Re: The NHL Thread
 

Watching the Selanne retirement ceremony.

Happy I was able to see his last game in person.

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Read on cbs this am (I own him) that he has a slight tear and will be back after AS break. They did say he will have that mri to confirm it all. Guess it could have been worse.

Should be lots of hype in NY the next 36 hours leading to a much anticipated meeting of the Islanders/rag$. Can't wait.

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didn't know the Oregon ducks were in the NHL.

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Hope so. We'll find out today probably I guess. Thank god they have some depth in goal. Sad thing is, now they have some kid as the backup since Monster is still out with his shoulder.

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:lol

I know the Icelanders have not been good for a long time...so let me bring you up to date. Unless the Rangers or Icelanders make the eastern conference finals, there will be no mention of it on NY radio or TV. They won't be fully covered unless one of these teams makes the Stanley cup finals.

Because you know...the worst Knicks team in history, mediocre Nets, shitty Jets, non-playoffs Giants, same old Mets, elderly Yankees and any College sport they can find is far better than mentioning hockey.

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Is it Mrazik? That kid is a stud.

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Well he's the #1 now. Some other kid is his backup. Mrazek has been great when he's been up here too. So I'm not too worried, unless he goes down too. Just sucks your #1 and 2 are both out. If Howie is out a long time, and when Monster comes back, I think Mrazek should be the #1 personally. He's the future so ride him (haha) as long as you can.

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Seriously? I mean, I'm from Redskins country where the sports media basically forgets there's 3 other pro sports teams in the same city, so I get it, but I would've expected different from the NY media. Obviously the NHL is still trumped by everything, but I was under the impression that NY and the media there got really into the Rangers when they were doing well. Not surprised to hear the Isles are still flying under the radar though.

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they're embarrassing.
they got booed when they showed them at nationwide saturday night :lol

i think they were trying to play off the original CBJ sweaters that had the neon stick, however, those too were awful.

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I remember when the Rangers won game 7 against Philly last year that a fan called into Mike Francesa's show on WFAN and asked a question about the Rangers and his response was "I don't want to talk about that. Come on, you are calling me to talk hockey?"

He then went on to talk about Melo and awful Knicks for about 45 minutes.

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Those neon stick jerseys were 1000x better than this nonsense. It's like the NHL got a group of guys together and said, let's make the ugliest sweater imaginable. And I would say they pretty much nailed it.

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Wow....

That's a shame.

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its a double edged sword for me.
one of the things that makes hockey so great is it hasn't been ruined by the media.
it's such a pure sport where guys play for their cities and for their teammates, a lot of that is due to the fact that these guys egos haven't been pumped up by the ESPN's of the world.

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To a degree I agree. That said, when your team is making a run at the cup, you want to here anything and everything about it because you are so excited. NY media didn't come on board at all until the Rangers forced game 7 against the Pens. Then they started to give it time in every segment for the ECF. It was not until they were in the finals that they were the lead story in NY.

To make matters worse, when we clinched the east I was in North Platte Nebraska traveling to Colorado haha. It was a war to even get the game turned on in the bar. After the game was over I was just that weird guy celebrating by my self....

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I know I've already brought up the Backstrom a star snub, but I'm gonna do it again.

This is (one of the many reasons) why I like this guy so much. This guy (and maybe someone can fact check me here but I'm pretty sure I'm right) has more assists than anyone except Crosby and Joe Thornton over the past 6 years or so (in fact he might have more than Crosby since Sid was hurt for a long time), he has 535 points in 536 career games, he has more freaking points than THE OTHER GUY THAT MADE IT FROM HIS OWN TEAM, is clearly a top 5-10 player in the league (even though he still isn't thought of as such), and when he was asked how he felt about being left off the ASG roster again, he says with a chuckle "eh no big deal I guess, just means I get to spend a weekend on vacation with my girlfriend and our baby".

Could he whine about it? Absolutely. Would his whining be warranted? Absolutely. But not Mr. 100% Classy All The Time.

"But I know there's a lot of good hockey players in this league and it's usually one player per team, so that's understandable."

Never once will he ever complain about the fact that he is basically the most under appreciated player in the entire league by everyone outside of DC. Well Mr. Nicklas Backstrom, I am here to complain for you.

The fact that, if we're picking one guy per team (which is really fucking stupid that every team gets a rep, deserved or not), and the chosen Capital is 8 and not 19 is everything that is wrong with the NHL.

Both guys are having good years. Backstrom is having a much better one.

Soap box off. Screw you NHL all star game voting team.

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Great point. I do enjoy the fact that hockey is still one of the better kept sports secrets in the United States. No LeBrons in our game.

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Fleury being snubbed is much bigger than Backstrom being snubbed IMO

he would be my Vezina front runner right now

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I hear you but there will be some. I don't listen to much ny sports radio in recent years but once football is over and the teams are still real good near the top, there will be more coverage.

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No way.

I think it's the fact that Backstrom is a consistent snub is why I'm so irritated by it this time. He's NEVER played in one. Which is ridiculous, because he's been the best player on a pretty good Caps team (forget last year) for years now. And yet ol Hot Dog himself, Ovie's never missed an ASG.

How can the guy with the 11th most points in the league be left out of a game that requires almost 40 selections? Come on.

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Backstrom probably deserves a spot, i'm not arguing that. but:

21 Wins
.926 Save %
2.16 GAA
6 shutouts

if those aren't all-star numbers, i don't know what are

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Agreed. Fleury deserves a spot. But here's a little more perspective on my irritation with Backstrom being overlooked.

41gp-13g-28a-41p
43gp-11g-9a-20p
42gp-10g-21a-31p
41gp-11g-14a-25p
38gp-12g-16a-28p
37gp-16g-13a-29p
34gp-6g-12a-18p (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The top line is Nick Backstrom's stat line so far this season. The 6 underneath are all stat lines that belong to forwards (yes, those are all forwards) who will be participating in the All Star Game.

So stupid.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

yea he's been really good, no doubt about it

the NHL ASG is a joke anyway so no big deal, just doesn't make sense

But really. Can we all agree Matt Cooke is an ass?

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Oh absolutely, the chance that I actually watch the ASG is about 0%. I think I'm particularly annoyed because I thought this year there was absolutely no chance he would be left out again. Silly me.

The only exciting part about the weekend is the skills competition anyway.

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Of course we can. What did he do this time?

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agreed :thumbsup

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:lol:lol:lol

What a loser. Shea Weber is such an absolute badass.

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Definitely, but I would also hesitate to say he beat Cooke the fuck up. He got a few good throws in, but Cooke was just a little bitch and crumpled to the ice. I can't respect a man who instigates a fight for no reason and then doesn't even stand up to it.

I still don't like fighting in the league, but that's a separate story.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

That's Matt Cooke for ya.