2011-12 NHL Season

[BigBubba]

Go cry me a river. It's true that there are some dedicated Atlanta fans. Not all people in Atlanta know nothing about hockey. But there were also dedicated Coyotes fans, Vancouver Grizzlies fans, Tampa Bay Rays fans, and Sacramento Gold Miners fans. Yes, the ownership sucked. But the look at the Leafs: they haven't had a legitimately good owner since Conn Smythe, yet thy still have the best fans in the game. Also, ask yourself: how many Jets players said "It's great to go to Winnipeg", and how many said "It's sad to leave Atlanta". Thought so.

[NEW.ERA]

Daytime hockey yay!!

[TFoA]

The team I follow, the Toronto Maple Leafs, are owned by a multi-headed corporate monster that can't tell it's a$$ from its elbow. They haven't won a Cup since before the Moon Landing and they won't even sniff the playoffs on a consistent basis for a few more years. Yet fans show up night in and night out. If Atlanta went from sellouts to empty houses once the team's fortunes turned for the worst then you probably didn't have the dedicated fanbase you thought you did. I don't doubt that there were passionate hockey fans in Atlanta. You, Blueland, Flame, and others here are proof of that. I'm just saying that you guys were the exception, not the rule in the market.

Comparing Atlanta to Toronto in the worst or best of times in terms of on-ice successes to attendance is completely apples and oranges. And really has nothing to do with the actual point of this conversation.

Yes, the number of passionate/knowledgeable hockey fans in Atlanta is less than that of Winnipeg or any Canadian city for that matter. But the CBC announcers didn't need to go out of their way to basically say that Thrashers fans were complete idiots that didn't know hockey players' first names, or even that they were idiot hockey fans for not knowing hockey players' first names.

Yeah, Winnipeg is probably a better hockey city than Atlanta. Go ahead and praise Winnipeg and say all the nice things about that. No need to drag Atlanta into it and degrade them, especially when as we've seen here, some of their fans still have methods of watching their old team and might actually do that from time to time.

This is it right here. But hey, let em say what they want, theyre excited! I would say I expect more from CBC but they employ Don Cherry.

I guess that explains why I shouldn't have been surprised.

[NEW.ERA]

Well the Blues are exacting revenge on the Flames from last year.

Gonna be long season here me thinks, two games in and it's already giving me a headache watching them. Thankfully it's a deep draft this year.

[FiddySicks]

Go cry me a river. It's true that there are some dedicated Atlanta fans. Not all people in Atlanta know nothing about hockey. But there were also dedicated Coyotes fans, Vancouver Grizzlies fans, Tampa Bay Rays fans, and Sacramento Gold Miners fans. Yes, the ownership sucked. But the look at the Leafs: they haven't had a legitimately good owner since Conn Smythe, yet thy still have the best fans in the game. Also, ask yourself: how many Jets players said "It's great to go to Winnipeg", and how many said "It's sad to leave Atlanta". Thought so.

Sacramento Gold Miners?

[NEW.ERA]

Go cry me a river. It's true that there are some dedicated Atlanta fans. Not all people in Atlanta know nothing about hockey. But there were also dedicated Coyotes fans, Vancouver Grizzlies fans, Tampa Bay Rays fans, and Sacramento Gold Miners fans. Yes, the ownership sucked. But the look at the Leafs: they haven't had a legitimately good owner since Conn Smythe, yet thy still have the best fans in the game. Also, ask yourself: how many Jets players said "It's great to go to Winnipeg", and how many said "It's sad to leave Atlanta". Thought so.

Sacramento Gold Miners?

When the CFL stupidly ventured down south. The Gold Miners were one of the teams.

[GO2HELL]

full house in Dallas

[nash61]

Go cry me a river. It's true that there are some dedicated Atlanta fans. Not all people in Atlanta know nothing about hockey. But there were also dedicated Coyotes fans, Vancouver Grizzlies fans, Tampa Bay Rays fans, and Sacramento Gold Miners fans. Yes, the ownership sucked. But the look at the Leafs: they haven't had a legitimately good owner since Conn Smythe, yet thy still have the best fans in the game. Also, ask yourself: how many Jets players said "It's great to go to Winnipeg", and how many said "It's sad to leave Atlanta". Thought so.

Sacramento Gold Miners?

[twi]

Hmm, sorry about above quote, I'll blame a combo of iPhone and fingers. Anyways, I don't speak on behalf of any NASCAR division (you're very uneducated about the area if that's the description you can come up with, btw).

This from the guy who accused Canadians of "following the last Canadian team in the post-season like lemmings" and "having a sense of entitlement" is pretty rich. You can throw out broad generalizations about Canadians but as soon as someone from north of the Mason-Dixon line makes a broad generalization of the southeast they're "uneducated about the area"? I spent a year living in Florida during high school. Finding someone willing to discuss hockey was a chore.

I stand by the statements I made. Based on my observations they are 100% true. When 4 out of 5 teams aren't big NASCAR markets I see no problem in saying the nickname doesn't fit.

I'm simply stating that I've yet to see any thing management-wise to be so excited about.

The Atlanta Spirit never really wanted to own a hockey team, they wanted to own the Hawks. They just got stuck with the Thrashers when they purchased the Hawks. True North is run by a team that's proven its commitment to winning hockey games at the AHL level. While the NHL is an entirely different animal, you still have an ownership/management structure in place that's not only proven itself committed to winning hockey games, but is also excited about owning a hockey team in the first place.

I read "management" and thought general manager. Management wise a dead monkey would be better than the Atlanta Spirit. If we're talking general manager, on-ice stuff than again, I stand by my opinion.

Interesting also how you group Ramsey into the ownership fiascos. He's a much better coach than anything on the Jets bench. Not sure what the point youre reaching to make here is.

Ramsy always came across as overrated to me. He looked like a million bucks when he inherited a good team to work with or was an assistant coach to someone who did know how to win, but when he was on his own he always came off as average. Not saying Claude Noel is the second coming of Scotty Bowman or anything, but Ramsey to Noel seems more like a lateral move then a downgrade to me.

I've seen first hand what Ramsey can do with a middling defense. Noel has done exactly nothing.

As someone who doesn't care either way about Atlanta or Winnipeg it's crazy to say they're much better off on ice. But fans going crazy in preseason games and being able to read first names are all you need i guess.

Yes, having passionate fans who show up to games is an important step in establishing a hockey team as a worthwhile business venture!

We were discussing the team's chance of making the playoffs. Which the fans have zero impact on.

Sorry for the bolding of the text, trying to separate the quotes on this goofball machine. I'm terrible at even this simple formatting employed here.

[The_Admiral]

"NASCAR Division" is all over the series of tubes. It's not my own work.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=NHL+%22nascar+division%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

How would you like me to make fun of the fact that a traditionally midwestern/northeastern sport had a division with Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, and Raleigh in it? Because I'm gonna.

[twi]

"NASCAR Division" is all over the series of tubes. It's not my own work. How would you like me to make fun of the fact that a traditionally midwestern/northeastern sport had a division with Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, and Raleigh in it? Because I'm gonna.

With something original and/or funny.

Anybody watching the Tampa - Washington game? 3 terrible goals so far. This has the feeling of a sloppy, 8-7 final score.

[BrySmalls]

"NASCAR Division" is all over the series of tubes. It's not my own work. How would you like me to make fun of the fact that a traditionally midwestern/northeastern sport had a division with Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, and Raleigh in it? Because I'm gonna.

With something original and/or funny.

Anybody watching the Tampa - Washington game? 3 terrible goals so far. This has the feeling of a sloppy, 8-7 final score.

Vokoun probably wishes he was still with the Panthers at this rate.

[IceCap]

EDIT- Never mind. All I'll say, twi, is that you shouldn't throw stones in houses made of glass and tarps.

[rvrdgsfn]

"NASCAR Division" is all over the series of tubes. It's not my own work. How would you like me to make fun of the fact that a traditionally midwestern/northeastern sport had a division with Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, and Raleigh in it? Because I'm gonna.

With something original and/or funny.

Anybody watching the Tampa - Washington game? 3 terrible goals so far. This has the feeling of a sloppy, 8-7 final score.

Vokoun probably wishes he was still with the Panthers at this rate.

Wow, I wish they started Neuvi for this game instead, this isn't game 5 boys...

[Maz]

I mean, Versus employs Joe Beninati.

I thought they got him the hell out of the national coverage once they restructured the broadcast lineup post-merger. Or maybe that was just some sort of gloriously optimistic fever dream I had. God, just let him ruin Caps games so the rest of us don't have to suffer.

He is annoying, but I might prefer him over Doc. I mean, I'm not a fan of either one, but Beninati's "OH MY WORD!" and "MALKIN. CANNOT. MISS." calls have been a top inside joke among my friends for the past couple years now.

[twi]

EDIT- Never mind. All I'll say, twi, is that you shouldn't throw stones in houses made of glass and tarps.

By making a statement 100% verified by my life experiences? Ok.

[IceCap]

EDIT- Never mind. All I'll say, twi, is that you shouldn't throw stones in houses made of glass and tarps.

By making a statement 100% verified by my life experiences? Ok.

I could make similar statements that seem to be verified by my own experiences. Still though "hey I don't like you so here's a broad generalized insult" isn't any more a viable point to make just because of one's own negative experiences.

[BrySmalls]

"NASCAR Division" is all over the series of tubes. It's not my own work. How would you like me to make fun of the fact that a traditionally midwestern/northeastern sport had a division with Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, and Raleigh in it? Because I'm gonna.

With something original and/or funny.

Anybody watching the Tampa - Washington game? 3 terrible goals so far. This has the feeling of a sloppy, 8-7 final score.

Vokoun probably wishes he was still with the Panthers at this rate.

Wow, I wish they started Neuvi for this game instead, this isn't game 5 boys...

It is 3-3 as of this posting. Can't either team play defense?

[Still MIGHTY]

You're right, you can't compare the amount of dedicated, passionate hockey fans in Toronto, or any other Canadian city, to Atlanta. Which tells me that maybe Atlanta shouldn't have had a team in the first place.

You can't compare the fans in any Canadian city to any of the "southern cities." Hockey is a religion in Canada, come on now. Yeah in some of these cities there are a large amount of knowledgeable, dedicated, and passionate hockey fans, but they will NEVER be the same in sheer amount as there are in Canada. There are a large amount in Anaheim, LA, San Jose, etc, but even then, they will never be the same amount as there are in Canada.

So since the Dodgers had some terrible attendance this year with terrible ownership and a terrible team, does LA not deserve a baseball team?

You're really blowing the comments out of proportion. At the end of the day they said "this team is now playing in a city with a large contingent of knowledgeable, passionate hockey fans, which they weren't while playing in Atlanta." And that's a true statement.

I'm not blowing it out of proportion, because that's what they said. At the end of the day, what they actually said, as transcribed by Don, was "You know theres alot of savvy fans here in Winnipeg, chanting Prices first name, and that would never happen in Atlanta, cause they probably dont even know his first name!" They didn't straight out call them idiots, but they basically said that they aren't hockey fans because they didn't know hockey players' first names. I know plenty of people that are hockey fans in Anaheim, Phoenix, and beyond into "passionate" hockey markets that don't know players' first names.

Again, probably? I'd say without a question.

Break down every single word of the argument, okay. You all know exactly what I meant.

Something you need to keep in mind is that deserving Canadian (and northern American for that matter) markets have been jerked around by the NHL in favour of unproven "potential" sunbelt market for close to two decades now. That many of these teams are starting prove that relocating and expanding to the south maybe wasn't the best business decision is simply proof to Canadian and northern American hockey fans that we were right. The Thrashers actually relocating to Winnipeg to become the Jets 2.0 is most visible symbol of that. Of course there's going to be a little bit of gloating on our end. We feel we've been taken for granted for a while now while the NHL dicked around in the sunbelt trying to fit square pegs into round holes and finally we have something tangible to celebrate, a reversal of the trend of the last 20 years.

And I've never disagreed with that throughout the Winnipeg and Phoenix threads. Some of the expansion markets have worked (Anaheim, LA, San Jose, Carolina, Tampa Bay, then Dallas/Colorado/Nashville/Columbus to different extents, although Columbus and Nashville have/are teetering on the edge), but there are the ones that aren't working (Phoenix and Florida) and need to be taken care of. Atlanta had its share of good hockey fans, but them alone were not ultimately enough on the whole to keep it working, along with the terrible, terrible ownership they had. As long as the NHL financial model remains viable for Winnipeg and it doesn't collapse on them again, then moving back to Winnipeg is the best thing for the league and Canada.

[The_Admiral]

Wait, so this was Glenn Healy that made the remark? Isn't the whole idea of the Between The Benches analyst to pop off a bunch of stupid impulsive crap? Are you guys going to hold everything the bespectacled penis says during NBC games as damning indictments on behalf of nations and networks?