Looks like last night's game was a good one in terms of ratings! According to a story at TVguide.com, it was the highest rated game ever for NBC since they started broadcasting the NHL.

LINK

Very good research on the octopus. I was going to educate if folks didn't know. There are few traditions that last as many decades as that one has and we are proud of it. The NHL hates that Al swings one around at the beginning of the games.

Everyone was walking around totally bleary eyed all day. Thankfully, my son's baseball game tonight was called due to rain so I can get some sleep early. We have to rest up for tomorrow night's hockey game!

The biggest Red Wings group on Facebook is really ripping on the NBC announcers. I personally get to watch Don Cherry on Windsor's CBC channel 9. He's far more entertaining.

I heard on XM - NHL Live that Dn Cherry said he had no problem with Crosby, but I don't know in what context this happened. I like the announcers in Canada. They don't obviously support one team (that I could see).

About time someone made a thread about this. I didn't bother because I figured no one was into hockey. No one in Maryland gives a crap about hockey and I have Stanley Cup fever to the max and I didn't want to sound annoying by starting a thread.

Some comments:

1. http://cdn.nhl.com/photos/mugs/8470594.jpg=AMAZING. Marry me?

2. Being a Red Wings fan is like being a Yankees fan.

3. To all the Crosby haters, please, show me a video or quotations from an interview where you get the vibe that SID has the "too big for his brtiches" syndrome and not the MEDIA wanting to "build him up to tear him down" a la Ben Roethlisberger. He is incredibly talented (though he has more to prove to be compared to the likes of Lemieux and Gretzky) and handles his fame with maturity. Can he help it that his own teammates think highly of his leadership ability and talent that they chose him to be captain? Can he help that the NHL thinks he is the most marketable player in the league?

4. ETA: I understand the throwing and swinging of dead octopi is tradition, but damn, what a gross tradition. Octopus goo being flung on you. That can't be hygenic.

5. ETA: BuckeyeTriDelta. An Ohio State alumna cheering for a team from Michigan. Tsk tsk. (Admittedly, Pittsburgh is probably no better in the eyes of Ohioans)

6. ETA: nittanyalum. Flyers?

LET'S GO PENS!!!!

It truly is amazing how much we are into our hockey here. The night of the game, the entire neighborhood was silent. No kids out playing, etc. I ran out to the convenience store during the first intermission and it was packed. The cashier said nobody had been there during the whole first period but at intermission, everybody ran out to get stuff...lol.

Ready for tonight's game! I might miss the beginning of it because I'm going to my daughter's 8th grade recognition banquet! And, that's the only thing more important than hockey :)

I'm sure someone will keep people at the banquet posted! :)

Not only do I dislike Sidney Crosby because the media has built him up and shoved him down our throats, but he just seems to have this smug attitude that I can't stand. One of the things that I like about hockey is that most players are not as full of themselves as in other sports like football and basketball, where the players are always saying how great they are and how much the other team/players suck.

I don't feel like searching for video clips, but here's a recent example...After the Wings won Game 4, all the announcers were talking about how Zetterberg saved the game by tying up Crosby and his stick at the side of the net during the 5-on-3. Zetterberg and Lidstrom were at the media desk taking questions and they both kept talking about the overall team effort and not congratulating themselves. They both talked about how the Pens are a strong team and played a good game, too. Later, they showed Crosby at the media desk taking questions and all the reporters wanted him to talk about the 5-on-3 and Zetterberg's play. Crosby repeatedly said that he didn't think Zetterberg did anything special, that the play was ordinary, and that anyone could have done it. Sorry, but that's the talk of a crybaby teenager who can't give anyone else credit, not the way a captain should be representing himself. If he couldn't suck it up and say something appropriate like, "I guess it was a good play," then he should have just said, "I'll have to watch the footage later," and moved on. Jerk.

I'm going to JoeVision tonight. Should be a good time! Altho you know the Wings are going to lose on purpose so they can win it at home and give the Illitchs and city more money.

Dee, that's one thing I really like about hockey too, that the players are much more laid back and down to Earth than most players of football, basketball, and IMO, baseball. (Though I still love football regardless, just not the T.O.s and the Chad Johnsons, etc) Plus, hockey is such an exciting, fast paced game.

I haven't watched the Wings enough to know their players enough to be annoyed by any of them on or off the ice, but I can't stand the coach, Mike Babcock. After game 1, with the no-goal ruling with Holmstrom's interference (1st period I think), Babcock went on a tirade at the post-game presser about the call. If getting/not getting that goal would have been the difference in the game, sure, let him cry and whine about it, but they won the game 4-0. Any classy coach would have said something to the effect of, "Well, sometimes calls don't go your way, but fortunately we were able to move on and still win the game."

ETA: The media markets Sidney Crosby (or shoves him down your throat depending on who you ask) because, outside of Canada, and select hockey-crazed cities in the US like Detroit, the NHL has a real PR problem post-lockout. If I asked a random person on the street (in MD or DC) which two teams are playing in the Stanley Cup final, I'm sure most people wouldn't be able to tell me.:( Sidney Crosby has been big news in Canada since he was 14 playing with 17 year olds. Because of his youth, talent, looks, and because he is from North America, the NHL likes to use him to create excitement about the sport and the league. Contrast him with Alex Ovechkin, for example; Ovechkin has the talent but lacks the marketability. Also, the Winter Classic. I don't think Buffalo and Pittsburgh were chosen at random to play in that game.

Psst: The 'burgh people will remind you that Pittsburgh has an H at the end. FYI, in the early 1900's, the train people were trying to unify all cities to the same spelling style (as in ville instead of vil; burg instead of burgh), and Pittsburgh did go to Pittsburg for about a decade. But! Since we have the "h" due to our early Scots-Irish history, Pittsburgh is virtually alone in keeping our "burgh"!

[/off soapbox]

I wish I had a nickel for everyone I've talked to who said, "PLEASE, NO OVERTIME TONIGHT!!!" As I've said, I'm not a big hockey fan, but that's between me and Ed DeBartolo. It's a great game, though, but I prefer football, soccer, and basketball.

BTW, octopi stink!

1. Out of the 2 evils, I cheer for the Wings simply because of my BIL being a Wing Nut.
2. Not everything in Michigan is bad. Just that certain team from the place that must not be named. ;)

Pssshhhhht. And that is one of the reasons I am not a fan of Crosby. Why not just admit he was beaten by Zetterberg. It was a smart play by him to go and tie up Crosby's stick, otherwise that would have been a guarenteed goal.

I agree that the octopi tradition is gross. I can only imagine what octopus guts do to the ice when it is swung around like that.

There was a whole article on how much octopi stink in the paper the other day. The players were pretty gross in their descriptions of how many times they had to wash their hands after tossing the things back into the stands. blech.

WOO-HOO!!!!


ETA: I swear to god, if that last attempt by the Pens had gone in, I would have had a stroke....

Congratulations to our friends from Detroit! You all have a great tradition of hockey, and if the Pens had to lose, it's an honor to lose to Detroit - enjoy your victory!