My god, Washington played that terrible goalie who let in 4 goals on just 6 shots. I can't believe Kolzig wasn't their first choice for goalie when playing the best team in the conference. Really made no sense to me.

Peace,
Mike.

Toronto gets the first 10 goal game of the year, beating Boston 10-2. Steen gets 5 points and Stajan 4.

Leafs are starting to get it going again.

WTF, Dallas player Patrick Stefan misses an empty net breakaway, Edmonton goes the other way and scores with 2 seconds left to force overtime! Most ridiculous play of the year.

Maybe the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in hockey.

The fact that the Ducks have now lost their last 4 games, after only losing 5 through the entire first half of the season before that, proves just how unbelievably valuable Chris Pronger is. The guy deserves MVP consideration.

Steve Yzerman's number is officially retired!! SWEET!!

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/33lQCqT-8H0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350">

Not impressed with the commitee all-star selections. Guerin, Nash, Blake, Perrault in, while Jagr, Iginla, Savard, and Brind'Amour are not? Smooooth.

I'm starting to feel the Martin Brodeur wins MVP this year vibe. Having one of the best years of his life, dominating all goaltender statistics, and already 8 shutouts when last year he had 5 through the entire thing. I don't think he's ever won the award, and considering he'll go down as the greatest goaltender that ever lived in nearly all statistics, it'd be a nice addition to his resume. Crosby or Ovechkin will get plenty more, they don't need it so soon... they won't give another to St. Louis or Thornton again, I think it might be between the unorthadox position choices, Pronger and Brodeur. Or Crosby. But it should be fun down the stretch.

Iggy's injured, otherwise he'd be a shoo-in. As for the others, I agree with you, but the NHL's got that stupid policy where they need to have every team represented at the all-star game. Thus, Guerin, Nash, Blake, Perreault, Bouwmeester are all going, even though they aren't really all-stars.

Well the all-star game got 700,000 viewers, down 76% from 2004, and that in turn was down a whole lot more from 2000. Bruttallll.

Well it was on a station that MY WORK didn't even get... and we have almost every sports station imaginable

I'm surprised it didn't do worse.

What the hell were they thinking putting the All-Star Game in the middle of the week on a channel that barely anyone can find? I hope those rumors about going back to ESPN are true, because right now the NHL is in the toilet, both in the gameplay and it's presentation.

Gameplay? I think post-lockout is wayyy better than the trap infused game of yesteryears.

I agree that the gameplay is much better than the trap (Although it was really only the Devils who played like that) days. I love the shootout and the increase in penalty shots.

But why has the game shifted towards the European style? Because they're more European players now? Does the NHL like alienating fans that quickly? They're coming over to play in the NHL, why should we change it for them? Case and point, a defenseman has very little leeway now in what he can and can't do in defending. Why is it so easy now for a player to weave through a defense when he should probably play a little price for doing so. I also liked the days when the gameplay didn't seem to be so pussy-whipped. Just once in awhile I would like to see a fight, or even a big hit.

That's the problem with the NHL right now. The gameplay is somewhat fun to watch, but there's no spectacle to it. I remember watching the old games of the "Big Bad Bruins" and just old enough to remember watching Ulf Samuelseon (SP) and Cam Neely. Rivalries in between players were cool. What happened?

There's a reason why only 700,000 people (I heard 474,000) watched the All-Star game, and it's the same reason why it was aired during a weekday on a channel no one can find. No one cares anymore. Until the owners and Gary Bettman wise up, the NHL will be considered - "That 4th Sport".

Defense men should just knock people out if they're coming in on a breakaway...

I don't know what you're watching, but out west, we've got great hockey. Lots of fights and big hits. Phaneuf in particular, even though I don't like to give any Calgary players credit. I'm enjoying this new game much more.

Americans have never really liked the NHL, so nothing much has changed. The reason why the viewership is down is because it was mid-week, and on some obscure channel (in the States, anyway - up here, it was CBC all the way). Plus the all-star game is pretty boring. When the Oilers went on their run last year, my whole city was watching the games. That's fan support you won't find anywhere else.

Whether or not Americans have ever liked the NHL is up for debate (It used to be huge in Boston from the '60s to the late '90s), but there was once a time when we were watching it. The ratings last year for the Finals were pathetic here in the US, and they aired in primetime on NBC. I believe they were the lowest rated for any of the Cup Finals. People here just don't care anymore.

That's probably due to the lockout more than anything. The same thing happened to baseball after their lockout until the Sosa/McGwire thing of 98. Not to the same extent, but similar situation.

The thing is, the NHL doesn't need U.S. viewers to survive. It's got more than enough Canadian fan support, as evidenced by what's happened here and in Calgary the last couple years. Bettman needs to realize that expanding to the southern U.S. is not good for his league. All of the Canadian teams near sell-out all of their home games, whereas only a few U.S. team can claim the same thing. Get rid of the Nashville/Atlanta/Carolina/Florida teams and put them where the fan support actually is, like Winnipeg or Quebec City or even some northern U.S. cities.

Well yeah. What else do you guys have for sports?

I do agree with you that they should be expanding in Canada and not the southern US, although with the wins by the Lightning and Hurricanes, I'm guessing the sport is somewhat popular in those states.

I do miss the days of the Nordiques and the Jets.

But right now they need to focus on the gameplay, which just needs minor tweaking, and beg and plead to ESPN to air their games again. ABC/ESPN is much better than Versus/NBC.

Well, that's exactly why they should expand up here - no competition from the other leagues.

The gameplay needs minor stuff - the refs are calling too much chintzy hooking and not enough diving - but the real work is in the publicity stuff. Nothing they're trying is very effective - it's all pretty stupid stuff. They should just get Nike to do their ads - that commercial with Iggy and Naslund was one of the best I've seen for the sport.

Hmm, what hockey games are you watching?

I think hockey is as great as ever. The passionate play by Canadian teams at least is awesome. For example, the game tonight with the Habs and Pens was a classic game; not a pretty one at all, but a great, great game. And I see them all the time. The post shutout hockey really stepped it up. Sure, I'm having some major problems with the refs (I'm hating the refs), but that's really my only complaint. Otherwise, players are exciting me.

I really think it just has to do with Americans being so interested in their football and basketball, and not really caring about hockey. The superbowl for example is a giant marketing gimmick which is obscenely over-hyped and advertised, with a whole week building up to what ends up being more pre-show/half-show/advertisement crap than actual football playing! Because here in Canada, hockey is still at it's prime, and watching games with other fans is a riot. So, I think you're wrong.

Peace,
Mike.

Hockey in Canada popular? No fucking way!

Hockey in Canada = Alive
Hockey in America = Dead

Guess where 80% of the teams and most of the revenue come from. Hint - The place where it's dead (Coma-esque really).

The problem right now is that the NHL has no idea how to promote the sport in America. Remember how you said the NFL is over-hype and advertised, why do you think it gets ratings? Why do you think the Stanley Cup Finals draw just over two million viewers, while this past week the AFC Championship, drew in over 40 million viewers? It's not even the Super Bowl!

And then there is the gameplay. As I said, the shootout and the increase in penalty shots are a step in the right direction, but for christsake, the refs should let the guys play. For instance, tonight in the Bruins/Sabres game, there were five power plays before the second period. FUN! At least the game had one fight in it.

So heck, I might be wrong. That still doesn't change the fact that at least 50% of the target audience doesn't care about the sport.

Oh boy - I really don't feel like putting any energy into this debate. I should have just kept my mouth to myself, sorry.

You just have a lot of criticisms about the game, and you feel like it's lost its "spectacle", and you think it's dying out, etc etc, but like I said, I think you're wrong. I disagree. And if certain Americans want to choose to be not interested in hockey, then so be it. All I know is that great cities like Pittsburgh and Buffalo are great hockey cities with huge hearts for their teams. And the revenue keeps going up for the league, and the salary cap will increase once again. And while there are still quirks here and there with the sport, I think it is vastly improved after the lockout. And it's one of the sports that I don't consider to be a complete joke, like basketball for example.

And that's all I will say on this matter because I didn't want to just ignore you. But we'll have to agree to disagree. I feel like we're arguing different points. You're arguing about ratings and how the sport should be changing things to somehow appeal to these Americans that don't watch the sport. I'm arguing that I think your comments about the sport not being so great anymore are off base. But like I said, it all comes down to opinion: I just plain love hockey. You don't have to like the same sports I like.

Peace,
Mike.

Just wanted to say that Pittsburgh is not a big hockey city... They get very poor crowds actually, which is made more worse by the fact that they have Crosby/Malkin on their team. If that team moved to Quebec(rumor is it's Oklahoma city for now, but who knows), that would pretty much be the coolest thing ever... Though that would further kill hockey's chances in the US. Detroit and Buffalo are the two strongest American cities in terms of fanship, I believe.

Hey, I'm not going to argue with that. I'd love to see them move to Canada, but I'd feel bad for the Pittsburgh fans too. I'm not really sure what the heck is going on with Mario. He clearly just wants out, asap.

Peace,
Mike.