World Cup of Hockey

CA-NA-DA!! CA-NA-DA!!

Ahhhh…it wasn't the best game our boys have played but it was enough. We were right behind and looking down on the net when Vinny scored the O/T winner. What a shot! I was screaming myself hoarse.

Tonite is for all the marbles. Scalpers are already getting $2000 for a single lower bowl ticket. It's going to be a goaltending battle to be sure, and Marty looks OK….but I think people are underestimating the importance of the blueline game. Look to Canada for the win thanks to superior defensive work.

This is going to be the last pro-quality hockey for a very long time…..

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
Ahhh, back from a nice relaxing trip to the Great White North!!! very happy Canada's in the Finals, but really wanted a Canada/USA rematch.

not to be though.


good to be back in the land of fear though, didja miss me?

It's football/baseball season….who cares. :D

Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
It's football/baseball season….who cares. :D

Kansas City 17
Yankees 8


you still want baseball season?

Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
It's football/baseball season….who cares. :D

Hoo Yah!!!!

Baseball - there's a sport for ya. More like a game…like snooker or hopscotch. Where's the physical contact? Where's the stamina? These wimps go on the DL for something like a hangnail.

Football - a bunch of fat guys in spandex, bending over, patting each other on the ass, and piling on each other. :=) Where else can you get paid millions of dollars to do nothing other than be insanely fat?

Give me sports like hockey and soccer. At least those sports require extremely high levels of physical conditioning. They're graceful while being pretty brutal at the same time.

Ahhh…I'm just joking - sorta ;) I actually like football. But baseball…. honestly….what a bore.

Originally posted by xcanuck:
I actually like football. But baseball…. honestly….what a bore. [/QB]

I like Hockey too, I was just tryin' to get on Sonick's nerves.

I don't like Cricket… no, no… I love it.

Well…to bring this thread to it's inevitable conclusion…Canada squeeked by Finland 3-2.

We were at the game and it was pure bedlam once the game ended, though the fans were mighty quiet throughout the game. It couldve had something to do with the horribly quality of play. Even with elite players, the trap is here to stay.

Yonge St and downtown in general was controlled chaos. People were waving flags and cheering in the streets. I haven't seen a party like that in Toronto since the first time the Jays won the World Series.

And now….the NHL is dead for at least this season. The WCH was a hell of a way to end pro hockey.

Originally posted by xcanuck:
And now….the NHL is dead for at least this season. The WCH was a hell of a way to end pro hockey. [/QB]

Yeah, It's bad enough summer is over and winter is coming, now we have no hockey. How boring is that gonna be with just basketball season? Now the Maple Leafs just got a year older and nothing to show for it. Looks like they will have to be like the Cap's and start using their AHL players and starting over.

Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Yeah, It's bad enough summer is over and winter is coming, now we have no hockey. How boring is that gonna be with just basketball season? Now the Maple Leafs just got a year older and nothing to show for it. Looks like they will have to be like the Cap's and start using their AHL players and starting over. [/QB]

You said it. The Leafs are going to have to go back to being the Loafs. Or The Least. Whatever…

At least the Caps will be enjoyable to watch as they rebuild. We saw the Russia/Slovakia game in Toronto and Ovechkin was REALLY impressive. The kids has some totally sick moves. He deked some of the veterans out of their skates.

I guess I should just join a third rec hockey team so that I get my fill…

Originally posted by xcanuck:
Baseball - there's a sport for ya. More like a game…like snooker or hopscotch. Where's the physical contact? Where's the stamina? These wimps go on the DL for something like a hangnail.

Football - a bunch of fat guys in spandex, bending over, patting each other on the ass, and piling on each other. :=) Where else can you get paid millions of dollars to do nothing other than be insanely fat?

Give me sports like hockey and soccer. At least those sports require extremely high levels of physical conditioning. They're graceful while being pretty brutal at the same time.

Ahhh…I'm just joking - sorta ;) I actually like football. But baseball…. honestly….what a bore.

Of course, at least there will be a season in those other "games" you were talking about:

LOCKOUT BEGINS THURSDAY

Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Little chance season opens Oct. 13

——————————————————————————–
Associated Press

NEW YORK – The National Hockey League will lock out its players Thursday, starting a work stoppage that threatens to keep the sport off the ice for the entire 2004-05 season.

The long-expected decision was confirmed by NHL owners Wednesday following a meeting in New York. Management is demanding cost certainty, which players say would be tantamount to salary cap.

Even before the announcement, teams already had given commissioner Gary Bettman authority to cancel the season.

The sides have not met since a bargaining session last Thursday ended with the parties far apart, and there appears to be almost no chance the season will start as scheduled on Oct. 13.

"The present system doesn't work for us," said Jim Rutherford, the president and general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes. "We need a new system. We're all frustrated by it."

Owners have contributed $300 million to a league work-stoppage fund to help get them through a lockout, and the union has retained licensing money to help its members.

Players vow to resist a salary cap and, with the positions entrenched, a long stoppage is likely, one that could wipe out the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1919, when the series between Montreal and Seattle was stopped after five games due a Spanish influenza epidemic.

"It is a sad day for all of us," Montreal owner George Gillett said. "We're trying to do this to make sure there is competitive balance for the Montreal Canadiens."

The 30 teams – 24 in the United States and six in Canada – had been set to start opening training camps on Thursday, the day after the expiration of the current labor contract, first agreed to in 1995 and extended two years later through Sept. 15, 2004.

Some players are expected to sign with European leagues, and others could join a six-team, four-on-four circuit called the Original Stars Hockey League, which is set to start play Friday in Barrie, Ontario. Others could go to a revived World Hockey Association, which plans to open Oct. 29 with eight teams playing 76 games apiece.

The work stoppage is the first for a North American major league since the 1997-98 NBA lockout canceled 464 games, cutting each club's regular-season schedule from 82 games to 50.

It is the third stoppage for the NHL following a 10-day strike in 1992 that caused the postponement of 30 games and a 103-day lockout in 1994-95 that eliminated 468 games, cutting each team's regular-season schedule from 84 games to 48. That lockout ended on Jan. 11, five days before the deadline set by Bettman to scuttle the season.

Baseball has had eight work stoppages, the last running for 7½ months in 1994-95. It caused the cancellation of 921 regular-season games over two years and wiped out the World Series for the first time since 1904. While the NFL has had four strikes, including two during the regular season, the sport has enjoyed labor peace since 1987.

NHL management claims it needs changes in the labor contract because teams are losing money, $273 million in 2002-03 and $224 million last season, according to the league.

The NHL's average salary has risen from $733,000 at the time of the last lockout to $1,830,126 last season, according to the NHL Players' Association. While NHL revenue rose from $732 million in 1993-94 to $1.996 billion in 2002-03, the league says that player costs have increased from 57 percent of revenue to 75 percent over that period, figures the union disputes.

Unlike the other major sports, the NHL's revenue from broadcasting is relatively small, $449 million from national and local contracts and new media in 2002-03, according to the league. The five games of the Stanley Cup finals on ABC averaged just a 2.6 rating last spring and the two on ESPN a 1.2 cable rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. This year's Super Bowl had a 41.3 rating on CBS, while last year's World Series averaged a 12.8 on Fox and this year's NBA Finals an 11.5 on ABC.

I read that earlier today, and thought.

sure, everybody is making a big deal about all of this, but really, it happens every so often to every sport almost.

so i will sit back, rake in my sportsbook winning for college football, and wait for an agreement to come.

hopefully the red sox will keep me watching deep into October. :)

xcanuck will let you take him to a Leafs game if you get him drunk. But no funny-business afterwards!

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
sure, everybody is making a big deal about all of this, but really, it happens every so often to every sport almost.

It took baseball years to recover from its lockout, and they already had a huge following.

Hockey is still in its growing stages in the majority of the US - this is a really bad time for a lock out for a sport that was close to equaling the NBA in market share. You can forget about that now. As much as Canadians hate what the US has done to hockey, it needs the US dollars to survive.