OT: What hockey team ya rooting for?

[alex]

I live in Montreal ...... I don't want to talk about it ....

I love your avatar. Is that Carey Price peeking in, and then seeing a shot directed toward the net? It's an honest question, I swear.

[jeffseitz]

[quote="luddite lady"]As someone who wears her maple leaf on her sleeve (and I mean the red variety not the blue one), I feel it is my patriotic duty to weigh in on this thread.
I love hockey, but I cannot stand to watch the stuff they play in the NHL. Give me world championship/Olympic hockey any time, especially the women's game, but keep your present day NHL. It's not the hockey I watched and loved as a kid. The violence and fighting has turned me off for years, and what I hear from the daily sports news, it's not getting any better. I love the speed, skill and finesse that comes with the international game, and there is nothing so spectacular as a US/Canada final. That's when it is all about hockey! If I want to watch fighting, I'll watch boxing. But when I want to watch talented hockey players playing the real game with little fear of receiving a career-ending concussion, I'll pass on the NHL and take in a World Championship or other international event, or any type of women's hockey I can find.
I don't intend to say this as a criticism of anyone who enjoys the NHL. It's just not my cup of tea. Though I suppose if the Maple Leafs were to ever, ever get into the playoffs, I'd watch a game or two just so I can say I witnessed the rare historic event. (It's kind of like taking in Hailey's commet.)[/quote]

Great take ll. I agree with everything, well except for The Leafs. Senseless violence in sports has become epidemic, especially with all the GREAT equipment making all the players feel invulnerable until, oh ooo my head hurts. International and World Championship sporting events are great to watch.

[jeffseitz]

[quote="alex"]As soon as I saw this thread, I was filled with rage and anger. I knew Dive was taking a shot at me personally, a slapshot if you will. I could see it in the way she typed, haha, my team is in the playoffs, yours isn't, you goofy Canadian. Then more of you piled on, mocking me. And then to add insult to injury, Jeff Seitz and some other fake Police fan started bringing up the Kings. The Kings, the kings, la la la la, they're so great... I hate the Kings, along with every other idiotic team in the playoffs, they all blow.

I am a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Anyone with an ounce of taste knows that they are The Police of the NHL. They have more Stanley Cups than anyone, minus a team that is believed to have paid off referees over the years. It's a proven fact, look it up. So I'm going to give you inside information as to why the Leafs haven't won the Cup this year. They're protesting the NHL. That's right, it's a protest. It's a proven fact that they were, by far, the best team in the league up until the last 6 weeks. Then they tanked, on purpose, and to prove a point. That point is that you should never mess with the greatest team ever to hit the ice. That was the 1993 Leafs, who lost, most would say were screwed by the 93 King's (they were the king's of something allright)

I don't just rant like an idiot, I always offer proof. So you want proof that the Montreal Canadians and the LA Kings paid the sum of 40 billion to sink the Leafs? Here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N51jmflc5Io

Montreal was terrified of meeting the Leafs in the finals. They knew they would lose 4 in a row. So they paid Kerry Fraser 39.99 billion to blow the call. The Kings ponied up the rest. And who should score less than a minute after they should have been ejected? You guessed it. I rest my case[/quote]

Hey Alex, Props to the Leafs accomplishments in hockey history for sure, but where have they been lately? Waaaaahhhhhh, Waaaahhhhhhhh LOL

[Tamadude]

What people need to understand is that Leafs fans are very passionate; they've been selling out arenas for decades for a losing product, and alot of them are very tempermental about it. 1967 was a long time ago. In Montreal, if the team stinks, fans make sure the arena is empty. Otherwise, owners (like Harold Ballard) don't give a rodent's backside about winning. 

Throb, Speaking of Larry Robinson; I grew up in Montreal. 40 steps from my house, there were  4 tennis courts, which the city would convert into a full size ice surface, complete with boards and boxes. We would skate all day and into the night until well after the lights at went out at 10pm. Larry Robinson lived in the neighboorhood.  Once in while he would show up with his kid, and skate around with us. For me, a 12 year old at the time, it was like skating with god. He was one of the elite defensemen in the league at the time. He showed us how to take a slapper. I can still pull the trigger pretty good. He would flick a little  wrister from the goal line and it would fly the entire length of the ice and land inside the net! You can imagine how I was in awe of the guy. (Like when I met a famous drummer.) Then at Halloween we'd trick-or-treat his house, and see this huge red headed friendly giant come to the door and give away KING SIZE Snickers bars. What a legend! Watch out for the Devils; they have Larry behind the bench, and he has a bunch of rings.

Alex, I gotta disagree with ya about the '93 playoffs. The Canadiens were more scared of The Great One (the greatest athlete ever) than they were of the Leafs. Even if #99 was called for high sticking Douggie there,  it doesn't mean LA couldn't have killed it off. But that's irrelevant, as the Habs were the team of destiny that year, and even #99 with all his supernatural powers could not stop the Habs and thier 10 straight playoff OT wins en route to thier 24th Stanley Cup. McSorely and coach Melrose are to blame for "stickgate" and the ensuing powerplay goal. Everyone knows you gotta switch your illegally curved stick back to the legal one in the third period. They didn't, and coach Demers noticed, gambled, and won. End of story. I still feel a bit (a bit) sorry for Gretz for taking his last real chance at a Cup away in '93.  However even IF Toronto did happen to make it to the finals, Montreal would have swept them anyways.

But alas, I've been in Vancouver for almost 20 years, and this town needs a cup really badly, so I've become a Canucks fan by virtue of  hometown immersion conversion.

My hat is off to the Kings this year. While they were kicking Vancity's ass, I noted how many Team Canada AND Team USA players are on that roster. A LOT. And they are all showing up, big time.  

Luddite, I can write a book about the current state of the NHL and fighting and whatnot but I'll spare everyone for now.

[English-lion]

I live in Montreal ...... I don't want to talk about it ....

I love your avatar. Is that Carey Price peeking in, and then seeing a shot directed toward the net? It's an honest question, I swear.

Didn't I say I didn't want to talk about it???? actually it's a custom made English-lion action figure a Christmas present from jedsoon back in 2007..... and she can kick butt!

[Kim]

Go Devils!

[Throb]

Plans for today:

3:30 pm Leave the office early
5pm Attend function at my son’s after school
5:55pm duct out of Function
6:05pm arrive home.
6:06pm crack open beer.
6:07pm turn on TV

6:08pm KINGS BABY!

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Yeah, I'm pretty much rooting for the Kings, too. No offense - it's a Western Conf thing

Got on Sirius Radio Home Ice earlier today to talk about it - the Kings were pretty much the one team everybody here was quaking over meeting in the Playoffs. A lot of folks think things just came together once Carter was added to the roster at the trade deadline but we West opponents would likely beg to differ. Those guys are fast as hell, they're huge, they're smart and they play a physical game - something my Preds have struggled with off and on.

In local news, we're all voting for Pekka Rinne to make the NHL 13 cover vs. Giroux and I hear it's neck & neck. I should be voting instead of sitting here posting, come to think...

Oh, and - I've heard a few times that's one reason the teams in Canada don't do so well - the fans are so rabid even when they lose that there's no motivation for them to get into the final rounds. Course, there are 100 different examples to prove or disprove this - Phoenix has had a lot of trouble attracting fans but there they were in the semis...doesn't seem like having *no* community support would be much better...

[policerule]

I just realized that LA has a bunch of ex-Flyers... might as well be our old team! Richards, Carter and Gagne! No wonder they kick ass.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

That's why the Caps are my East Conference team (3 former Preds - well, 2 now that Vokoun is headed for PGH)

Sorry, Devils fans (and really, this isn't personal), but I think it's LA's year. Tho that was one stupid high stick from Carter in the 1st...

[Throb]

ONE. WIN. AWAY.
Unbelivable. I thought with that high stick and the 5 on 3 NJ would take over but Quick is amazing.
Around 200 minutes of hockey (when you count the OTs) in this series and he has only allowed a deflection goal(which he really had no way of seeing) and a goal that bounced off his own defender (which he really had no way to stop either).

[policerule]

Yeah, Dive... not cool on the high stick

I LOVE that the Devils are getting their asses kicked, if for no other reason than watching my husband be miserable.

Now, before anyone gets all nutty about my schadenfreude (HA!), you must know that he gives me shit all season about the Flyers and him being a Devils fan makes us rivals. Marriage be damned! Go Kings!

[jeffseitz]

[quote="policerule"]I just realized that LA has a bunch of ex-Flyers... might as well be our old team! Richards, Carter and Gagne! No wonder they kick ass. [/quote]

Don't even go there, this is an LA team. Players move from team to team every year, it's part of the business. Before they were Flyers where were they? SWEEP!

[Tamadude]

Before they were Flyers where were they? SWEEP!

They were in Canada!

Coach Sutter
Carter
Richards
Doughty
Mitchell
Gagne (classy move btw by coach giving him a game so his name gets engraved)
Fraser
King
Penner
Richardson
Williams.....to name a few!

Boy it was nice to see #99 back involved in the game again.

Congrats to LA on the most dominant playoff run in a long, long time. 3-0 choke holds in EVERY series? Who does that?

I know it's not a done deal yet, but this thing is OVAH.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ASskQc1_kj8

[policerule]

Don't get your panties in a twist... I was just excited to see they were there, because they happened to be on the same Flyers team when I had season tix. I didn't mean to infer that they alone were responsible for the Kings success. My hockey knowledge is limited to my team (and limited even at that). Dang.