redwing77

Lydman with a bad pinch. Let's face it folks: Tampa Bay showed up. Calgary's D (excluding Miikka) did not. It's a real sad thing for Commie.

Coach Sutter mentioned somewhere that Commie would bring an offensive presence to the game. I don't know if Commie has ever been considered an offensive threat. Could this new expectation coupled with the stresses of the playoffs affected Commie's game? And I think Commie has a future in the NHL.

That was going to be my question. How many games during the playoffs must a player play in order to get his name on the cup (should the team he is on win it all)? If Commie doesn't get to play any more games this season, would he get his name on the cup if Calgary wins it all?

Ok, but that's amusing to watch Sportscenter downplay all of that. As far as J-Lo is concerned, she's a... well.. nevermind. And Anna isn't banging a Russian. She's banging a perverted latin singer

The good thing about basketball right now is that 4-7 games from now it will be over. Then all we have to be bothered by is the 3 weeks of basketball reviews and replays on Sportscenter.

Dumb question, but just how many people can we have on the team? Sando, Moreland, and this guy all walking on this year? Is there room?

The article we all saw spoke of Beaverson entering his final year of eligibility (2004-2005) in the USHL.

It is my limited understanding that a player can sign with a team at any time. The only pro restrictions with player movement occur with trading and some of the clauses within free agency (restricted, etc.). It would be very odd if a player signs with a pro team during the season, but up until the beginning of the season, I would think it is possible. Of course, I could be wrong. Hopefully we can get a more definitive answer than mine.

Heisenberg never took Luke off the list under UND, but on the list below under USHL, they did remove his UND tag. Now, he's back on as for 2005. It's an odd thing to see. No confirmation on Green Bay's site, but I'm no where near the investigative person that some on here are.

I found something interesting: Under Heisenberg's site, it now lists Luke Beaverson as coming to UND in 2005. Can anyone confirm this or could this be a misprint?

Judging by the past three games, Tampa is only showing up on alternate nights. If this trend continues, Calgary will win in 7 games. It is totally odd. Last night and game 1 Tampa looked like they weren't a playoff team at times. In Game 2, they looked sharp. It is interesting that they cannot gain consistency in their game against Calgary, though it says a lot about the quality of Calgary's defense. BTW- Commy played a lot more in Game 3. He seemed to do good.

$200,000 a year plus an endless supply of spaghetti and calzones.

I thought Mario walked away from the game because he contracted cancer.

I agree. However, it is still disappointing to see the scrums after the whistle seeping into this series as well. Keep hitting and being physical, just do it while the puck is in play.

If you read the article carefully, you will notice that the article has a misprint in that it lists Ed Belfour's team as the Canadiens, not the Maple Leafs.

I think we have a great offense (TB) going up against a great defense (Cal). Kiprusoff has proven that he is indeed the goalie of the playoffs this year (*eats crow re: Nabakov) and Calgary's defense has proven its depth despite key injuries. I had thought that when they traded Morris to Colorado, the defensive strength would go down with him. What about Khabibulin? Well, I've known he was a great goaltender since he was with Phoenix. Only he got injured and his contract got messed up there and that removed him from his fair shot. Also, Phoenix is incredibly mismanaged (though it isn't as bad now as it was then). He is one of the better veteran butterfly-style goaltenders in the league. One of the fastest with his legs and has good recovery abilities. Kiprusoff is nimble as well, but I think he is a little better at positioning and anticipating through a screen than Khabibulin. My opinion, of course.

Therein lies the problem. It's exactly as you and I said: ESPN is basketball. FSN is where Minnesota Fans come first. ESPN is where basketball fans come first, then east coast. It should surprise no one that there is no promotion of hockey on ESPN because hockey gets "good" right about the time the NBA regular season is running down, March Madness, and the beginning of the baseball season (which means heavy on BoSox and Yankees coverage). Hockey? Who cares about hockey?

I agree with a lot of what you say with a few exceptions: I really think it will depend on what you mean on decline when you speak of college hoops. ESPN's sole reason for living is for college hoops. When NBA was in the gutters, they still pumped the NBA because it was basketball. When you have a media powerhouse in your "pocket" like the sport of basketball has ESPN, the decline will probably be less than the rest. As for those sports getting higher rankings than hockey, where is Bowling? I thought that was a highly rated sport... And I could care less if the Yankees don't win another World Series until 3245. This author obviously supports dynasties. And dynasties won't work unless you get rid of free agency. Fat chance that will ever happen. The players are too greedy.

Good for TB! I was doubting for a spell, but it's good to see them there. Bad for JR and possibly the ratings on TV. Oh well. The last time we saw something like this was when Tennessee played St. Louis in the Super Bowl. Two small market teams in the big show. As bad as this is for ratings, I LOVE parity. It gives everyone for any team reason to root for their team because there is always a chance that they can win it all. This year is no exception in the NHL. Who'd've though at the beginning of the season that it would come down to Tampa Bay and Calgary? All criticism aside, I do feel bad for those Flyers players who actually did try to play out hockey to their best. Players like JR, Leclair, Handzus, etc. Esche has shown that he can be a big time goaltender. Now, will they allow him to develop or will they do what they've done the last three years and run him out of town/trade him like they did to Boucher or Cechmanek?

Avs must wait their turn at the Tee! MNS, who's up? Has Cujo teed off yet or are they having difficulty determining which goaltender would do so? Hasek isn't trying to vie for tee time ahead of Cujo again, is he?

How many times have St Louis man handled a Flyer's player? Seemed like the only one doing the manhandling was Primeau. Of course, if St Louis getting manhandled is no surprise since he is faster and smaller than most (if not all) of the Flyers players. You can't stop someone who is going to fly past you unless you mug him. We all know that. The fact is, Philadelphia is a physical team that uses raw talent and size to win games. Tampa Bay is a finesse/speed style team that uses size, speed, stick handling, and positioning to win games. When a physical team meets a fast team, generally, they can't keep up unless they mug. This is not saying that Tampa Bay is more talented. I think talent-wise the flyers have the edge and then some. And, I know enough about Primeau. I remember at one point, he wore the number 55 for the Wings before bolting for the Hurricanes. He was then acquired by the Flyers in the Brind'Amour trade. Of course, he was being marketted because he was becoming a locker room cancer in Carolina. I will admit Primeau is far less cheap than he used to be, but he's still cheap enough to warrant being put down like I do. Primeau can score goals, he's not the dedicated goon like Scott Parker, Peter Worrell, or Donaled Brashear but he can be cheap at times. He was showing that for the entire game. Like MNS says, one slash doesn't make a player cheap. I waited until most, if not all of the game, was completed before making my statement on Primeau. In that time I didn't just see one cheap shot, I saw plenty. I saw PLENTY of after whistle scrums (don't know if Philadelphia started them, I admit) and I can't stand that. I'm not as positive as MNS is about this series. Philly is making this close. I am hoping for TB to pull it out, but the momentum it seems is in Philly right now. We'll have to see what happens.

True enough about Taylor. In my rant, he would have been taken out of the game too. I am not really a fan of any of the teams left in the playoffs, my team is already out. I'm just saying that these are the playoffs, the ONE time in the season where pro hockey gets the coverage it deserves. We do not need to waste this coverage by endless scrums every time the whistle blows. And Eskimos, he WAS cheap. If you noticed, Detroit is not one of those teams playing currently. So unless you are referring to how well Derian tips at restaurants, the proper tense would be past tense.

Yeah he was cheap, but there are players in the league who are much more cheap than Hatcher. Only thing that seperates Hatcher from others are simply better at getting away with it. Good examples of cheap players are Brashear, Parker (ANA), Worrell, and (surprisingly enough) Keith Primeau. I didn't know until yesterday that Keith was that cheap. Surprise surprise. I was angry when I wrote that post yesterday. Not all of the FLyers have no class. Just a good deal of them are. In fact, the TB/PHI series is turning into plentiful examples of how hockey isn't supposed to be. I think that if the whistle is blown and a punch is thrown at the beginning of the game (the so called scrum after the whistle), the refs should feel free to send as many as are necessary to the box, no warnings aside. If scrums continue, 4 minute double minors are assessed with 10 minute misconducts and majors following. After the whistle is dead time. You make line changes or get reset for the drop of the puck. If there is any extracurricular activity, the players can reflect on how much they dislike each other from within the penalty box. END RANT

I got you. My misunderstanding.