Hockey Returns: 2005

I'm so happy hockey is back....although I did find other things to do.

My 4 yr old was so happy when I told her the Habs would be back...she was jumping up and down and as we watched the coverage on TSN anytime they'd show the Habs logo she'd squeal and give me a high five. How can that excitement not be contagious? :D
I do hope that the owners or "powers that be" do lower prices a bit.....they need to mend the fences and prove they missed us and they do "care" about the fans.

Maybe I'll get to go to Montreal for a hockey game for my honeymoon after all.... :D

I think we can safely do without all the teams in the south. It might not be a bad idea to move teams around. Why Carolina and Nashville have teams is odd.

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Originally Posted by mrdobolina

I think it's not about adding teams, but more about putting the teams in cities where fans are going to fill the seats...AND cities in which you can create those rivalries.

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I agree with this somewhat, but I still think there are too many teams. There are a lot of 3rd & 4th line players that wouldn't be in the league if there were only 20 or so teams. That's what lead to the trap, not enough talent.

The owners really bent the players over the table on this deal...

Obviously the slarary cap will prevent the Detroits, Colorados, Phillys, and NYRangers of the world from buying Stanley Cups- but also the minimum salary requirement will prevent greedy owners from not putting money back into the team. At this point it seems that parity will rule the roost, and every team will have a legitimate shot at the Cup come pre-season.

Add 2 more playoff teams? :wallbang
I have an idea, why dont we just skip the regular season- go right into the playoffs, but play best 7 out of 13 series. This would eliminate the crap teams early, and the better teams would ultimately play close to 80 games anyway. Can you imagine the hate and intensity of 2 teams playing each other in a 13 game series? I know it's ridiculous- but i really hate that 60% of the teams in the league already make the playoffs...

[QUOTE=QuinntheEskimo]The owners really bent the players over the table on this deal...QUOTE]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hnic.../donedeal.html

That they did.

I'm very happy hockey is coming back, and really missed it from February-on. It'll be very interesting to see who goes where in the free agent era of this summer and who will get Crosby. Here's hoping for the Wings. :up

Yipee! Hockey's back! Life can get back to normal.

While I love that my rivals (Flyers and Rangers) can't try to buy cups anymore (not that they've been too successful), I don't like the potential bad things this can conjure up. I agree, what the heck is up with adding two more teams! We don't need two more teams, we need better marketing and better commissioning to fill the stadiums we already have.

Well, my neighbors are not going to be pleased with this news, because, after a year of relative silence (excluding the occasional yelling blast at people on my reality shows) my apartment is now going to be one noisy place again. And it's just me. :blush

Oh mommie, oh daddie, i am a big old baddie! Oh mommie, oh daddie, i am a big old baddie! :monkeybum :nerd :lol

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Originally Posted by QuinntheEskimo

The owners really bent the players over the table on this deal...

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The players would've been much better off by taking the first offer. Their stubborn stance really cost them, but it's not like they'll be homeless. They'll still make a ton of money, so I don't want to hear them crying.

I don't know many details of the contract either but I don't feel bad for anyone making that kind of money, i'll tell you that. The teams better do lots of stuff with the fans to try to get people back. In Montreal, I'm quite sure there won't be a problem, but I'd still like to see more of Jose around ;)

I am very happy hockey is back. It'll make a difference in the US, but here in Montreal, I predict 0 change.

Same in Toronto, Eva. Fans will continue to line up in droves and reward the owners by continuing to pay outrageous prices. It's not like the owners would want to appeal to the fans, or anything... not when they can get away with it.

Economically, if they contract teams then the individual relative value of a player actually goes up, so the teams that had hoped to stay under the salary cap would be driven toward the hard cap number, and even with this deal in place, I am guessing there are some teams that still can't afford to hit to hit the max cap number and make money. So this is very much like baseball in some ways in that talentwise, it makes somes sense to cut back on teams, but I can't see the owners actually doing it, no matter how much they bluff at it (mainly to blackmail communities for stadium deals).