2004/2005 NHL Offseason

[Jesse James]

The Pens finished near dead last in playoff teams too, and won the cup.  I know in 92 anyway they were the worst team going into the playoffs and won it again quite handily that year (8 game sweep of the last two series with the Bru-ha-has and Hawks).

In 92 I remember the big post-cup scandal was the Hawks coach lamenting Lemieux's stick length being too long, blah blah... 

The 91 series with Minnesota was great because it went 7 games, lots of scoring...  I have a real nice painting of the Game 7 gamewinning goal that I still love.

The only plus to this year's season was that I got a Lemieux Jersey (modern home jersey) for super clearance cheap.  Penney's stocked hockey jerseys, and I really don't know why they did (or didn't wait to put the order in one more month anyway) because the lockout was inevitable to most people...

I really wanted that jersey though, and now I'm happy to have one.   No place to wear it really since no games, but I'm happy to have it.

[DSJ™]

Damn, Brent...wanna move there?   

[Morgbug]

That's from last year's hockey day in Canada contest, isn't it?  Nice rink, in Edmonton too, right? 

Though that is proof of why hockey is so popular in Canada.  It's cold.  Plain and simple.  You can build a rink, most not nearly so elaborate as that and play any time.  Your rink stays frozen for somewhere between 3-6 months too.  Awesome. 

When I was growing up, we lived in a house that backed on the river.  Once the river froze, we went out and shovelled a rink.  Every year.  We only lived about a quarter mile from the community club that had three rinks, but whatever.  Within a mile radius of our house we had access to 12 outdoor, full size rinks and one indoor rink.  Most places are like that, inside the cities.  Rural towns all have arenas and most have 4-5 outdoor rinks at the same complex. 

I also had a friend that had an outdoor rink in their backyard.  Only had endboards but they used snowbanks for the sides.  We played probably four nights a week and usually on the weekends.  When we got old enough to drink, that factored in too.  Another buddy who lived outside the city on an acreage built a rink about the size of the one in the picture.  He also built a heated shack, about 6 feet wide by 15 feet long to warm up in   Many a weekend was spent playing hockey all day and into the night (yes, he put up lights) while the beers cooled in the snowbanks.   

[DSJ™]

That one was in Red Deer, the winner was in Fort McMurray.

HNIC Backyard Rink contest-10 Finalists

[Morgbug]

Thanks for the rink link.  It seems scoreboards are a big factor in winning.  The Winnipeg rink in there is tiny, though nice.  I've seen dozens that were bigger and both I mentioned playing on in my previous posts were bigger than the winner, though not so elaborately decorated. 

[Jeff]

Here's a news quote that I found very interesting...

SportScanInfo, a Florida research firm that tracks retails sales of sporting goods and team merchandise, says this past December (2004) - when Christmas usually helps spike the numbers - saw the NHL sell $6.9 million of licensed gear in the U.S. - down 85 per cent from December 2003.

I found it very interesting that in 1995, the season was started again January 11th, 1995.

During those negotiations, the league claimed that after that date (January 11th), it would be impossible for the league to start up and still arrange the necessary scheduling for the 26 teams at the time. 

Well, here we are 10 years later with another lock-out.  This time, we're past the drop-dead date. 

If it was impossible to get things up and running after Jan 11th last time (1995), shouldn't the same hold true now, especially with players scattered all over the world and an additional 4 teams to worry about scheduling.  I would guess at this point it would be a logistical nightmare to get the season going. 

I always felt like there would be no NHL this year, but there was always that little hope, you know?  Well, I guess now that little fanboy hope that I had left that there would be hockey this year has been completely crushed.

Goodbye 2004-2005 Wild, I hardly new ye.   

Jeff

[Morgbug]

IIRC the scheduling is no problem at all, they simply start at a set date from where the currently existing schedule would have them play.  So if they had scheduled a Minnesota game on Feb. 15 against Philly at home and the season started that date, that would be the first game.  They do/did little in the way of actually adjusting the schedule.  Not sure what the real logistical nightmare is other than fans being severely pissed off with a three month season. 

The drop dead date was supposed to be tomorrow, I thought.  There was to be a board of governors meeting but as there has been no progress in "negotiations"  that meeting was cancelled. 

I'd say the season will be toasted in about a week or so.  The BoG is just trying to force the players hand, IMO.  The players association has suggested they have a substantial war chest and can sit out the season.  My guess is the owners are simply making sure that's true and seeing if they crack.  If not, fine, season done, talk to ya in June boys.

[CHEWIE]

Damn I miss hockey, I can't wait to see Brett Hull score a few more goals.

 

[DSJ™]

From Sportsnet.ca

Sources tell Sportsnet the Phoenix Coyotes coaching staff has informed its players they need to be on standby, prepared to practice within the next seven days.

Bring it back! 

[Morgbug]

Nope, keep em out.  It'll be February before they play a game.  Unless it's the players caving, I hope they don't come back.  Yeah, I miss it and movie night in Canada is lame but the problems need to be fixed now.

Big meeting yesterday was apparently productive, but Bettman and Goodenow weren't there.  How far do you think it will go once they show up

[Jeff]

Big meeting yesterday was apparently productive, but Bettman and Goodenow weren't there.  How far do you think it will go once they show up

Not far.  Both have egos too large to let anything pass that they personally didn't work on.

I do admire Linden for working around the bosses at the top and trying to get something done (despite him being a hated Canuck... stupid Vancouver  ).

I do feel though that this is too little too late and is just a last ditch attempt for both sides to be able to say "See, we tried to get them to cave" before they axe the whole thing.   

Jeff

[Jesse James]

Pens are trying to pimp Wheeling Nailers (Don't ask me what the name means) games...  Wheeling, WV isn't too far really, if you live down near Pittsburgh, but I'm a good 2 hours or so from Wheeling... 

They are playing a game at the Pen's practice arena, however I can't get there that night...    I'd go...  They were pretty good last year I thought.

If I want hockey, it'll be watching peewee or pick-up at the rink where my gym is I guess.

[CorranHorn]

I heard that following the meeting on Wednesday in Chicago, there was a follow up meeting and nothing good came of it and the likelihood is that the season will be scrapped. That's the right call, it's too late to start a season, because you wouldn't have much time before the playoffs would start and you'd get an unfair balance as to what teams make the playoffs. They should just push to get things resolved by the start of the 2005-06 season and make amends with the fans.

[Jeff]

I 'd like to propose a new idea for the "season" this year - A March Madness-esque Tournament of Champions. 

That's right, none of this regular season mumbo-jumbo since it's too late.  Let's take the 15 teams from each division and have them play tournament style, throwing in the 2 top college teams to get to a nice even 16 teams.  Everyone makes the playoffs!

16 matchups at best of 7
8 matchups at best of 7
4 matchups at best of 7
2 match-ups at best of 7
and then the Cup finals at best of 7

At the most a team could end up playing 35 games, at the least 4 games.  I'd use the rankings from last years standings/playoff finals as the seeding for this year's tourney.


Just think, you'd have Tampa Bay as the #1 Seed in the East facing off against #16 seed Boston College.

Eastern Conference Bracket:

#1 Tampa Bay vs. #16 Boston College
#8 NY. Islanders vs. #9 Buffalo

#4 Toronto vs. #13 NY Rangers
#5 Ottawa v.s #12 Florida

#3 Philly vs. #14 Washington
#6 New Jersey vs. #11 Carolina

#7 Montreal vs. #10 Atlanta
#2 Boston vs. #15 Pittsburgh
 

Then, over in the west you'd have #1 Seed Calgary facing off against #16 Colorado College!

Western Conference Bracket:

#1 Calgary vs. #16 Colorado College
#8 Nashville vs. #9 Edmonton

#4 Vancouver vs. #13 Phoenix
#5 Colorado vs. #12 Anaheim

#3 San Jose vs. #14 Columbus
#6 Dallas vs. #11 Los Angeles

#7 Saint Louis vs. #10 Minnesota
#2 Detroit vs. #15 Chicago


Just look at some of those brackets!  Like the bottom braket in the West - Detroit v Chicago, the winner to face the winner of St. Louis v. Minnesota!   

In fact, if the NHL does not want to do this, I think this is what I'll do this weekend with the Nintendo Game Cube.  I'll set up the "simulate game" feature and see what happens... 

Jeff

[Morgbug]

Reports we're hearing up here is that some "progress" was made, but again, Bettman and Goodenow not at these meetings.  The final note is to come on February 1st, apparently. At that point, in spite of progress, the season is to be cancelled.