Redwings vs Penguins... whose your bet on?
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And the ESPN and the Canadian Press article in the Sporting News pick the Pens...:tongue:
schminksbro
Guardian of The Blue Glow
LOL!!!! One of the writers has a losing record and the other is 5 and 5.
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=554024
ESPN doesn't have any hockey people on staff. They like soccer. :wink:
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=554024
ESPN doesn't have any hockey people on staff. They like soccer. :wink:
cloakerpoked
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At least soccer hasn't had such a catastrophic event recently like the players deciding to refuse to play under a salary cap for a year (how's that working out for baseball as a spectator sport unless you live in New York, LA, or Boston?) that caused many die-hard fans to quit watching completely. The strike in baseball took almost a decade to recover from, so I'd expect a lot of the same in hockey. You just can't take a year off as a league and expect the fans to come running back...especially when you change a lot that they really liked about it to supposedly make it more "fan friendly.":squigglemouth:
schminksbro
Guardian of The Blue Glow
I agree that the strike hurt the NHL. However I disagree that salary caps are good for hockey. In football players come right out of college and play football in the NFL. Much (not all) of their development is done at the college level. Hockey much like baseball works with a farm system. I will use the Redwings for my example but this could apply to any team in the league. The Redwings have a long history of drafting players late in the draft and developing them into star quality players. Players such as Lidstrom, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg are examples of this. They are able to do this because A. they have one of the best scouting staffs in the business. B. They have a strong organization for the development of players. So now they are the Stanley Cup Champs and they have done this through their farm system. Young players like Fillpula and Hudler have become quite good and can demand much more money than the Redwings cap will allow. When their contracts expire the Wings will have tough decisions to make. Whether to start all over by developing new young players or tie up cap room to keep the players they have invested in. The result is that quality franchises become unwilling farm systems for weaker franchises. They develope young players and lose them to free agency. The other negative is parity. Why is parity good? If you have 12 teams in the league who market their teams and therefore can afford the build great teams, then you have 12 teams playing the game at it's pinnacle. Under the cap you will end up with 30 teams all playing mediocre hockey. You are already starting to see it. Chicago has the potential to be great but in a couple of years they will be forced to break up what hey have built in order to accomodate weaker franchises. Besides how many people would pay to watch an owner work?
schminksbro
Guardian of The Blue Glow
With baseball having no salary cap the small market teams have truly become farm systems, especially the Pirates. EVERY good player we have developed has been shipped off to another team. I think we have played teams that have one player making more than our entire team combined. There is no way to compete with that. I think it is worse in baseball because it seams players spend 4-5 years in the minors before making it to the majors.
I can see your dismay at a salary cap though, it sure hasn't help the poor lions at all, but I think team management has more to do with that than anything.
I can see your dismay at a salary cap though, it sure hasn't help the poor lions at all, but I think team management has more to do with that than anything.
Robthorn
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Think Tampa Rays if you want one of mlb's smallest salaries and they went to the finals. Think Tampa Lightning leagues 2nd smallest salary at the time and they won the cup. Don't ask where either team is now though ;).
schminksbro
Guardian of The Blue Glow
It seems this year the Pens and their fans are going to cry about the end boards at the Joe instead of the refs. I thought it would take more than 1 game for all this whining to start but I guess not. I would expect to see a better game from the Pens tonight. Crosby may even get more than 2 shots.:wink:
If Crosby and the Pens continue to struggle in the Face off circle and Zetterberg continues to mirror Crosby like he did last night it might be a long series for him. I expect the Pens to play better in game 2...we shall see
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schminksbro
Guardian of The Blue Glow
If a team markets themselves creatively and scouts quality players they can compete. Look at the Wings compared to the Pens. The Pens were so bad for so long that they got a bunch of first round picks. The Wings have been so good for so long that they have to find great players late in the draft. The Wings have won multiple cups and the Pens....Not so many. Why should the good franchises scout, draft and develope talent so that the weak franchises can get by? In a couple of years the Pens are going to be in trouble because some of their young player's contracts will expire and because of the cap they won't be able to keep them. Chicago is another good example. With no cap you have the opportunity to keep players if you make your franchise profitable. With a cap you have no choice.
schminksbro
Guardian of The Blue Glow
Yeah, I wonder why he didn't just use all of his greatness to skate all over the old and slow Redwings....... After all, he is better than Mario! LOL!!!!
Hey buddy I didn't hear anyone crying about the boards. Hockey like football & baseball sometimes has luck for one team. I mean sometimes the football, puck or baseball goes a certain way. In the case of game 1 the puck bounces in favor of the Wings. Let me get the straight if you are a hockey fan & watched the game, it wasnt a slaughter like u said it was. The Pens out shot the Wings and played with them majority of the game with the exception of firsst half of the 1st period. I want the Pens to win for sure, but if they lose I want it to be a good series. It isn't going to be an easy series for either team.
But in baseball, the weak teams are developing quality players that they draft in early rounds and then can't keep them when it comes time to sign them long term. The pirates are developing talent that they can't afford to keep.
The first game all in all was a good game. I expect Crosby to get smothered a game or two. Not sure who said Crosby was greater than Mario...:rolleyes: Once person complained about the boards so I'm not sure how that makes us all whiners about it. Fleury should have known better on that first goal. That being said The Wings were not impressive at all. Because of bounces they won. Sometimes you need luck to win. The only player that performed great was Osgood, but in the playoffs and finals that's all you need sometimes is the goalie. Still not seeing the superiority of the Wings, looks like an even match hopefully a great series.
schminksbro
Guardian of The Blue Glow
Well Zetterberg neutralized Crosby and still had time to get an assist. Fleury played poorly while Osgood played awsome and you would like to think that the champions got lucky. Whatever. Oh and it was Mario who said Crosby was better than him. LOL!!!!!!! I guess Jordan Staal getting burned by a rookie was luck as well. The kid had the poise to catch the puck out of the air, place it on the ice, and make a perfect shot right up top on the far side. Meanwhile Staal, Pittsburgh's great defensive force who is a minus 6 for the playoffs was still looking for the puck. Good news though....Based on history the Pens now have a 22% chance of going on to win.
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