Who stays? Who goes?

[Malenko]

You can't possibly compare ATL to FLA.

Atlanta has no depth in nets, and they have 2 amazing forwards....and that's it. And one of them is a felon.

I'm saying FLA is the complete package, they excel from every single aspect which will certainly place them into the playoffs soon which WILL draw fans.

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Edited February 20, 2005 by Malenko

[Lowerdeck]

Then would you suggest eliminating shit teams in better markets and replacing them with good teams in bad markets?

[Malenko]

Then would you suggest eliminating shit teams in better markets and replacing them with good teams in bad markets?

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[Lowerdeck]

Then would you suggest eliminating shit teams in better markets and replacing them with good teams in bad markets?

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that question was directed towards..? me?

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Sure. I mean, look at Chicago Blackhawks. They're a terrible team and the owner doesn't care. But it's a good market. So get rid of everything in that system. And then move Tampa Bay or Florida to Chicago, make them the new Blackhawks. Teams that are improving, fans that care. Why not?

[SeanDMan]

You can't possibly compare ATL to FLA.

Atlanta has no depth in nets, and they have 2 amazing forwards....and that's it. And one of them is a felon.

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Wha?

They have Lehtonen-Hurme-Nurminen. Lehtonen will be amazing; he's already way too good for the AHL. The other two are backups, but look at me honestly and say Jamie McLennan is depth in net.

Besides Kovalchuk and Heatly, they also have good defense, a great set of checking forwards, and Vyacheslav Kozlov, the man with the best name in hockey. While Florida has more young talent, they're kinda like the Canucks... if Luongo twists his ankle, the season is in the can and they're a lottery team. If Atlanta loses Heatly (which they did last year) they miss the playoffs but are good enough defensively to play spoiler.

Florida is young, and that's it.

[Malenko]

Then would you suggest eliminating shit teams in better markets and replacing them with good teams in bad markets?

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that question was directed towards..? me?

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[Guest Mike Dude]

I always said or meant to say the Panthers WILL be amazing. In the future. And aside from the great young still developping talent the biggest reason is Martin. They just recently got him, when they start playing his style mark my words their first season under his reign they'll make the playoffs (probably 7th or most likely 8th in conference). Martin is the biggest reason for my support. I mean the Senators were THE JOKE OF THE LEAGUE until he turned them around into a Cup contender team....btw great to see hockey discussion even during these troubling times.

[Guest Brady_3for3]

Just because a team is young and has talent, doesn't mean they should have a team. People in Florida don't care about hockey, they are bandwagon jumpers. They only cared about the Panthers in 1996 when they made the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 and only cared about the Lightning when they won the Stanley Cup last year. The market would not miss them.

[Malenko]

Just because a team is young and has talent, doesn't mean they should have a team.  People in Florida don't care about hockey, they are bandwagon jumpers.  They only cared about the Panthers in 1996 when they made the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 and only cared about the Lightning when they won the Stanley Cup last year.  The market would not miss them.

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[Guest Mike Dude]

Yeah if they want to play...

Plus Gretzky can't manage Team Canada this year because he's a part of the NHL...how fucked up is that?

[grind your soul]

Just because a team is young and has talent, doesn't mean they should have a team.  People in Florida don't care about hockey, they are bandwagon jumpers.  They only cared about the Panthers in 1996 when they made the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 and only cared about the Lightning when they won the Stanley Cup last year.  The market would not miss them.

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...which means if one of those teams managed to build a good team, they would be constantly running for good things, therefore bringing in the fans that would jump right onto the new bandwagon. As you admitted, tampa and florida when getting good results had fans, which only proves my point in my last post. A good team, even if located in a non-hockey town will bring fans. Maybe not so much for watching good hockey, but to see their team win. That would bring the money to keep it going. Did you read my whole post?

Still, regardless of how many fans a team might have i think it's atrocious to kill the Stanley Cup champs. Maybe end it in a couple of years, or whenever you want, but just not the year they're title holders. I would say the same for anyother sport.

By the way, now that noone will be playing during playoff time, that means the world cup/tournament/championship will have all stars in there, right?

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[sahyder1]

Talking about contraction is pretty pointless when you know that the Union will never agree to having 92 jobs cut (that's if 4 teams are contracted).

NHL to permit personnel at Worlds

Canadian Press

2/22/2005

Wayne Gretzky can take charge of Team Canada if he wants after the NHL decided Tuesday it would not interfere with league personnel wanting to get involved the April 30-May 15 IIHF men's world hockey championship.

Bill Daly, the league's executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said in a release the decision was made after "due consideration to all of the relevant and sometimes competing concerns."

Reports surfaced Monday that the league would bar all league coaches, GMs or executives from participating in the tournament because of the NHL lockout, including Gretzky, the managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes, from resuming his role as executive director of two-time defending champion Canada.

But as it turns out, it was much ado about nothing. Gretzky has yet to confirm his participation in the world championship after Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson approached him about the job last month. Nicholson was attending IIHF meetings in Zurich and was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Click here to find out more!

There doesn't seem to be any credible reason for why the NHL was even contemplating banning personnel from the world championship other than wanting to keep members from its side from having any contact with players during the lockout. Until two weeks ago, coaches, GMs and owners were forbidden to reach out to players.

Should Gretzky resume his executive director job, he's expected to ask Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe and Vancouver Canucks assistant GM Steve Tambellini to join his management staff once again. All three men led Canada's gold-medal winning teams at the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.

Gretzky says he hasn't made up his mind yet.

"I'm going to talk to Bob (Nicholson) Thursday and Friday and then make a decision, because it's a month commitment and it's over in Europe," Gretzky told the Fan 590, a Toronto all-sports radio station. "I'm always excited to work for Hockey Canada. Right now, I'm just going to take a step back and kind of analyse everything."

National team head coach Marc Habscheid is slated to be behind the bench for Canada's team in Austria. He's done a bang-up job in European tournaments this season, using non-NHLers against other countries employing some locked-out NHL players, leading Canada to a 9-4-1 record in official tournament games.

On the other hand, it's believed Habscheid would not balk at being an assistant coach if Gretzky wanted to bring in a veteran like Pat Quinn or Scotty Bowman. Quinn was head coach for the Olympics and World Cup, with Ken Hitchcock and Wayne Fleming of the Philadelphia Flyers and Jacques Martin of the Florida Panthers also on his staff.

Quinn told the Toronto Sun in Wednesday's edition that he's not necessarily a lock for the head coaching job.

"I have yet to have a conversation with anyone with (Hockey Canada) about this issue so all this speculation is premature to talk about," he said. "Working with Team Canada has been a privilege in the past and continues to be.

"If there's a chance to be involved I would welcome it. That hasn't changed."

Hitchcock said Tuesday he had not heard from anyone regarding the world championship.

"No one has contacted us so I don't even know where it's at," Hitchcock said from Philadelphia.

Asked whether he would hesitate at coaching NHLers at the tournament because of the NHL lockout, Hitchcock said a few things would need to be ironed out before accepting a possible offer.

"I don't think it would be awkward but I would want to make sure that everybody is OK with it," Hitchcock said. "Not just OK from a league standpoint, but OK from a team (Flyers) standpoint as well.

"It's a heck of an offer to represent your country but I would want to make sure everybody is OK with it."   

Canada is expected to fill out its roster with the best NHL players available, possibly including the likes of Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic, Martin Brodeur and Jarome Iginla.

Because many of Canada's veteran star players haven't played hockey this year, Hockey Canada will likely hold a training camp in mid-April and play exhibition games in Canada before heading to Europe.

Edited February 23, 2005 by sahyder1

[Guest Mike Dude]

Well I just meant it'd be a shame to lose a team who's going to be great to watch.

Rangers are filled with money but they're not fun to watch.

I'm talking from a hockey fan's point of view, not a financial advisor's.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I think that the league should be down to 24 or 22 teams.

I have no patience for southern teams(save Dallas and LA)

I think that if hockey was to expand it need to expand in Canada.

Which means fuck Colorado, bring back the Nordiques. I miss the post game fights at the colisee after Montreal finished whupping the Nordiques.