Cosmic

Youre never going to Grow the Game that way, admiral.

Really? Hopefully your statement isn't connected with his sexuality. Really? All this guy did was make a true statement: Michael Sam did not succeed in the NFL. You might be reading a little too much into it. You are correct. After he flames out in the CFL, it will prove my opinion that any pro or semi-pro football uniform is the wrong one. No 7th-round draft pick should ever get as much attention as him...unless it's because he turned into a draft steal and superstar. Same with backup QBs and little league baseball pitchers. It's all drama all the time over there. He already did well in semi-pro football at Missouri.

Minor league hockey is not a big money business. The Sabres bought the Rochester Amerks (a long-time and stable franchise that draws at least in the middle of the AHL) for only $5M. The CCSLC could probably buy an ECHL team. Swapping out a bus ride down I-90 for plane tickets across the country is a big change for these teams... confirmed by the fact that the league isn't even making these new teams play a full schedule! The business model needs too much massaging to make this happen; it shouldn't be happening.

I definitely think this logo and even that God-awful jersey is salvageable. Forgive me if I have already posted this in this thread, but I actually had that hat. I found it in a local supermarket years and years ago. Unfortunately, the hat is lost into the aether now. I really like that logo, and it has to be relatively rare to have merchandise made from a proposed logo.

I never paid much attention before, but it's remarkable how far away St. John's is from anything else.

Fun fact: he was given a key to the city that was technically revoked. The mayor gave it to him contingent on getting 10 TDs and a playoff spot. He had 5 (and obviously no playoffs). I hope they asked for it back.

It's fine if the Jets want the new Moose to ape their color scheme, but they really should have at least one brown as a logo-only color. A grayish-bluish moose looks weird, and I think the whole thing just kinda blahs together. The original was better.

Cheap hydroelectric power and hockey fans are both plentiful to le nord-est. You're welcome.

Yeah, they'll be fine. Islanders fans could've sold out their local building for years to create demand... & did not. Besides, it's not like they're moving to Las Vegas or Seattle. Well, it could've helped if the Islanders had more than 3 or so good seasons since 1995 to create some demand among the non-diehards, but alas.. I mean, I'm fine with the move to Brooklyn because hey, it's not Kansas City or Vegas! But you can already see a disconnect between older fans like my father and the team with the move to Brooklyn and that they're already saying they're not going to games. On the brighter side, though, the Islanders fanbase has grown with the younger adult crowd in the past 3 seasons. And given us young adult Long Islanders already are taking the LIRR for a night on the town to Manhattan/Rockville Centre/The Hamptons for a Sunday Funday at Bordy Barn anyway, I don't think the move to Brooklyn will be a problem for us younger folks. So there's still that bright side, but even still a large chunk of the fanbase isn't going to make the trip to Barclays. All that said, I still think we're looking at a move back to Nassau after they get this renovation done like 5 years from now and Ratner, et al. decide the move to Barclays didn't work as well as they thought so they'll bring them back to their other property in the new Coliseum. They have like a 20 or 25 year lease at Barclays.

It's a downgrade from what they had pre-edge and nowhere near as good as they have now, but I liked the idea of an NHL team trying the collegiate route with their jerseys. Of course, they screwed up the home jersey when the Edge system first came out with too much black and not enough green, so that kinda made that set D.O.A. even with the alternate/eventual away to try and save things a bit.I agree with all of this. I just don't think these unis deserve the universal condemnation they've received, and I thought they looked sharp.If they had normal stripes on the arms, I'd like them.

So, they made a bunch of lame duck turd burger jerseys for a player that will never wear it because he had season-ending surgery before he was even traded to the team.

How's about this; the NHL announces two expansion teams because it wants so damn badly to have those stupid Coyotes stay in Desertland, and is hellbent on never being proven wrong on the obvious.I have no doubt that's part of it.

Can I call it now? The NHL announces two expansion teams, netting the Coyotes ~$30M in expansion fees before they can reach the magical $50M threshold.

If we're working under the assumption that the NHL is "top tier", then sure.

So Hamilton could probably support an NHL team, but they'll be left without even an AHL team?

It's not one or the other... it's both. The AHL is a competitive league AND a development organization for the NHL. NFL practice squads are pure development entities. The difference between the AHL and a practice squad is that thousands of people don't pay to watch the practice squad do its thing (I'm sure the NFL is working on it, though). The AHL can tell you you're seeing the stars of tomorrow, and the NCAA can tell you that student-athletes are playing sports to build character, but the reason people put down money to go to the games is that they want to see the team that happens to operate in their city win. At the same time, though, I think minor league fans know the deal; the parent clubs basically loan the talent that they don't have room for on the big club's roster. Pulling stupid stunts like having one division play less games than the others and mostly playing intradivision games before waltzing however many of its teams into the playoffs threatens to tip the seesaw too far towards the "development" side.

The cigarette companies? Other than that, probably no.

I played this matchup so many times on Madden ('95, I believe... the one where the Panthers and Jags were ridiculously powerful hidden teams) that this doesn't look weird to me. LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR(I believe that was the code to get the hidden teams on SNES. I still have a soft spot for the Panthers because of that game.)

I don't think anyone ever thought he was an elite scorer, but he was good enough at the right time to get that huge contract. He had his point-per-game year, then a pretty good year. After that pretty good year, he had 14 points in 11 playoff games. Then, huge contract with the Rangers. Edit: Even factoring in all of his horrible years, he's still averaging 59 points per an 82 game season. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Spend money for Super Bowl ad... don't take deposits until nine days later. I have total faith in this ownership group.

It's really hard to believe that they're actually gonna let teams in the West play fewer games. I'm mostly OK with the "leagues within a league" thing, but I'd like some token acknowledgment that they are all in the same organization. Say you have an East, a Central and a West... is it too much to ask that teams take a five game road trip through one of the other conferences each season? Five games out of 75ish?

I'm wondering if this is the Sharks' basic plan, too. There wouldn't be anywhere near the hard feelings if you move your AHL team from your NHL city after a couple of years when a good opportunity opens up.

This is the correct uniform for him. Nope. Most years in one uniform, most successful years of his career, went to the Stanley Cup Finals and won the Selke Trophy with the Sabres.

Admiral, your Brian Burke boner is showing.

The Las Vegas ticket drive... will rely heavily on chain letters, apparently: http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/34100/potential-las-vegas-owners-get-strong-response-to-ticket-drive