The Shrine

I know only 1 or 2 of you Americans even know that the NHL exists, but for us Canadians, it's been a helluva ride, especially if you're a Leafs fan.

Brief rundown for our friends down south: for the last month, the Leafs, Rangers, Islanders, Hurricanes, Lightning, and Canadiens have been fighting it out for the last three playoff spots in the Eastern Conference (yes, same as basketball - it actually works the same way with the playoff format and the two conferences :-). At one point, you had 5 points separating all 6 teams (2 points for a win, 1 point for an overtime/shootout loss). As of last weekend, it was really down to the Leafs, Canadiens, and Islanders for the last spot. Leafs lost to the Islanders on Friday, so you have the Canadiens in 8th, Leafs one point back in 9th, and the Islanders one more point back in 10th. The Canadiens have more wins so hold a tie-breaker over both teams while the Leafs have one over the Islanders. But the real kicker is the Islanders have one game in hand on both. They played the Flyers last night (worst team in hockey) and have another game today at 3:30pm against New Jersey while the Leafs played the Canadiens last night.

So, the situation as of last night was as follows: Canadiens win and they're in (two points ahead of the Isles and have a tie breaker), Leafs need to win and Isles to lose one of their last two games, Isles need the Leafs to win and win both of their last two games and they're in.

As usual, rather than just fucking lose and eliminate all hope, the Leafs miraculously pull off a win (FYI to the Americans, the Leafs are basically the Yankees of hockey up here, literally half the country cheers for them and the other half fucking hates them for that) after giving up a lead in the second period. They knock off the Canadiens but they don't clinch a playoff spot 'cause they played the Isles on Friday, they now have to wait for them to lose. Of course, Jersey has clinched 2nd overall and won't be playing the best goalie in hockey as there's no reason to risk injury. So now we wait and see if the Isles, who have been fucking hot recently, lose to a team that has nothing to play for.

Story of this damned team. They always seem to hang on and always do it in dramatic fashion (last night's game was nuts) yet never really get close to the Cup (not only haven't they won the Cup since 1967, they never even made it to the finals since then; only the Blackhawks and Cubs have longer droughts in professional sports). I mean, whoever gets the spot is going to play the Sabres anyways, so they're gonna lose (Sabres are one of the top teams in hockey right now).

Why can't the fuckers just lose and eliminate the false hope they give everyone? I'm switching to the Jays before the hockey playoffs even begin, they look like they have a much better chance of winning sometime in my lifetime (again).

I hope your team gets a lot of touchdowns!

And now they're out as the Isles win... in dramatic fashion. Tight race.

Yesterday was an exciting sports day for me - I got to watch the leafs not make it (since the Canucks are in, I can take pleasure in that and I watched UFC 69....which literally had my jaw hanging open at the end of it...

Plenty of room on the Raptors bandwagon.

KluYa wrote:Plenty of room on the Raptors bandwagon.

Been watchin' them all year. That's been a fun ride and I hope it lasts.

Watching the Jays intently as well. They finally look like they're ready and have the ammo to do it to. It's going to be a fun season.

kali o. wrote:Yesterday was an exciting sports day for me - I got to watch the leafs not make it (since the Canucks are in, I can take pleasure in that and I watched UFC 69....which literally had my jaw hanging open at the end of it...

Hey now, I cheer for the Western Canadian teams....

FUCK THE NUCK FUCK THE NUCK FUCK THE NUCK!!!

I do not care about hockey, yet I am here in spite of Zeus.

I shall let you all think on this for a while.

Eric wrote:I do not care about hockey, yet I am here in spite of Zeus.

I shall let you all think on this for a while.

OK, Eric(/Luke ;-), I've had enough of your crap!

Have at you!

Zeus wrote:

Eric wrote:I do not care about hockey, yet I am here in spite of Zeus.

I shall let you all think on this for a while.

OK, Eric(/Luke ;-), I've had enough of your crap!

Have at you!

lol, that's awesome.

I hope you like the quote. Got the idea after reading M&M :-)

Leafs and Habs both out of the playoffs? Music to my ears.

I'm still laughing, but almost fell over when Zeus compared the Leafs to the Yankees. A more apt comparison would be with the Habs in fact, as both hold the most championships in their respective sports.
Also, aside from Ontario and the East Coast, the Leafs really don't get a lot of lovin from the rest of Canada.

There is some serious retooling of the Leafs to be done in the off season. 1 year due to new rule changes was a pansy excuse, but okay. Year 2 and no difference? Inexcusable.

No love from the West, huh? This is why Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver look and sound like Ottawa when the Leafs visit: 70% Leafs fans, 30% home team. Why do you think they're complaining so much about the whole deal with Toronto only visiting once every 3 years?

And that's what I meant when I was comparing them with the Yankees, the national support. If you're lookin' purely at success then yes, you compare them to the Habs. But for support across the country? The Habs are more like The Cubs.

Take off the blinders. How many times does Toronto play out west throughout the season? Yeah, not so much right? So when they do, every transplanted Upper Canadian makes it a point to go to the game. That's why you see a deluge of blue and white "at the arena". Go out to the local pubs & bars and see if that's still the case.

There is deep resentment in the west towards Ontario and T.O. in particular. This carries over into hockey, and the west loves nothing better than to pound the Leafs. I may have only lived out there for 14 months, but I certainly didn't see a whole lot of support for the Leafs while there. Well, aside from ppl from T.O. as I mentioned.

Edmonton is Canada's team. People are usually divided on Leafs and Canadians, but if Edmonton ever does well the whole country goes crazy.

I recall a good chunk of the country going nuts when the Flames were in the finals.

Oracle wrote:I recall a good chunk of the country going nuts when the Flames were in the finals.

The country loves it when any Canadian team is in the finals (save for Toronto if Ottawa ever makes it....which will only be after Alfuckssen retires). I was happy as hell when Calgary and Edmonton made it the last two finals and am cheering for the Canucks in the west as Calgary is done IMO.

This entire province would shut down and you'd see tons of celebrations all over if the Leafs ever won. They are relatively popular everywhere.

Just to clarify, hockey is the sport with all the ice, right?

That one where that guy shoves a big puck down a frozen lake, and other people run back and forth in front of it with brushes, so that the goalie can't stop it from going in the goal even with an oven mitt on?

I love hockey! Go Leaves.

Arena football and NASCAR have higher ratings than hockey these days. And it's Ironic that Canadians are so into hockey and yet can't support more than one or two teams at best (haven't counted lately).

This is my daily piss-in-your-kool-aid posting. Thank you.

I want to piss in the Kool-Aid too!

It's only from the southern portions of the US where you'll find people who are proud to not know what the hell they're talking about.

Ishamael wrote:Arena football and NASCAR have higher ratings than hockey these days. And it's Ironic that Canadians are so into hockey and yet can't support more than one or two teams at best (haven't counted lately).

This is my daily piss-in-your-kool-aid posting. Thank you.

Canadians have 6 teams in hockey and all have very good attendance. The issue is they don't do shit for the television contracts which, as we know, is the majority of the revenue for a sports league (look at football). The Northeastern teams do well but the rest of the US is lacking except Denver, which has good attendance, and Minnesota, which has a long history.

The problem is the sports only really popular in Canada and 15-20% of the US. They won't expand to Canada where the teams will do well in the gates but do shit for TV, they can't really expand anywhere else in the Northeast, and the rest of the country is too stupid to follow the game :-)

Well, the European market will soon be riper than the North American one for hockey. There are more fans over there and Europe's economy is actually growing as opposed to the North American one.

Europe actually has winters, so they should have hockey fans somewhere, one would want to guess anyway.

I find myself slightly surprised that, on the pro level, L.A. can support two basketball teams, one hockey team, and no American football teams. There are a bunch of big, scandalous motherfuckers down here, and that often bespeaks "football fan" to me. Yet the Raiders are no longer here, no one gives a shit about our Arena football team (does that even still exist?), and somehow Kings are still a franchise. Half the people who live here have probably never seen an ice sheet, for crying out loud.

Admittedly I have no idea how they're doing, or even if they're doing well. I also don't give a rat's ass about pro sports and probably am not likely to start, at least unless a majority of the players in sports start acting more like Dikembe Mutumbo and less like Barry Bonds.

But it still just seems odd to me that we have hockey and no football.

The most highly valued teams are (I think): Boston, Toronto, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York.

The Seeker wrote:The most highly valued teams are (I think): Boston, Toronto, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York.

Toronto is first by a good chunk with the Rangers second. Not sure about the rest and can't find the Forbes list