Ice Hockey

**Triptens** · 06-03-2011, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by madbad

Good luck with the Flyers. They should have taken out Boston

.

We nearly flew down to San Jose for game 3 of the Western Conference final until we found out how much they wanted for 4 seats in a row. Add the flight, hotel, etc, etc and we decided we'd go down for a regular season game next season instead.

Ticket prices here in Van are insane. Better to watch on TV and save the $$ for beer and food instead, haha

Prediction for G2: Canucks win comfortably

Oh, you are so cruel to bring up that one!

**Triptens** · 06-05-2011, 12:04 AM

This time it is Alex who's the hero and Tim Thomas again on the receiving end?

Actually was hoping for the Bruins' monumental collapse at the hands of the Flyers but they didn't.

Fast forward...

They just got beat up by British Columbians who hails the Stanley Cup as more important than the Olympics and World Championships! Go Loungo! Build on that 2-0 lead!

**Triptens** · 06-06-2011, 09:18 PM

Boston Bruins brewing at home! Finally, it looks more like a series. ...oooh, that hurts...stretchered...

**demolidor** · 06-09-2011, 05:43 PM

What da ...?

I thought that 8-0 would be their 15 mins. of fame for the series

(edit: 8-1

)

NHL Finals in June at the same time as the NBA Finals?? Crazyness

**Fidget** · 06-09-2011, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by demolidor

What da ...?

I thought that 8-0 would be their 15 mins. of fame for the series

(edit: 8-1

)
...

Yeah, ditto. I predicted that Boston would win one blow-out and steal one fluky win but that Vancouver would take the rest comfortably. Boston has showed incredible energy at home, but can they keep up that kind of pace? Vancouver still has to be the favorite in a long series.

The Bruins are very popular here on Canada's East Coast, plus we have a hometown boy playing for Beantown (Marchand).

**madbad** · 06-09-2011, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by Fidget

Yeah, ditto. I predicted that Boston would win one blow-out and steal one fluky win but that Vancouver would take the rest comfortably. Boston has showed incredible energy at home, but can they keep up that kind of pace? Vancouver still has to be the favorite in a long series.

The Bruins are very popular here on Canada's East Coast, plus we have a hometown boy playing for Beantown (Marchand).

Oh, you mean that little rat

You should see al the fans here. It's almost like armageddon all over again. They all need to get a life. Besides, the Canucks will still win the Cup

**demolidor** · 06-11-2011, 01:45 PM

From the vault

June 20, 1994
Hot Not
While the NBA's image has cooled, the NHL has ignited surprising new interest in hockey
E.M. Swift

Let's see if we've got this straight. NBA basketball, as played by the Eastern Conference champions, the New York Knicks, is called "butt-ugly" and "thuggish" by USA Today, while the erstwhile black sheep of professional team sports, the National Hockey League, appears in the "Styles of the Times" section of The New York Times, where it is described as "hip," "sexy" and "cutting edge."

The Los Angeles Times, citing a 30% drop in prime-time television ratings during the conference finals, denounces the NBA playoffs as "a game of mud wrestling" and host to "the occasional near riot," while the trade magazine Sports Licensing International gushes that "the convergence of an exciting sport, a new executive team at the NHL itself and a renewed marketing emphasis at NHL Enterprises has made hockey the place to be."

Basketball, thuggish? Hockey, the place to be? Talk about your role reversals. When former NBA executive Gary Bettman took over as commissioner of the NHL last year, everyone predicted hockey would assume the NBA look: hip music in the stadiums; an influx of young, energetic marketing whizzes in the league offices; zippy new promotions. What no one foresaw, however, was the simultaneous and inexplicable NHL-ing of the NBA: on-court brawls spreading into the stands; a sudden and embarrassing franchise shift; bizarre, pugnacious behavior by out-of-control owners; outrageous refereeing gaffes; and spin-doctoring denials from the league.

"Attendance was up, TNT had record viewership during the regular season, and the NBA Finals will be seen live in 117 countries," says commissioner David Stern, bristling at the suggestion that the bloom is off his league's rose. "The business of basketball is doing great. This was the year the naysayers said the NBA without Michael Jordan was going to fall off the face of the earth."

No one is suggesting that the popularity of the NBA is in free fall. During the regular season TV ratings were virtually unchanged from 1992-93. Celebrities—Alec-Baldwin, Billy Crystal, Bill Murray—still stud the stands. Two expansion franchises, in Toronto and Vancouver, were admitted into the league after agreeing to pay record-breaking entry fees of $125 million each. And the estimated $300 million in retail sales that NBA Properties generated overseas showed that, internationally, there is life after Michael. But since the playoffs began, what has taken the plunge is the NBA's image as the rising star of pro sports.

What passes for Showtime! these days is the snarling, elbow-throwing New York Knicks—egged on by that yapping court-side terrier, Spike (Put a Muzzle on It) Lee—muscling home 70 to 85 points a night against the Jordan-less Chicago Bulls, the low-profile Indiana Pacers and the charisma-less Houston Rockets. It was enough to make hard-court fans pine for the return of Bill Laimbeer, not to mention Magic, Larry, Michael, Isiah and Dr. J, one or more of whom, until this spring, had been in the Finals every year since 1980. "The Knicks' style of play is like Ohio State football," admits NBA vice president Brian McIntyre. "Three yards and a cloud of dust. It doesn't do much for the average fan."

Actually it encourages the average fan to change channels, if he hasn't done so already. Even with the inclusion of a team from New York—the nation's largest market, at 6.68 million TV homes—NBC's ratings for the first game of the Finals fell 35%, to 12.6, from a year ago, when Chicago faced the Phoenix Suns. Imagine what they would have been had the Pacers, with their market of only 850,000 TV homes, made it to the league's showcase event. "We expected our ratings to drop," says McIntyre. "Last year's average rating was the highest ever, 17.9. It was the third straight year the Bulls and Michael Jordan were in the Finals, people knew them, and they were playing against Charles Barkley. We had a lot of dynamics in our favor."

Continue reading: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...5307/index.htm

You can actually read the entire issue I see which includes a bit about the '94 Canucks - Rangers Finals

I guess this is from before the strike hit the NHL and threw it back in time

**demolidor** · 06-11-2011, 01:50 PM

Hockey is also the rage of the videogame market. The NHL game, created by Electronic Arts, has sold more than a million copies at $60 in each of the past two years, almost twice what the company's corresponding NBA game has sold, and comparable to the most popular basketball game on the market, Sega's NBA Jam. "It's big in England. It's huge on campuses," says Don Transeth, vice president of spoils marketing for Electronic Arts. "And a lot of these people are learning hockey through the video game."

That statement, as self-serving as it may sound, was recently confirmed by a 17-year-old friend of ours, a basketball player, who said he was following the hockey playoffs because he'd been hooked by the NHL '94 video game. "If the boys in the junior class were to make a list of their favorite things," he said, "first would be sophomore girls. Second would be NHL '94. Everyone plays it." Where, he was asked, did the girls in his junior class rank? "Way down. Not even top 10."

As yet ESPN's ratings do not reflect this surge in hockey interest. With the Rangers' games contractually not available on ESPN in the New York market (the MSG Network carries the games there), ESPN has averaged a 1.8 rating, minuscule by NBA standards. "Nobody should read too much into the ratings," says Bettman. "We were off TV so many years, we're in the rebuilding process. If we were still getting those numbers in five years, I'd be disappointed." The NHL also had six games televised this season on an over-the-air network, ABC, where it drew a lowly 1.7 average rating.

The league's horizon is not bereft of its clouds. It, too, must negotiate a contract with its players union, which has been without one for more than a year. Hockey has also had to deal with the ire caused by a controversial franchise shift, from Minnesota to Dallas. There have been problems with ownership, most notoriously in L.A., where profligate Bruce McNall was forced to relinquish control of the Kings. And flagging attendance has plagued both the New York Islanders and the Hartford Whalers. But even Stern, Bettman's former NBA boss, is impressed with what's going on over at the NHL. "Hockey is doing well and, in percentage of its growth, will continue to do well," Stern says. "They should do well. They have a very good blueprint to follow."

A blueprint that the NBA, by all appearances, had better take back to the drawing board.

**madbad** · 06-11-2011, 03:54 PM

Go Canucks. Finish it in 6. It'll be tough to do it in Boston though.

**MilGauss** · 06-13-2011, 09:17 PM

Boston Brewing! Molasses in Beantown are too thick to slither around for the Van boys. We'll see.

**Fidget** · 06-13-2011, 10:16 PM

Well, well Boston won.
Sorry madbad, but that little Haligonian "rat" helped beat your team, again.

Timmy T looked a little tired at the end, though. Why didn't they rest him in the 3rd? They were lucky that Vancouver didn't try to injure him (although one guy sat down right on his low-back during that final power-play. Ouch!)

**madbad** · 06-13-2011, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by Fidget

Well, well Boston won.
Sorry madbad, but that little Haligonian "rat" helped beat your team, again.

Timmy T looked a little tired at the end, though. Why didn't they rest him in the 3rd? They were lucky that Vancouver didn't try to injure him (although one guy sat down right on his low-back during that final power-play. Ouch!)

OUCH!

That's why they have 7 games, right?

**madbad** · 06-13-2011, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by MilGauss

Boston Brewing! Molasses in Beantown are too thick to slither around for the Van boys. We'll see.

Dang right. The ice, if that's what you can call it, definitely resembled molasses.

**demolidor** · 06-14-2011, 05:07 AM

**MilGauss** · 06-14-2011, 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by madbad

Dang right. The ice, if that's what you can call it, definitely resembled molasses.

It's not called beantown for nothing! Come on Van boys, get yourselves together and see how hard it is to tough it out on (in a Game 7) frosted molasses!

**demolidor** · 06-14-2011, 09:36 AM

This Day in Sports

SI Vault: More Rangers

1952 -- Warren Spahn of the Braves ties NL record with 18 strikeouts in 15-inning, 3-1 loss to Cubs
1965 -- Reds' Jim Maloney no-hits Mets, but loses 1-0 in 11 innings
1969 -- Reggie Jackson of the A's has 10 RBI in 21-7 win over Red Sox
1992 -- Chicago Bulls beat Portland, 4 games to 2, to win NBA title
1994 -- Rangers end 54-year drought by beating Canucks in Game 7 of Stanley Cup Final

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1PGFnvgaD

And I thought this series was exceptionally late