NHL Hockey thread

[Barrister]

Hey Valmy, it's the Biggest Game Of The Season (to date), as the Caps come to the cozy confines of the Phone Booth with a 4 point lead over Winnipeg for the 8th spot in the Eastern conference.  If Winnipeg hopes to catch the Caps with 10 games left they simplay have to win this game.

Should be fun.

[Valmy]

Hey Valmy, it's the Biggest Game Of The Season (to date), as the Caps come to the cozy confines of the Phone Booth with a 4 point lead over Winnipeg for the 8th spot in the Eastern conference.  If Winnipeg hopes to catch the Caps with 10 games left they simplay have to win this game.

Should be fun.

Indeed.  Good thing the Caps are playing decently right now.  I hope we both catch the damn Panthers but that is not looking likely at this point

[Barrister]

 

Jets owner preaches patience


By Kevin Mitchell, SP Sports Editor March 15, 2012
Comment 0 StoryPhotos ( 1 )


Winnipeg's NHL franchise owner Mark Chipman listens as general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff speaks with the media after being introduced at a press conference in Winnipeg, June 8, 2011. REUTERS/Fred Greenslade (CANADA - Tags: SPORT ICE HOCKEY)
Photograph by: FRED GREENSLADE , REUTERSIt took a long time for Mark Chipman to bring the NHL back to Winnipeg — years of methodical, quiet plodding.

Similar patience, he says, could serve Saskatoon — and the ownership group trying to bring an NHL franchise to this city — well in the months and years ahead.

"We started the conversation in 2001 when we made our interest known, but it wasn't until 2007 that we were invited to make a presentation to the league," says Chipman, who is the Winnipeg Jets' co-owner. "Then there was four years of being very patient and working on the project quietly. You might, similarly, have to be that patient (in Saskatchewan). These things don't just happen overnight."

But Chipman — who spearheaded the NHL's return to Winnipeg — says he believes the league can succeed in Saskatoon, as long as the prospective ownership group spreads its geographic reach outside city borders and across the province.

Isolation, he says, won't work. "I don't think about it in terms of Saskatoon. I think about it in terms of the overall Saskatchewan market," Chipman said Thursday from Winnipeg.

"I would wonder about a town that size having the capability, but what I'd need to understand is what the marketplace really is.

"I don't have any doubt the province of Saskatchewan could support an NHL hockey team. That, I have no doubt whatsoever. I'm familiar with the strength of the economy, and the knowledge and passion for the game out there is as strong as any geographic area in our country.

"The only question is how far will people drive to get to a game? That's the only question I have in my mind." Chipman says his team's season-ticket base includes buyers in far-flung places like Regina, Thompson, and northwestern Ontario.

"I'd have to imagine that's part of the reason there is an interest in Saskatchewan — because just a few-hundred miles to the east of you, you've got an example that's working right now," Chipman said. "Provincially, our population bases are basically the same. Yours is just scattered out far more than ours is. There's 700,000-plus people in Winnipeg, but we draw from all over the province."

On Ice Management Group Inc., led by Toronto businessman John Graham, has told the NHL they're interested in bringing a franchise into Saskatoon. Approximately 260,000 people live in Saskatoon and area, which would make it the NHL's smallest city by far.

Skepticism abounds in a city which was on the cusp of landing the St. Louis Blues in 1983 before the NHL's board of governors pulled the plug.

But that doubt is rivaled by growing excitement as people ponder the possibilities. "I don't know who the people are who are advocating for it, but I'm sure they're smart and have done their homework," Chipman said.

When Saskatoon tried to land the Blues, fist-pumping frontman Bill Hunter championed his city and province loudly, filling reporters' notebooks with enthusiastic pronouncements.

But Chipman prefers the quiet approach. He worked behind the scenes, rather than publicly, while trying to return NHL sticks and pucks to his native city.

That was a marked contrast to Jim Balsillie, whose combative approach in trying to land an NHL team for Hamilton around the same time helped land him in the league's doghouse.


On the Saskatoon front, Graham is treading a path more closely aligned to Chipman than Hunter. The normally-approachable businessman hasn't yet discussed his group's intentions publicly, and seems ready to maintain that tack until business dealings with the NHL are resolved one way or the other.

"(Taking a behind-the-scenes approach) is very wise," Chipman said. "It doesn't get people's expectations up real high, only to have them disappointed if it doesn't work out for whatever reason. The league itself appreciates that approach and are more likely to take people seriously when they're doing their homework quietly and methodically and legitimately, rather than trying to grab a headline for whatever purpose.

"Headlines and those kinds of things don't get you NHL franchises. In my experience, a credible approach, an ownership model, and a market the National Hockey League can assess on its own to be strong enough is what ultimately carries the day."

Chipman says that, given Saskatchewan's current economic boom and his group's own success in bringing the NHL to Winnipeg, he wasn't surprised when he heard there's interest in trying to replicate that magic in Saskatoon.

But he also notes that, as far as he's aware, Phoenix is the NHL's only franchise with a potential move in the works. Quebec City, Seattle and Kansas City are all potential landing spots.

Chipman says he'd be happy to provide advice and aid to Graham's group if they ask for it. There's no worry on his part about a franchise in Saskatoon cutting into Winnipeg's market.

"We've got a waiting list of 8,000 people for season tickets, our suites are oversold, our corporate-sponsorship relationships are all multi-year," Chipman said. "(Having a team in Saskatoon) would be a great rivalry, and it would only strengthen our brand here in Manitoba.

"The most gratifying aspect of having brought the team back to Winnipeg, by far, is the effect it's had on our psyche — the pure unleashing of pride in our community. Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina ... people have a great deal of pride in their community, and having the team became a medium for people to express that. If we can have even a ripple effect on that occurring in Saskatchewan, that would be unbelievable."


Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/sports/Jets+owner+preaches+patience/6310022/story.html#ixzz1pJ9cw6rc

A Saskatchewan - Winnipeg NHL rivalry would be EPIC.  Only thing I worry about is those banjo-picking inbred hillbillies might actually be crazier fans than Winnipeggers.

[Neil]

Hey now.  Saskatchewan-types aren't any worse than Manitobans, although both are better than the inhabitants of the lower mainland.

[Barrister]

Hey now.  Saskatchewan-types aren't any worse than Manitobans, although both are better than the inhabitants of the lower mainland.

By every objective standard (including genetic and geneological) they most certainly are.

[Jacob]

Hey now.  Saskatchewan-types aren't any worse than Manitobans, although both are better than the inhabitants of the lower mainland.

By every objective standard (including genetic and geneological) they most certainly are.

There are more Ukrainians in Saskatchewan than Manitoba?

[Barrister]

Hey now.  Saskatchewan-types aren't any worse than Manitobans, although both are better than the inhabitants of the lower mainland.

By every objective standard (including genetic and geneological) they most certainly are.

There are more Ukrainians in Saskatchewan than Manitoba?

My people are legion, for the fabled "perogy belt" stretches from Manitoba through to Alberta, and thus includes Saskatchewan.

I ndeed even have Saskatchewan relatives and roots as well (albeit, the unfortunate non-Ukrainian half of my family).  But since my grandparents weren't marrying their first cousins they were shunned and moved from Saskatchewan to Winnipeg.   

[Barrister]

Valmy: 

Best part of the game - Winnipeg fans belt out a chant of "Crosby's Better!".

Edit: And somebody's already put it on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8wqDmStU-Q&feature=player_embedded

[Barrister]

And after blowing a one goal lead against the Canes on Sunday, now the Jets are going into Pittsburgh for Crosby's first home game in his most recent return.

[Valmy]

And after blowing a one goal lead against the Canes on Sunday, now the Jets are going into Pittsburgh for Crosby's first home game in his most recent return.

Hey you guys said Crosby is better.

Karma!

[Valmy]

Ouch!  Sorry BB Winnipeg didn't deserve that much karma.

[Barrister]

Ouch!  Sorry BB Winnipeg didn't deserve that much karma.

Hockey can be cruel.

These guys just aren't good enough to make the playoffs.  Besides, even if they squeak into 8th it doesn't seem like they'd go very far.

[Josephus]

I am now going out on a limb and making a tough prediction.

Ready?

Ok...here goes.

There will be NO Stanley Cup parade down Yonge Street this June.

I know, I know, I'm giving up on the Leafs early. Let's say I have a hunch.

[HVC]

stupid leafs.

What annoys me most about toronto is that they ALWAYS blame the goalie. True, neither is the top goalie in the league, but the way the defense plays Roy or Brodeur at their peak wouldn't get them to the cup (and perhaps not even the playoffs).

[Neil]

stupid leafs.

What annoys me most about toronto is that they ALWAYS blame the goalie. True, neither is the top goalie in the league, but the way the defense plays Roy or Brodeur at their peak wouldn't get them to the cup (and perhaps not even the playoffs).

Just like Vancouver.  And what do both teams have in common?  They're wretched assholes.