Re: The NHL Thread
 

Good points, all.

One more counterpoint then I'm done. The U.S. tends to dominate medal counts at both the summer and winter Olympics (though not in hockey, of course.) Every four years the U.S. can groom swimmers, gymnasts, track and field athletes, divers, figure skaters, speed skaters, volleyball players and athletes from other obscure, non-big-money sports. Even if they don't win the gold, many of the U.S. athletes are competitive in many events. I'd say the Olympians are also some of the U.S.'s best. If the U.S. consistently fields strong Olympic talent, why not build a soccer team for the world cup?

Also, India is fascinating in the sense that it does have a huge population, but is in no way sports-centric.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

yea that's true about the Olympics. some of that may have to do with saturation (US always sends the most athletes to the Games) but the US still does find a way to produce top level Olympic athletes

another factor there too is that we have by far the best female athletes in the world which is a part of the Olympics. when we talk about soccer and the World Cup, we are talking strictly about men, as our Women's team has been consistently the best in the World/highly competetive for decades.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

You guys talk about this shit like Phil Kessel isn't a god damn elite athlete.

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:lol if only Nathan's sponsored the Olympics

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You think Kessel is a Nathan's man? Hmm. Interesting choice.

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Kessel is a "whatever is in the vicinity is getting eaten" man

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Just another Flyer suspended. Weise needed a true Flyer initiation.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Damn, burned again by power play goals - worse it was against a scrub team (CBJ) who have no defense, lost another D man early plus they have a goalie who cannot stay off the injured reserve. I can understand losing to Nashville or St. Louis but Columbus and Benedict Arnold Saad.... WTF? Losing TVR hurts too.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Ironically, Dave Isaac of the Curier wrote about how the Flyers are so far away from being Bullies size wise but have 12-games of suspension so far haha

Re: The NHL Thread
 

i know some others answered already as to why our top athletes don't play soccer, and those are true reasons, but i believe we're going to see a major shift over the next 15 years or so.

over the last 20 or so years, youth sports has become more and more of kids play one sport and play it all the time. i have a 12 year old cousin who plays baseball like 8 months out of the year. more and more kids are going the "specialized" route of focusing just on one sport, and a lot are turning to soccer.

especially with worries about health and concussion with football, a lot of kids are playing soccer exclusively, and its going to drive greatness at the national level soon enough.

look at other sports, where you have guys like mike trout as one of the best baseball players ever, already, or lebron james. they probably could have been in the NFL if they played football because they are freaks athletically, and they probably could be in the MLS if he chose to play soccer. with the way that kids train these days, you're going to see guys like trout who are 6'3 240lbs and run a 4.4 forty. wait until those guys start showing up on a soccer field. they're going to dominate.

soccer is one of the most popular youth sports in the country. give those 10 year olds time to grow and in 12-15 years, they're going to be the leaders on the USMNT. 3-4 world cups from now and the US is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Best game the Wings have had in a while. Much better than the crap game they played on Wednesday, even if they won. Nashville did a good job pressing down 5 on 3 late in the game. Was worried they'd tie it. Guessing we'll see Howie back in net tonight.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

So, Zatkoff (Kings goalie) suffered a groin injury at morning skate today. This is not real life.

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That's just crazy.

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yikes...not good

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Yeah, just saw that. That is just awful - oddly enough I just saw that on espn.com and then tuned to the beginning of the Kings game. Good luck Sarah!

Apparently the Hawks will need the Rngers to come to town in order to get a regulation win. They cannot score on a PP and cannot kill penalties. I was stunned they tied it with 2 goals in the last two minutes and eventually won in OT.

Richard Panik - current frontrunner for the goal scoring title. Anyone else think that is a bit odd? :lol

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Someone on espe goofed too, be rather hard to win 3-0 in OT for Detroit! Check their website text below:

"Howard, Nyquist lead Red Wings over Sharks 3-0

San Jose
Sharks
3-2-1
Final/OT3
Detroit
Red Wings
4-2-0
1 2 3 OT T
SJ 0 0 0 0 0
DET 0 2 1 0 3
Box Score
Play-By-Play"

:lol

Re: The NHL Thread
 

They had new rules last night. Endless OT but it wasn't sudden death....

After that 0-2 start Wings looked as bad as they could. Surprised they have won 4 in a row but haven't played any real good teams yet. I'll take it though they've looked much better the last two games for sure. Nice to see Nyquist going after his bad year last year. They've outscore opponets 15-5 in those 4.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Wait, what?

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Smart ass response referring to Jamie's ESPN post.

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Flyers can score!

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Brown had his best game in awhile last night and has been playing well all season. I suspect now that they need a goalie they might bite the bullet and retain some of his salary in an effort to trade him.

We'll see.

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:lol :lol shows you how much attention I pay to him!

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You should sign up to play goalie!

Also, I love the headline I just saw: "Tim Horton's NHL Heritage Classic delayed due to intermittent sunlight on ice." :lol

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Damn, i'm working at a mine in the frozen north today, missing a good sports day between the Heritage Classic and the US Grand Prix.

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You did when I was cheering for your Caps last year against Philly and Pitt! :)

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Starting today on top of the division after two wins on the weekend! Not a bad place to be. Overall I have liked what I have seen this year from the Rangers. The team is better in their own zone as well as improved in the neutral zone. The off season moves to get younger are paying off so far as the team looks faster than last year. Maybe the Rangers are not on the drastic decline like everyone assumed they were headed for. Still an 82 game season though.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

First in the league, losers. Haven't been 5-1 since I was 1 yr old ('85/'86 season).

Do I expect this to continue? Of course not. It will however make the 5 game losing streak in Jan/Feb much more tolerable.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol no it doesn't, I tell myself that every year.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

So happy for you. You and other Edmonton fans deserve it. You guys are totally crushing it down in the AHL.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

http://www.tsn.ca/commodore-takes-sh...river-1.591350

Well that's interesting.