Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Great topic, great stories.

I was about 8 or 9 when I started getting into hockey. I can distinctly remember a couple of things. Even though the Flyers were bad (B.A.D. bad.) in the early 90s, I remember the local news always showing highlights and remember Lindros getting a lot of pub. So I would catch highlights whenever I could. And I would always hope we'd get to go to my grandmother's house on weekends because she had pay cable (PRISM channel for you Flyers/Philly locals) and they had the Flyers back then. So I knew I'd get to watch a game. I also remember the 12-15 year old high schoolers playing street hockey at the bottom of the hill I lived on. I would just go down there any time they were playing and be the annoying kid either 1. asking to play. or 2. just trying to stay out of the way but as close as I could to feel involved. (go away kid!) I was hooked on the sport.

So naturally once the Flyers turned that corner in 95, I was all in and absorbing that whole team and the rest of the league. I would have been 12 at the time. It certainly grew from there. My Mom and Dad would take me to a game or two a season. Once I started working myself and having friends with tickets and what not, I'd make it to more games.

From the 90s I remember a lot of things but I remember Lindros (and the others) being so dominant at times and I remember his Hart trophy speech still like it was yesterday. ("We're getting better. And we're gonna do it." They didn't.) I stayed up for the whole 5OT game in 2000. Got hooked on the Phantoms when then won their couple of Calder Cups, including going to a ton of games in 05 during the NHL lockout.

And in the generation/age that a lot of us are... video games helped. NHL 94, 96. Go to classics. I'll never forget being in a local game store in 1997 I guess when a demo or video of NHL 98 was on. It was the first one with Jim Hughson doing full play by play. I was blown away. I've kept up with the NHL gaming almost every year since.

I think I've told this story before but that's where the 87 in my username comes from. I wasn't born in 87. And I didn't steal Crosby's number. (he stole mine!) I wore 87 as my hockey number in street, roller and now ice. And it's because when you could create your own player in the NHL games, Lindros was my favorite so I'd always play the right wing on the LOD line with LeClair on the left. And since they already had an 88, I went 87. I didn't go 89 because I didn't want to be confused with Alexander Mogilny ( :lol )

So that's kinda my story.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Me too. Meeee tooooo.

:grimey

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Chicago Wolves got me into Hockey....saw them win the Turner Cup (think that is what it was called)....at that game I caught a T-Shirt blasted out of a cannon from Skates (the Mascot).

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

That was the IHL championship trophy. You are correct. Watched the Detroit Vipers win that in 97.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

So an idea floated out there (just a hypothetical) was Ovie traded to Vegas. I'm sure that won't happen but an interesting idea. Great for Vegas to get that name and gets the Caps moving in a different direction.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

One of my favorite Penguins moments ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9iIieyBZIw

01 Kaspiritis Game 7 OT goal vs Buffalo. That dive he does on the ice sticks out in my memory so much.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

6 years and 29.5 for Bishop in Dallas. He'll be 37 at the end of that contract.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

I don't really have a story because my entire life was Flyers. Literally. I was going to games when I was like two years old.

But I will say this, agree on the video games. I remember I didn't go outside all summer in 1995 because I was playing NHL 94.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

he'd never go.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

3:07 mark of this link..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ThruRDMx4

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

I'll have to share my story next time I am on my laptop

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

What are they planning on doing with one of the other two? Both under contract still for another year....

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Last I read was Niemi to be bought out. BUT even if they do, you still get some of his cap hit so you're looking at like 12ish mil for 2 goalie and one goalie not on your team.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

I can't speak for him but his boy is the GM, he'd still get paid, nicer weather and with a bad team he can play the way he wants. I mean does winning matter to him? Hard to tell so I can see why he would go. I don't think it happens but I see reasons he could be ok with it.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

https://www.facebook.com/12601374741...type=3&theater

too soon?

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

I don't really have a story either. I grew up watching all the major sports on a daily basis. I probably didn't switch to picking hockey as my favorite though until the 5 OT game that was mentioned earlier. I do remember making a Father's Day card with the Stanley Cup on it back in 1997 (so when I was 8). They got swept (Damn Detroit team was a juggernaut)

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/ja...nia-runs-wild/

Always enjoy reading these, my team or not.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Just came to post this. Awesome read. You can feel the excitement in his writing.

That video of his family's reactions after his first goal never gets old.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Valid excuse for OVie??

http://www.bardown.com/alexander-ove...njury-1.750561

Looks like it hurts.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

I didn't *really* get into hockey until my ex girlfriend, who was a die hard Rangers fan. So this was way way back in 2009. I of course followed hockey a little with Dustin being drafted and even before that, Nicole (his wife) was a great hockey player. So my exposure was there, I'd go to her games, high school boys games and Cornell hockey. I never really "got" the game until my ex brought me to my first professional hockey game. It was in Buffalo, 10/9/10. Stepan's NHL debut and he scored a hat trick.

My first time at MSG was 2011 playoff game 4 against the Capitals. It was the game after Boudreau said MSG was quiet, their fans weren't loud. Game 4 was the "can you hear us?" chanting. I thought it was so cool. Of course they lost in OT. But a playoff game at MSG was magical. That's when I fell in love with the Rangers.

And we all know my Kings story. ;)

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

So I guess it's my story time.

Around 1996ish, I got into hockey. Naturally it was the Flyers. What started it was my love for playing NHL 97 on my brother's Super Nintendo (god, I loved that fucking game). It so happened that during that same year, the Flyers were good and went to the Stanley Cup Finals (Tim, we all know how it went. We don't need your stinkin' reminders!) My first favorite players were John LeClair and Eric Desjardins, but I fell in love with a wacky goalie named Ron Hextall.

A couple years later, a longtime friend of my father started a youth after school program centered around ice hockey. His name is Art Dorrington, who is the first black hockey player to sign a professional contract in the U.S. He's originally from Canada but has lived in Atlantic City for the last 35+ years, or since his career-ending injury when playing for the Atlantic City Seagulls. He started the Art Dorrington Ice Hockey Foundation in 1997ish. I joined in the program's second year.

I began to play as a defenseman, but wanted desperately to be a goalie. As an after-school program, it was free to play and all the equipment was donated. The only fee us kids had to pay was just show up to these classes that taught us life lessons about bullying, drugs, etc. It was great as it brought so many different cultures to the sport - Indian, Mexican, Black, Dominican, Vietnamese, Chinese... you name it. Even a few girls played.

By the second year, someone donated used goalie equipment and a brand new helmet. Guess who was first to wanna be goalie? Around 1999, it was announced a minor league hockey team would come to AC. After a couple years of ironing out details, the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies came. They were here for four years, winning the Kelly Cup (the ECHL's championship) in 2003. During their time here, several of the players would come by our practices and donate their time to teach us the sport. (Two of those players have actually remained in AC since the team left when they retired and I've become good friends with both of them.)

Seeing these pro athletes, who were just as good as the Flyers in a 12-year-old's eyes, really made me appreciate the sport. I would continue being a big Flyers fan, going to several games, and all that stuff. But it was actually getting to play the sport, and the time these volunteers took to bring a relatively unknown sport to the inner city in southern New Jersey is the reason why I have such a huge passion for the sport.

I still have my goalie stick, which was donated to us by one of the goalies on the Bullies. Art let me keep it after I "graduated" from the program after 8th grade.

And in the photo from one of the years, Art is all the way to the left. I'm the tall goofy-looking goalie on the right.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

He is such a mark for the sport (wrestling term) and I love that. Good shit.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

God reading that was fucking great. Caught myself smiling so many times. Thinking to myself "fuck, sitting next to Crosby? I probably wouldn't even sit down. I'd get dressed on the floor."

He seems like a great kid.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Why are they showing the caps right now on nbc?

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

:lol:lol:lol

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Pens are being too fancy.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Indeed they are. I'm glad they have a goal, but they should have at least three.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Especially during the first-period 5-on-3

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Blah. Pens had their chances. Have to stop being cute.

Re: The NHL Thread (where the Presidents Trophy matters!)
 

Bobby Ryan!