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Viper

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Posts posted by Viper

  1. From Uni Watch Blog today
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    9Qi_mwHH_bigger.jpegVintage MN Hockey@VintageMNHockey

    This photo surfaced @UniWatch from a @9modano & Smith signing in 1989 (Never seen ☆ prototype jersey in background)?

    CW7SQ9mWcAAnJPx.jpg

    I know I've never seen these jerseys before, has anyone else? There's some snazzy elements to them, but probably an overall mess. Thoughts?

    Maybe those unis were an early draft of their eventual 1991 rebrand. Come to think of it, 1989 was about the time of the first rumblings of a possible North Stars relocation (to San Jose), so these unis might even have been meant as the first stage of a staggered rebrand in anticipation of such a move. (Some fans have theorized that the '91 rebrand itself was a similar ploy ahead of the team's eventual move to Dallas, given how little that look had to be tweaked for the Stars' new home.)

  2. Green Bay Packers: Due to family ties (lots of Packer-fan relatives) and living among Cheeseheads for several years. Plus, I'm a shareholder now.

    Arsenal: My London-born brother-in-law (who supports Fulham) comes from a family of Gooners. More critically, Arsenal was just moving from Highbury into Emirates Stadium right at about the time I was looking for an English side to adopt, so I figured it would be an ideal time to get on board.

    Colorado Mammoth (not on my sig, yet): The NLL team I have adopted in place of the Minnesota Georgia Swarm.

  3. I don't recall if I brought this up earlier in the thread (and it's such a huge thread now that I'm too lazy to look) but in 2010 the newly-relocated Washington (state) Stealth of the NLL raised a banner for having won the league's West Division the previous year. There was one small problem, though: That division title was won as the San Jose Stealth, but the banner had the Washington name and logo on it.

    I bring this up again now because we may be about to see an even more absurd example of this in the same league with the Saskatchewan Rush. Last year the Edmonton Rush won their first - and as it turns out, their last - league championship. A few weeks later, they pulled up stakes and moved one province over, to Saskatoon. Their home opener is on the 15th, when they will raise their 2015 championship banner to the SaskTel Centre rafters. Though they have not said which market name and logo the banner will feature, in all likelihood they'll pull the same sort of revisionist championship history as the Stealth did in 2010, which would be a final slap in the face to Rush fans left behind in Edmonton. The game will be streamed online, so I will post a screen-grab of the banner if they show it.

    Update: The design of the Rush championship rings (pictured below) suggests a possible solution to the banner conundrum: A "generic" version of the team wordmark that just says "Rush", with no reference to either Edmonton or Saskatchewan.

    12509758_10153255227241606_1586012324367

  4. I have a sinking feeling that Vegas, and only Vegas, will be getting an expansion team this time around, for a 31-team NHL. Team #32 will be tabled until either (1) the Seattle group(s) get their :censored: together (assuming one of them doesn't end up with the Coyotes instead) or (2) another western U.S. market emerges, such as Houston or KC, and one of them will get the other expansion team.

    Quebec City feels a lot like it'll end up like Winnipeg, all dressed up with nowhere to go for years before another of Bettman's Sun Belt babies finally gives up the ghost (or maybe even a non-Sun Belt baby like Columbus).

  5. Still, wherever they end up, I pray they keep the original Sharks logo!

    If it's San Jose, they'll almost certainly adopt the current NHL Sharks logo - otherwise they'd have to repaint the logo at center ice on every changeover between the NHL and AHL Sharks.

    They'll probably go with a different uni style and a variation on the Sharks name for the AHL team, in order to differentiate it from its parent club/arena-mate. Tiburones (Spanish for "Sharks"), perhaps?

  6. EDIT, also Lake Erie is owned by Dan Gilbert, who basically uses the team as a loss leader to fill arena dates. You're going to have difficulty prying that franchise loose.

    nash61's idea wasn't to move or demote Lake Erie, merely to switch its parent club from Colorado to Columbus.

    Also, re: 5-team West Coast "mini-league" within the AHL: Keep in mind that would likely go up to 6 teams or even 7 with Las Vegas and/or Seattle affilliates joining in.

  7. These aren't new, but I have moved my NHL and NLL rink templates to a new folder on Photobucket, so the old links are broken, thus necessitating the posting of new ones.

    NHL rink template

    (click thumbnail for full-size image)

    th_NHLrinktemplate.png

    NLL box template

    (click thumbnail for full-size image)

    th_NLLboxtemplate.png

    Center-turf mask for NLL template

    (to place the center faceoff dot on top of a center-turf logo)

    Lacrosse-Centerturfmask.png

  8. Perhaps the NHL is saving Quebec for the Devils?

    http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=425724

    Just my opinion but I think the Devils will stay put in North Jersey. I still feel like the team that will move to Quebec are the Panthers. How that team has survived as long as they have in South Florida is beyond me.

    Better yet, they could take the Devils franchise full-circle by moving them back to Kansas City. (This would have the added bonus of enabling the conferences to be re-balanced at 15 teams apiece.)

  9. Going dark is not an option unless the league made some unheard of concessions to the players affected. The union would flip. They'd have to declare the Coyotes players free agents, expand rosters for a season, and grant salary cap exemptions so that the number of players with jobs (and who pay union dues) doesn't decrease. Then they'd have an expansion draft or something in a year or whenever the team comes back on-line.

    Actually now that I type that out, that actually could be a possibility.

    Like I said - moving heaven, hell and every mountain on Earth...

  10. I cannot believe nobody caught this little nugget from the other day...

    The Phoenix Coyotes have been linked to several cities for relocation.

    There could be another possibility if the City of Glendale and an ownership group can't come to an agreement: going dark for the 2013-2014 season.

    In other words, the NHL could soon be veering into what in recent years has been the exclusive domain of the National Lacrosse League (which has seen several teams suspend operations with plans to return later, although most of them ended up simply going away altogether).

    If this actually happens, aside from making the new alignment even more unbalanced than it already is, it would reaffirm what most of us here have suspected all along: that Seattle, Quebec City et al never really had a chance, because the Phoenix market is to Gary Bettman what the One Ring is to Gollum, and he'll move heaven, hell and every mountain on Earth before he gives up his Precious.

  11. That article offers an intriguing alternative that I haven't seen being discussed here (probably): Folding the Coyotes, and collect an expansion fee from either Quebec City or Seattle (although the SODO Arena has hit a snag.) It obviously makes the NHL more money, and it means that whoever (more than likely Quebec City) can bide their time until their new arena is running.

    I suppose folding the Coyotes would be the most logical thing to do. After all you'd want the "new" Nordiques to start fresh rather than tie them into the history of their long-time WHA rival.

    No, it's the NHL, and nothing is logical, so the current WPG/PHX franchise history would have to go back to the Jets and then trade the Thrasher version of that history to Quebec for a future first round draft pick.

    Also, losing a team (however temporarily) would mean the NHLPA would fight it tooth and nail, and the NHL will have its hands full negotiating a new CBA with them as it is. So unless the Quebec expansion franchise is ready to go, like, immediately, folding the Coyotes is a non-starter.

  12. MYNHL28teamsnocoyotesordevils.png

    Based on the latest news that the Devils are $77 million in debt, I have reconstructed the league again, by contracting Phoenix and New Jersey.

    Rearrange the division names (your Smythe should be Norris, your Norris Adams and your Adams Smythe) and you're golden.

    I also like your outside-the-box 3-team-division format too.

  13. The shortsightedness of TCF Stadium was a joke to begin with. The Gophers and Vikings should have gotten togther on a shared stadium from day one.

    Agreed wholeheartedly. I still feel like it would be cheaper to retrofit TCF for NFL use than build another huge football stadium like three blocks away. That's so gratuitous and completely belies Minnesota's otherwise famous thriftiness.

    I don't disgree. It certainly makes sense on a practical level. I can't recall whether both sides were opposed to sharing a stadium, but the University of Minnesota at least had reasons that seem rational. The Gopher football program has largely been irrelevant since the 1940s and in no way can compete at a recruiting level with the Ohio States and Michigans of the world. Having its own dedicated, on-campus stadium -- with the degree of regalness befitting a quality college football program -- was seen as a recruiting tool and, at least symbolically, a symbol of the university's intentions to revive the program.

    You could call that self-serving marketing schlock, because it is, but other than the fiscal irresponsibility of the whole thing there's a kernel viable reasoning in there somewhere.

    As I recall, the Vikings and U of M couldn't agree on a location for a shared stadium - the U of M specifically wanted theirs back on campus, and the Vikings wanted it, well, pretty much anywhere but the U of M campus, mainly due to a shortage of available parking and hotel rooms nearby. If the Vikings have to play there for a season or more while the new place is being built, expect plenty of fan complaints.

  14. Radical NHL realignment proposal (assuming all current teams stay put for now):

    NATIONAL CONFERENCE

    • East: Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, NY Rangers, Ottawa
    • Central: Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, St. Louis, Toronto
    • West: Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg

    AMERICAN CONFERENCE

    • East: New Jersey, NY Islanders, Florida, Philadelphia, Washington
    • Central: Columbus, Carolina, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay
    • West: Anaheim, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Jose, Phoenix

    Regular-season format: Reduced from 82 back to 80 games

    • Games 1-58: Two games (one home + one away) vs. all other teams in league
    • Games 59-80: One game vs. all other teams in same conference (each matchup alternates home teams each year), plus two additional games (one home + 1 away) vs. each division rival
    • In games 59-80, division rivals that are set to play twice in the same city may schedule those games back-to-back (this is to minimize travel)

    Points:

    • 2 points for a regulation win
    • 1 point for an OT/shootout win
    • 0 points for a loss of any kind

    Playoff format: Similar to the current format, with one tweak: The top at-large team may be seeded #2 or #3 if it finishes with more points than the second- and/or third-ranked division winners in its conference.

    Other comments:

    • The general concept is to put the traditional markets, particularly the Canadian and Original Six teams, in one conference and newer markets in the other, then divvying up the remaining pre-'90s expansion teams to fill out the divisions.
    • If an American Conference team (all U.S.-based) moves to a Canadian market, they are to be swapped with one of the U.S.-based non-Original-Six teams in the National Conference. All other divisional moves will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
    • Generally I have tried to set the divisions so that they each span no more than two time zones, for travel and TV purposes. Unfortunately there aren't enough teams in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones to make that possible for the West divisions. In the National West, I was at least able to partially compensate travel-wise by including Winnipeg with the western Canadian teams to minimize border crossings.
    • Yes, the National Central is a Norris Division reunion. The National West is also an 80% Smythe reunion. It could have been made a full reunion by swapping the Avs and Kings (which would also give SoCal a presence in both conferences), but that also would make for long Kings road trips just to face their division rivals.
    • You know how the Blue Jackets nickname is a Civil War reference to the Union army? Notice that I have them in the same division as several teams from former Confederate states. :hockeysmiley:

  15. The dates are more valuable on anything but hockey? It's beginning to look a lot like Georgia.

    Pretty damning when a Glenderp elected official says "I want them to go bye-bye."

    Many performers and conventions prefer that there not be ice on the arena's floor.

    It also costs a lot to have a hockey team. Take away the players' salaries and team's costs of operating a hockey team at the NHL level, you still have to factor in:

    -Paying for a "conversion crew" when the arena hosts concerts, shows, and other events during the season.

    -Energy costs for the refrigerator coils and air conditioning to keep the arena at the temperatures that the NHL requires.

    -Ice maintenance and materials needed for the zambonis, etc. On game days alone, the ice gets cleaned at least 10 times throughout the day. It also gets cleaned on non-game days, even if it hasn't been used since the previous game. Maintaining the ice that the NHL wants is hella intensive.

    Considering the team (and, I assume, the arena) doesn't have an owner, these are hefty costs that the city of Glendale is picking up.

    In essence, this means it would make more economic sense to bring back the NLL's Arizona Sting (no ice needed for indoor lacrosse, a max of 11 home dates a year, crowds not that much smaller than the Coyotes get now) and make them the arena's primary tenant than to keep the Coyotes around. "Bizarre" doesn't begin to do the situation justice.

  16. If the Rams do end up in Los Angeles would the NFL put a team right back in St. Louis just like that with the Jags?

    I think that's the reason Khan bought the Jaguars, so he could do just that.

    The Rams move back to LA, and Khan ends up owning a franchise in his own St. Louis.

    [Addressing Jaguars fans and the Jacksonville community]

    "I shall leave you as you left me... as you left Wayne... marooned for all eternity at the center of a dead media market."

    [drops to a whisper]

    "Buried alive, buried alive..."

  17. A minor game-changer in the "race" to LA, as the Vikings may be stuck in the Metrodome Mall of America Field for one more season:

    According to Rochelle Olson and Mike Kaszuba of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the lease agreement contains a clause that extends the agreement by one year for every year in which the Metrodome is damaged and the team is forced to play elsewhere for all or part of a season. That’s precisely what happened in 2010, after a December blizzard caused the roof to collapse, forcing the Vikings to play their final two home games elsewhere.

    Already on PFT the conspiracy theories are flying that the Metropolitan Sports Commission purposely sabotaged the Dome to collapse for this very reason, and that they could do it again and again and again to keep the Vikings there indefinitely.

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