wildwing64

Devin Dark? Nah Devin Dark's Jim Balsillie. Whatever happened to that NHL Guardians nonsense anyway? FAKE EDIT- Nothing's happened since the 2011 All-Star game. Heck, they still have "The Thrasher." All that hype and nothing came of it. So much for the "hey if they market it well and it gets kids interested then it's ok" argument. They had a "Guardian Vault" thing that they occasionally updated on the website, then they just flat out stopped after April or June for no apparent reason. Now the whole thing's in a weird sort of limbo where it still exists, but nothing's been said as to whether the NHL are going to keep it around or have deemed it a failure. If it's dead, NBC certainly won't be happy after spending a hundred-or-so million dollars on it

Devin Dark?

Pittsburgh in the West? The NHL would never have that! Not sure if this one's been thought of already, but my own proposal involves a simple counter-clockwise rotation of teams between four of the six divisions. This is of course assuming that the Coyotes aren't going anywhere: Winnipeg to Northwest Colorado to Pacific Dallas to Central Nashville to Southeast

Since some former favourite teams have been discussed... Tottenham Hotspur I already mentioned: In addition to that, even if I wanted to I feel that I've left it way too late to properly get interested in English football again, with just one of the reasons being - true to the nature of this country and its products - that the way the leagues are organised is needlessly complicated compared to the North American sports leagues. That said, if (big "if") I do ever get back into this sport, I'd go back to being a Tottenham fan since they were my childhood team. London Racers: Back when I started more seriously following the NHL in 2005, I discovered the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League. Didn't know too much about it except that there was this team, playing out of Lee Valley in London with an obviously Red Wings inspired look. I could have ended up being just as big a fan of them today as I am of the Anaheim Ducks, and I had hoped to go and see the Racers play at some point, but issues with their run-down rink (which, for the record, is still in use by a lower level team today) as well as financial problems led to the team folding not even halfway into the 2005-06 season. And there hasn't been a London-based Elite League team since. To me, they remain as a testament to how badly managed ice hockey is in the UK. Romford Raiders: My original hometown hockey team. This was the first UK based team that I knew of, and some time after the 2005-06 season started I saw my first ever hockey game there. I was hooked, and kept coming back every Sunday to watch them play. The following season, me and a friend I go to games with went to Chelmsford to watch a Chieftains game instead, and we found the atmosphere there to be more pleasant, needless to say the Chelmsford rink was and still is in much better condition (Romford for example had a net going around the rink instead of glass). We went back to Romford for one more game, then chose to switch teams. Both of these teams happen to be quite near each other so always have a fierce on-ice rivalry. Anglia Ruskin University Phantoms: My Alma Mater. The University doesn't have an umbrella organisation for its sports teams, and the Phantoms are the poorly run American Football team. I briefly played for them for four games in 2007, with about 20 seconds of game time for the first three and nothing at all for the fourth game. For unrelated reasons I quietly left the team, but I do have some fond memories of my time with them. But then I started hearing from friends who were on the committee that the team was treating them like crap and that the club's philosophy had changed from "playing for fun" to a very arrogant "SRS BSNS" attitude following small changes in coaching staff and the committee. I've lost any respect I had for the Phantoms - not that they were ever a good team in the first place - also the team's logo is an upside down Photoshop flame shape. (Sidenote: I helped to develop the team's revamped website, the graphics more than anything else. I even made a pretty cool wordmark for the site's banner which they later replaced with freaking Arial.) Chicago Bulls: The one team I always forget to mention. To summarise: a friend of mine was a Bulls fan, I became curious and adopted them as my NBA team of choice. But this never took off and was pretty much a BLAM for me.

That actually looks like a decent crowd for a Coyotes game. Relatively speaking.

How many times have I told my story? I forget. But here's the short version. I was briefly a fan of English football when I was little. My favourite team was Tottenham Hotspur because someone else said it in a class activity, it was easy to remember, and the local team's name "West Ham" sounded stupid. I never properly developed an interest and never went back to it. These days I just don't find the game interesting at all, and I can't stand the culture. I later turned to a certain North American sport, as I heard a duck calling me. Anaheim Ducks - Back in '97, Mighty Ducks the Animated Series was airing. It was the coolest thing ever, and in the back of my mind made me want to be an ice hockey fan. Fast forward to Christmas 2002 and D2 the Mighty Ducks was on TV. "Eh, this is OK" I thought, mildly disappointed that it had nothing to do with the cartoon besides sharing the name and the hockey. Then the duck mask logo appeared, and from there I began to more actively pursue my interest in this sport. A little while after that I picked up NHL Hitz 20-02 for the GameCube. I remember the first thing I saw being the splash screen showing all 30 team logos... and there was that duck mask logo again. I laughed. It was as if it was following me around now. But I soon came to the realisation that the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were a real team, and I went with them since it was basically them who introduced me to hockey. I think because of the way I was exposed to them I saw them as being the "default" team, like say Mario in a Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros videogame. I later came across the Ducks website, and at the time they were in the playoffs. The next time I checked the site out, they were the Western Conference Champions. It was as if I had some sort of mystical bond with them all along These days the Ducks are pretty much my everything. And this year has been pretty good for me as a fan: I recently went out of my way to go to Anaheim and see the Honda Center in person, and of course visit the team store during my trip to Los Angeles back in June. And this past October after eight years of being a Ducks fan I finally got to see them live as they came over to Europe to open their season. Seeing the likes of Selanne, Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Parros, even Randy Carlyle in person was incredibly surreal. The best thing for me though, aside from them winning the game, was that they were in the third jersey, which meant the classic Mighty Ducks logo was on the ice for my first ever game Chelmsford Chieftains - My local hockey team. It's mainly to get my fix, but I always go to see them play whenever I can. Occasionally I also go to see their farm team the Chelmsford Warriors play in the same rink: Chieftains games are usually busier, but Warriors games are much more intimate because very few people go to see them in comparison to the parent team, and the players on the ice are louder than anyone else in the rink. It's quite the experience. Houston Texans - I briefly played for my University's American Football team, and at the time I felt it appropriate to develop an interest in the NFL. I went for the Texans purely because I like their logo and colour scheme. I'm more of a casual fan of the Texans and don't really pay much attention to them, though they're still my go-to team in the NFL. That said if this team ever folded I'd more than likely shrug my shoulders and shuffle over to another team. LA Angels of Anaheim - During summer a couple of years back, I felt a random urge to look into baseball. I picked the Angels because I'd feel bad rooting against a team that plays in the same city and across the road from my beloved Ducks. Same deal with the Texans, I'm much more of a casual fan and don't pay anywhere near as much attention as I should.

For an AHL team, the Houston Aeros seem to be doing OK. They're averaging over 6,000 fans in an NHL sized arena, which again by AHL standards is OK. An NHL Aeros team could work: while there's evidently some interest in hockey, it could simply be that there's not as much interest in a minor league. But who knows. Except the two teams are serving completely different markets. The NHL has a Northern Florida team and a Southern Florida team because they want to take advantage of both markets. Same with California (with two LA area teams taking advantage of a high population) and same with New York (with - technically speaking - three teams for the New York metro area, again taking advantage of a high populous). Look at it this way: if Sheffield Wednesday were the lone English representative in an all-European football league with a similar organisation to the NHL, would fans from all over England flock to see them? Probably not. So this hypothetical league would want a team to represent the South of England as well.

I dunno about that. Some of us hockey fans are willing to stay up until 3am to watch games, splash out on GameCenter Live to watch said games, and splash out again to watch their favourite teams in person the one time they come over to Europe to play. You probably spend about the same amount of money for a single ticket

My fellow Brits have a thing for exclamation points. I must be considered eccentric

Just started watching the Ducks @ Coyotes game. They first showed a low down angle that looked like most of the arena was packed, until the camera turned some more to reveal empty seats.

In fairness, hockey is the number one sport in Canada whereas US based teams are competing with at least three other major pro sports teams per city, and all three of those sports are bigger than hockey; The NHL has however been successful in certain sunbelt markets (Anaheim, San Jose, Dallas, Tampa Bay, maybe Carolina? Maybe Nashville? And of course Los Angeles who never get lumped in with this group for some reason) and has found its niche in these cities. I don't think the Stars are going anywhere anytime soon, and I don't think the future of this franchise should be determined by 4 games of low attendance figures. But Phoenix, as has been made evident, have not. They've been bleeding money since year one. Their crappy arena lease and their poorly located arena have not helped, and one of the only reasons they're still there is because Glendale needs a tenant for their very expensive Jobing.com arena. It's only getting worse and worse for the Coyotes. They need to get out of there.

D'aaww, the Coyotes have a road named after them. What a cute way for Glendale to show their desperation I wonder what they plan on doing with that when if the Coyotes do eventually move out.

Regardless of how much sense there is in putting another team in that market, the Leafs just won't have it. And evidently being in a traditional hockey market still doesn't necessarily make a team safe from posting losses. The Senators and Penguins for example were bailed out of bankruptcy a while back, and even Minnesota have operated at a loss occasionally. And yes, the Sharks and Caps are good teams and are both very popular, but for some reason have been posting losses anyway. A team moving to Quebec City is or has been considered as a possibility, but there isn't an arena there yet - or at least, not one that meets the NHL's standards. So until that arena gets built and a team relocates there, no NHL team for Quebec.

Does it count as astroturfing if the poster is obviously from one of the counterfeit operations? Yes. Yes it does.

Everything about this one is wrong.

Singlehandedly the most ironic post in this whole thread.

Frank's Red Hot or Texas-style BBQ for me. This might sound weird but tartar sauce is my dip of choice for fries. That sounds gross. But it tastes delicious. I could never stomach fries with plain mayo though. You gotta mix in the ketchup and relish. I love vinegar, but the whole bar wants to kill me when I put it on my fries. Just BBQ sauce or salt and vinegar will do for me when it comes to fries chips. Can't stand mayo, and I'm maybe one of three people in the whole world who hates ketchup. There, I said it.

A friend of mine showed me this fake Avs jersey that was being sold on eBay. Had to share it, it is truly horrific. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Colorado-Avalanche-NHL-shirt-/220742580631?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3365487997

Since the death of the Buffaslug has been one of today's hot topics, I'm gonna go ahead and say that I don't think it was that bad. Sure, it's not the most appealing thing around since it... well, looks like a slug. For some reason it kind of grew on me. Not to say that it's one of the greatest hockey logos ever - because it's not - but I think there are worse things out there. And hey, at least their primary logo wasn't made into a wordmark.

I'm not a fan of this jersey at all. The nameplate is just one of the things I dislike about it. As much as they went with a template-based design for their initial Edge-ification, I thought that set was near-perfect for them. All it needed was maybe some minor changes to the black jersey, or even an orange version of that to complete the set. Sure, this throwback to the Flyers' early days was cool for the Winter Classic, but adopting this as their primary uniform was a huge downgrade in my opinion.

^ That or the Sharks' pre-edge uniforms would be great. I love their new logo, but I really don't think the orange works for them.

I never understood the utter hatred for the "Robo Pigeon". But that's just me.

I never liked these that much for some reason. Maybe it was the shiny material they used, or the fact that they changed their pants to black to accompany these jerseys. Considering that there is no black anywhere on these jerseys, except for the logo, that decision to replace the pants was pointless. And still baffles me today.

As much as this has grown on me, I don't think the colours are anywhere near the best. Although the jersey does look much better in person and on TV than the logo does on the internet. Still not overly keen on the Ducks using a wordmark instead of, y'know, a duck. The 'D' by itself is a nice logo, but it's not strong enough by itself. And speaking of the Ducks, I'm part of the crowd that actually likes the old duck mask logo. The dark eggplant and jade jersey is my favourite of all time (Yet for some reason, I don't like the white version as much. Maybe a certain movie sequel had something to do with that). If they ever bring this one back, even if it's just for a Winter Classic or something, I will go ecstatic.