The 2013 NHL Season Thread

[IceCap]

The only people who hate Winnipeg's re-entry into the NHL are self-righteous supporters of the Sunbelt Experiment who saw the abandonment of traditional, if small, markets in favour of untested non-traditional southern cities as a good move and who are too stubborn to admit that this plan didn't meet with a 100% success rate 15-20 years later.

Atlanta fans I can understand, though their anger SHOULD be directed at the NHL and not towards TNSE or the city of Winnipeg.

[CS85]

Atlanta probably never knew they arrived or left.

[ElwoodCuse]

It's a bit late, but why the hell do people hate on Winnipeg so much? I'd understand it if you live here (even then, it's not that bad), but all this misdirected hate is about as bad as the hate for Toronto.

the media cheerleading for a mediocre at best franchise is insufferable. if this same team, same record, was still in Atlanta no one would care

[Orgo]

Atlanta probably never knew they arrived or left.

That "Free Thrash" campaign seemed like one of the few successful publicity coups for the team in ATL. Not too surprising though, as a gate-driven team had only been in the playoffs once (swept) in football country.

Oh well.

[The_Admiral]

It's a bit late, but why the hell do people hate on Winnipeg so much? I'd understand it if you live here (even then, it's not that bad), but all this misdirected hate is about as bad as the hate for Toronto.

the media cheerleading for a mediocre at best franchise is insufferable. if this same team, same record, was still in Atlanta no one would care

Sports narratives are informed by circumstances beyond rosters and outcomes?

[ninersdd]

I haven't noticed any anti-Winnipeg outcry, probably because I don't live in Canada. It's not like they were getting a team stacked like Dallas and Colorado did. It's cool they're leading the Southeast, but I just not sure that they can come out on top in the end.

[IceCap]

I haven't noticed any anti-Winnipeg outcry, probably because I don't live in Canada. It's not like they were getting a team stacked like Dallas and Colorado did. It's cool they're leading the Southeast, but I just not sure that they can come out on top in the end.

Strange. Not being in Canada means you have a better chance of being exposed to the Grow the Game™ -inspired anti-Winnipeg passive aggressiveness.

It's a bit late, but why the hell do people hate on Winnipeg so much? I'd understand it if you live here (even then, it's not that bad), but all this misdirected hate is about as bad as the hate for Toronto.

the media cheerleading for a mediocre at best franchise is insufferable. if this same team, same record, was still in Atlanta no one would care

Including people in Atlanta!

People care about the Jets when they didn't care about the Thrashers because Winnipeg is just a better NHL market then Atlanta was. Sorry. That's just a fact. So of course people will be more excited to see an overachieving team in Winnipeg then in Atlanta.

And hey. Like I said before, they just need one playoff win to top the Thrashers in terms of on-ice success.

[IceCap]

dp

[The_Admiral]

I haven't noticed any anti-Winnipeg outcry, probably because I don't live in Canada. It's not like they were getting a team stacked like Dallas and Colorado did.

It's so cheek-pinchingly adorable the way the Seattleniks are like "Seattle would be great for the NHL and the NHL would be great for us! It'll grow the game in a large market! There's no question it would be a rousing success! (cough) Oh, just make sure we get a ready-made contender and not an expansion team because people might give up right away if the team isn't really good as soon as it gets here. Not Quebec City, though, they'll pay more for an expansion team than we would for a relocated team and support it better than we would. But we're first in line here."

Ironically, without Ray Whitney, a functioning trap/shell, and career-year goaltending, the Coyotes play like an expansion team. lol. Well, wherever these chips shall fall for Seattle, they'll still be able to jerk themselves off for singing songs and wearing scarves, so they have that going for them, which is nice.

[HedleyLamarr]

Atlanta fans I can understand, though their anger SHOULD be directed at the NHL and not towards TNSE or the city of Winnipeg.

No, the anger should go directly towards the ownership group that owned the Thrashers: Atlanta Spirit. And with a small portion of the blame going towards Glendale for voting in favor to give the Coyotes $25 million for a second year.

Thrasher fans worth a damn haven't blamed Winnipeg or True North....can't fault a city or ownership group that wants a hockey team and paid their dues to the league and backed it up with committing to 3-5 years worth of season tickets. Also, we can't fault the NHL too much, in the sense that Bettman was getting tired of the Thrashers' ownership group screwing around and being a drain on the NHL. Sure, it made a lot more sense for the NHL to sell the team it owned, but the NHL's also in the business of making money and bettering its image.

We never had ownership that actually viewed the team as a business entity instead of just a toy that got boring after 15 minutes. The Thrashers turned a profit when AOL/Time Warner owned the team, but they had to deal with the parent company that was looking to downsize and trim fat, which included the Thrashers (and Hawks and Braves). The Braves were "sold" (and by sold, I mean exchange of stocks and shares) to another headless, faceless owner (Liberty Media Group). Time Warner would only sell the Thrashers, Hawks, and the op-rights to Philips Arena as one deal, and they turned down a seemingly better offer from David McDavid in favor of the eight heads of Atlanta Spirit....with two of the investors being Ted Turner's son and Ted's son-in-law. Atlanta Spirit only wanted the arena and the Hawks (as the Atlanta portion of AS were longtime Hawks season ticket holders), and wanted to sell the Thrashers literally as soon as they bought them. They were hoping that the just-ended lockout would increase the value of the Thrashers, but an internal ownership dispute (over a player transaction for the NBA team) prevented them from selling the Thrashers for five years. By then, they were ready to just get what they could for the team and stop their financial bleeding. As a final "Screw You", the NHL created a relocation fee and took $60 million of that sale price, and most of the remaining $110 million went towards paying back the NHL and NBA for loans taken out, and all the court fees and lawyer bills that piles up over 5 years.

It wasn't an issue of drawing fans or turning a profit...the Thrashers showed they could make money, and the fans showed they could do their part when ownership gave them a legit reason to show up. But when ownership pisses off the fanbase (not quite at Loria levels, but not too far from there) and doesn't even spend to the salary cap floor (and forgoing healthy chunks of revenue sharing money), fans got turned off to giving their money....especially during an economic downturn....to an ownership group constantly giving them the finger.

We've gone over this, numerous times. No idea why many of you keep acting retarded on the Thrashers' saga......

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

I haven't noticed any anti-Winnipeg outcry,

I'm anti-Winnipeg. I'm anti-a team selling out every game and only ranking 27th in the NHL in terms of attendance.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance

[NEW.ERA]

Shut up! You do realize their building is 15,000 seats, right?

They still make more money than half the league. Deal with it! They're not leaving. Everyone can bitch and complain about the little things. OMG THEY'RE STILL THE THRASHERS. Go cry.

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

Shut up!

Don't get your panties into a knot.

[Maz]

As for Sid, well that's what the Penguins get for continuing to roll out the fauxbacks....

Enough injuries alone, not to mention bad games (this streak non-inclusive), have happened in those jerseys that it's time to take them across the street to where the Civic Arena's center ice used to be, soak them in gasoline, and burn them like the bad luck charm that they are. That, and because they just fall so painfully short of being a good jersey that they're bad. Luckily, I've heard this year should be the last time they wear them, whether the rumors of getting a new third next year are true or not.

[Still MIGHTY]

I haven't noticed any anti-Winnipeg outcry,

I'm anti-Winnipeg. I'm anti-a team selling out every game and only ranking 27th in the NHL in terms of attendance.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance

Edmonton is at 100% and they're 24th. Nashville is 100.1% and they're 21st. Boston and San Jose are both 100% and they're in 16th/17th.

You have an issue with any of them? Want to ship them out?

I care more about attendance percentages than actual attendance numbers (except for you Florida. you, Florida.) and right now over half the league is over 100% and 26 out of 30 are over 90%. This league is fine attendance wise.

[The_Admiral]

Rockford IceHogs up 3-0 on the Red Wings early. Goals from Morin, Saad, Hayes

[GO2HELL]

Idk why, but this made me lol so hard

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

Want to ship them out?

Yes. They should move those teams to Winnipeg. Then they can change thier names to the Jets

[IceCap]

We've gone over this, numerous times. No idea why many of you keep acting retarded on the Thrashers' saga......

We've also gone over how the Jets are in a perfect position in terms of finances in Winnipeg but that doesn't stop certain posters from passive-aggressively wishing the team will leave (already!) and predicting doom and gloom is just over the horizon. Welcome to the show.

As for Atlanta, well here's the thing. You put all the blame on the ASG, and being an employee of the team and a local fan you're no doubt in a great position to convey a lot of what happened that didn't make it to the media. And a lot of what you've said just now, and before, is true.

The thing is while ASG certainly shoulders much of the blame I don't think there's enough evidence there to let the Atlanta sports fanbase or the NHL off the hook.

To the team drawing well when owned by AOL-TimeWarner (as a fan of WCW, I think we actually have a bit in common when it comes to getting screwed over by AOL-TimeWarner ), there's the "new car smell" to consider. The team was still something new and novel at the time. How much of that was genuine NHL fandom, and how much of that was "I'll check out this new NHL thing"? The attendance decline after those initial years coincided with bad ownership and bad teams, but it's also not a stretch to say the Thrashers were firmly in forth place in the market behind the Falcons, Braves, and Hawks (not listed in a particular order themselves). So I don't think it's out of line to say that there may have been a lack of interest in the NHL when it came to Atlanta as a market. And in a gate-driven league like the NHL lack of interest is death.

Thrasher fans worth a damn haven't blamed Winnipeg or True North....can't fault a city or ownership group that wants a hockey team and paid their dues to the league and backed it up with committing to 3-5 years worth of season tickets.

And yet we still have to deal with people calling them the Thrashers. How long will that go on? If Jets fans had kept calling the Coyotes the Jets over the past ten years or so on these boards they would have been ridiculed and told "you're never getting your team back, let it go."

[Morgan33]

As for Sid, well that's what the Penguins get for continuing to roll out the fauxbacks....

Enough injuries alone, not to mention bad games (this streak non-inclusive), have happened in those jerseys that it's time to take them across the street to where the Civic Arena's center ice used to be, soak them in gasoline, and burn them like the bad luck charm that they are. That, and because they just fall so painfully short of being a good jersey that they're bad. Luckily, I've heard this year should be the last time they wear them, whether the rumors of getting a new third next year are true or not.

Agreed. Those jerseys are among the worst in the league but they're planning on making another Double Blue fauxback I'd prefer no third jersey at all. Not a fan of the Penguins or Crosby but the fact he's out indefinitely absolutely sucks. I would be stoked if Jarome Iginla won the cup this year. The team is still stacked enough to make it happen but this is a huge blow.