The_Admiral

Wherein Don Maloney roots for an entire nation's economy -- his nation's economy -- to fail so that he can take advantage of other teams' cap crunches. Raffi Torres should kill a busload of Don Maloneys.

Apparently it is now Puck Daddy's (or at least Ryan Lambert's) editorial policy to dare not speak the name of the Chicago Blackhawks:

Should be interesting to see whether Deadspin will carry a torch of their own now as well. Or it could just be Lambert being his usual troll self. I mean, the premise of the column I took that from was basically "will the Jets blow their playoff spot? Probably not, but boy, it sure makes you think."

You guys are putting way too much thought into how the AHL and ECHL should function.

As Admiral keeps pointing out (upon deaf ears, apparently), the point of minor leagues is to get practice time and develop as a player in game situations, and to keep costs down. It's not about playing equal schedules or seeing every team or even winning a championship (and a parent team will never admit that last point publicly). It's getting their younger players ready for the top league and helping players rehabilitate and get back in game shape.

It's not really a necessity to have your AHL team located near the parent club when you have an allowance of carrying three extra skaters.

I think I should clarify a few things. While the point of the AHL, for the most part, is to develop players for the parent team, that doesn't mean that it should be a slapdash operation where teams just get games in whenever it's convenient, however many games that may be from team to team. While I certainly don't advocate the Calgary/New Jersey model where every possible corner is cut in terms of running a minor-league operation, I also wouldn't want a whole league full of tweener superstars where quality prospects get their minutes where they can, because that doesn't serve the NHL well, and like everyone except that CHRDANHUTCH weirdo who pops up around the internet, I am an NHL fan first and foremost. Affiliates should be in harmony with their parent teams in terms of running systems, maintaining a clear line of communication about who gets and needs ice time, but at the AHL level, there still has to be an effort to present the teams as engaged civic entities that want to provide a quality product at an affordable price. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think there can be an amenable middle ground where affiliates make the most of their talent without running mere scrimmages.

As for a league footprint, it should be obvious that keeping everyone in close quarters means cheaper travel and more time to practice. Let's face it: minor-league hockey is never going to exist on fat profit margins. Being able to drive a prospect from Rockford to Chicago, Allentown to Philadelphia, or one street in Toronto to another street in Toronto are luxuries of geography, not entitlements. We can't have a minor league that looks just like the NHL with all the dots on the map moved 75 miles in one direction or another. For most cities outside the northeast/midwest, tough crap. To me, the biggest irony of the Sharks claiming that they can't properly monitor their prospects in Worcester, besides the fact that their prospects are generally hockey's answer to the Putty Patrol, is that we live in a world that has never been smaller. To hear it from these Silicon Valley whiners, of all people, you'd think they were relying on telegrams to hear how their kids were looking. DEAR DOUG WILSON STOP TOMMY WINGELS CANNOT CEASE SCORING STOP PLEASE REQUEST HIS PRESENCE BY CONESTOGA AT YOUR SOONEST CONVENIENCE STOP. I find it very hard to believe that the Sharks were monitoring their prospects any worse than anyone else. But while information travels quickly and easily, hockey teams don't. That the Sharks need to have their prospects right in their own building because flying them from the Northeast Corridor was slightly inconvenient was born of the same kind of spoiled empty-headedness that gave us sweaters without stripes to be 2% faster.

This California thing is inefficient, indulgent, and compromises the integrity of the league. I don't like it and won't ever like it. The scale of minor-league hockey makes it foolish to run more than regional circuits: preferably one in the northeast, one in the midwest.

I got another one... Recently the NBA and NHL started considering putting ads on their jerseys. Am I really the only one who would not mind if this happened? I mean, as long as it's kept to a minimum. Even MLS teams only have one presenting sponsor, and I don't see that changing in a hurry.

Will they be on the retail sweaters? If so, what do they pay me for wearing an advertisement for GEICO, Honda, or Advil? Lump sum, or do I bill them every time I wear it outside? Oh, you mean I don't get paid to advertise multinational corporations? In fact, I'll probably pay more than I would have for old inventory? Well, then.

"You do realize" might be my least favorite sequence of words in the entire English language. "You do realize that what you said is wrong, right?" No, I f-cking don't; what do you think I do, sit around trying to be willfully wrong about things? Ugh. There should be a humorous word filter here to make it go away.

Is the world ready for Rockford versus Stockton?

I've no idea how many shows/concerts/whatever make stops in all three Bay Area venues: SAP Center (San Jose), Cow Palace (San Francisco) and Oracle Arena (Oakland). Nor do I know the SAP Center's annual calendar during hockey season. For at least seven months, they likely have ice on the floor every single day, from mid-September to mid-April. Just to have the ice on the floor (this does not include any maintenance) costs $15,000 per day. The arena's normal house lights cost like $22 a minute to operate.

If the SAP Center doesn't have many events during the hockey season other than Sharks games, having a second hockey tenant that you own can at least sell some tickets for those that can't afford NHL prices for another 30-ish dates.

Pretty sure the Tank stays pretty busy with other events. Sharks ownership is a lot like True North in that they use the hockey team as a loss leader for everything else they put on.

I know the United Center has to melt down the ice when the circus comes to town. I'm sure all arenas have a few acts like that where the ice has to go.

Yes, the CalGary Hitmen do play on the CalGary Flames ice in the Saddledome in CalGary.

Does that bother Mark Jee-err-dann-o?

As a noted Saddledome expert, I'd like to mention that the Hitmen play on the Flames' ice.

Presumably shark-based, but whatever they use, they're not going to put down a new sheet of ice every single time there's a game. They'll just have Sharks logos (and advertising) on the ice.

And does San Jose really need an NHL team and AHL team?

No, but the poor widdle Sharkie-warkies were having a wah-wah because it took too long to fly some guy named "Melker" from Boston to San Francisco.

Speaking of replacing arenas that are worn out pieces of crap however... how's Calgary doing replacing the Saddledome?

lol idk

The Packers' radio flagship is and has always been WTMJ Milwaukee. In terms of corporate support, the Packers rely heavily on Milwaukee, and maintain a separate season ticket base for the vestigial County Stadium slate. (As I understand it, those crowds are much more lively, while the old-line Green Bay season ticketholders are cranky old people from Wausau who passive-aggressively grumble "some of us are trying to see" if something compels you to get up out of your seat.) So yeah, I think the Packers definitely put a strain on the market as far as a fourth pro team goes.

I think they'd get good support. It would be really exciting to watch hockey grow more in southeastern Wisconsin at all levels. Milwaukee would be far and away the smallest four-sport town, but Wisconsin is so passionate about sports that they could make it work.

I always keep circling back to how spectacular a Blackhawks-Predators rivalry would be if the Perds' old southeastern-Wisconsin-based ownership had put its NHL team in southeastern Wisconsin (and stuffed its AHL affiliate in Nashville, or not, idgaf). Kane and Hossa snatching Game 5 of the 2010 first round against Nashville? A game I'll remember fondly. Kane and Hossa snatching Game 5 of the 2010 first round against Milwaukee? Instant classic for us, a wound that never heals for them. It really would have made so much sense. Hey, you'd even maintain the "it's fun to go to bars there" aspect of it!

That and despite someone's assertion above that the tank wasn't built to last, it really was. It's still a gorgeous venue today that has all of the bells and whistles the Sharks need. And it has been updated pretty regularly since it opened. But I imagine the Sharks will come asking for a larger renovation or a replacement in the next decade or so.

The arena is fine, except for the part about how it's not really going to be fine much longer. Geez, does any organization get more blowjobs for less than the Sharks?

Hulsizer is gonna try to fax a contract to Minnesota but it's just gonna send sc49erfan15's avatar a hundred times.

Okay, I had to look up his avatar, but I laughed for a solid minute afterwards. Good work.

Did you see the thread in the logo folder? It happened to some guy here.

The Hamilton machinations were going on before Edmonton started building the new arena. You'll note that this stuff with the Otters was going on back in 2012.

Wow, that's scummy. And given that the NHL would sooner allow a team to move to Mars than Hamilton, he's not just malicious, he's dumb. I like people who are malicious, and I like people who are dumb, but I never like anyone who's malicious and dumb.

Isn't Thunder Bay kind of hard to get to? Saskatoon would probably be the better bet. Medium-sized city, more accessible, helps the Jets put down roots in Saskatchewan.

Rapid City makes sense. On a semi-related note with regard to the Jets' giant territory, it would be nice if they could work some deal out like the Sabres finally got, where Jets games can air in the Dakotas. Not even all of TSN3, just pick up the feed for games and put it on some community-access channel or whatever.

Hulsizer is gonna try to fax a contract to Minnesota but it's just gonna send sc49erfan15's avatar a hundred times.

Confirmation by fax expected on Marchuary 28B, 0215.

The ironic thing is that their whole deal is that marketing is irrelevant and these teams exist only to produce NHL players, but they're perennially two of the worst development systems in the league! They're not focusing on one side of minor-league hockey over another. They just suck.

Since 1993, they've had 6 teams.

Not only that, but they've killed pro hockey altogether in Saint John, Lowell, Omaha, and the Quad Cities. Possibly Abbotsford if the Canucks don't move in. The world has probably left Glens Falls behind.

After looking why wouldn't Vancouver and Arizona want Utica and Portland closer?

Because it's more beneficial to have farm teams in proximity to one another: less travel time, more practice time, and a big difference in costs. I don't understand this idea that all teams are entitled to have their prospects in their back yards. I'm not shedding tears for the loss of Oklahoma City or Norfolk, but it certainly seems as if many of the best minor-league systems profit from the close quarters of the Pennsylvania-New York State-New England circuit.

I thought Manchester to Ontario and Oklahoma City to Bakersfield were done deals. Adirondack to Stockton, too. Poor Glens Falls. Calgary claims another.

one of the leagues most popular teams.

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