OT - Winter Classic

[BradlyPitt]

i love playoff hockey, too many games in the regular season

when i say i love playoff hockey, that means i watch games that don't involve the pens

the fact that pens fans only watch the pens tells me this town won't care about hockey when crosby and malkin are gone

 

[Pitt79]

i love playoff hockey, too many games in the regular season

when i say i love playoff hockey, that means i watch games that don't involve the pens

the fact that pens fans only watch the pens tells me this town won't care about hockey when crosby and malkin are gone

I have always watched ONLY the Pens, as a person who never played hockey and wanted to trade the Pens for an NBA team before Mario came along. Including the bad teams, so when Crosby and Malkin go, I'll still watch the LOSING Pens, like I did '01-'04.

Face it, the Pens have been EXTREMELY lucky over their last 35 years, stumbling into Mario, Jagr, Crosby and Malkin and a lot of great 2nd tier stars, someday this luck will run out. But I'm still hooked enough to continue watching.

 

[pittdan77]

i love playoff hockey, too many games in the regular season

when i say i love playoff hockey, that means i watch games that don't involve the pens

the fact that pens fans only watch the pens tells me this town won't care about hockey when crosby and malkin are gone

I rarely take much interest in the greater NHL until March. Until then, it's just noise.

What hockey lacks is the "soap opera" that you get in other leagues. The NFL has a way of providing year round drama. Combine, free agency, draft, hold-outs, camps, and oh, a season. The EPL is the same for the die-hards.

 

[Swervin27]

I have always watched ONLY the Pens, as a person who never played hockey and wanted to trade the Pens for an NBA team before Mario came along. Including the bad teams, so when Crosby and Malkin go, I'll still watch the LOSING Pens, like I did '01-'04.

Face it, the Pens have been EXTREMELY lucky over their last 35 years, stumbling into Mario, Jagr, Crosby and Malkin and a lot of great 2nd tier stars, someday this luck will run out. But I'm still hooked enough to continue watching.

if it is 35 years long, it's not luck..

 

[BradlyPitt]

if it is 35 years long, it's not luck..

in this case i would say it is

the Pens were the worst team in the league at the absolute best time

 

[Pitt79]

if it is 35 years long, it's not luck..

What's luck is having been the absolute worse team the exact years that Lemiuex and Crosby came out, getting not one, but two all time generational super stars

 

[Pitt79]

in this case i would say it is

the Pens were the worst team in the league at the absolute best time

TWICE!!!

Three times if you consider there was no season in '04-'05 and they where able to get WORST TEAM caliber draft picks both years and got Malkin right before Sid, missing Ovechkin by one slot.

When Sid and Malkin and this current team age out, and I think they have a lot of years to go, how will that feel, I mean having a roster full of just typical, non-special NHL players!

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

I rarely take much interest in the greater NHL until March. Until then, it's just noise.

What hockey lacks is the "soap opera" that you get in other leagues. The NFL has a way of providing year round drama. Combine, free agency, draft, hold-outs, camps, and oh, a season. The EPL is the same for the die-hards.

The one advantage football has, both college and pro, over other sports is the games actually count so much more. One NFL game has the equivalent effect on the standings as 5 NHL games. Or 10 MLB games. I think this is one reason why football is so popular. Each game is so big, it matters, then you get another week to discuss, plus you have fantasy leagues, and yeah the whole draft etc...

Plus, you know these guys before going into the NFL, they played on national TV, there is name recognition, where you don't know some freckled face kid from Manitoba or Magnitogorsk Russia who is the top prospect.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

TWICE!!!

Three times if you consider there was no season in '04-'05 and they where able to get WORST TEAM caliber draft picks both years and got Malkin right before Sid, missing Ovechkin by one slot.

When Sid and Malkin and this current team age out, and I think they have a lot of years to go, how will that feel, I mean having a roster full of just typical, non-special NHL players!

Just imagine, the very next year the Pens finished 2nd overall in the draft and drafted Jordan Staal. With the next pick the Blackhawks selected Jonathan Toews. The Pens easily could have had Crosby, Malkin and Toews. YIKES!

 

[BradlyPitt]

Just imagine, the very next year the Pens finished 2nd overall in the draft and drafted Jordan Staal. With the next pick the Blackhawks selected Jonathan Toews. The Pens easily could have had Crosby, Malkin and Toews. YIKES!

backstrom and kessel would've been better picks than staal too

i can name 20 picks in the 2003 draft that would've been better than fleury who the pens took number 1 overall

the pens were the worst team in the league in 2004 but lost the draft lottery, they possibly could've had crosby and ovechkin

 

[Swervin27]

It's a shame we couldn't find a spot for staal on the first two lines, he was a good two way player.

 

[maxxwell]

What's luck is having been the absolute worse team the exact years that Lemiuex and Crosby came out, getting not one, but two all time generational super stars

Pens didn't get Crosby because they were the worst team in hockey, they won a lottery that included all teams, IIRC. That lottery came after a lockout/work stoppage and as Sid was thought to be the best prospect since Mario, all the teams wanted to have a shot at getting him. Don't recall if that draft lottery was weighted, but even if it was, winning that one was great luck.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Pens didn't get Crosby because they were the worst team in hockey, they won a lottery that included all teams, IIRC. That lottery came after a lockout/work stoppage and as Sid was thought to be the best prospect since Mario, all the teams wanted to have a shot at getting him. Don't recall if that draft lottery was weighted, but even if it was, winning that one was great luck.

It was in fact weighted, and the Pens had the best chance.

 

[Pitt79]

Pens didn't get Crosby because they were the worst team in hockey, they won a lottery that included all teams, IIRC. That lottery came after a lockout/work stoppage and as Sid was thought to be the best prospect since Mario, all the teams wanted to have a shot at getting him. Don't recall if that draft lottery was weighted, but even if it was, winning that one was great luck.

They where the worst team, with the fewest points 58, in the most recent season prior to winning the right to draft Crosby, worst and very lucky to win that lottery. But being the worst gave them more chances to win that lottery, and the lottery was between only the teams that didn't make the playoffs if I remember correctly?

http://www.hockey-reference.com/leagues/NHL_2004.html

 

[BradlyPitt]

Pens didn't get Crosby because they were the worst team in hockey, they won a lottery that included all teams, IIRC. That lottery came after a lockout/work stoppage and as Sid was thought to be the best prospect since Mario, all the teams wanted to have a shot at getting him. Don't recall if that draft lottery was weighted, but even if it was, winning that one was great luck.

many believe it was rigged because the league knew they needed an arena and they wanted to keep the team in pittsburgh

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

many believe it was rigged because the league knew they needed an arena and they wanted to keep the team in pittsburgh

Any thoughts of the NHL being smart enough and strategic enough to "rig" these draft lotteries should have gone out the window when Connor McDavid ended up in Edmonton.

 

[happjack]

many believe it was rigged because the league knew they needed an arena and they wanted to keep the team in pittsburgh

That makes no sense since Anaheim had either the second or third best chance at the first pick, if they were going to fix it Anaheim would have gotten #1. Bettman only cared about keeping the Pens from moving to Southern Ontario or Kansas City he would have jumped for joy if they moved to a warm weather city with population growth like Orlando or Las Vegas.

 

[BradlyPitt]

That makes no sense since Anaheim had either the second or third best chance at the first pick, if they were going to fix it Anaheim would have gotten #1. Bettman only cared about keeping the Pens from moving to Southern Ontario or Kansas City he would have jumped for joy if they moved to a warm weather city with population growth like Orlando or Las Vegas.

why would they want anaheim to have the pick over pittsburgh? that would make no sense

and bettman did not want them to move ANYWHERE, he knows this town will support them when they are good so it makes sense to try and keep them in pittsburgh

 

[BradlyPitt]

Any thoughts of the NHL being smart enough and strategic enough to "rig" these draft lotteries should have gone out the window when Connor McDavid ended up in Edmonton.

why would that bother them? it didn't hurt gretzky or messier

it makes sense to have the best players in cities where they know the fans will support the team

nobody in florida or phoenix would care about conner mcdavid

 

[Pitt79]

why would that bother them? it didn't hurt gretzky or messier

it makes sense to have the best players in cities where they know the fans will support the team

nobody in florida or phoenix would care about conner mcdavid

Then why have they adamantly opposed the Phoenix team from leaving to go to Hamilton or Quebec, where hockey matters and they'd probably sell out?

 

[BradlyPitt]

Then why have they adamantly opposed the Phoenix team from leaving to go to Hamilton or Quebec, where hockey matters and they'd probably sell out?

i don't know if it was fixed or not

just saying what many people have speculated when crosby was drafted, that was a huge amount of luck winning the draft lottery when the team was threatening to move, some also saw it as the league helping out one of it's legends in mario