Posted on 02/13/2004 5:30:57 PM PST by SamAdams76
Wow! An NHL thread on FR!
That said...what's a trap?
foreverfree (who had 2 Flyers Cups to get him through middle school)
Somehow I think the same way about baseball (PLEASE abolish the DH!).
foreverfree
I found an old NHL playoff game on ESPN classic a few nights ago, the infamous "too many men on the ice" Bruins/Canadians playoff game in 1979 that the Bruins should have won. That brought back so many memories because I remember that game vividly. I was 16 years old at the time and watched that game with my father on our old black & white TV. The same one that would host "Pong" and "hockey" games later that year at Christmas time - when video games were crude and in their infancy. Anyway, when Wayne Cashman scored those two goals, memories flooded back. I hadn't seen those goals in nearly 15 years! And Don Cherry was coaching behind the bench and in fact, this would turn out to be his very last game coaching the Bruins - though nobody knew it at the time. Truly that game marked the end of an era. It was all basically downhill for the Bruins after that game, though there would be some bright spots with stars like Cam Neely and Ray Bourque.
The next year, we did have the "Miracle on Ice" and perhaps that was the swan song of hockey in Boston. Interest in hockey has declined around here ever since.
But during the 1970-79 period, the Bruins were the hot ticket in town. What a great era for hockey.
I agree about the fighting. I think it was an essential part of the game's attraction. The Bruins had their "goons" too during the 1970s. Stan Jonathon, John Wensink, to name a couple. There was always a stir in the crowd when the "goon line" took the ice!
It's a shame about the helmets too. Takes the identity away from the players. I think they ought to be optional. Remember that players like Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull played for years and years without helmets and survived. In fact, only a very few players were seriously hurt in the game in the pre-helmet era as a result of not wearing helmets, and in most of those cases, the injuries were caused by another player high sticking on purpose - something that should definitely not be tolerated.
Come back and report in five years.
Lookout if the team has an average record or Ohio State returns to basketball glory.
Even in Columbus, the fans will catch on that they are paying lots of money to watch what are effectively pre-season games.
ML/NJ
The problem with your idea is that the money is there. Either George Steinbrenner is going to get it or some shortstop is going to get it.
ML/NJ
Coming from Philly you might not realize that regular fighting wasn't part of the NHL until you guys got a team, and turned it into a marketing strategy. I started going to Ranger games in the mid-50s. I probably went to 30 games before I saw my first drop-the-gloves fight. I played in an amateur league for a number of years, and the last thing I wanted to do was get into a fight. (I think there was one fight once while I was off the ice.) If you want to see fights, why don't you go to a boxing match and let the guys in the NHL play hockey?
ML/NJ
Yeah, he was good. But even he couldn't get past Bernie Parent.
Fat chance in the near future. As the sign said at a game a few weeks ago: "The Wrong Jim O'Brien Resigned". Recruiting is nil. OSU always was a football school, and the basketball program is slipping to afterthought status. Even Buckeye hockey outsells hoops these days.
How about football offensive linemen? They put their bodies through absolute hell, have to eat incredibly unhealthy diets that almost always leads to serious problems in retirement, and have terribly short careers.
Luke, do you remember the game against the Soviet Red Army team? All the other NHL teams were getting their butts handed to them by the Red Army and (I still can't believe this was a real name) the Soviet Tractor team.
The Red Army played the Flyers in Philly at the Spectrum. The Flyers held them to (if I remember correctly) one point. Ed Van Impe drew a penalty, served it, and came out of the box to check a Soviet player. It was a clean check (even the refs, who HATED the Flyers, said it was legal), but the Soviets claimed the Flyers were "playing dirty."
The refs refused to call a penalty on Van Impe, and the Soviets walked off the ice. They sulked in their dressing room for about 10 minutes, until an owner went in and told them that if they didn't finish the game, they wouldn't get paid.
They came back out on the ice, and the Flyers creamed 'em. The announcer commented that the owner ought to be in charge of Détente.
I love hockey.
Watch the Phantoms then.
Posted on Thu, Jan. 01, 2004
Phantoms Notebook
The Broad Street Bullies, part two
Compiled By The Inquirer Staff
The Broad Street Bullies are back. No, not those guys. Not Clarke and Schultz and Holmgren. We're talking about Vandermeer and Peluso and Berube. As in Peter Vandermeer, Mike Peluso and Craig Berube. That trio, along with goalie Neil Little and the rest of the Phantoms, may have lost, 5-1, Sunday to the Binghamton Senators, but they sent the Senators away with more than a few bumps and bruises.
In a game reminiscent of those played by the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s - those Flyers teams featured Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz and Paul Holmgren - the Phantoms racked up franchise records of 210 penalty minutes in a game and 379 combined penalty minutes with the other team.
Vandermeer, the AHL leader in penalty minutes before the game, also set a club record of 44 individual penalty minutes in a game.
The AHL record for most combined penalty minutes in a game is 520, set Oct. 14, 1981, by the Adirondack Red Wings and Hershey Bears. The record for most minutes by one team is 264, set by Adirondack in that game.
"Everybody on the team stuck up for each other," said Peluso, who played a big part in the first brawl that started with 3 minutes, 50 seconds remaining in the game and the Senators leading, 4-1.
Peluso went at it with Binghamton goalie Ray Emery because, Peluso said, he was speared by Emery. Players on the benches also got involved, throwing water bottles onto the ice.
"A team that sticks together - whether scoring, fighting or winning - is going to be a hard team to play," said Peluso, a right winger who collected 19 penalty minutes and four goals in 37 games in 2001-02 with the Chicago Blackhawks. The next time the Senators visit, Peluso said, the outcome will be different.
It took all of seven seconds for the next stoppage of play to occur. The third stoppage came 37 seconds after that, and the fourth with just eight seconds to play.
After that melee, referee Gordon Dwyer had to end the game, because there weren't enough players not serving penalties to resume. The Phantoms had one player available; the Senators had two.
In all, there were 11 fights and 15 game-misconduct penalties in the game. Berube, a noted NHL fighter since 1986, got three of the misconducts.
"It was fun," Emery said. "It's not too often you have a 5-1 game and the fans stay to the end."
On Tuesday, there was more fallout from the game. Right winger Mike Siklenka, who scored the Phantoms' goal, was suspended by the AHL for six games because of his role in the brawls. Vandermeer, a left winger, was suspended for four games. Little - who went the length of the ice to get involved in the fighting - was suspended for two.
No one from Binghamton was suspended.
The Flyers' alumni team had to be proud. After all, in a strange twist, that team played a for-charity game after the main event.
"Things got heated, and we stuck up for each other," Phantoms coach John Stevens said. "It's a division rivalry, and we're trying to gain points on each other. The rivalry is certainly on."
Mark April 4 on your calendar if you like such games. That's the next time the Senators will visit the Wachovia Spectrum. The Phantoms will go to Binghamton, N.Y., on Jan. 10.
Jones wins honor. Defenseman Randy Jones will receive the team's player-of-the-month award for December before tomorrow's game against the Worcester IceCats at the Spectrum.
Jones collected eight points on two goals and six assists in 12 games last month as the Phantoms went 7-4-1.
Tidbits. If the Phantoms defeat the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Sunday, fans in attendance will receive a free ticket to the game Wednesday against the Hamilton Bulldogs. They must take Sunday's ticket stubs to Wednesday's game and trade them in at the Spectrum box office for a ticket to that game. The ticket stubs will not be redeemable before Wednesday... . Fan balloting for the 2004 Pepsi AHL All-Star Classic will end at 11:59 p.m. Sunday on the official Web site of the AHL, theahl.com.
Football players play maybe 20 games a year (depending on the playoffs). Hockey players play 4 times that number.
Hockey players don't get "time outs." If they get injured, they'd better get the heck out of the way or they'll get run over.
Hockey players come "off the field" by leaping over the boards. Their teammates "take the field" by simultaneously crossing the boards going the other way. The game doesn't stop so you can do a line change.
Periods are 20 minutes long, and a team is moving almost the entire time. Activity stops for a face off, but that might take about 3 minutes, tops.
Football players are a tough bunch -- I certainly couldn't do their job. But hockey players have a much more grueling time. I skated with a bunch of them for 15 minutes many years ago, and thought I would die after the first 5. Not a job for the faint-hearted.
The early international games helped demonstrate what a fraud the NHL had become. There was incredible intensity in these games when the pride of the Canadian players was challenged. I was lucky enough to attend a couple of these games. (One was one of Bobby Orr's last games up at the Forum in Montreal. What a place for a hockey fan!)
ML/NJ
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