cmm

When I was a kid, I thought the Wales Conference was named after the Hartford Whalers. I wasn't very bright. (I'm still kinda dumb.)

I'll save you the time so you can keep up the humor posts. http://www.hockey-reference.com/playoffs/overtime-goals.cgi There have been 819 playoff OT goals, assuming I copied/pasted correctly. 277 (33.8%) came in the first 5 minutes of OT 472 (57.6%) came in the first 10 minutes of OT 576 (70.3%) came in the first 15 minutes of OT 652 (79.6%) came in the first 20 minutes of OT

I didn't take pictures, but all of the Nets banners at Barclays Center are now in black and white instead of era-appropriate colors. And they took down the individual division and conference championship banners and gave them the same treatment they gave the Islanders: all division championships listed on one banner, and all conference championships on another.

Just saw this. Strangis and Thorne (along with Chris Cuthbert and Jiggs) will fill in on some Kings broadcasts since Bob Miller is cutting back on road games. http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/los-angeles-kings-will-have-guest-play-by-play-announcers-for-selected-road-games.html Also, Strangis was on Press Your Luck.

We are more alike than I'm comfortable with. I'll take a 10 pm game over a 1 pm game (or those horrible 12 pm and 12:30 pm starts) anytime. When I own a team I will schedule one game a year for midnight for my fellow night people/insomniacs.

31-team scheduling formula (assuming they want to keep the same general idea): East is easy: 4 games (2 home, 2 away) vs. 7 division rivals = 28 games (14 home, 14 away) 3 games (2 home, 1 away) vs 4 teams from other division = 12 games (8 home, 4 away) 3 games (1 home, 2 away) vs 4 teams from other division = 12 games (4 home, 8 away) 2 games (1 home, 1 away) vs 15 West teams = 30 games (15 home, 15 away) total 82 games (41 home, 41 away) West is a little trickier but not too bad. Pacific Divison (8 teams) ANA, ARI, CGY, EDM 4 games (2 home, 2 away) vs 6 division rivals = 24 games (12 home, 12 away) 5 games (2 home, 3 away) vs 1 division rival from "other half" of division = 5 games (2 home, 3 away) 3 games (2 home, 1 away) vs 4 Central teams = 12 games (8 home, 4 away) 3 games (1 home, 2 away) vs 3 Central teams = 9 games (3 home, 6 away) 2 games (1 home, 1 away) vs 16 East teams = 32 games (16 home, 16 away) total 82 games (41 home, 41 away) LA, SJ, VAN, LV 4 games (2 home, 2 away) vs 6 division rivals = 24 games (12 home, 12 away) 5 games (3 home, 2 away) vs 1 division rival from "other half" of division = 5 games (3 home, 2 away) 3 games (1 home, 2 away) vs 4 Central teams = 12 games (4 home, 8 away) 3 games (2 home, 1 away) vs 3 Central teams = 9 games (6 home, 3 away) 2 games (1 home, 1 away) vs 16 East teams = 32 games (16 home, 16 away) total 82 games (41 home, 41 away) Central Division (7 teams) 4 games (2 home, 2 away) vs 4 division rivals = 16 games (8 home, 8 away) 5 games (3 home, 2 away) vs 1 division rival = 5 games (3 home, 2 away) 5 games (2 home, 3 away) vs 1 division rival = 5 games (2 home, 3 away) 3 games (2 home, 1 away) vs 4 Pacific teams = 12 games (8 home, 4 away) 3 games (1 home, 2 away) vs 4 Pacific teams = 12 games (4 home, 8 away) 2 games (1 home, 1 away) vs 16 East teams = 32 games (16 home, 16 away) total 82 games (41 home, 41 away) In pretty matrix form (home games are across, road games are down so, for example, the Islanders have 1 home game against the Bruins and go to Boston twice):

The scheduling matrix is already wonky with the current format. In the east, you play some of your division rivals 4 times, others 5 times. In the west, you have the same thing plus this special note: (Exception: One team from each division plays one more game inside division and one fewer game inside conference outside division. For the 2014-15 season, the team from the Central Division is Colorado; the team from the Pacific Division is San Jose.) They'll figure something out. Hell, I'm sure I'd be able to come up with something if I was motivated and I struggled putting the lid on my soda at lunch today. As for the divisional imbalance affecting the playoffs, you already have two 8-team divisions and two 7-teams divisions. Going three 8's and one 7 isn't much different in terms of fairness. YOU WESTERN CONFERENCE TEAMS AND YOUR SEVEN-TEAM DIVISIONS HAVE IT SO EASY.

Having an odd number of teams isn't really a big deal though, is it? There are only one or two days a season where all 30 teams are playing. They had 21 teams during the 1980s and the NBA had an odd number until fairly recently when the Bobcats joined.

Barclays Center won't be hanging individual division and conference championship banners for the Islanders: http://islanderspointblank.com/islanders/this-is-what-the-consolidated-division-and-conference-championship-banners-look-like/ Pretty funny considering they'll be hanging next to two Nets division banners.

Unless something has changed, the division and conference championship banners will be raised on Opening Night along with the retired number banners (only the Cup banners have been hanging during the preseason). http://islanders.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=779884 I don't know if that was the plan all along or if the fans had to talk Yormark into it. I get that they need to try to appeal to Brooklyn and city residents now that Long Islanders won't be able to go to as many games (getting home at 10:30 and paying $8.25 for parking is much easier than getting home after midnight and paying $26.50 per person for one round-trip LIRR ticket to/from Ronkonkoma). But they seem to be going out of their way to antagonize their existing fans. I'm sure most fans would've been fine with a new goal horn if it didn't make their ears bleed. It wasn't an attack on Brooklyn like Yormark thought it was. It was an attack on noise pollution. This reminds me of the Wilpons' tone-deafness when Mets fans were upset that Citi Field celebrated the Brooklyn Dodgers' history more than the Mets'.

That one dude doesn't even know if he's a yea or nay vote.

And he wasn't even a Glendale resident. I don't know how he can vote out the council members.

Live stream! http://www.abc15.com/live Also here, which seems to have less of a delay http://glendale-az.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=4

Are we seriously pretending Long Island is a town rather than a giant suburb?Not really. But now we're just like every other suburb. Having a major professional sports team here was pretty damn cool.

Howie Rose is pissed off about the Islanders' Nassau demise: http://nypost.com/2015/04/24/howie-rose-angry-pissed-off-over-islanders-leaving-coliseum/ I feel the same way that he does. Leaving the Coliseum was inevitable; it's a dump. But it's sad and aggravating that Long Island will no longer be a major league town once the Islanders are done in the playoffs.

But didn't the Panthers stop giving out free and heavily discounted tickets? Their lower number is probably more honest than the Coyotes'.

I'm not sure if that's new or is a part of the original banner. They use those banners and include the 116 ribbon on their Root Sports intro animation:

Why does it seems fitting that, that Rays fan could be the least interested in his team's accomplishment? Dude knows wild card banners are lame. I salute his silent protest.

I think it was more of a Monday night thing since they sold out the previous game (Saturday vs Pittsburgh).

They called that 10,010 people. I call that bull The Panthers are releasing their attendance figures in binary now.

Did you get a sense of how many people are actually using the pay lots?

Madden 96 for the other platforms (Genesis, SNES) didn't use the Fox graphics, but they used the Fox music.

Contract teams only to immediately replace them with teams in the exact or nearby locations.... I'll give you a minute to realize the absurdity of this idea. Tampa Bay's ONLY problems are fanbase and stadium issues. Everything about the organization is very well ran and contracting them makes no sense. Why would you want to take the team out of the hands of people who are making it a success? Why would you need to contract a team to relocate it when you can just relocate it? The Marlins are poorly ran, but contracting them too is unnecessary if you're going to place one right back there. You have an established franchise. You work on either getting present ownership to improve the state of the franchise or work on getting them replaced, which is difficult, but honestly contraction is even more so. Seems you have no clue as to how sports franchises and leagues work. Tampa's ONLY problems are fanbase and stadium issues? Yeah, how nitpicky of me to not overlook such unimportant things to a franchise. Where the hell are you gonna relocate the Rays? Charlotte? Awful sports market (unless you're nascar) and I'm pretty sure they don't even have a stadium. Yeah, sounds like a plan. Portland? No stadium, public funds are too tapped out to build one, just about everyone there with an interest in MLB is a Mariners fan. Montreal? No stadium, questionable fan support. NYC Metro/Jersey? No stadium, a location in Jersey would be ill-advised if you're counting on drawing from the metro area (because this isn't football), questionable fan support considering it's been 50 plus years since NY had 3 teams, 50 years since the Mets came into the picture, and just about all of the area's baseball allegiances have been established and they'll have little reason to jump ship on their current team. And in case you're not up to date, the Rays are chained to Tropicana until the late 2020s. Tampa-St. Pete won't negotiate a new stadium anywhere and won't let them out of their lease. I don't care how well they're playing, the Rays cannot succeed at Tropicana (success as a franchise goes beyond posting 90 win seasons every year, you know). Everything from the facility itself, to the infrastructure, to the location, to the market as a whole is utter crap. They're the least valuable franchise in baseball. A replacement team in Orlando would well off the ground by the time the Rays rid themselves of Tropicana. "Work on getting ownership to improve the state of the franchise?" Is this a joke? Do you even know who Jeffrey Loria is? Christ almighty. I suppose you think Gary Bettman should keep "working with" Glendale, too. Between Loria, his cronies, stadiumgate, all those firesales, the Ozzie-Castro thing, and the expansion team they're currently fielding two years into their new ballpark, the Marlins are a snakebitten brand and couldn't do a better job of turning off Miami if they tried. MLB won't be able to strongarm Loria into selling, because the owners are a bunch of terrified goobers who won't dare vote against Loria in case he ends up getting to keep the team anyway and they have egg on their face. So then what are you left with. It's just as well that baseball cuts their losses and puts a new team in that stadium (which is owned by Miami-Dade, not by Loria). Accuse me of not knowing how anything works all you want, but tell me, which one of us is in here bawling about how team x shouldn't be contracted all because they're winning games, like a clueless 12 year old squeaker? Hint - it's not me. His point was that the players/coaches/front-office staff/etc. are all good at producing strong teams. So why would you contract the team and replace them with a new expansion team? And if they have a lease with St. Pete to play at the Trop for the next 20 years, that could make contracting them just as hard as relocating them. A court ruled that the Twins had to honor their lease at the Metrodome and couldn't be contracted back in 2002.

We've come a long way since the original FoxBox: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPlY6OWwBA8 It was a goofy shape and the rest of the graphics package was a mess. But I wouldn't mind a return to something simple like this. Small, out of the way, translucent. No network logo, no ticker hogging the bottom of the screen. No giant down-and-distance arrows on the field. Those were the days.

These are great and I hate to be nit-picky, but MLB games on NBC in 1994 and 1995 used the same Baseball Network graphics seen on ABC.