sarsippius

I think the time for that was looooooong before this craptacular week of blown leads occurred...

A bit heavy handed. I didn't think it was so egregious, it was shoulder to the gord to be sure, but did he leave his feet before contact? Looked close to me..... And can stop assessing punishment based on whether a guy gets hurt? The penalty is for the nature of the dangerous play, not its outcome.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Smarm on You Crazy Diamond

@Polaris922 @hf101 FIXED! As a Flyers fan I love to hate the 3 New York teams, but therin lies the problem (from a Northeasterner's perspective) in balancing traditional rivalries with competitive balance. With Philly and NY you basically have 4 teams that you can't break up, so that limits your options on slicing up the rest of the East into logical groups. Not only on a geographical basis but based on long histories of playoff battles, these teams need to play each other as much as possible. It's what makes this fun. Plus take the Flyers or Rangers away from the Devils and that's a couple more games in Newark being played to 65% capacity. The Islanders need that attendance boost too; they'll still suck in Brooklyn even if they are a little more accessible. Can't separate the Pens from that group either, not after Lemieux made those rivalries relevant. Of course based on history Boston and the Rangers are almost inseparable, and you know you can't have Boston without Montreal....wait don't the original 6 belong together anyway....how do you draw a line? Unenviable task to be sure. Thumbs up on the Wings in the East based on common sense alone, but I can't say the rest of the East will be doing cartwheels And don't Detroit and Chicago belong in the same conference....sorry, rhetorical question

@Polaris922 Leaving aside whether Giroux is top 5, he did get the better of Crosby in a very high profile playoff series last year, including a take charge performance in the clincher. That recent history, and the wonderfully bitter feelings that brew between the teams and the fans, make Giroux the closest thing to a 4-years-ago-Ovechkin-style glamour made-for-tv "rival" that Sid's got right now. Giroux needs to reach a different level (read win a Cup) before we seriously can have a conversation about them being equals, but he has clearly shown can play at or above Sid for good stretches of games.

@jammer2 Yeah the whole thing with rescinding penalties is a bit bizarre....although I can kinda get rescinding the match portion of the penalty since it carries suspension implications for a player down the road. But you're right I don't remember it happening before, and I think it sets a bad precedent. The call is what the call is, it's part of any game and you have to deal with it

I'm not sure I understand what the debate is about. A ref made a butt ugly abortion of a call that influenced the outcome of a game.....and what, we've never seen this before?? Seriously, should the NFL have awarded the Pack a win after they got robbed on MNF against Seattle? Games are played and officiated by inherently flawed humans, **** happens.

@mojo1917 I think that really is a good point, he could be Jesus this year and you'd STILL have to think about a buyout to keep from getting crushed by the weight of that contract

I agree with Digity, Bryz didn't suck yesterday. But I will be on the side of buy his arse out, until provided with overwhelming evidence to the contrary and a full investigation by one of those non partisan blue ribbon panels.

I literally laughed out loud when I read this, groundhog day all over again....but as someone else said this is just Leighton insurance, Boosh I assume is headed for the Phantoms

Will do, hope we get a chance to catch up! It was tough decision that involved a lot of hand wringing, and I'll probably never kick the habit completely, I just decided that they didn't deserve my money this year. We'll still be watching through the miracle of Comcast's magical media empire.....

@pensuck Nicely played, my refguin hatin' homey! @terp I tried the same series of explanations with about the same results....I'm sure I'll have him up there for a game or 2, Hell we may come back again next year. Being a Flyer fan is like being in the mob, you know you can never completely leave! @ I'd do that in a heartbeat, for a fraction of the NHL cost, unfortunately Trenton not exactly a place I want spend too much time in, and Hershey is about a 2:15 ride for me

So I fell on my sword for the cause, because I got tired of the bullsh!t, tired of being taken for granted by a business that that makes its product available when the stars are perfectly aligned, tired of trying to explain to a 6 year old why the Flyers aren't playing hockey when its all he talked about for months after last season ended. Like to tell you I'm happy about the new CBA, but at this point I'm really not.

@AlaskaFlyerFan I have to agree on the new banners, not a fan at all. Number should be on it and that's it, his body isn't being retired, just the damn number!

His legacy is as a basketball guy and a lousy businessman who didn't give two sh!ts about the game itself or the league's fans. F him

Santa fired for telling 3-year-old ‘Maple Leafs suck’ Rick Chandler Dec 7, 2012, 5:36 PM EST The NHL lockout has been emotionally grinding for many hockey fans, and Santa is no exception. It happened at a Christmas Market in Toronto, where Santa Claus was greeting the kiddies. This particular Santa, however, showed up a half-an-hour late to the gig, according to the Toronto Sun, and then began insulting people. He told one kid wearing a plaid shirt that he looked like Paul Bunyan, and then noticed that the child was wearing a Totonto Maple League tuque. The boy’s mom picks up the story: “Then he said, ‘Oh, you’re wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs tuque, you shouldn’t be wearing that, they suck.’ At that point, I took my son and told him we should go, Santa isn’t being very good today.” Trent said her son was inconsolable and cried all the way home to Mississauga. “He wanted to know who Paul Bunyan was? He wanted to know why Santa said the Toronto Maple Leafs suck,” Trent told the Sun Thursday. “I told him Santa was having a bad day. I can’t really tell him Santa’s a jerk.”

Honestly, I find myself wishing for this to turn catastrophic too. It's kinda how I felt about the 2008 financial meltdown too, let corporations die off instead of bailing them out. "The only way to fix it is to flush it all away".

That's almost as strange as you waking up a 9 month old post to point that out

That is true, by wins Ray Rhodes' last season was as atrocious. But at least there was some reason to have hope for the future, Dawk and Trotter, some bright spots of talent here and there. Now, Shady McCoy is the only guy I'd keep if I could draft 53 players in the offseason.

@jammer2 You mean Brad Goebel? I think you have to go back to the early 70s, Mike McCormick era, to find an Iggle team this wretched.

In this market, there is no teaching the owner a lesson. If I drop my seats, I'm not depriving Comcast of money, that building will sellout more often than not, and won't miss by much when it's not. So it isn't about making a statement, its simply whether you feel like supporting a product that isn't always there when you want to consume it. I'm still in. But I will say Bettman is directly making me less of an NHL fan. Not less of a hockey fan though.

@B21 @xganarchy My youngest was born 12/27, what a wild ride that Christmas season was....like the holidays aren't busy enough, throw a little childbirth in there....well, fortunately all we have to do is watch, but that was always plenty for me! Enjoy em while they're young, it passes in a flash

Yzerman is literally "Mr Red Wing" of the post-expansion era, and Lidstrom is possibly the best overall defenseman for the same time period. I'm Switzerland on this one, call it a tie.

Agreed Hexy, pushing back the FA age will be a real sticking point. The 5 year contract limit is really not a big deal to me, in fact I think It's a good way to address some of the silly up-front money teams are throwing around to circumvent cap. If they can settle on a definition of HRR, we may be on our to some hockey.

Take it and let's play hockey dammit!