<p>@poetgirl - I’ve learned my undying love for my team from my dad who stuck with the Wings through decades of the “Dead Wings”</p>
<p>It does kind of make me sad though that they’re so worried about the “playoff streak” that they don’t take the opportunity to restructure, have a bad year or two, and really build up a solid team that can win the cup. I’d rather have a few bad seasons followed by a good stretch than mediocre season after mediocre season. </p>
<p>The beginning of the season is fun to watch but is almost always not typical of how the season will play out. Fans of teams who are playing poorly are ready to fire their coach and fans of teams who are playing well are planning the Stanley Cup parade. </p>
<p>We’re encouraged here in Toronto with the play of our stars and with some new additions to the team this year. And ever hopeful that this will be a better year. </p>
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<p>My sympathies. The Flyers’ were my first NHL team. We had season tickets when the franchise arrived and I grew up with the kids of the front office staff as my parents were friends of their parents. I still have a soft spot for them.</p>
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<p>Well, you have an exciting team to follow. I have a childhood friend who played youth hockey with my brother in the 60s who lives in TB and has season tickets. Many people don’t know this but there has been hockey in Florida for a very long time. Jacksonville had an EHL team in the 60s who played against our (the original) Jersey Devils. It was sad for me to see the mostly empty arena for the Florida Panthers opening game. Bettman needs to seriously consider moving that team to an area where there is a fanbase.</p>
<p>Lightning owner Jeff Vinik is commited big time to Tampa. He just bought last week a Marriot hotel for $150 million cash by arena and is working double time to develop the area in downtown Tampa by hockey arena. He has also plans to build by arena another 25 story hotel, is now working to move a medical college there, is working to move Tampa Bay Rays MLB team from St. Pete to downtown Tampa, and has as an investment partner deep-pocketed Bill Gates now involved in all this Tampa downtown goings on.</p>
<p>I’ve realized my problem with hockey is there’s now so much emphasis on the Cup, so much emphasis on the post-season season, that the regular season, particularly the early months, doesn’t mean that much. Individual games may be interesting but what matters is how your team plays in March, April, May and how healthy it is then. I just can’t care much about the regular season anymore.</p>
<p>I think the NHL realizes this is a problem, that along with the NBA it lacks value in the regular season. Win the pennant in baseball and it’s a big deal. Win the AFC or NFC Championship and it’s a big deal. Finish first in the entire NHL and it means not much. I think they may be moving toward more separation of the conference schedules - which are pretty separate now - to try to create a sense of value for regular season play. But they’d really need to make it harder to get into the playoffs, which would mean cutting a round, and I don’t see that as an economic possibility.</p>
<p>good points, lergnom. </p>
<p>lergnom, totally agree. The regular NHL season has become a yawn. Except when my Islanders beat the Rangers. :)</p>
<p>Sorry, but I have to disagree about the regular season being a yawn. Maybe it’s because we have season tickets and go to a lot of games. Maybe it’s because we are longtime serious hockey fans, I don’t know. I love watching the game, any two teams, at any level. Maybe that’s the difference. 
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<p>My family had been Wings ticket holders since I was very young but turning into $500+ nights for a family of four took the fun out of it.</p>
<p>Lergnom… I think you described every sport except the NFL regarding the regular season. NFL has so few games that they all are very important.</p>
<p>How about college hockey? </p>
<p>^ Who’d a thunk? …even some Florida colleges have hockey teams. Many of Florida’s colleges have club, non-varsity hockey teams. Florida may not have snow, but we’ve got hockey enthusiasts!</p>
<p><a href=“Home | University of South Florida Ice Bulls”>Home | University of South Florida Ice Bulls;
<p>Baseball pennant races matter but imagine how little they’d matter if they added rounds to the playoffs, meaning an expansion of the playoff field. And by rounds, I mean more than a 1 game win or die game. Baseball did that right: not another series, just one shot to get into the actual playoffs. I’ve long believed hockey needs to shorten the early rounds. My solution to the problem can’t fly because the NHL depends on playoff revenue but I’d set it up with early round knockouts, best of 3 for the bottom seeded clubs, meaning the top seeds would get a round off. That would leave 2 complete rounds before the finals. </p>
<p>I’m listening to sports radio in Boston. I grew up in Detroit, am still a Wings fan but am generally a hockey fan. In Boston, a huge part of the conversation is about how they need to keep fighting in the game. I’ve just heard arguments that talk about UFC level violence being entertaining and that fighting is payback but above all entertainment. I disagree. I see no reason for fighting. </p>
<p>Here whenever Milan Lucic plays badly, the talk is that he needs to start some fights to “get angry”. That may be how it looks but in reality Lucic is a skilled player with tremendous hand-eye coordination. He’s as good with the puck at his feet as anyone - well, not as good Jaromir Jagr but he’s freakish. Like all players, Lucic sometimes plays badly. Right now, he’s getting over wrist surgery and having a lesser off wing than Jerome Oginla, who moved to the Avs, plus David Krejci being hurt. It’s silly to think he needs to start fights now.</p>
<p>I sometimes believe Boston hockey fans divide into two camps: those who appreciate skill and those who think like neanderthals and think the game requires beating up the other team. I have conversations here that amaze me: the inability to understand that in the regular season a team may back down because it’s just a regular season game but in the playoffs no one backs down so you need skill to win, not brutality. There’s also this generally silly belief here that the Bruins are the most physical/violent team in the league. They don’t watch the Western Conference much, even in the playoffs. </p>
<p>As for this season, I can’t say how glad I am the Wings are finally in the right conference. It was horrible to have season tickets - shared - to the Bruins with the Wings only being here every other year. (That’s right, in some years, no Wings game here at all.) People in the East don’t understand the demands of the West: regular trips across the country, playoff games where you travel across time zones. </p>
<p>I agree that the system is unlikely to change now due to revenue but, if I recall correctly, back in the 70s, there was a bye for the top team in each division and the second and third place teams played a best of three initial round. Do you recall that, lergnom?</p>
<p>I agree with you that there is no reason to continue to allow fighting. </p>
<p>The people who like fighting like it a lot. At the games, they stand up and cheer loudly when there is a fight. I think it’s stupid. And I agree that it’s just silly to say a skill player like Lucic needs to start fights to play better.</p>
<p>Speaking of fights, the Sharks went out and got John Scott, a goon, this season, a move that was unpopular with a lot of Sharks fans. His first game as a Shark was Tuesday. To the surprise of many, he scored a goal, top shelf in the corner, on the breakaway, skating around Brooks Orpik. Just a reminder that even the worst NHL players are really good hockey players.</p>
<p>There was a bye in the expansion era but that was when 12 of 18 teams made the playoffs. </p>
<p>I think that travel excuse for the west is overblown. These guys travel on private charters with first class seating and service. They literally drive to the airport, park steps from the plane, have their carry-on quickly searched, and walk right on. When they land they taxi to a private area, where a charter bus waits right at the plane to whisk them to their hotel. None of the travel hassles we all face.</p>
<p>Getting angry didn’t work for Lucic tonight. He took a stupid penalty with less than two minutes to play with a dangerous hit to Emelin, the Habs scored a goal to give them a two goal lead, and arguing the call, he was thrown out of the game. The Habs won their home opener 6-4.</p>
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<p>Really? Compare the Rangers’ travel to the Sharks’, Ducks’ or Canucks’ and get back to me. Consider not only the distance, but also how often the teams have to play out of their time zone. The Western teams can’t practice as often as the Eastern teams, because they have to travel so much.</p>
<p>The Rangers have four Pacific time zone games: Ducks, Kings, Sharks, Canucks.</p>
<p>The west coast teams have sixteen Eastern time zone games.</p>
<p>Yes, it is the difficulty of switching time zones that is the problem, not the ease of their travel due to flying charters.</p>
<p>Travel eats at you no matter how it’s done. If you’re playing a 7 game series with San Jose and the a 7 game series with Vancouver and then maybe a 7 game series with LA or Anaheim - pick any order you want - and you’re flying out from Detroit or Chicao, that’s a huge number of miles. And from Detroit, it’s a 3 hour difference, 2 from Chicago. That makes Chicago’s achievements stand out to me, but then you could just repeat “Toews and Kane, Toews and Kane”.</p>
<p>Lucic is a bad sport. People here make excuses for him, but he’s just a bad sport. Always has been. </p>
<p>I was blown away by the difference in speed between Montreal and Boston. In one short span, I saw a Montreal forward plain beat a defenseman to a puck in the Boston end, which almost became a goal, and then another forward speed around for a quick shot. I’m glad the game is getting faster. </p>