Yeah MC, next they will beat up on his big brother Eric

[Pa Jayhawk]

Thought you would get a kick out of this, and yeah, I am still a Caps fan. Not only because they have a shit load of points, but hopefully because they will leave the fighting to Brashear



... hey, the guy is a goal scorer, what is he doing droppin' his mittens.

[MCDavis]

The announcer actually said "Eric Staal" when he started. What started it?

Eric would've whipped his butt!!

You guys are on a roll. I'm just hoping to stay above the cut line for the playoffs. Losing to Florida last night hurt bad.

[ualtim]

Semin punches like a girl.

[Pa Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by MCDavis

The announcer actually said "Eric Staal" when he started. What started it?

They showed at the midway point, Semin got wedged in between the Goalie and a Rozsival and took out the post, I guess Staal thought he was defending his goalie.

I'm guessing had it been Brashear, he would have let Rozsival sort it out.

[Pa Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by ualtim

Semin punches like a girl.

I don't know, I think I would rather piss off Semin than my wife.

Actually at first I thought it was Ovechkin. Although I did manage to find Ovechkin in one fight. He actually looks like he could mix it up a bit if he had too.

[MCDavis]

Originally Posted by ualtim

Semin punches like a girl.

And who is your favorite hockey team? Panthers? Lightning? Just curious.

[JEFF4i]

Go Penguins!!!

[ualtim]

Originally Posted by MCDavis

And who is your favorite hockey team? Panthers? Lightning? Just curious.

Bruins, of course.


I used to be a die hard B's fan and hockey fan in general, but the lost season and then the Versus TV contract pretty much turned me off the game. I rather watch Olympic Hockey than the NHL these days, and I am not a huge Olympics fan by any stretch of the imagination.

[MCDavis]

Originally Posted by ualtim

Bruins, of course.

Wow...you suck worse than I thought!!

Originally Posted by ualtim

I used to be a die hard B's fan and hockey fan in general, but the lost season and then the Versus TV contract pretty much turned me off the game. I rather watch Olympic Hockey than the NHL these days, and I am not a huge Olympics fan by any stretch of the imagination.

I wasn't into hockey then. I remember the lost season, but I really don't know what you're referring to with Versus. We just started following within the last few years. With the Canes so near (45 minutes) and the availability of tickets from season ticket holders who can't make all the games, it's become something we really enjoy!

Oh, and I agree with you...Semin DOES punch like a girl!!

[King Par]

Semin was just plain embarassing. Definitely should not be fighting. Crosby is no different. I'd like to see a fight where Crosby actually squares off and lets the other guy square off too. Both of Crosby's fights was just grabbing the guys jersey and punching him from there.

But I'm a Leafs fan so I have no right to talk trash right now.

[ualtim]

Originally Posted by MCDavis

I wasn't into hockey then. I remember the lost season, but I really don't know what you're referring to with Versus.

With the lockout season, ESPN discontinued covering the NHL and the NHL went with Outdoor Life Network for the coverage. OLN changed their name to Versus a while after the NHL contract was signed. OLN/Versus TV coverage is sporadic at best. ESPN used to cover hockey 3 or 4 nights a week and one of those nights was double header. With ESPN coverage, I was able to catch the B's several times a year. With Versus, I am lucky to catch one or two games all season long. The only other option is to pay for the complete game package from cable and I do not watch it enough to justify that expense.

If you team is the local team, you can get local coverage, but I am a bit far away from the my teams local area. I have watched the Lightning local coverage when they have played the B's a few times but that is about it.

I grew up watching hockey from as far back as I can remember. Bobby Orr, Johnny Bucyk, and Gerry Cheevers are some of my earliest hockey memories. One of my greatest Christmas gifts as a young child was a set of Bruins tickets to go see Bobby Orr play. I followed the B's like a religion through the Middelton, O'Reilly, Bourque, and Neely years but have fallen off as the NHL became more like the rest of the professional sports with high turnover in free agency. I am lucky if I could name a handful of the Bruins current roster as it changes so much from year to year.

[MCDavis]

FSN Carolina (FSN South last season) put together a deal with the Canes, Panthers, Bobcats for major coverage during the season, so I can see most of the games on TV. There's only about 10-12 games that aren't televised somewhere locally, and I get most of the channels.

I remember when I was a kid there was either a pro or semi-pro hockey team in the Roanoke, VA area. My grandfather would get tickets and him, my dad, my uncle, me and my cousin would all go. I remember some really great fights! This would be when I was under 10 years old.

[Pa Jayhawk]

Yeah, but what you guys are overlooking is that as poor as Semin was in the fight, he won the fight even after getting his sweater ripped off.

How humiliating has that got to be for Staal knowing this guy treated him like the drum set for Rock Band on the Xbox.

I mean come on, when you were a kid would you have rather been told you fight worse than a girl, or got beat up by someone who fights worse than a girl. I think if I were in the NHL I would have rather had someone like Brashear take my head off and land in the hospital, than have Semin do that to me. At least I would leave with my dignity in knowing I went toe to toe with Brashear

Actually who I wanna see square off, and it's gotta happen soon the way they have been towards each other is Ovechkin and Malkin. Man, there is some serious bad blood there.

[King Par]

Yeah Ovie and Malkin would be a sweet fight. But I enjoy their hits during the game more. It always seems like they can find eachother and make the biggest hits on one another.

Coverage up here in Canada is really good. Every Saturday we have two sometimes three games on at night. Always a Canadian team playing in those. Usually every Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday there is a game on TSN. Sometimes more than one game per week. Then if Edmonton or Calgary plays we can watch that because we are part of the Western district for another sports channel up here. Pretty good coverage all around. So it's not worth getting any extra's like the Centre Ice Package unless you really want to watch 2-3 games per night.

[Pa Jayhawk]

I don't know if it is just I don't pay much attention to hockey this early in the year because usually the Caps are a late starter, or if things are changing, but they haven't been having nearly as many games as I remember. Probably that I just haven't paid attention in the past until the caps pull themselves back into contention when they have.

Have managed to see a few caps games though, because we get stations that run NY, Phil, and Pitt games. Even those have been limited. Did see TB, and one or two others.

Next one that will be on for the Caps is Ottawa on the 20th. If there is a game a day it is a good week, then maybe a couple on weekend days. ESPN ran the most last year, and they don't hardly seem to know Hockey is going on. Most of the games are on Comcast or the MSG (Madison Square Garden) nework and one other.