NHL 2010-2011 Regular Season

[Jesse James]

WC pushed to 8pm now, which I think makes more sense anyway, but that's just me I guess.  I hated playing afternoon games.  They were the absolute worst to me, unless it was a spur of the moment pick-up game.  Scheduled ones sucked.  I played some midnight games, and loved them.  I had a couple seasons where half my games were 11pm or later, and those were the best.  I'm not much for morning/early afternoon effort I guess, haha.

[Morgbug]

You'd make a lousy Canadian kid - ice time is at such a premium lots of kids end up with practice or games at 5 or 6 a.m. regularly.  With all the rinks we have, there's still a shortage.  Though as an adult you'd be happy because they push most senior games to the late evening.

[Jesse James]

Hey, I've seen NHL'ers complain about afternoon games too...   

I didn't play hockey throughout my childhood, more from early teens to young adulthood, so most of my gaming came later in the day.  You just got used to it,b ut I'm not much for early anything...  I'd mow at night if my mower had headlights.

I was lucky to, generally, get my games in later though for the most part because even when I was 16-17 I usually played in older leagues if I could.

Winter Classic was a disappointing outcome for me, but eh...  Whatever.  I wound up having a bunch of other stuff going on here anyway, so at least I had some distraction mentally going on.  It looked like it was raining hard at points.  I didn't have a lot of rain out here 40 minutes away, but go figure.  I do hope they do a Canadian one next year.  I mean, it's kind of lame at this point that they haven't, so I'm pulling for something close for you guys out West.

[Jesse James]

I like the weird little stats and thought this one was interesting...  Malkin scored tonight in the Pens/TB game 7 seconds in, and it's the fastest goal scored in an NHL game since 1998...  I didn't catch who got the last one and how fast it was though.  7 seconds is pretty insane though.

[Morgbug]

I've totally been meaning to mention, but I am an absolutely huge fan of how they're setting up the Allstar game teams this year.  I think the captains are surprising and probably not who I'd choose, but I am fired right up to watch the events on Friday night.

[Morgbug]

I'm guessing no one watched the draft last night aside from me?  Gotta say it was a bit of a letdown after all was said and done.  Haven't really liked the setup they have at the game of late as it just smells of bad NBA-style marketing and the fans even at the game only seemed to get excited when they were on camera.  Yeah, that's your 15 seconds of fame there folks, now go home and watch some NASCAR that you really actually love. 

But the kicker came with this article bemoaning the last pick  Aw, Leafnation is upset that the last player picked (who makes $6 mill a year and got a car and $20K for the honor) is a snub at the Big Smoke.  Boo frickin' hoo ya buncha crybabies.  I'll give credit to Kessel who handled it far better than anyone else. 

[Jesse James]

I kinda hate the all-star game.  I watch the skills competition and find it more interesting.  The game used to be interesting, but it's just gotten kind of lame in the last decade or more.     I watched a little of the draft but lost interest real fast.

[JesseVader08]

Boo frickin' hoo ya buncha crybabies.

I couldn't agree more. 

"The label of "last player picked" is now something he will have to carry through his career."

Through his career?  He was picked to be in the freakin' All Star Game!  Gimme a break.

[Jeff]

I'm guessing no one watched the draft last night aside from me? 

[Morgbug]

Well I'm wondering if it was even broadcast in the U.S., so don't feel too bad.  I kinda look at ME, NY, MI, WI, IL, MN as a subset of Canada with respect to hockey but I don't know if that's enough population (NY not withstanding) to generate enough interest in the allstar stuff being broadcast.  There's a few other states I consider definitely to have hotbeds for hockey in them (MA, Penn (what's the abbr. for that again?), TX but beyond that they aren't really generating a lot of interest. 

Sports Illustrated had a stat in their weekly sidebar a while back stating that 80% of Canadians tuned into the Olympic Gold Medal game.  80%!  Is there another nation that tunes in to that amount anywhere? 

The draft was kind of lame anyway as that's not how I'd structure my team.  I also thought it kind of ghey they had to have the goalies gone by the 10th round and the D guys by the 15th round - it assured a forward would be the last pick.  Then Cam Ward as the first pick overall, yeah, whatever

I just don't consider Carolina to be a hockey state or town or good place for a team.  Hell, send them back to Hartford.  Let's face it, Bettman just plain sucks all around.   

Oh, and I got to talk to Dennis Hull and got his autograph on a Blackhawks puck earlier this week.  Funny, nice and genuine guy.  Drinks way less than his brother Bobby, whose autograph I also have.   

[Jesse James]

We're PA, but Penn works too.

Then Cam Ward as the first pick overall, yeah, whatever

Hah, maybe I should've hung in there for the laugh. 

Skills was interesting, but I thought the camera work sucked pretty badly, and was almost nauseating at times.  Some fun tries in the shootout and St.  Louis had some nifty tricks I thought.    I like their efforts to make the skills more interesting and focused on aspects of the game though, so hats off to them on that.  I'll watch the game, but I'm lacking interest more than ever for some reason.   I'm just ready for the season to get back underway. 

Oh, and Crosby's skating and working out again, so that's nice.

[Jeff]

Well I'm wondering if it was even broadcast in the U.S., so don't feel too bad.

It was on Versus.  I watched to see where Burns/Havlat ended up...  

I thought Backes was going to end up last, especially after they interviewed him during the draft and reminded everyone just how many of those C/As on stage he fought with in the past.    But it didn't surprise me that they left a Leaf for the last pick.

The draft was kind of lame anyway as that's not how I'd structure my team.  I also thought it kind of ghey they had to have the goalies gone by the 10th round and the D guys by the 15th round - it assured a forward would be the last pick.  Then Cam Ward as the first pick overall, yeah, whatever

Yeah, it wasn't really talent based at all - stuff like Staal picking 'canes and his brother and then Kane kept picking current/former 'hawks.  St. Louis picking Richards to play with him again, etc.  Lidstrom seemed like he didn't really care who ended up on his team, he was just happy to be there at his age.

[Jesse James]

Speaking of Versus, does anyone else hate a lot of their camera angles?  I absolutely loathe when they have shootouts on that channel because they go to ice level from behind the blue line...  It's retarded. 

Brent Johnson fought Nick DiPietro tonight and put him down with one left.    It was cool seeing a goalie fight regardless though.  I mean, I can't think of one off-hand that I actually watched as it unfolded.  The only goalie I can even think of immediately that I've seen fight in a regular season game was Hextall (while I've been alive watching hockey anyway).

[Scott]

Went to my first ever Wild game and first NHL game since 1991 last night.  Took me that long to get over the North Stars I guess.  First time I've seen a hockey game at Xcel...color me impressed.  Plus I got to sit in one of the suites which meant free booze and food all night too.  Plus I got to see a shutout and a Wild win.

[Jesse James]

That sounds like a good night at the game Scott.    I have gone to the Super Box seats that my gf's company has a few times, usually pre-season.  But she's managed a couple regular season seats too, and man it's great. 

None at Console yet though, only at the Civic Arena, but it was still great.  Plus we were just a few doors down from Lemieux, and you even got to ride the private elevator up and everything.  Very cool.