IKnowPhysics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O1ixMU2Plg

Heh. Madison had a "pro" team for a season, the Madison Ice Muskies. The summer before they got started, they hyped up the team so much. They brought in a coach from out of town, held tryouts, brought in quite a few players from out of town and gave them a stipend. Had a new logo and jerseys and a PR/social media guy. Even made a few promotional videos before they got going: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0bYouBAMlM The season got started and they got a pretty alright draw of people. They served silos of beer for cheap, just about at-cost. The league was comprised of two types of players: the skinny guy from Nintendo Ice Hockey and the fat guy from Nintendo Ice Hockey. The skinny guys would play and the fat guys would fight. Fairly entertaining low level hockey. Again, cheap silos. They even had a full-size mascot that would do funny ######. And then it all went to ######. Before the team started, the owners were tight-lipped about which league they were going to play in. They were supposed to play in the Midwest Hockey League, but five of the seven teams left that league or went defunct before the season started. The MWHL would technically merge into the struggling All American Hockey League, except only one of the two remaining teams, Madison, went to the AAHL with the merger. By the end of the season, the owners/founders of the team didn't have enough money to pay the players and coaches, the players couldn't pay their rents. Pretty sure the owners screwed everybody involved and/or went bankrupt. The league bought the remnants of the team and moved it to Wooster, OH to become the Wooster Korn Kings (I can't make this ###### up). The Korn Kings didn't make it two months before collapsing. The AAHL would be defunct within the year. Ice muskies jerseys weren't too bad, though, based on the Whalers jerseys. TL;DR dirt league pro hockey is fun to watch with beer but it's an organizational nightmare.

Heh, maybe cheaper than season ticket prices.

Perception is reality. It is if you want it to be.

Agree. Remember that pro hockey players are just people. But more than that, they're young men ages 18-35, most of them have enormous amounts of expendable income, and thy're out-of-school, so to speak, during the off-season. They're also mostly from Canada, the Northeast or Midwestern US, or Northern Europe. I can't imagine an NHL that isn't full of drunks. I'm pretty sure elements of it are the same as a beer league except that the skill and on-ice effort level is multiplied. I'm pretty sure the only thing stopping all sorts of drunken player mishaps from reaching the news are the teams' PR departments, the players' agents, the fact that teammates won't rat each other out publicly, and maybe, just maybe, the teams' code of conduct policies, if such things exist in the NHL.

Probably because of his brother...?

This is unprecedented tanking. I love it. Bring in the the junior teams of the top draft picks to show off to the fans what we're about to draft because we're sooo bad.

Welp, Perrault still scored more than a point per game. So, if anything, it's surprising, not disappointing.

See, ######, this is what I had some concern about. I don't know if this is a title demotion. It could be, but with Royce and Jakubowski taking Assistant General Manager spots, it's difficult to think that Devine would be demoted below those two. Therefore, it's conceivable that the Director of Player Personnel is a new, higher position. Jim Benning's path was Amateur Scout-> Director of Amatuer Scouting-> Bruins' Assistant General Manager-> Canucks' General Manager. Kevin Devine's path has been Assistant Amateur Scout-> Pro Scout-> Director of Amateur Scouting-> Assistant General Manager-> Director of Player Personnel. Looking at the Senators' front office roster, Director of Player Personnel is the highest position under the General Manager. Looking at the Penguins' roster, it's akin to Head Scout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS4QGEQaclk

Bloop http://forums.sabrespace.com/topic/22720-most-disappointing-sabre-of-all-time/

See poll.

Dumb management or money saving?

That'd be pretty ######in' fun(ny) to bring the Otters in to show off McDavid to Buffalo fans during Tank MkII. He's likely not purchasing the Otters. I don't know of any OHL teams owned or affiliated with NHL teams. Plus Erie wouldn't fit the model of regionalization anyways- most of the Erie population is Penguins fans.

Puck Daddy shows up with the insight, but as stated the moment and the fashion aren't strong. No Goal. Simply crushing to be cheated like that. The leaking of the The Slug. We didn't want to believe it was real. And then Larry Quinn's press conference came. And he said they we would like it better with the word mark. Which wasn't on the jersey.

But the hope of not playing for Wang may inflate the Islanders' confidence some. I'm thinking that's a 3-5 point boost in the standings.

Argonauts fans: Man, ###### Bon Jovi. Image from twitter: In this case, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I knew someone was going to call out the last part. The "Buffalo Buffaloes" argument is just people being jelly and/or angry that their teams had to manufacture some mascot or icon- in our city, the Buffalo was our titular birthright. We own it. You want we should have a different mascot than the name of our city? Have Sabretooth. The author spells it out: it's a wonderfully clear and elegant representation:

GIVE US ALL THE THINGS.

I'm saying you should find the most crippled person you know and throw them through it into a pool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_am82sYFXU

From wiki: Marek Zagrapan was drafted in the first round and the Sabres signed him to an entry-level contract. He proceeded to play for Rochester and Portland, vastly underachieving. He failed to earn a spot with Buffalo, so he split for Europe. Buffalo is not awarded a compensatory pick, because they signed Zagrapan to a contract. In Kevin Hayes' case, he was drafted in the first round, and went to the NCAA, which delayed his requirement to be signed. When he graduated, he and the Blackhawks failed to agree to an entry-level contract, making Hayes a UFA as of midnight (I think) tonight. Because he went directly from 1st round selection to UFA, the Blackhawks are awarded a compensatory 2nd round pick. In this case, it's 54th overall. There's an expectation by hockey clubs that a player they select in the first round will agree to sign with them. If they do not, then they're out a first round draft pick, which is a considerable asset and could be especially damaging to a franchise that's trying to rebuild (not Chicago, obv). The estimated net loss of a first round pick and gain of a second round pick is estimated to be one or two second round picks or more, depending on how high that first pick is. That's still a hefty setback in asset management terms. In these recent cases of coveted NCAA players graduating and refusing to sign with their teams (see also Justin Schultz), it has been the decision of the player and not the decision of the team. The CBA in this case was designed to prevent a total loss of a first round pick because a single player decides to snub the team that had an unrequited belief in them. In the case of Hayes, PuckDaddy speculates on reasons why he may feel justified to bail on the Hawks:

44 NHL equivalency points based on his last year in Hockey East. Sign him. Get him into camp. Get him into Rochester. Develop him. Then promote him or trade him.

Dallas got a pass on the Mooterus. That means we get a pass on the Slug. Or else Dallas is cheating again.