The_Admiral

A Zen koan from Mike Babcock:

We change the game every year because we don’t want to change the game.

As a fan, he's not a fan.

Don't sweat it, one more question mark set off from the last letter of a sentence ought to trip the bug zapper.

I won't claim to have read a lot of district attorney press releases, but the tone of that one, damn, reads like

Yes, everyone knows that, and taking Kane off a video game cover was the right move, but with the way this has gone, with the DNA evidence not bearing out the accusations, the D.A. putting the girl's mom on blast for a failed hoax, the dad making death threats on facebook, and the girl finally slinking away from it all with her tail tucked, this is as close to saying "probably nothing happened" as you're going to get. People can go on booing Kane at their home games, though; they're right to be upset that someone from another team keeps setting up and scoring goals.

Saw this beautiful "OITGDNorris Division" piece posted on Twitter.

http://www.si.com/vault/1987/01/19/114715/how-they-bore-us-in-the-norris-welcome-to-the-nhls-sorriest-division-where-a-500-record-is-cause-for-jubilation-and-even-the-inept-earn-playoff-berths

At last winter's NHL Board of Governors meetings, the Pittsburgh Penguins petitioned to move from the powerhouse Patrick Division to the cozy den of Norris. ''We could compete better in the Norris than in the Patrick,'' J. Paul Martha, the team's vice-president and general counsel, said candidly. Eventually, the motion was withdrawn.

Hey, it worked when the Red Wings did it 25 years later!

Channel 23 in Rockford, which also carries IceHogs games on 23.3, is airing the WGN Blackhawks games on 23.2 this season. And it makes sense in Indy, since the Fuel are the Hawks' ECHL affiliate.

FAKE EDIT: It looks like this is because WGN has sold their games out of market. Per this WGN FAQ, this package of Hawks games is airing in Rockford, Indy, the Quad Cities, Des Moines, and Peoria (LOL Blues). And I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it made its way into more midwestern markets and digital subchannels next season.

Excellent. This is what I call "growing the game." Just gotta get Wisconsin on board now.

Oh, funny you mention Indianapolis. One of their TV stations has picked up the package of over-the-air weekend games from WGN, so 20ish Blackhawks games are now on TV there. I've been saying the Hawks need to explore this for years:

If the Blackhawks still aren't willing to have another team up the road, the least they can do is syndicate their 20-game-or-so over-the-air TV package to Milwaukee, or Milwhawkee, and see if they can make some inroads there (plus Madison, Rockford, South Bend, while we're on the topic). Otherwise, they're just squatting.

The Blackhawks aren't doing nearly enough to capture outlying areas and make themselves a fully regional team.

Case in point: just like the other Chicago teams, the Blackhawks have telecasts on WGN. However, while the Cubs/Bulls/Sox have their games aired nationally on both WGNs (9 and America), the Hawks are only on channel 9. I'm guessing this has something to do with Gary Bettman being a doodoohead and trying to further protect failing southern markets from the superstation. Anyway, the unintended consequence here is that not all cable systems in areas overlapping Comcast Sportsnet's reach--downstate, South Bend, Rockford, Quad Cities--carry the local feed of WGN, rather WGN America, so most weekend games are blacked out there, which means the Hawks have essentially re-Wirtzed their television contract. Why not work out some deal to syndicate the WGN package to local UHFs in their satellite markets, the way the Cubs have their stupid channel 26 package syndicated to similar markets? While they're at it, get that slate on in Milwaukee and Madison, too.

Weird that Indianapolis would be the first television market to get some Hawks games. I'd have gone after Madison and Milwaukee.

Is it an unpopular opinion to think the Phillies looked best during the 70s-80s in their maroon and white jerseys? I especially liked the "P" logo, and maroon isn't a color seen anywhere else in the MLB right now.

Nah, maroon and white looked grat for the Phils. They should have used the new park as a reason to go from bright red back to maroon.

Colored pants look good in baseball. For alternates.

I'd like to see Pittsburgh wear yellow pants with black jerseys but other than that I don't think I want to see pants in anything but white or grey.

The white pants are the ones they don't need. They need to go back to the burgundy pants with white jerseys and socks for road games.

So if someone dislikes how a jersey looks, it's because they're not a "true fan" of a sport?

There's my unpopular opinion... I think it's possible to enjoy a sport where you like unpopular jerseys and logos.

I prefer that hockey uniforms aren't designed to promote NBA teams.

I like the Calgary Flames' current branding.

Also, this is a decent jersey:

Do you even like hockey?

Real talk: at least ten people chanting in that video once raped someone

I don't know why teams that were founded recently should ever feel compelled to look like an older team.

The Carolina Panthers in a nutshell.

The Carolina Panthers look modern, just not over-the-top Arena League. The tapered stripes on the pants and helmet are a modern touch.

Slow days for the NHL anti thread, I see...

Like pieces of a Lou Malnati's pizza in my midst, those never last.

The problem is that the whole idea of the Perds embracing yellow is that it's become their whole rallying point: they're The Yellow Team. If they were to wear it on the road, that'd be great, but it would have to be their home uniform as well. That would be interesting for one team to have only one uniform. Maybe wear the yellow helmets on the road so as not to clash with dark helmets (but not Dark Helmet) and wear the blue helmets at home against the visiting team's white.

I know some Preds fans wouldn't mind that. From a marketing standpoint, though, I doubt the team would ever go to a single sweater for both home and away.

Perhaps you could retain the white sweaters as quasi-alternates for games where [other team's color] versus yellow would be unpalatable, like Philadelphia, or...well, I guess that's it. Yellow goes fine with everyone else's red, blue, or black.

Makes sense. I never had Beggar's or Aurelio's growing up. South burbs are a different world to me.

As for deep dish, I agree with Gino's over Giordano's, but I've never had Malnati's. But I'm not huge on deep dish, so whatever.

How have you not had Lou Malnati's? Do they not have locations south of Roosevelt? Weird. Order a thin-crust sausage pizza, it's the best.

The problem is that the whole idea of the Perds embracing yellow is that it's become their whole rallying point: they're The Yellow Team. If they were to wear it on the road, that'd be great, but it would have to be their home uniform as well. That would be interesting for one team to have only one uniform. Maybe wear the yellow helmets on the road so as not to clash with dark helmets (but not Dark Helmet) and wear the blue helmets at home against the visiting team's white.

NHL Anti-thread: More Songs About Buildings and Mexican Food

DAMN THAT QUESADILLA

WHAT A BAD PICTURE

Portillo's is like the replacement-level Italian beef/hot dog stand. Some mom-and-pop places will be much better, others much worse.

Having watched this stupid league shoot itself in the foot for about 16 years, I will tell you how this 3-on-3 thing will go. Through October, a lot of games will be decided before the shootout. Everyone will ooh and ahh over how dynamic this 3-on-3 hockey is. Columnists will even opine that regulation hockey should go to 4-on-4 so there's always more open ice! But by American Thanksgiving, coaches will have adjusted, and 3-on-3 overtime will be even safer than 4-on-4 was (consider that no one ever pleads for more open ice in playoff overtime, which is much more likely to end in five minutes than it is to end in fifty), and overtime will become nothing but twenty-second shifts of harmless dump-and-chase to make sure that everyone is Playing Our Kind Of Mistake-Free Hockey and other such crap, and then the number of shootouts will go way up, and general managers will wring their hands once more about how there must be something done about this damned shootout, even though the shootout is not the problem and never has been the problem because you don't have to do it if you knock it the off with the limp-dick dump-and-chase crap.

Still committed to this post.

I've seen one overtime game so far, Chicago v. Long Island. It was kinda scrambly for a bit, I guess, then Nick Leddy took a penalty, Hawks went to 4 on 3, and scored, because that's generally what you do when you're playing 4 on 3. In other words, it's the same outcome that we would have had if we had started the period 4 on 4. Looking forward to the first overtime game against the Coyotes; my wrists don't need all that blood.

Love love love the Chiefs red pants but...my favorite uni combo for them is their white on white look! So clean and classic and not worn enough. I always get really excited when I see that they're going to wear it. Even though the last couple times they've worn it, they've lost. Awful playoff lost from a couple years ago too

White over White (11/10)

White over Red (10/10)

Red over White (9/10)

Red over Red (bleh)

I'd go 10/10, 10/10, 10/10, bleh. It should be really hard to mess up the Chiefs' look, but they find a way regardless (this could also describe their play).

The purpose of the modern AHL is to develop players for NHL teams, who pay for most player contracts, and

It's not as if the Gulls just sort of found themselves developing Ducks prospects because a couple of them showed up on their doorstep and they figured why not. The Ducks basically squeezed the Norfolk Admirals out of business in order to establish a west-coast developmental affiliate, remember? The whole reason the Gulls and their California counterparts exist is for prospects. So no, they don't "just happen" to be affiliated with the Ducks. Tripping on a crack in the sidewalk is something that just happens. This is by design. You most certainly are rooting for Ducks prospects, you either deal with it like tons of AHL fans do or become a Ducks fan.

Much like Big Bear, Jack Eichel is doin' thangs. Looks like Buffalo didn't really lose the draft lottery after all. Now that they didn't, we should fine them a draft pick for getting this guy.

I don't live in Phoenix anymore and am back in California, or I'd definitely take you up on that offer.

In the three years I was there, I NEVER found a single Mexican restaurant that was even pretty good let alone very good, and I tried a TON of places because I love Mexican food. It was all SO damn expensive, too. The majority of even the dirty hole in the wall places I've eaten at (especially in Southern California) absolutely blow even the more well known Mexican restaurants in the Phoenix area out of the water.

It could've been a three year string of poor luck on my part. But considering the sample size I created, it must've been an absolutely astounding run of bad luck.

Wait, what? How does Phoenix not have awesome Mexican food? You'd think that'd be the one thing they can't screw up!

I'd give that a shot. I love Korean food. I just get sick thinking about gravy and fries.