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Post by Lommaren on Oct 12, 2017 12:25:29 GMT -5
Ben said it was in demand so who am I to refuse his request?  I find hockey quite boring these days although I was a massive fan while a young boy. Hopefully Skellefteå can win the Swedish Championship again although I have my serious doubts on whether they can repeat their 2013 and 2014 glories. I grew up supporting Modo in Sweden and Detroit in NHL but fell out of love with the sport in my late teens. |
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Post by boombo on Oct 12, 2017 13:13:37 GMT -5
Bet this thread will end up with more posts than your motor sports thread lommo Ice hockey's always looked like a really fun sport as far as I'm concerned, it's just that it gets virtually no media coverage where I live, you're not likely to know anybody who follows it and even ice rinks are few and far between, so I've never been able to get into it properly. Bit late now to learn how to skate properly and learn how to play the game, but maybe next lifetime  |
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Post by rpvan on Dec 10, 2017 0:21:13 GMT -5
Unfortunately the NHL decided not to send players to the Olympics so the quality will be very watered down.
Countries like Sweden and Finland have as much chance of winning as Canada does now.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2018 12:30:59 GMT -5
An unpopular decision with many by the NHL, I'm sure
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2018 18:56:01 GMT -5
I was rooting for Nashville in the last round, but of course they've been eliminated. Watching Vegas versus Winnipeg now. I guess it'd be cool to see Winnipeg win
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Post by Lommaren on May 13, 2018 4:25:20 GMT -5
Canada is long overdue a Stanley Cup, but I think it'll be the winner of Washington vs Tampa Bay to be honest. The East seems to have had the general edge the last couple of seasons.
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Post by Babu on May 21, 2018 5:37:35 GMT -5
Surprising world cup results. Finland, Russia and Canada beat by the US and Switzerland. Sweden won. Good for them.
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Post by Lommaren on May 21, 2018 15:01:15 GMT -5
Yeah Sweden had a few nerves yesterday but ultimately pulled it off on penalties due to Ekman-Larsson and Forsberg stepping up, the stars in the team as they are. Both are crucial leaders for Arizona and Nashville respectively at club level also. Anders Nilsson really stepped up when it really mattered true, after his poor season at Vancouver that was a big boost for him.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2018 17:11:49 GMT -5
So the Canadian Cup drought continues.
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Post by 🖕🏿Mörön🖕🏿 on May 23, 2018 20:53:38 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2018 5:11:01 GMT -5
tbh, I wasn't sure people actually cared ^
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2018 17:24:12 GMT -5
I heard on the radio my Flyers have a new mascot. Oh god. What a monstrosity. 
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Post by Lommaren on Oct 3, 2018 3:37:46 GMT -5
Bet this thread will end up with more posts than your motor sports thread lommo Looks like it didn't
Either way, I tend to follow NHL results quite a bit even though I don't watch: this because I used to be a big hockey fan. It'll be curious to see what Erik Karlsson can do at San Jose and whether he can rediscover his Paul Coffey-style form from a couple of years ago. It's sad that Zetterberg has been forced to retire, I was a big Red Wings fan when I grew up. They're quite bad nowadays.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 18:22:15 GMT -5
I didn't know they play regular season games outside North America now. This one in Sweden. Devils won. Well, it looks like my fellow Italian-American Kyle Palmieri had two goals. (He's from New Jersey too.) 
But no, I am not a NJ Devils fan. Flyers all the way.
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Post by rpvan on Mar 27, 2019 19:28:23 GMT -5
Looks like we'll have three or four Canadian teams in the playoffs this season. No chance of any of them winning until Gary Bettman resigns as NHL commissioner though...
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Post by Lommaren on Mar 27, 2019 19:31:49 GMT -5
Looks like we'll have three or four Canadian teams in the playoffs this season. No chance of any of them winning until Gary Bettman resigns as NHL commissioner though... How are the Canucks and Elias Pettersson doing as we speak? |
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Post by rpvan on Mar 27, 2019 19:39:24 GMT -5
Looks like we'll have three or four Canadian teams in the playoffs this season. No chance of any of them winning until Gary Bettman resigns as NHL commissioner though... How are the Canucks and Elias Pettersson doing as we speak? Pettersson is probably going to win the Calder trophy; he's had a banner rookie year.  Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the Canucks. Yet another year of repeated self implosions! Fingers crossed Montreal makes the playoffs. The Flames and Maple Laughs are disgusting; I'd rather cheer for Tampa Bay instead. |
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Post by Lommaren on Apr 7, 2019 6:47:00 GMT -5
Personally I'd like to see NHL adopt a completely new model to help aid intra-Canadian competiton rpvan , since the teams never win Stanley Cup any longer, at least give them something to fight for. Here's what I'd do: Relocate Arizona's deficit and almost bankrupt franchise to Québec once Seattle is there and then make NHL a four-division divide rather than conference divide. Have three US and one Canadian division. Each division gets one spot for the Stanley Cup semi-finals, in which the Canadian division is affiliated with the Western division, which would secure there's one eastern team and one Canadian/western team in the final every year. Alternatively, the Canadian and Central divisions could swap their affiliation between East/West every other year to make it interesting and variable which teams they're facing  The divisions would be like this: Canada: Calgary Edmonton Montréal Ottawa Québec Toronto Vancouver Winnipeg Western: Anaheim Dallas Colorado Los Angeles Minnesota San Jose Seattle Vegas Central: Carolina Chicago Columbus Detroit Florida Nashville St. Louis Tampa Bay Eastern: Boston Buffalo New Jersey NY Islanders NY Rangers Philadelphia Pittsburgh Washington Then, you play your division six times (7 x 6 = 42) and then your affiliated conference three times (3 x 8 = 24) and then the other 16 teams once (1 x 16 = 16). Schedule plans would be resolved by having the Eastern Canadian teams play two games in a row at home a lot more often than the others. Then once the playoffs started, revert to the 80's model where the divisions play one another internally until each division winner is crowned. That way, Canadian teams would get to win a national championship every year regardless of how the Cup ended. Sadly, it makes too much sense for the tools running the NHL ever to implement it. The joke is on them. NHL has been dire ever since they imposed the laughingly low salary cap that ended "top teams" and dynasties for good. Nowadays you mostly have to be lucky to get #1 draft the right year and then the franchises with the greatest revenues are disarmed. |
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Post by rpvan on Apr 7, 2019 18:44:36 GMT -5
Personally I'd like to see NHL adopt a completely new model to help aid intra-Canadian competiton rpvan , since the teams never win Stanley Cup any longer, at least give them something to fight for. Here's what I'd do: Relocate Arizona's deficit and almost bankrupt franchise to Québec once Seattle is there and then make NHL a four-division divide rather than conference divide. Have three US and one Canadian division. Each division gets one spot for the Stanley Cup semi-finals, in which the Canadian division is affiliated with the Western division, which would secure there's one eastern team and one Canadian/western team in the final every year. Alternatively, the Canadian and Central divisions could swap their affiliation between East/West every other year to make it interesting and variable which teams they're facing The divisions would be like this: Canada: Calgary Edmonton Montréal Ottawa Québec Toronto Vancouver Winnipeg Western: Anaheim Dallas Colorado Los Angeles Minnesota San Jose Seattle Vegas Central: Carolina Chicago Columbus Detroit Florida Nashville St. Louis Tampa Bay Eastern: Boston Buffalo New Jersey NY Islanders NY Rangers Philadelphia Pittsburgh Washington Then, you play your division six times (7 x 6 = 42) and then your affiliated conference three times (3 x 8 = 24) and then the other 16 teams once (1 x 16 = 16). Schedule plans would be resolved by having the Eastern Canadian teams play two games in a row at home a lot more often than the others. Then once the playoffs started, revert to the 80's model where the divisions play one another internally until each division winner is crowned. That way, Canadian teams would get to win a national championship every year regardless of how the Cup ended. Sadly, it makes too much sense for the tools running the NHL ever to implement it. The joke is on them. NHL has been dire ever since they imposed the laughingly low salary cap that ended "top teams" and dynasties for good. Nowadays you mostly have to be lucky to get #1 draft the right year and then the franchises with the greatest revenues are disarmed. That's a pretty good idea. Also keeps the present franchise format intact. The biggest issue with the NHL today is Garry Bettman - NHL commissioner. The running joke is as long as he is in power, no Canadian team will win. Funnily enough, this is actually true as no Canadian team has won the cup since he became commissioner in 1993. If the NHL ever is to make wide scale changes, I'd like to see them drop the entire NA-style franchise format and adopt the European sports model of promotion and relegation. Someone had offered $4 billion to takeover the MLS a few years ago in order to implement a promotion/relegation system, however that would mean owners wouldn't always be raking in the dough as their teams would be at risk of falling out of the top division. The offer ultimately (obviously) was rejected most likely at the behest of the owners. Another big issue revolving around Canadian teams in the NHL is where the talent goes. Most of our best players get drafted by teams in the USA and end up winning cups for them (Pittsburgh, Chicago and LA to name a few recent examples). In the past, teams were able to keep local talents which is why we saw Montreal dominate in the 60s and 70s. |
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Post by Lommaren on Apr 7, 2019 19:09:00 GMT -5
I saw there was a study where Canada has as many hockey fans as the US with nine times more people have individually. That ought to mean that a Canadian league in itself could stand on its own legs even in a breakaway, because there's a huge TV market. I don't know whether 10, 11 or 12 franchises would be sustainable, Québec, Halifax and promoting Hamilton Bulldogs would be givens if the seven Canadian franchises would just walk away. Saskatoon could definitely sustain a Canadian Hockey League team too. Then they can pick up the young Canadian players and have limitations on non-Canadian players and completely break half of the NHL's audience figures and take the hockey world over, since Los Angeles vs Tampa Bay isn't exactly hockey weather, is it? rpvan
Some Canadian players would probably still choose to play in the US, but it'd be a lot more fun for Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal, Ottawa et cetera to win the championship.
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