The Drubbing

As Ryan pointed out this past Friday, the NHL did a bang up job with its Game 7 scheduling. While the brain-trust in New York continues with its poor decisions, one General Manager ended up proving that he too cannot escape some of the stupidity surrounding the NHL.

Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray, accidentally, struck a woman with a chair following his teams series loss to the Detroit Red Wings a week ago. The woman declined to seek charges against Murray according to the AP article on ESPN. Who knows, maybe Murray’s apology was very heartfelt, or perhaps the woman, who was in the press box, felt bad for the guy. It’s understandable Murray was probably upset with the loss, but swinging a chair in a press box is pretty lame. Punch the wall or slam a door; don’t swing a chair at an unsuspecting woman.

The NHL is not pro wrestling and this is not good press. It’s a shame that a white collar employee, who should be concerned with helping the NHL and hockey rid itself of its barbarian-esque reputation, reacted this way. I’m sure Murray will or has gotten an earful from someone, but incidents like this don’t help the NHL gain fans.

I will be the first to admit i am not an avid hockey fan (at least not anymore).  But i had a mild interest in hopping on the bandwagon and watching the Boston Bruins play game 7 last night, and what did i find?  They were playing at roughly the same time as the other game 7, Detroit and Anaheim.  How can a sport who is struggling to gain back a dying fan base schedule 2 game 7′s at the same time?!?!

I think that hockey itself is a good product, it is a great product watching live, and probably has been helped the most out of any sport with the invention and mainstream of HD TV.  Work with the momentum, gain back the casual fans you idiots.  For being inept at running a sports league, the NHL gets The Drubbing FAIL of the week award.

As I slowly come to grips with the fact that my Philadelphia Flyers are overmatched in their playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, I am left to wonder…what roster changes are needed?
Continue reading “Buy or Sell? Biron, Nitty, neither?” →

It’s madness. The 2009 NHL playoffs began last week and the match-ups have provided  quite a bit of excitement. Granted, my last post didn’t pan out the way I had envisioned with regards to who was getting into the post-season, nevertheless the intensity, the violence, the passion, and the overall play has been nothing short of outstanding.

Continue reading “Getting Cup Crazy” →

 

It's time to get serious...who will win Lord Stanley's Cup?

With just about a month to go in the regular season, the NHL is primed for what looks to be a very competitive playoff run for the Stanley Cup.Outside of the current conference leaders (Boston from the East, and San Jose and Detroit (No.1 and No.2 respectively) in the West) who I imagine will continue to dominant in the fashion they have since October, the matchups for one of the most passionate tournaments has yet to be decided.

 

Continue reading “Here we go…1 month left in the NHL regular season” →

If you’re a hockey fan you probably are aware the NHL held it’s annual All-Star festivities this past weekend in Montreal. What normally is an event I get geeked up for turned out to be one of the weaker exhibitions in recent memory. Sans most of the skills competition, I was bored out of my mind. Maybe it all started with the way the voting played out, maybe it wasn’t.
Continue reading “The NHL All-Star Snoozefest” →

Seriously.

Admit it.  Hockey isn’t nearly as boring, hard to follow, trivial, unimportant and irrelevant as you’d like to make it.

We’re now three season’s separated from an NHL work stoppage that many thought would spell the end of hockey in the U.S. for good.  With a plummeting fan base and a TV contract that found its way to rivaling the rodeo for air time, the NHL looked to be in ridiculously thin ice.
Continue reading “It’s Week 7 of the NHL and Alllllll’s Weeeeelllll!” →