2008, a great sports year

For sports, 2008 was a great year for me. Many journalists are saying good riddance, but I'll miss it.

January

Watch the first Winter Classic. While I read many detractors who said it shouldn't have been held on New Year's Day, it was perfect in my opinion and drew record ratings.

Attend a Red Wings game at JLA, Wings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in a shootout. Hang out with Detroit friends watch the Wings beat San Jose, 6-3.

Travel to California, take my dad and brother-in-law to a Wings - Kings game. At my dad's first NHL game, Wings win, 3-0.

March

Attended first Indiana Ice game at the Pepsi Coliseum.

April

Attended my first Indiana Pacers game at Canesco Fieldhouse, which continues to garner rave reviews. Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 105 -97.

The Detroit Red Wings finish the regular season with the best record in the NHL winning the President's Trophy, no other organization has won as many as the Wings, six.

Attended opening day of the Indianapolis Indians 2008 season.

May

Attend Fast Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ... on pit lane.

Attend and work Community Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and tour the Pagoda.

Watch the Detroit Red Wings sweep the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Work and attend the Indianapolis 500 with my brother, cousin, and high school friend. Meet IU head basketball coach Tom Crean. Vitor Meira's pass was spectacular; I get cold chills watching replays.

June

Watch the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup, the organization's 11th.

Travel to Detroit with my brother and attend the Stanley Cup parade and rally.

July

Travel to Nashville attend IndyCar race, the Firestone Indy 200. Scott Dixon wins.

August

Travel to Detroit for the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix.

While there attend first Tigers game at Comerica Park with one of my Detroit friends. Tigers lose, 13-3 to to the Kansas City Royals. At least the tickets were free.

See the Stanley Cup with some more of my Detroit friends.

Attend grand prix, Justin Wilson wins and dedicates his win to his team owner, Paul Newman.

October

Attend the Detroit Red Wings opening night game and banner raising ceremony. Wings lose to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2.

November

Travel with my brother to south Florida and watch the Panthers take on the Red Wings. Wings win, 3-2.

December

Brother and I travel to New Castle, Ind. and attend the Spartans - South Muncie Rebel game. Spartans beat the Rebels in overtime at the largest high school gymnasium in world.

We visit the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame the next day.

Then on Sunday we attend the Indianapolis Colts - Detroit Lions game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Our first game there and the Colts win, 31-21.

Attend two Indiana Pacers games at Canseco and am lucky enough to buy court-side seats at both. Unfortunately the Pacers lose both, first to the Los Angeles Clippers, 117-109 in double overtime and then to the New Orleans Hornets, 105-103.

Yep, 2008 was great. Hopefully 2009 will be just as fine.

Healing power of hockey

Hockey in Berlin helps east and west fans overcome differences. The article appeared last month in the New York Times international paper, the International Herald Tribune.
Hockey heals some lingering divisions in Berlin

"That's why so many former G.D.R. people say, 'It's not so bad, we feel right at home,"' (Peter) Schneider said, referring to the former East Germany by its initials.
The Eisbären are a small but potent symbol of the East's recovering sense of itself, and how that revival could begin to help ease tensions.

The city may not have quite reconciled its two sides, but the games are now a place where they could meet.
"It will still be a while, but in another 10 or 20 years, when enough children have been born who didn't live through it," (Martin) Braun said, gesturing toward his son, "then the divisions in our head will truly be over."

NHL Payroll

Seriously. I don't mean to sound like a pompous a--, but I should be on the NHL payroll.
Prior to arriving at Indy's hockey oasis, the only bar that I've found that has CenterIce, all that was on was American football and basketball.
I walk in, sit at the bar, and get hockey on TV. First the Versus game. Not just above the bar either. One of the managers turns it on, and then it's on several screens throughout the lower level.
About 10 p.m. I ask for the Red Wings - Canucks game. He tunes it to that game while the Versus game is still on other TVs.
Finally enough American football fans leave.
"Can you please turn the football game sound down and the hockey game up?"
"Well we're not supposed to." It's corporate rules - Indiana sports, Monday night games, etc.
In any case they - bartender and a manager - make an exception.
Now, listening and watching Red Wings hockey, I'm in hockey heaven. Sadly as the bar is closing I have to leave early in the third period.
I'm hard on the NHL at times, but I'm also a passionate fan. I promote the game whenever and where ever I can. Tonight was no exception.
By the way, it's to bad the Wings can't hold onto a lead.

Two Nights

Two different nights - tonight and last night, two different Internet connections, two different browsers and I still can't listen to NHL games on NHL.com's GameCenter.
GameCenter is a joke. I can't imagine the problems I'd be having if I paid to try to see games.
I hate GameCenter! This now makes the fourth, maybe fifth time, I've tried to get it to work, and it just doesn't. It's awful, buggy, and slow!

Below are two messages I sent to NHL.com earlier this month.

This one I sent Nov. 2, 2008. I was trying to listen to a Red Wings game
What happened to NHL radio online? I can't hear the games anymore. I tried going to the GAMECENTER link, which by the way takes way too long to load, and clicking on Radio. It doesn't work.
Last year I switched to listening to games directly on WXYT using iTunes, but right now an NFL game is being broadcast. That's the FM side. I believe WXYT-AM would be the Red Wings game, but I can't hear it on NHL.com.
So much for Detroit being Hockeytown, and so much for the NHL caring about its fans.
Fix this NOW!

I sent this one a few minutes later that night.
GameCenter is a joke! Please make a link to the audio feeds without going through a Flash-based site! I'm on broadband; I've used three different browsers, and it's not working! I am acrimonious!!!
The new site looks nice, but overall it's very cumbersome and clunky! It's just horrible! NHL Connect is a joke too! It's horrible to navigate through when it was so easy to use. It's taking all the restraint I have not drop f-bombs and use other course language.

The generic response I received.

Dear User,
Due to the volume of comments and suggestions we've been receiving with our new Web site launch, we regret that we cannot guarantee individual responses for most items (but we will read them!). We certainly appreciate the time you've taken to send us your feedback.
Please also be sure to check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section, where we post answers to some of the most common issues.
For GameCenter and GameCenter Live issues, please visit the GCL FAQ, report a problem to technical support, or contact one of our customer service representatives via phone during our evening support hours.
Thank you,
The NHL.com Web Team

Other Problems
This is an e-mail from NHL.com earlier this season, when I was posting blogger, aka blogspot, links on my NHL Fan Connect blog. They were deleted, and then the NHL tried to bribe me. About two weeks later I'd finally calmed down enough to respond.

From Brad at NHL.com
Blog
fans-connect@nhl.com to me
Auxlepli,
Unfortunately, we don't allow users to promote outside blogs on our site.
However, we truly enjoy having you on our site, and we'd like you to remain.
We'd like to send you a small gift, in return for your return - and if you'd like to critique our publishing tool, we'd be happy to send it along to our tech team. Things are constantly being updated and changed, and I think your input would be great in allowing us to better serve you and the rest of the community.
Regardless of your decision to stick or leave, please let me know your size and address, and I'll throw something in the mail. If not for your return, consider it a thank you for your use of our site up to this point.
What do you say?
Brad
My Response:
Me to fans-connect@nhl.com
Brad,
As much as I would like to think you enjoy having me on your site, I don't believe it.
NHL Connect is much harder to navigate now. Below are just some of my problems with the re-designed site.
When logging into Fan Connect using Safari I tried tabbing over to the Password box. I couldn't. I had to use my mouse. Typically "tab" will work; it does usingFirefox.
My username shows up in many places as all caps. It's meant to be all lowercase.
My blog titles are also all caps. I don't want to be screaming at other people. On some occasion I might use all caps to emphasize a word in a title. With NHL defaulting my titles to all caps, I can't.
The page on which one posts a new blog entry is far too cumbersome. The box is way, way too small to be effective. Sometimes html coding works correctly, sometimes it doesn't. It seems haphazard.
In the old style of NHL Connect I could access everything - photos, friends, blog - from almost any page. With the re-design I can't. I'm forced to always go back to my profile first, then to friends, messages, blog, etc. In a word, cumbersome.
Tonight, I'm finding NHL.com is just as cumbersome.
I can't access things easily like I have been for years, since 1999. The GameCenter feature takes up way too much bandwidth, and I can't find what I'm looking for, which I guess would be called a Roster Summary.
The sites look better than the old sites. Yet there's too much black in my opinion. More frustrating is how hard it is to find what I'm looking for in an easy manner, and both are exceedingly hard to navigate.
Thanks for your time.

All I want is for NHL.com to work well - its radio feeds and its Fan Connect site.

Johnny Hockeyseed: Thoughts after a 4-0 Red Wings win

Finally! As a Detroit Red Wings fan it was good to finally see them play in a dominate fashion. Kudos to the Wings. They played a complete game for 60 minutes. It's the best I've seen them play so far this season.

Watching tonight's game at Indy's hockey oasis, I was reminded of my escapade last week during the Wings - Penguins game. I started out watching the game at my favorite bar. Since the game was on Versus, my bar would have it. I strolled in and sat down at the bar.
"Can I help you?" the bartender asked.
"Can you please turn the station to Versus?"
"What's that?" she asked.
"It's a sports station, the Wings - Penguins hockey game is on."
"Do we get that?" she asked another employee.
This wasn't the first time she'd seen me. She had to know how big a hockey fan I am, but then again, maybe not. She probably sees hundreds of people everyday. So I give her the benefit of the doubt.
"You do," I said unperturbed. "It's either 603 or 604."
I'm a seasoned pro at people, and particularly ignorant sports bar employees, not knowing what Versus is. Seems ridiculous, but some people just don't take their jobs seriously. Eventually the station is turned, and a Capitals game is on. I order a beer, a meal, and wait for the Wings game. Sometime during the game I realize I can't stay. I'm thinking I need to get up early for a job-related function the next day. So I leave early.
The main point behind that story is that hockey wasn't on when arrived, but it was when I left.

Heading back to my car, I realize I left way too early. It's relatively early in the night and the game wasn't nearly over. So I head to the newly opened Buffalo Wild Wings.
I make my way back to the bar, and sit down.
"Can I help you?" the bartender asked.
"Depends, can you turn on the hockey game?" It seems every other sporting event that night was on except that.
"Ahh a counter-offer," the guy sitting next to me said.
"I'll see," the bartender said. Can I get you something to drink?"
"You can if you get the hockey game on. I'm not ordering anything until I know I can watch the Wings - Penguins game."
"You must be from Michigan," the guy sitting next to said and laughed. The guy sitting next to him agreed. I'm wearing my red Red Wings jacket, and I don't feel like explaining.
"Yep, I'm from Marshall."
"I'm from Ann Arbor," he said.
In the back of my mind I'm thinking I can't catch a break.
I stay and eventually not only is the Wings game on one of the side TVs, but also on one of the big TVs directly in front of me.
The Penguins win, and I'm disappointed.
But the main point behind that story is that hockey wasn't on when I arrived, but it was after I got there.

So nearly a week later, I head down to Jillians, Indy's hockey oasis.
It's basically the same routine, albeit not the Wings - Oilers game isn't on Versus.
The bartender finds it on one the satellite stations. It's the feed from Canada.
The point being hockey wasn't on when I arrived, but it was after I got there.

Just call me Johnny Hockeyseed.

So here's my other thoughts, specifically during tonight's game vis-à-vis the Monday night American football game.

When the hockey game was tuned in for me, more screens showed it than ESPN's pre-game show.
When the American football game started the bar's management turned the music down, and the American football game sound up. That was disappointing to me. If music is on during a hockey game then it can be on during an American football game.
When both games were being played, five screens showed the hockey game, and five showed the American football game.
Only three tables, a total of about five people, appeared to be watching the American football game. Two of those three tables were empty by half time.
Only one person, me, appeared to be interested in the hockey game. I stayed the entire game.
When I left, after the hockey game's completion, four scores had been scored in each game, excluding the American football game's PATs.
It's my opinion, though I didn't see one score in the American football game, that none of those scores were exciting as any of the goals in the hockey game.
It's also my opinion that none of those scores were even as exciting as the Wings post-rattling miss.
At one moment during the games, there was nearly three minutes left during the hockey game and about 30 seconds left in the first half of the American football game, et the hockey game still finished before the American football game went to half time.

BankAtlantic Center review

Travelled to south Florida to watch the Detroit Red Wings take on the Florida Panthers. Wings won, 3-2 and Johan Franzen scored the game winner. Pretty good game, but was disappointed that the Wings once again gave up the lead, a two-goal lead, and needed a power play to get the third goal. The game was about 600 fans short of sellout. No rats were thrown, but one fan threw an octopus onto the ice. Isn't that just supposed to be a playoff thing?

Anyway BankAtlantic is a pretty decent arena, but in my opinion it's in a horrible location. It's located about 14 miles west of downtown Fort Lauderdale in Sunrise. I guess the Panthers organization researched and found a majority of hockey fans are located out there, but I prefer downtown arenas. Also the only mass transit to the arena is by bus, which is another negative.

People were nice, and the lower level sight lines were decent. I didn't check upstairs, but I can't imagine they'd be very good as they're above two levels of club seats. Anyway the major surprise to me that some vendors sold Molson Canadian. It wasn't on tap, but in 24-ounce cans. That they had it was great though. Molson Canadian and hockey are synonymous to me. However it was $12 a pop, and I thought $10 at Staples Center was bad. If I'm not mistaken that was for 16-ounce beers.

So now I've seen the Wings play in following arenas. Eight down, 22 to go.
Detroit - The Joe Louis Arena
Colorado - Pepsi Center
St. Louis - Scottrade Center
Nashville - Sommet Center
Chicago - United Center
Columbus - Nationwide Arena
Los Angeles - Staples Center
Florida - BankAtlantic Center

Hockey Hall of Fame honors Larionov

Igor Larionov, as part of the Russian Five, means a lot to me. More so now that he's been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame along with three other players.
The AP story and Larionov quotes. This is the part I really liked.

Larionov — known as The Professor to his teammates — was a thinking man's hockey player who helped make the "Russian Five" fly in Motown.
"Our style was to control the puck as much as we could, make a lot of passes," he said. "I guess that game was accepted in Detroit."

Still accepted and a reason why I'm such a Red Wings fan.
Over at mlive.com George James Malik found these two gems, one from Sportsline and another from ESPN, about Larionov.

Sportsline's Wes Goldstein:
Scotty Bowman still chuckles at how Igor Larionov inspired the creation of what became known as the Russian Five.
The unit gained fame and was a central component of three Red Wings Stanley Cup teams in six seasons, and according to Bowman, the initiators of the puck possession type of game Detroit has continued to play with masterful success since. But it came together by chance, after the legendary coach was barking instructions to his struggling power play unit during a practice and not at all happy with what he saw.
That was in late 1995, and normally players didn't approach Bowman in those situations. But Larionov, who will become the fourth Russian inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame Monday, apparently was unaware of the protocol, having helped pave the first road to the NHL for former Soviet players only six years earlier.
So ever the thinker, Larionov went ahead and suggested the coach put him together with teammates Slava Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov and Vladimir Konstantinov. The unit spent the next minute and 45 seconds skating and moving the puck feverishly in perfect sync, but never bothered to take a shot.
"I told Igor after that his guys had just killed the penalty for the other team," Bowman laughed. "He said he told everyone not to shoot because he didn't want me to stop them by blowing the whistle."
Bowman had no intention of stopping Larionov. The veteran player was 36 years old when the Red Wings traded sniper Ray Sheppard to San Jose for him, and he wasted little time turning into a leader in the room and a force at both ends of the ice. It helped that Larionov's offensive creativity tended to get him compared to Wayne Gretzky in terms of on-ice vision, and his ability to think the game earned him the nickname the "professor."
"I'd say he was probably the last piece of the puzzle for us," Bowman said. "And the thing that was most underrated about him is that people don't realize how good he was defensively. He was as sure a player as I ever had in the last couple of minutes defending a lead. He knew how to play."

ESPN's Pierre LeBrun:
"He was a special kind of player," [Scotty] Bowman said. "The part about him, really, is how good he was defensively. I hardly ever had a player as good as him in the last five minutes of a game when you were protecting a lead. His positional play was so good. It's like having a playing coach on the ice. I thought because he was battle-scarred from all the big tournaments he played in. He was calm. He just made all the right moves all the time."
For [Sergei] Fedorov, it was a reunion with a player he tremendously admired. As a timid teenager on the Soviet national team in the late 1980s, Fedorov didn't really get to know the legendary Larionov. But he watched and learned.
"When I joined Red Army team, he was one of the most gifted and talented centers in the game, if not the best," Fedorov said. "His stickhandling, the way he saw the ice, for me as a center, that was key to see and work on."
Nearly a decade later, they were teammates in the NHL. It was a dream come true.
"At that point, I felt he didn't mind if I talked to him," Fedorov said. "We were more like friends in Detroit, not work colleagues. That was a fun time. Eventually, we would play on the same line and that was a thrill."
It was Bowman, the NHL's winningest coach, who had the vision to unite his Russian players. The Russian Five was the NHL version of the Red Army's Green Unit, with Fedorov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Vladimir Konstantinov joining veterans Larionov and Fetisov.
"Huge credit goes to Scotty," Larionov said. "He was a huge fan of Fetisov and the Soviet way of moving the puck and creativity. It was amazing to have that opportunity to play that style of hockey again."
Holland believes the Wings' Russian Five had an impact on the NHL game that's still felt today. "It's a puck-possession game today, and I really think Scotty and the Russian Five had something to do with that."

Though the Wings only won one Stanley Cup with the Russian Five, they made an incredbile impact on the team and game that's still felt today. They also made an incredible impact on me.
Thanks Professor.

Indy's hockey oasis

Well yesterday I wrote I was going to listen to the game. I didn't. But I did something better. I watched the game. In Indiana!

Last night was a big sports night for me with the World Series, the Colts and the Red Wings game. I had originally planned to visit my favorite local pub to catch the first few innings and couple of quarters. Then head home to listen to the game online.
Instead of taking a taxi home. I headed to Hard Rock. ChaCha told me Hard Rock had Center Ice. It doesn't. So still hoping I could watch, I headed to Jillians.
"Can I help you?" the hostess asked.
"Depends, do you guys have Center Ice?"
Get the usual "what's that?" I explain it to her, and she said she'd check with a manager.
"What game you want to see?" he asked. I'm surprised he couldn't tell, as I was wearing a Red Wings jacket and cap.
"Red Wing - Kings."
"Oh yeah, I think we got that."
Wow, just wow. I was dumbfounded.
He put the game on for me, and I was in paradise.

So that's how I was able to see the game in Indy. Amazing.
Ironically enough the Kings pre-game show featured Jack Johnson. Sadly, since the Colts were playing, I couldn't hear it.
I bet I was the only person there who knew Johnson was born in Indianapolis.

Grind Line coverage

Well there wasn't much coverage of the Grind Line's reunion last night. Not nearly as much as I expected.
The Detroit News and mlive.com featured stories about the line's return. They didn't play much, Darren McCarty didn't hit the seven minute mark, so that might be part of it.
A reader at sportsline.com said Detroit will need the Grind Line more against the Ducks. That's probably true. The Ducks have been one of the most penalized teams the last few years, and I'm willing to bet there might be some fisticuffs.
So maybe we'll so more coverage after tomorrow night's game.

Grind Line to be reunited

Just read on mlive.com the Grind Line - Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby and Darren McCarty - will be reunited during the Red Wings - Kings game tonight.

Johan Franzen's knee injury has led to the reunion of The Grind Line, as coach Mike Babcock plans to use Kris Draper with Kirk Maltby and Darren McCarty, a unit that was first formed during the 1996-97 season and last played together for one shift on March 28 vs. St. Louis, when the trio started the game.
"Grinding. I expect them to be good,'' Babcock said. "We need four lines competing and working hard and being energized and making a contribution. The way you play and the minutes and the wear and tear on the opposition is important.''

Woo Hoo!
I'll be listening tonight for sure, and I expect more coverage of this tomorrow.

Kevin Smith loves hockey

OK, so Kevin Smith hasn't befriended me on NHL Connect yet. Still I'm a fan of his movies, and he loves hockey. Usually in his movies there's some hockey references too. So that's cool. I can even respect him for liking the Devils. Since I'm a Red Wings fan, maybe that's why he's not my friend there. Oh well.
Anyway Greg Wyshynski aka Puck Daddy talked hockey with Smith recently and posted the interview Thursday.
Below are my favorite quotes from it.

I remember reading a review with a critic who said, "This filmmaker doesn't put comics and hockey in a movie to express something; they put it in there because they like comics and hockey." And that was exactly why I did it.
I liked hockey, and I still like hockey. If these dudes are going to try and break away from work to do anything, it ain't gonna be to play some [expletive] ball. They're going to play some stick.

If you were in charge of the NHL's marketing for one day, what exactly would you change?
My commercial would just be, "Hockey: It Will Get You Laid."

Anyway maybe he'll come back to NHL Connect and blog some more and accept me a friend. In the meantime I'll be on the lookout for his new movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Winter Classic II jerseys

Well the Chicago Blackhawks are taking it to the Detroit Red Wings right now. Hawks up, 4-2 going into the third.
At the first intermission the NHL released the Winter Classic II jerseys. They look pretty sharp in my opinion, especially Detroit's though I am partial. Anyway, I've always liked that D, which I've always thought was a Gothic D, not an Old English D as the NHL claims.



Not a big fan of the lace-up, new jerseys, but that's a minor complaint. The lace-up feature seems superfluous on the new jerseys.
Anyway they look real good to me. I can't wait until January 1, 2009. Should be a fun day.
Oh and it's also pretty cool all 30 teams are playing today.

More Lindsay love

USAToday writer Kevin Allen added his two cents about Ted Lindsay, who Allen calls a great storyteller, today.

On hockey sticks:
“The Toronto Maple Leafs had a rule that you couldn’t bring a stick into the room unless it weighed 26 or more ounces. Sticks were all wood then, and the reason for that they were buying all of that equipment and sticks and (teams) didn’t want sticks breaking too easily. They wanted you to be able to lay it on a guy 10 times, not just once.”

On Hall of Fame defenseman Doug Harvey:
“They always talk about Bobby Orr as being the greatest defensemen who ever played, and I wouldn’t take anything away from him. He changed hockey. He became the mobile defenseman, tremendous player. But Harvey was still a better hockey player. When you look at Harvey, he had (Jean Beliveau), (Rocket) Richard, (Henri) Richard, Bert Olmstead, Boom Boom Geoffrion and yet when (Montreal) got on the power play he was the maestro. He controlled every one of those guys."

On his favorite hockey memory:
“People say, ‘What was your greatest goal?’ My greatest goal was the next one, because the one you just had is gone. That’s history. And you just always hoped that next one didn’t take too long to get there.

That last one could apply to this year's Red Wings team in trying to win the Stanley Cup again. Last year's championship is history, what matters most is the next one.

Crushing on Lindsay

Growing up, as a hockey fan and particularly a Red Wings fan, I've read a lot about Ted Lindsay. Well with the Wings organization unveiling a statue dedicated to Terrible Ted, it's fair to say I have a renewed appreciation for him after reading so many articles about him. It's true, I now have a man-crush on Ted Lindsay. Below is a video of the statue unveiling Saturday.



In the blog entry below, the New York Daily News' Michael Obernauer also notes Lindsay's first and lets him tell us in his own words.

In 1950, Lindsay was the first to skate around the rink with the Stanley Cup after winning it, which is a rite of victory today. Here's what he had to say about that:

"I was very conscious of who paid my salary. It wasn't the National Hockey League, it wasn't Mr. Norris (the owner), it wasn't Mr. Adams (the general manager), it was the people who were sitting in the stands. At that time, they only had chicken wire, and that was at the end of the rink. On the side of the rink, from where the dots are in the circles, there was nothing on the boards, all the way to the other end. The fans used to sit with their elbows on the boards, and when the play would come by, they'd move back, and when the play would come by, they'd move back, and when the play went into the corner they'd put their elbows back and put their head out to see what was going on in the corner.

"I recognized, I saw that Cup standing there - we didn't have parades and all that in those days - and I saw the Cup, I saw these fans standing just inside the boards, I just said, I'll pick the Cup up, take it over, just so they could see it, get a close look at it. Probably Adams thought, 'What's that idiot Lindsay, is he going to throw it on the ice or something?' But I wanted to show appreciation for the people who paid our salary - never realizing I was starting a tradition. I'm happy it's turned out that way, because it's the greatest Cup in the world, and the greatest game in the world."

Wow! That is so cool, and I can't believe I'd forgotten that. What an awesome gesture. What a start to a great tradition, and he did it for the fans! Also how cool would it be to not only not have to sit behind safety netting, but also not have to sit behind glass? I'd love it.
By the way, kudos to mlive.com's George James Malick who referenced Obernauer's blog so I could find it.

Malick, who does a fantastic job in gathering Red Wings information, noted other Lindsay kudos in a blog entry titled Tips and jabs pepper Lindsay's take on life in bronze. Definitely worth reading in my opinion.

Oh and one more thing. Awhile back one of my Michigan friends, who now lives in Colorado - don't ask - met Lindsay recently. I was jealous of her before, now I'm even more jealous.


The Ted Lindsay statue at The Joe Louis Arena.

ESPN still hates NHL

Check out this. ESPN posted no NHL photos from Saturday's games.



There were 13 games Saturday, yet ESPN didn't post even one photo from any of the 13. Not one!
This is more proof the four-letter hates the League. More proof the NHL shouldn't go back to the Mickey Mouse networks.

Babcock nailed it

If the Detroit Red Wings are to repeat as Stanley Cup champions they will to have earn it. Coach Mike Babcock after last night's game was talking about winning the game the last night, and probably the whole season.
From the AP article Saturday.

Detroit coach Mike Babcock called a timeout after Voros' second goal.
"I just asked them who this team was. Where was the team that was playing the whole game until that last little bit?" he said. "People don't understand. We won the Stanley Cup, but this is a new year. You have to earn things. People say we're going to be fine, but the only way we'll be fine is if we earn the right to be fine."

Other teams will be coming hard at the Wings this year because they're the reigning champions. The hype surrounding them will be more intense this season. Also many pundits predicted them to win the Cup again. Don't believe the hype. The Red Wings will have to earn it.

Keeping up

There's a lot of NHL information on the Internet. To manage it all and to keep up with my team, the Red Wings, I use Google products.
I use Google Calendar to receive game notifications that are sent to my e-mail. I use Google Alerts to receive any time "Detroit Red Wings" appears in news articles or blog posts. They are also sent to my Gmail account.



In addition I use Google Reader to receive RSS feeds from the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, MLive, the Detroit Red Wings website and several columnists including Wes Goldstein, Michael Farber, Jame Mirtle and others.



Also I have updates from The Hockey News and TSN.ca sent to me daily to my e-mail.

Hockey Thoughts Friday, Oct. 17, 2008

Chris Chelios on Joe Elliot of Def Leppard
Chelios thinks Def Leppard's Joe Elliot purposely put the Cup upside down. To me it seems reasonable he knew what he was doing.

I agree an American or Canadian band should've been invited. Who knows maybe the League tried, but couldn't get anybody else.
Anyway if Elliott did it on purpose, he's an ass. If not, who cares. I mean he didn't shit in the Cup like Draper's kid did. Oh and he didn't drop it like Chelios did.


A case for #91 in the rafters?, Ted Lindsay
Some Red Wings fans still think Sergei Fedorov's 91 should be retired. Then somebody posted some Wings players didn't want him back. While not players, this example I provided was close enough in my opinion. The writer mentioned brain trust. To me a team's captain or its alternates could be considered that.

Toward the bottom of the page.
http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2008/03/blame_bebcock_for_nixing_fedor.html
Again, it's a safe assumption to suggest that, had Babcock been the only one to object to the trade, he would have been asked to reconsider. There was apparently some sort of consensus in the room that several people had major concerns about bringing Fedorov back to Detroit, and in all likelihood, the concerns were related to both Fedorov's on-ice performance and the substantial off-ice distractions that Fedorov faced during his later years as a Wing.
Fedorov's 91 shouldn't be raised to the rafters.


3rd Jersey?, Thoughts on a 3rd for the Wings
Some Red Wings fans want the organization do have a third jersey. Some even say adding black would be good.

The Wings don't need a third jersey. Maybe when attendance really fails or if the team goes into a funk again. That's when it should be done.
Black jerseys suck balls.
That said. I'd buy this coat set-up, but there's too much black. I won't buy it.

Fuck, we're not the Devils nor the Hurricanes!


Wings arena
A poster was asking for a panoramic view of The Joe Louis Arena, and wanted to know when it opened.

There was one on NHL.com last night.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis_Arena
Try this link.
http://gamecenter.nhl.com/nhlgc/console.jsp?id=2008020070


NHL back on ESPN?
According to a linked Q & A on sportsnet.ca a poster infers that the NHL could be back on ESPN again.

ESPN's past record speaks for itself. The four-letter treated the League like shit. Yes, the League needs more exposure, but it won't get it from the Mickey Mouse networks. The players, fans, and others who do think a renewed ESPN - NHL relationship would be a good thing are wrong.
Bars, hotels, cable companies, etc. that don't have Versus are in the dark ages. The pressure needs to be put on them to get Versus.
A personal example: I stayed at a hotel recently, and it didn't have Versus nor Fox Sports. I told hotel management they need to get it. It'll affect my future decisions in staying with that chain.

Still looking northward

About a month ago a Motown journalist said Detroit wasn't a Red Wings town, which national sportswriter Rick Reilly proclaimed. The Detroiter was of the opinion it was more of a Lions and Tigers town.

This is football town, first and foremost. There is not another city in the world that can put almost 200,000 people in football stadiums on Saturday and another 65,000 on Sunday.
...
When the Tigers are terrible, fans are apathetic. Same for the Pistons. Same for the Red Wings. But when the Lions are terrible, people go nuts. Part of that is the fact that the NFL is king. But most of it is because this is a football town.

He's right.
In the regular season there's only 16 games, and only eight a season ticket holder has to attend. It's easier to be an American football fan. So as badly as the Lions play, that's why they might so popular.
Baseball is a little trickier to explain. The easy answer is that major league baseball has been around since the 1800s. So it's a little more ingrained into the national culture.
The Red Wings have won the most championships for the Motor City. Yet that doesn't seem to matter.
Every time I visit, the sports talk stations are buzzing with American football chatter. If not that, then baseball or basketball. If this happens inHockeytown, U.S.A., then it happens in every other U.S. city. It literally depresses me at times.
On a Red Wings message boards, Wings fans have said that Detroit is an American football town. It's not just me and Jamie Samuelsen.
Even Red Wing Darren McCarty pretty much said the same thing.

As much as Detroit is a hockey town, if the Lions ever do anything -- if they ever do anything -- you'll see exactly how sick this place can be.

Last week while I was in Detroit, the Red Wings flagship station WXYT held a live pre-game broadcast outside The Joe Louis Arena. While the broadcasters and callers chatted about the opening-night game from time to time, most of the talk was about American football. Tonight, trying to listen online, was more of the same. I click onWXYT radio on iTunes and am rudely treated to Lions coverage instead of a live broadcast of the Wings game. I go to NHL.com then, but am eventually frustrated with the site. At the top of the hour, around 8 p.m., figuring things changed, I go back toiTunes radio and thankfully, finally the game is on. This from the Red Wings flagship radio station! Disgraceful!

Last season a magazine stated Detroit wasn't Hockeytown and said other cities were. The bad news - there is no Hockeytown in the U.S.A.
There's no way the Penguins outshine the Steelers. No way the Avs receive more attention the Broncos. I haven't been to Boston during hockey season, but I bet the Bruins are a very distant fourth to the RedSox, Cetlics, and Patriots. In Buffalo it's the same story. Nary a peep about the Sabres; it was all about the Bills.
Two seasons ago I visited Chicago to see a Blackhawks - Red Wings game. The story was the same there. The talking heads there talked more about The Big 10 men's basketball championship, which Chicago would be hosting in a few days, and the Bulls. For all the Blackhawk renaissance since Bill Wirtz died, I bet it's the same.
So in my mind it's down to one metropolitan area. Maybe in the Twin Cities it's different, maybe. I have serious doubts.
I want to move to Canada.

Rivals and Proximity

Maybe one reason why the opening night game broke a Versus rating record was because it was between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, two rivals from the Original 6 days. I understand the rivalry between the two teams. Many Wings fans say their most intense rival is the Leafs, even more so than the Colorado Avalanche.
It's too bad the Wings and Leafs are in different conferences and don't play more often. I get that too. I'd like to see them play each other more often.
What I don't get is complaining about it like Bill McGraw from the Detroit Free Press did.

For much of the 20th Century, the Wings and the Leafs, their hometowns separated by only four hours on Highway 401, enjoyed a fine rivalry. But nowadays, thanks to the NHL schedule and division lineup, the Leafs rarely come to town and we have to watch Nashville and Columbus every other week.

Maybe he didn't get the news the NHL is now back to its pre-lockout schedule. They play at least once a season. Is it as good as two or more? Nope, but it's better than once every three years like the past three seasons. Things change. Maybe they'll change again to include more Wings and Leafs games. Things change. There's 30 teams now not six. It's time to be realistic regarding schedules, and at least the NHL made a step back in the right direction this season.

According to Google Maps Detroit to ...
Toronto = 246 mi – about 4 hours 6 mins
Columbus = 201 mi – about 3 hours 42 mins
Chicago = 282 mi – about 4 hours 31 mins
Nashville = 534 mi – about 8 hours 22 mins
St. Louis = 550 mi – about 8 hours 36 mins

In any case proximity helps in what team will be a rival, but it's not the only factor.

NHL opener scores record Versus ratings

Two sources posted the NHL opening night game between the Detroit Red Wing and Toronto Maple Leafs was the most watched regular season game for the network. This is great news in my opinion.

From John Consoli Mediaweek:
The Detroit Red Wings vs. Toronto Maple Leafs season opening National Hockey League game on Versus network on Oct. 9 was the most-watched regular season game ever on the network, drawing 572,897 viewers.
The game was part of a doubleheader telecast that night. The other game, the Boston Bruins vs. the Colorado Avalanche, which drew more than 300,000 viewers. The combined games averaged 413,892 viewers, a 33 percent increase over the opening night doubleheader on Versus last season.
The two games cumulatively showed big gains in male audience, with men 18-34 up 82 percent, men 18-49 up 57 percent, and men 25-54 up 45 percent.

And from Kevin Allen at USAToday:
Thursday's telecast of the Toronto Maple Leafs' 3-2 win vs. the Detroit Red Wings was the most-watched regular-season game on Versus in terms of households (360,944) and total viewers (572,897).
Versus also had its best-ever opening-night ratings, with its Detroit Red Wings-Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins-Colorado Avalanche doubleheader. The combined average viewership of the two games was up 17% (353,269 to 413,892) from last year.

Banner raised

Well the Red Wings raised their 11th Stanley Cup championship banner Thursday.
Then they lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2.
Pretty decent shot from the last row of The Joe Louis Arena.



Anyway I still had a good time. Would've been better had the Wings won.

Some notes from the game ...
There was a goodly amount of boisterous Leafs fans.
The last time the Wings raised a Cup banner, they lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2.
Karen Newman did a great job with both anthems. I really enjoy going to a game where I can hear both.
It was cool seeing an Original 6 match-up, especially between the two rivals. It might be my first time seeing an Original 6 game at The Joe.
I remain convinced that JLA is the best arena in League to see a game. I was in the last row, and yet my view was still amazing.

Hockeytown Cafe was rockin before the game.

Game On!

In Detroit heading to Hockeytown Cafe, and then onto the game.
Should be great fun seeing the banner raised.
Looking forward to hopefully another Stanley Cup run for the Detroit Red Wings.
The scene at Hockeytown Authentics today.

NHL Fan Connect updates

While for the most part I'm digging the updates the the NHL.com website, I have no love for the updates at NHL Fan Connect, http://fans.nhl.com/

Anybody else a member there? If so what are your thoughts about the updates?
Here's a list of some of my problems there.

When logging into Fan Connect using Safari I tried tabbing over to the Password box. I couldn't. I had to use my mouse. Typically "tab" will work; it does using Firefox.

My username shows up in many places as all caps. It's meant to be all lowercase. Please stop screaming at me.

My blog titles are also all caps. I don't want to be screaming at other people. On some occasion I might use all caps to emphasize a word in a title. With NHL defaulting my titles to all caps, I can't.

The page on which one posts a new blog entry is far too cumbersome. The box is way, way too small to be effective. Sometimes html coding works correctly, sometimes it doesn't. It seems haphazard.

In the old style of NHL Connect I could access everything - photos, friends, blog - from almost any page. With the re-design I can't. I'm forced to always go back to my profile first, then to friends, messages, blog, etc. In a word, cumbersome.

NHL.com updates its website

The NHL unleashed a new re-designed website.
Wow, a lot of black, too much in my opinion.



It's a cleaner, more streamlined look, and certainly easier to navigate.
Other than that, it's a major improvement over the old one.



Oh and I also received an NHL.com message the other day that people can now leave story comments - much like Sporting News, CBS, and ESPN already do.

Johnson losing best 09 RFA poll

Hoosier native Jack Johnson is losing the "Best of next summer's potential restricted free agent" poll on espn.com/nhl.


Map doesn't accurately reflect latest numbers.

With more than 5,100 votes cast Johnson, defenceman for the Los Angeles Kings, only has about six percent of the vote.
Leading the five-man pack is Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins, followed by Paul Stastny of the Colorado Avalanche, Anze Kopitar also of the Kings, Johnson and bringing up the rear is Atlanta Thrashers goalie Kari Lehtonen.
I read an article recently as to why the Red Wings have been so dominant, and it was attributed to the Wings defense.
So my vote went to Johnson because he's the only d-man on the list, and he was born in Indiana.
I know, hardly impartial reasons, but that's the way I voted.

NHL garners 12.5 pages from 'the rag'

Checked out the four-letter rag tonight.
It featured about 12.5 pages, including the cover, of it's latest issue, which is nearly 106 pages. So that's 11.3 percent.
Certainly more than I expected. If the editors average more than a page per issue of NHL coverage for the rest of the season, I'll be surprised.
Part of those 12.5 pages includes a paragraph or so by Bill Simmons, who wrote he's trying to like the NHL.
"Now, I don't want to go off on a rant here, but ...
Eh ... Simmons isn't worth my time and effort.

Monday night in Indy

Damn, this economy is depressing.
I left the bar and wanted a cup of coffee. I walk toward the Dunkin Donuts, which is about two blocks away. Not even 9 p.m. and it was already closed. Across the street is a steak place, and standing outside of it was a valet.
"Dunkin Donunts always closes this early," I ask.
"Not usually," said the valet. "Lately they've been closing early."
In my mind I write it off to the economy.
"Well I'm off to Starbucks then," I said.
We exchange pleasantries, and I head toward the Circle. I'm not much of a fan of Starbucks. I like Dunkin Donuts coffee much better; it's not as harsh.
Anyway I head toward Meridian, pass the still unfinished Buffalo Wild Wings and am eventually sidetracked by the bookstore that is still open. It closes at nine, so I have about 10 minutes left.
Walking past the chatting clerks, I head toward the magazine rack. I'm on a mission to see what hockey magazines might be available. To my surprise The Hockey New yearbook with Pavel Datsyuk is on display. Even more surprising is the latest issue of ESPN the Magazine. It features Alexander Ovechkin on the front and blurb about a breakdown of all 30 NHL teams. I'm cynical though. I bet it's just a two-page feature with the 15 Eastern Conference teams on one page and on the opposing page the 15 Western Conference teams. This is the four-letter after all.
Anyway I'm not in a buying mood - maybe tomorrow when my purchase will get me two free hours of Wi-Fi goodness. Right now I'm on a mission for coffee, even if it's not Dunkin Donuts.
Mushing northward it's on to Starbucks. I buy an Indianapolis mug I'd been eyeing since August and a medium coffee in a paper cup. I leave and head back to my car.
Restaurants and bars that would normally seem jumping are slow - a hostess props her head up with her hand, elbow on the podium. Places are figuratively dead.
Is it the weather, which is a spitting rain that's keeping people away? The change of seasons? Just a day or so from October, it's noticeably darker. Maybe the goblins and ghouls are already out and about.
Yet this is Monday night and Hank Jr. is ready to party. The bars that should be lively are dead. Even the one I left I was.
I had stopped by to watch the end of the White Sox - Tigers games. Foolhardily I thought it would start at about 7 p.m. It started earlier though. So now with the speakers blaring loudly I'm subjected to four-letter idiocy - the ranting Chris Berman and the know-it-all former players and coaches. Start the game already I've had enough! It's only been five minutes. This will only be a two-pint night.
Everybody is such an American football fan now. Arguably the most popular sport, it bores me to tears. My gripes - there's no flow to the game, and it takes way too long between plays. It's thoroughly boring in my opinion.
The announcers, especially the four-letters, don't make it anymore enjoyable either. In fact they detract from it.
Tonight one of them said Terry Bradshaw and Lynn Swann were window dressing compared to Mean Joe Green. He then quotes an Eagles song.
"Come on, man. I had a rough night, and I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!"

Pundits predict Yzerman's future

The Hockey News' Ken Campbell and others are predicting Steve Yzerman will leave Detroit within a few years.

"Why, oh why Stevie Y?"

“I guess I would just say that I’ve got certain things that I want to accomplish in hockey and that opportunity may or may not be here in Detroit,” Yzerman said. “I’m really happy doing what I’m doing and I’m enjoying working in the organization and trying to add value and help out. I’ve learned a ton and I will continue to learn just by being around. But I have goals and because the organization is so deep in the management level and our guys are successful and they’re young, at some point, we’re going to have to sit down and discuss it.”

Campbell goes on to write Holland is an excellent GM, and Jim Nill, assistant GM, and Yzerman, vice-president, could easily be GMs for other teams.

But that can’t work with three people who are all not only capable of being GMs, but also of doing a very good job at it. Holland, hands-down, is the best GM in the game today and is only 52, which puts him in about the middle of the pack when it comes to age among GMs. He’s not going anywhere and there’s nothing to suggest he will lose his acumen for judging talent and managing a salary cap anytime soon.

Yzerman has proved over the past three years he has both the skill and the desire to be a GM. The Red Wings have already lost Scotty Bowman from their front office and the betting here is sometime shortly after the 2010 Games, Yzerman will be making tracks out of Detroit as well.

Seriously though, I understand why he wants to leave. Still I'd be very sad if he left the Red Wings organization. He's been there is whole major league hockey career. I can't imagine him anywhere else.

Yzerman man-crush continues

As if I needed another reason to continue my Steve Yzerman man-crush.
Yet this article by Jim Boone deepened it.

Yzerman in his first NHL season.

Steve Yzerman played his rookie NHL season in 1983-84 scoring 39 goals and 87 points. (Getty Images)

Anyway Boone says Stevie Y would be the first hall of famer in his fantasy hall of fame, one for the fans.

At a year-end beach party during the final days of my 11th grade in high school, a group of my friends were clowning around on a local Ottawa beach. An accident occurred and one of my peers was left paralyzed and wheelchair bound for his remaining days.
I visited my friend in the hospital one day following the accident and he was happier than ever. He told me Steve Yzerman had just left the room. It was the spring of 1984 and Yzerman was only 18 years old. He had just completed his rookie season in Motown, setting franchise records for goals and points by a rookie with 39 and 87, respectively. He almost won the Calder Trophy (Tom Barrasso won) and was considered a local hero in Ottawa since he grew up playing in the community. My school friend was around 16 years old at the time and was recognized as a very good player in the same local league Yzerman had played in.
The fact Yzerman had taken the time to lift my friend’s spirits stuck with me. For years I thought I was the only hockey fan who held him in such high regard. When we started the NHLFA in 1998, I was thrilled to learn hockey fans all across North America revered Yzerman in much the same way I did. The guy had a positive effect on so many people in so many different ways.

That alone would be enough, but it's just the prelude. Below is the conclusion.

Ten, 11, 12 years passed in Detroit and the Wings still had not won a Cup with Yzerman at the helm. Then it finally happened in the spring of 1997.
My community quickly renamed an arena in town the “Steve Yzerman Arena” to honor his achievements. Yzerman showed up at the rink with the Stanley Cup. He walked into the arena and did not stop walking, showing the same focus he displayed when he had the puck and headed for the net.
He did not stop marching until he reached my old high school buddy, sitting in his wheelchair amongst the fans. He placed the Cup on my friend’s lap, triggering the greatest smile you have ever seen on a guy’s face. His smile lit up the room and the front page of the local paper the next day.

Blues, Sabres debut new jersey

The St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres introduced new third jerseys over the weekend.





The Blues' jersey looks really sharp. I like it a lot.
The Sabres' jersey, I'm not feeling it. The piping and the front number ruin it for me.
The old Sabres logo is just ok, nothing great, but it's definitely better than the buffaslug. Frankly I miss the buffalo head logo the organization had in the late 90s, early 00s. I also liked the third jersey, cross sabres logo at about the same time.

I posted earlier today on a message board that I wasn't digging the new tie-up jerseys. I thought the NHL "V" made them superfluous. I see now the way Paul Kariya has his that they are not. I stand corrected.
Still I like with the tie-up jerseys designers are trying for an old school look. Yet with the new, sleek jerseys they don't look right to me.

Debate improves NHL

Adam Proteau of The Hockey News says debate must continue if the NHL is to improve.

Said criticisms usually come in the form of the following argument: “The game is great as it is. We’ve already made enough changes to it, so why can’t people just enjoy it and leave it be?”
On some levels, I understand and agree with that sentiment. But I also believe there’s an inherent, significant danger to the notion of being satisfied with the status quo.
Indeed, there are more than a couple people who will tell you the lack of serious debate about the NHL’s product throughout the 1990s led directly to the Dead Puck/Clutch-and-Grab Era that tested even the most devout hockey fans’ ability to keep their eyelids in the ‘up’ position during games.

Yet Ray Slover and Eric McErlain want to keep the goalie gear the same, the status quo.
Enough already: Leave goaltenders alone
Give NHL rule changes a breather

In this argument, I couldn't agree more with Proteau. He continues...
It wasn’t simply an absence of analysis that hurt the NHL so badly. It’s the aforementioned attitude that eschews all critical comment as being somehow offensive that truly hamstrings the sport.
To wit: Hall of Fame-bound NHLers such as Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux were labeled as whiners and me-first mopers during their playing careers merely for telling the hockey world what it has since come to accept: the game needed fixing – and not in a minor way.
For having the stones to speak up, both stars were shouted down. For daring to suggest it might be worthwhile to explore alternative ways to play the game, both were derided as traitors who deserved to have their tongues cut out.

I remember that well - not so much with Hull, but definitely with Lemieux.
He goes on write that without Brendan Shanahan the game might look the same as it did pre-lockout.

Even now, even after Lemieux and Hull were proven prescient in their appraisals of what ailed the sport, neither guy gets his due for it. And when you consider what it took for major changes to the NHL to actually come to pass – a season-long lockout, followed by an initiative that came not from the league, but from a player (Brendan Shanahan) – you have to wonder what the game would look like today if that conservative, shut-up-and-play mentality was permitted to prosper.
Actually, you don’t have to wonder at all. Without Shanahan’s courage, the NHL still would continue to give its greatest rewards to participants who preferred to lodge their sticks firmly in their opponents’ mid-sections and water-ski behind them up and down the ice; the league would remain a workplace in which endless cycling of the puck and the curtailing of skill mattered more than goals and those who could score them; and professional hockey would continue to fall further off the radar of the average sports fan.

I agree. Shanahan changed that attitude, and in my opinion he also saved the game.
The way I see it, it was predominately through his efforts that the lockout ended.

QMJHL imposes tougher penalties

Still catching up on my Hockey News newsletters.
A recent article posted on the site states there will be tougher penalties in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season.

Instead, it calls for stiffer penalties for brawling and other acts of "gratuitous violence,"' for files to be kept on repeat offenders, better support for players, coaches and officials and an anti-violence campaign.
The governors are to decide whether to adopt the recommendations at a meeting in Montreal on Sept. 8, a day before the regular season begins.
"There was a consensus not to punish through ejection players who voluntarily get into a fight," said Jacques Letellier, co-president of the committee along with former national women's team coach Daniele Sauvageau. "There were those for and against it.
"We opted to strengthen the penalties without adopting an automatic ejection."

This change seems pretty significant me. Maybe it's much ado about nothing though, but I'd love to hear from Canadians with their thoughts on the matter.

Could the NHL follow suit?

Happy Birthday Scotty Bowman

Happy Birthday to Scotty Bowman. He is 75 today.

Some stats courtesy of the Wikipedia page.
As head coach, Bowman has won a record nine Stanley Cups with the Canadiens, Penguins and Red Wings.
He holds the record for most wins in league history, with 1,244 wins in the regular season and 223 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He won the Jack Adams Award in 1977 and 1996.
No other head coach in the history of the NHL, MLB, the NFL or the NBA has won championships with three different teams.

Two other informative links - Legends of Hockey and HockeyDB.com.

According to Jamie Samuelsen of the Detroit Free Press, Bowman is the best coach in Detroit sports history.
On freep.com/sports is a list of the top 10 coaches of the past 15 years. Who would be your No. 1?
The fifteen year span makes the answer pretty obvious. In truth, you can probably go back 100 years in Michigan and get the same answer – Scotty Bowman. Bowman is the greatest coach in the history of hockey. And easily one of the five best coaches in team sports history. So it's not too much of a stretch to put him number one here. First and foremost, he just won more than anybody else in Detroit during that time. That's pretty much all you need to know. But he also delivered Detroit it's most sought after prize. And he helped Steve Yzerman realize his Stanley Cup dreams which made him even more popular.

One more thing, check out this Q&A Bowman did earlier this year with the New York Times.

Anything he has to say or write about hockey is worth listening to or reading.

Milbank equals hockey hotness

I've been catching up on my daily newsletters from The Hockey News, if it's not obvious by my recent posts.
A few weeks ago Adam Proteau spotlighted Carrie Milbank who hosts The Hockey Show on NHL.com.
See the photo below as to why I'm really a Red Wings fan.
The blog entry, Why I'm a Red Wings fan, was just a joke. She's the real reason!



WOW! Color me drooling.

Five for fighting

Speaking of the instigator rule. The Hockey News' Ryan Kennedy says enforcers and agitators are alive and well in the NHL - despite the instigator rule, which prohibits enforcers from starting fights with more skilled players to draw a reaction penalty.

Far from retreating from the game, the enforcer – and his little brother, the scrappy agitator – is still a part of hockey and is in no way leaving any time soon.

Kennedy goes on to say the League has no desire to reign in instigators.

Because the NHL endorses fighting.
Yup, you heard me, folks. And I have no problem with that. How does the league endorse fighting? It’s simple: The NHL tacitly approves of fisticuffs because players are not suspended or fined for them. Sure, you can get suspended or fined for fighting in the last five minutes of a game if you’ve been red-flagged as a “goon,” but that’s a pretty simple rule to get around: Send your message at the six-minute mark. It’s not rocket science.
While fans of other sports can only hope something bad happens to hate-him-unless-he-plays-for-you guys like Terrell Owens or Alex Rodriguez, hockey has made it known since its inception that if you’re a jerk, you’re going to get rocked in the mouth sooner or later. Your pretty little teeth are going to bounce off the ice and you’ll think twice about spearing or butt-ending one of our boys again.
Repulsive? Venomous? I don’t know. It’s certainly cathartic every once in a while and there’s a big difference between law and justice.

I agree the NHL condones fighting, yet I see good and bad from it.

On one hand it allows players to police themselves, and Eric McErlain blogged about this in his post more than a year and a half ago, Is It Time To Retire The Instigator Rule?

In particular this from Neil K. Sheehy and his article, The Systematic Erosion and Neutralization of Skill and Play-making in the NHL.

I agree with Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux regarding the necessity of the NHL protecting its most skilled players. I believe the instigator rule should be eliminated. The officials should not be forced to call more penalties with new rules, but rather focus on calling fewer penalties and allow players to police themselves. If this were to happen, the tactics of trying to draw more penalties would be diminished.

The way it's argued there certainly makes sense.
However I believe fighting leads to other violent acts like the Bertuzzi - Moore, McSorley - Brashear, and Simon - Hollweg incidents.
Because the NHL condones fighting, it tacitly condones these acts. One follows the other in my opinion. I argued this point with other LetsGoWings.com posters in the thread titled Bertuzzi disobeyed Crawford.

Maybe the instigator rule should be dropped, and the violent incidents like above would stop.
Or maybe the NHL should ban fighting because it certainly allows it, now.

Mike Brophy seeks new job

Apparently The Hockey News' Mike Brophy wants a new job. He's tired of writing negatively about the NHL, and he wants to be Gary Bettman's public relations guru.
Below are the changes he'd lobby Bettman to make so NHL fans will like the commissioner.

• Do away with this phrase: "In keeping with club policy, terms of the agreement will not be made public." Gary, tell your dopey GMs we live in a salary cap world and contract information must be made public.
• Turn down the damn music. I come from an era when just being at the game was good enough. Throw in a little organ music if you wish. If I wanted to go to an AC/DC concert, I’d go to an AC/DC concert.
• Speed up video replay. I can’t count the number of times when I have seen a call come into question and the geniuses watching tape keep on watching after a definitive view has been shown on TV.
• Have home teams wear their white jerseys so fans can see more color from the visitors. And while we’re on the subject, how about encouraging teams to get away from predominantly black uniforms. Bring back the purple and gold of the Kings and the baby blue of the Penguins.

The first change I really couldn't care less about. Either way, it's fine with me. Here's my caveat though - I don't think it will change fans' perception of Bettman.
The second change: I've been to some arenas and the music is too loud. Others it hasn't. Here's my caveat though - I don't think it will change fans' perception of Bettman.
The third change: Here I agree with Brophy. But to me it's not worth complaining about because officials want to make sure. In any case NHL officials are faster than NFL officials in making a decision. Here's my caveat though - I don't think it will change fans' perception of Bettman.
The fourth change: My initial reaction when the white to dark change was made one of acrimony. I've since softened my stance. While generally I prefer white jerseys, it doesn't really matter to me anymore. On and the Penguins wore black before just about any other team, they changed in 1980 to be like the championship-winning Pirates and Steelers . They should keep black if they want. Any other team, except Boston too, I kinda agree. Here's my caveat though - I don't think it will change fans' perception of Bettman.

About a week before Brophy posted his article, the members at LetsGoWings.com discussed why they hate Bettman.

My response then:
His obvious love of and favoritism toward Brian Burke is enough for me to hate him.
Yet there's so many more reasons ....
Conference, division name changes.
Safety net installation.
His immeasurable duplicity.
... to name just a few more.

While going back to Adams, Prince of Wales, etc. is infinitely cooler than geographic names - some erroneously like Detroit and Columbus in the Western Conference - the geographic names predate Norris, Campbell, etc. So that's a wash, and it doesn't concern me much anymore. The others I still stand by.

Another LGW member posted this:
He has only one priority, more money for owners. Fans and players be damned.

That has merit, but Bettman works for the owners. The real problem is he doesn't necessarily look out for the greater good of the game.

Or as another LGW member posted:
He should have an eye on the long term health of the game, but shows little understanding or love of the sport.

More specifically the instigator rule is a point of contention. Many players, fans, and journalists disagree with it. I'm torn.

Oh, and as I posted during the playoffs, Bettman is a fascist. Banning Al Sobotka from twirling octopi was really necessary?