I remember vividly when in 1996 the Russian Five was on ice, Winnipeg Jets idiot fans broke into the "USA! USA!" chant, forgetting that there was another Russian in the game: their own goalie, Khabibulin.
Why would Canadian Winnipeg Jets fans yell U! S! A! for Russians? If something is weird, that is.
I hope those same guys were happy for Canadians loss for USA at 1996 World Cup.
You already know I'm against the uneven conferences but if it must be there's 2 things that should change, IMO.
#1. Swap CBJ and CAR with the Florida teams. Or at the absolute worst CBJ with one of them. The Florida teams get screwed there. And CBJ makes a lot more sense in our division then they do.
#2. Scrap divisional playoffs/Wild Card. It's stupid, IMO. The 2 division winners are the 1 and 2 seeds then have the next 6 best teams.
I thought of this too, but then you run into travel issues in the playoffs. The NFL is 1 game on 1 day so it's not a big deal if say New York has to go to San Fran for a playoff game.
Well it does work for MLB. That sort of system would cut down on travel, especially during the season. In a system not based upon east and west, the Red Wings would spend as much time playing their conference rivals in the east as the ones in the west, which is better than always going west. More games in the eastern time zone is a good thing to me.
There actually was conference imbalance back in the 93-94 and 94-95 seasons. 14 teams in the east, 12 teams in the west. That changed when the Nordiques moved to Denver, making it 13 teams in each conference. So if the current proposed plan does go through it's not like this would be a first for the NHL.
Well it does work for MLB. That sort of system would cut down on travel, especially during the season. In a system not based upon east and west, the Red Wings would spend as much time playing their conference rivals in the east as the ones in the west, which is better than always going west. More games in the eastern time zone is a good thing to me.
Come to think of it, teams could play in a given city on back to back nights, and that would cut down on the excuses greatly...and travel too.
I'm an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." guy. Wings have been playing Chicago, St. Louis, Winnipeg, Nashville for so long, it just doesn't make sense to split them all up. I love Boston, Toronto, and Montreal. I really do. But our rivalry's have all historically come out west. The Blackhawks, the Ducks, the Aves, the Sharks, the Blues, the Preds... I don't wanna see that go.
What? None of those "historical rivalries" you speak of can even touch the one the Wings had with Toronto. The Aves rivalry died when Patrick Roy retired. The Ducks? There never really was much of a rivalry there, same with the Sharks. The Preds? They don't really have enough fans. The Blues has always been somewhat of a rivalry, but considered to be much more significant among Blues fans than Red Wings fans, same with the Blackhawks.
Yeah seriously thats one of the dumbest chants wing fans could do. Whose the best wing of all time, Gordie Howe. Who brought the franchise back to life after years of trouble, Yzerman.
What American plays a significant role on the wings? Howard and thats it lol there really isnt any good americans in the teams history that are all that note worthy honestly. If the team actually had Americans it would be different butt hey dont and never really have
No noteworthy Americans in Red Wings history? What about Chris Chelios?
And, with all due respect, those players you mentioned above did move to the US.
After last night's Mon/Bos game, I'm curious how the Wings will handle the physical play of some of these teams in the East. Wow they can be brutal.
if it happens and we dont get alot tougher as a team we are dead
team toughness is NOT turning the other cheek, thats puss....
if we go East and we deliberately dont add some serious toughness/enforcement to stick up for our skilled guys then I have no problem watching Chara hand it out to our top guys much like he did yesterday against Emelin as thats exactly what i would be telling my guys to do
if it happens and we dont get alot tougher as a team we are dead
team toughness is NOT turning the other cheek, thats puss....
if we go East and we deliberately dont add some serious toughness/enforcement to stick up for our skilled guys then I have no problem watching Chara hand it out to our top guys much like he did yesterday against Emelin as thats exactly what i would be telling my guys to do
What Chara did to Emelin didn't exactly come out of the blue. If we have someone level that sort of a crosscheck in Seguin, I'd expect Chara to come after him regardless of who we have on the bench.
The worry shouldn't be Chara coming after someone that cheapshots one of his teammates, but about guys like Emelin cheapshotting us initially. If our special teams were worth a damn, it might be less of an issue.
Physically, I think one more big guy and we'll be fine.
The thing is that in the east our games will get jacked to NBC that much more - and we'll have to listen to Eddie No-check run us down every chance he gets just that much more often.
The thing is that in the east our games will get jacked to NBC that much more - and we'll have to listen to Eddie No-check run us down every chance he gets just that much more often.
Ugh, yeah.
But hey, more exposure and less travel means maybe Detroit becomes a more appealing FA destination.
But hey, more exposure and less travel means maybe Detroit becomes a more appealing FA destination.
Was just going to bring this up. Has this been discussed in the thread already? I feel like Detroit would be more ideal of a location if the travel was minimized, which will happen under the new realignment.
I am going to try and do a Toronto and Montreal road trip if the Wings schedule allows it. It should be a lot of fun. Going to Chicago to see the Wings play was a great experience, but i am sure it won't compare with Toronto and Montreal.
I am going to try and do a Toronto and Montreal road trip if the Wings schedule allows it. It should be a lot of fun. Going to Chicago to see the Wings play was a great experience, but i am sure it won't compare with Toronto and Montreal.
I have never been. I hear it's a wonderful city and would definitely like to eventually visit every Canadian team's building when they are playing the Wings.
I have never been. I hear it's a wonderful city and would definitely like to eventually visit every Canadian team's building when they are playing the Wings.
So far i have only been to Vancouver and Calgary.
How were they? I've never been to any games out on the West coast/ western provinces.
Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal are all awesome buildings. You won't regret going. But seriously, if you come to Ottawa I can probably get tickets and we will drink everytime Babs plays an over the hill vet in favour of a youngster. Then we can go to the hospital and get our stomachs pumped (Canadian healthcare amirite?!)
How were they? I've never been to any games out on the West coast/ western provinces.
Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal are all awesome buildings. You won't regret going. But seriously, if you come to Ottawa I can probably get tickets and we will drink everytime Babs plays an over the hill vet in favour of a youngster. Then we can go to the hospital and get our stomachs pumped (Canadian healthcare amirite?!)
I didn't think Calgary was all that special. Sight lines seemed pretty good, but we had lower bowl seats.
Vancouver was amazing. The city is so fun and we met some very interesting people. Crazy expensive. I loved the atmosphere inside the arena.
Sorry, but i'm from MERICA!!!!!!!!!! no socialist health care for me.
I am an excellent alcoholic so i am not too worried about getting my stomach pumped.
