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

So the dumbest coach rant ever had to be Carlyle last night complaining that the shot counter was wrong. Please tell me how counting the shots wrong changes the outcome? Oh that's right it DOESN'T. The goals were still counted right. This one is hard for me to comprehend why this matters to him. lol

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

I watched through the second period of last nights game. Great stuff from that series. I am even surprised of how much I am enjoying watching those two teams play it out.

Preds are such an awesome fan base! I love that city!

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

you could abstract laziness from it. potentially how the clock operator works. the league and refs are anal about that though.

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

it's also a non major franchise winning the championship. the allusion, or actual reality, of competition outside major markets is essential to sports franchises and free agency.

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

Just dumb that he's complaining about it. Shots were 100% on, it wouldn't have changed the outcome. Just not reason for a coach to complain about it because it doesn't get you goals, a win, or even when you complain about penalties you are hoping the refs listen for the next game. This does nothing to help you next game unless you goal is to have more shots on the box score. I would assume you'd want more goals but that's me.
Exactly. It's why I struggle to like the NBA as a whole compared to the NHL. Certain markets will probably never win a a championship so it's like why are they even around? I know the real reason is more money with TV and all of that I know the real reason but the NBA probably doesn't give a shit if NO, OKC, Memphis, Milwaukee, Charlotte, etc ever get to a final over the next 15 years. They want the big names. The NHL actually wants the Yotes, Jets, Preds, Canes, Panthers to do well. TV deal isn't as good and no luxury tax so it benefits the league for those markets to do well.

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

Better parity between teams allows for more non-major markets to get into playoffs, which drives gate prices, which will drive up salary cap.

Tim is right, NHL doesn't have to worry about TV ratings because they own NBCSN. They don't have to compete with anyone because they pretty much have their own sports network.

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

I still think NBCSN was the worst choice for the NHL.

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

short-term it really hurt them, but they should be fine long-term, especially with guys like McDavid and Matthews taking over the league.

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

It was SO bad when they started this back with the OLN. They were a second rate production the first year or two. It's gotten way better but can still be better I agree but this is better than ESPN. For the playoffs you get USA and CNBC switching programming to put playoff games on. Along with NBCSN and NBC you can have 4 games on in one night. Can't do that with ESPN. There are a lot of things they can still do better but to not have to compete with other sports on ESPN like...the talking about the 2018 NFL draft 3 days after the 2017 draft. Their production compared to the likes of CBC is still not good like my example last night of showing one bad angle of the non-goal, using Kenny Albert over...well anyone, and studio talent. Get rid of Milbury and I'm torn on Jonesy, and Liam is ok but they could do better.

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

I think FOX would have done a better job than NBC, just my opinion.

can you imagine gus johnson calling hockey?

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

Only caught the end of the 2nd and 3rd period last night. Series is lots of fun.

Also :lol at the PTI guys. As it stands, Nashville is probably the team with the most national appeal besides the Pens left to win the cup, and the Pens won last year so it would probably be best for the league if they won it.



Kind of off topic.. yesterday we had a client in the office from Nashville. This lady was early 40's, HEAVY nashville accent, had had the 80's-ish hair do, too much perfume, basically a stereotypical tennessee country girl, and she basically said as much herself lol. One of the first things she brought up was that the Preds and Pens have a good chance as matching up in the final. She said she had been to about 6 games this year, her daughters go all the time and she will definitely go to a cup game if so. She knew the Sens and Pens were at 1-1 and just seemed generally very excited about the team. I was kind of surprised such a middle aged country lady was into it. But it was just a great example of how much that town has embraced the team, which is awesome.

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

The on air talent is my biggest issue with NBC networks. Milbury is unwatchable to me. Doc is amazing, but I feel like there is a huge drop off after him. Obviously I like when Joe Micheletti does games too because it feels like a Rangers game!

I miss NHL2Nite on ESPN. I thought that was pretty solid. Overall, I just miss having access to the NHL Network and MSG networks. I am a chord cutter and as a result I only get to watch hockey when it is on NBC.

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

NBC worked out when they bought Versus/OLN so they had a cable and a network channel. Fox would have been ok coming out of the 05 lockout as your weekend game, but back in the 90's they never did prime time outside of the Finals and NBC is doing that for the NHL. With Fox having FS1 now I could see it as a better option than before but still NBC puts 4 games on a night in the 1st round. Fox can't promise that. It might not be as high end as ESPN or even Fox at times, but they get the coverage.

As for the announcers, Fox would just do what NBC is doing and nab other guys. When they did it in the 90's they had Doc, Rosen and...Kenny Albert lol as three of their guys.

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

Edzo is insufferable. Mostly because he let's his anti-pens bias bleed through WAAYYY too much. Maybe I'm off base but that's how it comes across to me.

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Great story! :thumbsup

My Preds story goes like this:

About 5 years ago, I was in Pittsburgh for a summer curling tourny. There was a vending machine with NHL bouncy balls in it that had every team. I decided I would pick what ever western team came out of the machine as my western team for a year or two. Sure enough, the Preds came out. I started to follow the team for a year as I promised. I still follow them on their facebook page, but I didn't really stay with it.

A few years went by and in 2014 I found myself in Nashville. I remember thinking how awesome their arena was for location and looks. I thought it was so cool that it is right next to the country music hall of fame and all the honey tonks that make Nashville such a fun city. What really impressed me was that even in summer, a lot of people were wearing Preds gear around town. Later in that trip I took a bus tour of all the famous music studios. The women giving the tour was a middle-aged black women who was born and raised in Nashville. It really stood out to me that she talked about the Preds a lot during the tour. I remember her saying "We love our Predators in this town! Go Preds!" I asked her about it later and she told me pretty much every game is sold out and that the city really adopted the team. She told me that the Preds were #1 in the city even though they technically have an NFL team. I found that so awesome. I can't help but like the Preds for those reasons!

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

ESPN was probably the best for on air talent. Some of the guys bugged me like Engblom and Melrose but Thorne, Emrick, Levy and Strader were their main PxP guys.

I love Chris Cuthbert when he does games but he seems to be NBC's #3 or 4 guy. He's way better than Albert. The Carolina guy who has been doing the ECF's is pretty good but not close to Doc's level.

I can never cut the chord because of hockey. If you start paying for the NHL stuff and some of the other stuff I'd want, I might as well keep cable.

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

Exactly. I have been cutting the chord because I went back to school and just needed to cut costs. Now that I am done, I will probably try to pick cable back up before next season. I just can't get over the fact that it is basically $100+ a month for it. I pay $18 for Netflix and Amazon Prime and have a Roku with people's passwords to watch NBC sports. Just seems crazy to add on over $80 a month.

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

Aside from yeah, maybe a deal with Fox, NBC was just about the best the NHL could do at the time. I feel like they've done a pretty good job overall. Definitely agree that the on-air talent can be improved. Out of what seems to be their "core" guys - Doc, Olczyk, Pierre, Milbury, Jones, Liam - I really only like Jones and Doc. Liam is fine as a host. Milbury, Pierre, JR... what a joke. Some of these former players they bring in for the playoffs are great. I like Boucher and I sorta like Anson. One guy who I really liked and wish they'd bring back more was Mike Rupp. Great on-air personality.

And great stories about Nashville fans, guys. I agree that it's so cool to see how they've embraced the team over the last few years. As much as I dislike Subban, he really was the perfect personality acquisition for the team. He is and will continue to be great for fan relations.

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

We cut the cord. My grandpa INSISTS on having like the biggest cable package out there so he's always able to find channels his favorite college team (BYU) is playing on. For any sport. He can totally afford it, so to him it's a no-brainer. I manage his cable account for him (the guy couldn't use a computer to save his life), so yeah, I totally use his login to stream stuff on NBCSN. Then I just Chromecast it from my ipad to our TV. When I asked him if it was OK that I did that, he was like, "whatever, just make sure the bill gets paid" :lol

For regular season, my brother and I split paying for a Center Ice package. Only thing I don't get is Avs games (they're considered "blackout" for my region), but who wants to watch them anyways these days?

I'm technically being pretty dishonest with how I get my hockey content. :lol

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

How many of your grandmothers went there?

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

Silly Roose, women don't go to college. Their duty is to stay home and care for the house and children.

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

Dude :twak :lol


Edit: The Book of Mormon soundtrack is going to be in my head all day now :lol

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

My biggest treat watching these playoffs now is getting to see Karlsson play night in and night out, damn that dude is amazing. I have watched a few games he played in when Ottawa was playing CHI or NYR but that is not too often and intellectually I know how good he is but that is not the same as watching him every other night. If the Sens can knock out the Pens I think they have a legit shot to win the cup and Karlsson has to be the frontrunner for the Conn Smyth.

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

:lol:lol

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

Karlsson is the backbone of a Sens team that is just fueled by desire right now. I truly believe a healthy Bruins team is better than the Sens. I believe that the NYR and Penguins are more talented and deeper than the Sens. I believe that both the Preds and the Ducks are more complete teams. All of that said, I don't think any team is as disciplined or driven to over perform than Ottawa is this year. They flat out just wanted to win more than the NYR did. Karlsson has been the leader in just playing through pain and letting his drive to the rest. The team has followed his lead.

I am impressed by the Sens for that reason. I am equally annoyed that the Rangers lost because they just didn't want it as badly as Ottawa did. It will be pretty cool to see if just brute determination can carry the Sens all the way to a Cup win. I feel like they have been the least talented team in the past two rounds, but they have found a way.

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

He truly is a treat to watch. What's impressed me most these playoffs is his intelligence. Yes, his skills at both ends are amazing. His stretch passes are a beauty to behold. But his ability to make the correct decision under pressure has really come to the fore front. Like Niklas Lidstrom, he THINKS the game very well.

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

I forgot Mark Streit was even on the Pens.

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

We havent. People here have been calling for him for weeks.


I actually think he would play well against Ottawa's style though, but im not holding my breath.

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

Apparently a preds fan snuck a skinned duck into the game last night and threw it on the ice :lol

https://twitter.com/barstooljordie/s...08313779212288

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

Taking the octopus thing one step further I see.