with soccer growing rapidly.

prediction time

Kings in 5

+1

1 down.


In other news, my Flames hired Bob Hartley.

He should shake the place up a bit, which is good.

I have nothing against Hartley, and he certainly has proven his worth in the Swiss league. But his cup is a product of having a great team. Obviously a coach needs to get them all to mesh, but we'll see how he goes with - and please forgive me hornets - a bunch of oldies on bloated contracts. The Avs were a well oiled machine when he got there, but he has to put the engine together in Calgary. I wish him well and the Flames the best.

Man New Jersey looked flat from what I saw. But they have been that way all playoffs in game 1 so I expect them to get it together is short order.

I am more looking to his work in ATL. I like his knickname Bob Heartless. You know the average age for the Canucks was more than the Flames right?...We are/were the tenth oldest team.

Contracts...we have a couple of bad ones, but lots are coming off the books. This is the pre-season/season I will judge Feaster.

The Devils looked timid.

I assume the Los Angeles sports media don't know what this newfangled "slide the black disc over frozen water" sport is.



Rugby union's nowhere close to lacrosse.

I was just doing a bit of ribbing with the "old age" thing horney. I am all too well aware of the Canucks age, but in fairness we can rid most of it at any time and I hope we use this year as a last run at the cup - i.e. - no long contracts handed out to anyone over 28. I know I'm living in dreamland but I can only hope.

I don't know anything about Feaster and have not looked into his management at all, but as I said before, I really hope the Flames can get a good team on the ice. When I first came here I always tried to get to the VAN/CAL games and the VAN/EDM games. It became very obvious, very quickly, that the EDM fans in Vancouver were mostly cunts who lived in the past, and the Calgary fans were people like us who realised the game on the nice was what we were here for. For that reason alone I follow Calgary and wish them luck. And for that same reason I enjoy watching EDM come dead last with no hope next year.

Is Iginla signed up?? I figure he has one more good year in him and then he will be a 3rd/4th liner and role model (probably the best one could hope for) much like Trevor Linden was to the young guys here for a couple of years. I believe Kippers is signed right??

off the top of my head Iggy is in the last year and so is Kipper.

Stajan and Jay Bo are our only really bad contracts left on the books.

Sweep then?

Like everyone else in the hockey world, I thought the Kings would take it out...

However, I was hoping to have a half-decent series.

I still enjoyed today's game, though.

I was at a baseball game. Hockey in June sucks. I just want it over ASAP now.

no self respecting Manitoban would skip a hocky game for baseball

4-0 win, WOW

Devils it's all over but the crying..............

Yip. I want them to either sweep it or it goes to the 6th. I always like to see the team win it at home.

The Habs have gone back to the past and have hired, or rehired, Therrien as their new/old coach:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=397660

They fired him a decade ago. The NHL sure can be an old boys' league.

That is an unusual case though, as history shows us that hasn't happened in the past (not that I know of anyway). When you are limited to francophones you don't have a lot to choose from so there is a good chance it could go full circle. I am glad they didn't go the Roy route. I hope he never gets an NHL coaching job. But Hartley may have been a good choice for them, or even the Crow. So much depends on the players it's gotta be one of the toughest jobs around.

Roy is egomaniacal. I cannot believe any GM who wants to keep his job would hire the guy as a head coach. I was in Winnipeg when the Canucks hired AV to coach the Moose. Alain said he did learn some lessons when he was fired by the Habs. He is a great example of a guy who got another chance and ran with it. But the NHL does love retreaded coaches.

I was listening to the radio and they said Therrien is one of only 3 coaches in the history of the team not to have a winning record while coaching The Habs.......good work....

Well done to the Kings!

A fucking juggernaut throughout the playoffs.

Yes. Congrats to the Kings, although I in part wonder why we watch the regular season.

How else would you get to watch the Canes?

It's Sutter power. I was really happy to see him win. While I hate what he did to us when he was GM, his work in 2004, and some of his early work as GM, saved us.


Good Alberta Boy.