Dr. Evil sent me this one, and I thought it was cool enough to post. Although I would wager the Flyers’ fan range is a little further west and further north into central New Jersey, but otherwise, the map is pretty accurate.
The artist also has a United States of Football map that’s pretty awesome, as well.
There are few people left in this world who I consider heroes. Even fewer populate the world of sports.
Wayne Gretzky is one of those heroes.
His #99 Edmonton Oilers jersey was the first hockey jersey I ever owned. My parents bought it for me during a trip to Quebec. I adopted his number when I played lacrosse and hockey, not because I had his talent – I don’t – but because I wanted to emulate his work ethic.
Today, the Great One is celebrating his 52nd birthday.
He is the leading point-scorer in NHL history, with more assists than any other player has points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records.
Class act on and off the ice. If you’re looking for a sports hero, look no further.
(Insert uninterested, halfhearted cheer here.)
Hockey is back, and it took nearly four months and one long night to get the game back on the ice. With the season on the line, the NHL and the players’ association agreed on a tentative pact to end a 113-day lockout and save what was left of a fractured schedule.
Commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Donald Fehr ceased being adversaries and announced the deal while standing side by side near a wall toward the back of the negotiating room and showing a tinge of weariness.
Regular readers know hockey is by far my favorite sport, but I’m pretty pissed at the entire situation. This was the NHL’s second lockout in eight years. (The 2004-2005 season was canceled because of it.) The NHL is not popular enough to survive a work stoppage. It’s already trailing the NFL, MLB, and the NBA – the NBA!!! – in both popularity and revenues. A lockout only serves to shoot themselves in the foot, but they did exactly that.
I’ll come back – mostly because I despise the NBA – but with eyes only. I’ll watch the games, but I won’t attend them, and if they think they’re seeing my money, they’re gravely mistaken.
Meet Riley Sheahan.
Riley is one of the Detroit Red Wings’ top prospects, but since there is no hockey to speak of for the foreseeable future, he began to refocus his energies.
Sadly, Riley’s energies encompass alcohol and beloved young children’s characters.
Detroit Red Wings prospect Riley Sheahan’s antics are raising eyebrows off-the-ice. Sheahan, 20, was pulled over in a bizarre drunken driving arrest back on October 29.
He later submitted to a breathalyzer test and blew a .30 – more than three times the legal limit – classifying him under Michigan’s ‘super drunk’ law (.17 or higher).
MLive.com reported that if there is anything more shocking than his blood-alcohol level, it was his choice of attire – a purple Teletubbies costume, that of Tinky Winky.
Good thing he wasn’t involved in an auto accident; he could’ve hurt his Tinky Winky.
Forget the violence, the rabid moms, and the stale popcorn. The real scandal plaguing ice hockey is the playing of our National Anthem.
The organization that oversees nearly 200 high-school hockey teams in Pennsylvania is advising that they stop playing the National Anthem at games, citing the high cost of ice time at ice arenas and the time it takes to get a game in the books. According to CBS News, Ed Sam, commissioner of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League (PIHL), sent an e-mail to 183 state high-school teams saying that “the National Anthem should not be played only because of time constrain[t]s.”
Because of the expense of ice time, if a match runs over it may be called, with the score recorded at that point. For that reason, many teams have already yanked the Anthem, seeing the extra three or so minutes the song would take as valuable time that can be tacked on the end of a tight match.
Shenanigans. I’ve been playing in men’s ice hockey leagues for almost 25 years, and I can tell you that no game – not one – ever starts on time. Youth games, high school games, and men’s games all start late because of a multitude of factors; none of which include the National Anthem.
Fights break out, referees are sometimes late, and the ice is rarely resurfaced on time. Guess what? The rinks still get their money, and they never – ever – turn off the lights and lock the doors when a game is supposed to be over. For some reason, the PIHL simply doesn’t want to play the National Anthem. And that’s fine. I just wish they would come out and say that instead of lying to everyone.
Regular readers know that as far as sports go my life revolves around ice hockey. I can’t get enough; whether it’s playing, watching, or discussing the goings on inside and outside the rink.
Now the NHL, in its infinite douchebaggery, brought on a lockout, and has started canceling most games in October.
Thankfully, those sneaky Russian bastards are hooking me up with a fix . . .
“Hockey hasn’t been part of ESPN networks since 2004-05. Well, we are here to put hockey back on the map for you guys because Russia’s KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) has officially signed with ESPN to have select games streamed live on ESPN3. To celebrate hockey’s (kind of) return to ESPN we bring you 84 sexy KHL ice girls!
The Kontinental Hockey League has reached an agreement with the US sports TV channel ESPN to broadcast games in the 2012/2013 KHL Championship. The games will be shown on the ESPN3 channel in the United States, Territories of the United States, and also in Great Britain.”
There is nothing – nothing – sexier than a woman wearing an ice hockey jersey.
Unless she is wearing much less.
Yesterday was a pretty terrible sports day from my perspective. The Philadelphia Eagles won (I despise them), Jeff Gordon wrecked (pretty much eliminating any title chance he had), my NFL fantasy teams got clobbered, and the frakkin’ New England Patriots lost to the Arizona Cardinals, eliminating me from my suicide pool in Week 2. Week 2!!!
None of that, of course, compared to the fisting I received by the NHL. The National Hockey League imposed a lockout, its second in eight years, and now the 2012-12 hockey season is in jeopardy.
The two sides remain far apart on the core economic issues of a new deal.
While the league wants to reduce the players’ share of hockey-related revenue – “We believe 57 percent of HRR is too much,” Bettman said Thursday – the union is not interested in any deal that would require the players to take any immediate, absolute further reduction in salary.
Frak. Them. All.
Regular fans are already priced out of games – tickets in Philly are scarce, and ridiculously expensive – but I’m supposed to weep over two groups of millionaires who don’t know how to share their wheelbarrows of money? Not bloody likely.
Would my Canadian commenters (AndyCanuck, Jenn, and RD) please smuggle me into Toronto so I can beat talk some sense into these morons.
The boys had hockey games on Tuesday night, and while Erik’s exploits have almost been too good to post (a goal and another win), Kyle and his team have struggled.
I couldn’t make Tuesday night’s game, but my friend Bill (Erik’s godfather) went with the missus to watch the boys play. Suffice to say, Bill is Kyle’s luck charm, because Kyle scored his first-ever hat trick!
Regular readers know I think hockey is the greatest sport in the world. Like most people my age, I was forever sucked into the sport after watching Wayne Gretzky perform his magic. As a result, I cheer for all of his old teams; the Oilers, Blues, Rangers, and Kings.
Last night, Jonathan Quick and company did what Gretzky’s 1992-93 Kings could not… and Dr. Evil smiles.
The Los Angeles Kings’ 45-year quest for an NHL title ended Monday night with an early flurry of power-play goals, followed by two periods of unbearable anticipation – right up to the moment when Dustin Brown snatched the Stanley Cup from Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Brown skated to center ice and thrust the 36-pound silver trophy skyward, the captain never flinching under the weight. Long-suffering L.A. fans, who had never even seen hockey’s greatest prize, went crazy.
The Kings steamrolled everyone in their path after barely making the playoffs, eliminating the top three seeds in the Western Conference in overwhelming fashion as they matched the second-fastest run to a title in modern NHL history.
Goaltender Jonathan Quick won the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. Deservedly so, since he was a brick wall for the Kings. It’s nice to see them win the Cup for the first time, despite those no-talent scumbags Jeff Carter and Mike Richards suiting up for them.
Oh, and a big f**k you to ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike in the Morning, who spent about thirty seconds talking about the game today. They never talk hockey, but to practically ignore the Stanley Cup Final is a disgrace for the “worldwide leader in sports.” F**k them and everyone who looks like them. /rant.
It’s bad enough that the Los Angeles Kings (and scumbag former Flyers Mike Richards and Jeff Carter) are going to win the Stanley Cup, but do the Kings fans have to hit below the belt?
It was a real “puck you” to the New Jersey Devils Monday night, as L.A. Kings fans taunted their rivals with blown up images of an even famous-er N.J. franchise – the cast of “Jersey Shore.”
Devils players may not have gotten the joke, since 18 are not even American, but fans sure did.
In the end, Snooki, The Situation, Pauly D and Jwoww may have been L.A.’s secret weapon, because the Kings won 4 zip, which puts them 1 game away from their first Stanley Cup.
Full disclosure: I’m not a fan of either team, but this story (and pic) is hilarious.
