The place to discuss your favorite NHL (or NCAA) teams and players.
For me, I was a Rangers fan all through my kidhood, and I idolized John Vanbiesbrouck. I moved to Tennessee for school in '93 and went hockeyless (as far as a hometown team) until the 97/98 season when my new hometown of Nashville got a team, the Preds. It has been them I root for since then.
Current favorite players are Timmy Thomas from the Bruins (hate the B’s but Timmy is so freaking amazing in net) and Alex Ovechkin from the Caps. I know a lot of folks hate Ovie for being a dick, but that’s exactly why I like him. I’ve pretty much always like the heel, and Ovie’s as big a heel as the NHL has had in decades…or at least since Domi with the Leafs.
Despite growing up in NJ, I’ve been a Red Wings fan since childhood. Steve Yzerman is my favorite athlete in any sport: the man is leadership and determination personified. Sadly, the 04-05 lockout reduced my interest in the NHL considerably, but I still watch the Wings in the playoffs. My favorite player on their current roster is probably the ageless Nicky Lidstrom.
Funny you should mention Tie Domi. This incident never gets old:
I loved it when the Bruins won the Cup this year! I’ve followed hockey since there were only six teams to follow. Thomas’ performance in this year’s playoffs was the best I’ve seen since Ken Dryden won the Cup for Montreal in 1971.
I kinda liked it when the Bruins won. On the one hand, I HATE the B’s (despite liking Timmy), but on the other, they did beat the team who beat the team who beat the Preds. And Thomas’ performance for the Bruins might well have been BETTER than Dryden’s in ‘71. Dryden, according to my research on the issue, gave up 21 goals in that 7 game series…Timmy gave up 8. To the highest scoring team in the league. Hell, I’ll be as bold as to say Thomas’ play in the playoffs was the best of all-time. Skater or goalie.
Can someone tell me why the Winnipeg Jets - formerly the Atlanta franchise - is still in the Eastern Conference? Why not put them in the Western/Central Division and move Columbus or even better, the Predators to the Eastern/Southeast Division.
Gonna be a lot of air-miles for Carolina, Florida, Tampa and Washington getting back and forth to Winnipeg otherwise.
EDIT: Just saw the league is going to completely redo the conferences next season. Let’s hope they don’t eff it up.
The quick fix would have been to put Nashville in the Southeast, would have made travel easier for them. Winnipeg would then be in the Central with Detroit, Columbus, St. Louis, and Chicago.
Columbus is dead in the water if they go east, because they’d be stuck in the Northeast division against Buffalo, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal (Boston would get shuffled to the Atlantic and Pittsburgh would move to the Southeast in this arrangement to get the best geographic results).
BTW, I don’t think anyone said anything about 4 divisions. If anything, 2 expansion teams would make for an 8 division league.
