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Post by franko on May 19, 2020 14:11:20 GMT -5
They should go to 24 teams if it makes sense, not to include big market teams that weren't going to make it. It smacks of favoritism. They shouldn't be moving the goalposts (sorry for the football metaphor). It looks like they are doing people favors. bah, they're just trying to hit a home run with marketing. ya got that right |
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Post by franko on May 19, 2020 14:16:13 GMT -5
Not to mention, in that very remote scenario in which we win the cup, might as well let Captain Shea hoist a big, shiny asterisk. asterisk or not, I'll celebrate and be at the parade and rub it in to Leaf fans everywhere, of course. I can hear it now . . . bu bu but your team got a chance to rest (and yours didn't?). whatever, I hope the Leafs get knocked out first round and go home with nothing but a crying towel. I love sour grapes! every Canadian team makes the playoffs except Ottawa: more happiness. |
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Post by seventeen on May 19, 2020 14:28:56 GMT -5
If anyone wants an idea what playing in an empty stadium looks like, Sportsnet is airing a Bundesliga game right now. They almost never bother with the German league but they need meaningful content & the league is resuming today. It looks strange and with the absence of fans, the silence is almost eerie. I saw a bit of that and it was like you said ... eerie ... Cheers. Didn't bother me much. I was able to hear the announcers much more clearly. Bayern Munich was playing so I was keying on Alphonso Davies and his play. As expected, it was pretty loose at first, getting better as the game went along and the players were recovering their timing. Still rusty, but there was a lot of skill on display and I didn't care that there were no fans. Just put crowd noise on the speaker system and if you didn't pan the seats, you'd never realize no one was there. It was just good to have a real game back on. I remember as a kid, going to watch men's rec soccer which was a pretty good level and most games there'd be 100 people or so lining the fence. Not much different. |
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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on May 19, 2020 20:37:40 GMT -5
I saw a bit of that and it was like you said ... eerie ... Cheers. Didn't bother me much. I was able to hear the announcers much more clearly. Bayern Munich was playing so I was keying on Alphonso Davies and his play. As expected, it was pretty loose at first, getting better as the game went along and the players were recovering their timing. Still rusty, but there was a lot of skill on display and I didn't care that there were no fans. Just put crowd noise on the speaker system and if you didn't pan the seats, you'd never realize no one was there. It was just good to have a real game back on. I remember as a kid, going to watch men's rec soccer which was a pretty good level and most games there'd be 100 people or so lining the fence. Not much different. TBH, I'm not as much of a soccer guy as you are, Mur ... I know players from the late 80s, early 90s but today I follow it enough to fill out my ProLine ticket ... I tuned in to see what a crowd-less match would be like and it would take some getting used to ... mind you, at this point I'd probably find entertainment in a crowd-less hockey game ... Cheers. |
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Post by folatre on May 19, 2020 21:02:01 GMT -5
I heard Bob McKenzie today musing about how Crosby and McDavid could both theoretically get knocked out in what would be the play-in round leading to the 16 team playoffs, since Pittsburgh and Edmonton would be #5 seeds (based on points percentage) in their respective conferences.
Maybe he was just thinking aloud and not implying 24 teams is a bad number. But he hears a lot of chatter from people whose opinions count and it would not shock me if some people in the league office may like a number that ensures Crosby and McDavid are there.
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on May 19, 2020 22:13:25 GMT -5
Didn't bother me much. I was able to hear the announcers much more clearly. Bayern Munich was playing so I was keying on Alphonso Davies and his play. As expected, it was pretty loose at first, getting better as the game went along and the players were recovering their timing. Still rusty, but there was a lot of skill on display and I didn't care that there were no fans. Just put crowd noise on the speaker system and if you didn't pan the seats, you'd never realize no one was there. It was just good to have a real game back on. I remember as a kid, going to watch men's rec soccer which was a pretty good level and most games there'd be 100 people or so lining the fence. Not much different. TBH, I'm not as much of a soccer guy as you are, Mur ... I know players from the late 80s, early 90s but today I follow it enough to fill out my ProLine ticket ... I tuned in to see what a crowd-less match would be like and it would take some getting used to ... mind you, at this point I'd probably find entertainment in a crowd-less hockey game ... Cheers. Am somewhat surprised at myself. At first i really missed watching games but as this dragged out it no longer seems as important. I haven’t found anything that replaces my love of hockey but i am not going through withdrawal. Who wins the playoffs doesn’t seem as important as it once did. I’m sure things will revert next year but right now the Hab’s getting in or not is not of paramount importance. Perspective? |
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Post by PTH on May 19, 2020 22:36:18 GMT -5
TBH, I'm not as much of a soccer guy as you are, Mur ... I know players from the late 80s, early 90s but today I follow it enough to fill out my ProLine ticket ... I tuned in to see what a crowd-less match would be like and it would take some getting used to ... mind you, at this point I'd probably find entertainment in a crowd-less hockey game ... Cheers. Am somewhat surprised at myself. At first i really missed watching games but as this dragged out it no longer seems as important. I haven’t found anything that replaces my love of hockey but i am not going through withdrawal. Who wins the playoffs doesn’t seem as important as it once did. I’m sure things will revert next year but right now the Hab’s getting in or not is not of paramount importance. Perspective? When there are days when the dead from the epidemic outnumber those on 9/11, and with early deconfinement, it's likely to have a massive 2nd wave in the USA with more such days, I find it hard to consider hockey important at all. I really wonder if there's some insurance aspect to all of this, that the league might recoup some money from insurance if they show they tried as long as they could to find a way to not lose any games/revenue.... Because I still don't see it. It means having the players quarantined for a couple of months, with some kind of minicamp beforehand, and just one infection slipping in would quickly spread like wildfire.... the league doesn't need a last-minute cancellation of the whole thing.. Send everyone home, plan a 48 game season for January 2021 and let it go... |
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on May 20, 2020 0:35:09 GMT -5
Am somewhat surprised at myself. At first i really missed watching games but as this dragged out it no longer seems as important. I haven’t found anything that replaces my love of hockey but i am not going through withdrawal. Who wins the playoffs doesn’t seem as important as it once did. I’m sure things will revert next year but right now the Hab’s getting in or not is not of paramount importance. Perspective? When there are days when the dead from the epidemic outnumber those on 9/11, and with early deconfinement, it's likely to have a massive 2nd wave in the USA with more such days, I find it hard to consider hockey important at all. I really wonder if there's some insurance aspect to all of this, that the league might recoup some money from insurance if they show they tried as long as they could to find a way to not lose any games/revenue.... Because I still don't see it. It means having the players quarantined for a couple of months, with some kind of minicamp beforehand, and just one infection slipping in would quickly spread like wildfire.... the league doesn't need a last-minute cancellation of the whole thing.. Send everyone home, plan a 48 game season for January 2021 and let it go... Agree with you. 800 players coming from 15 countries, sharing locker rooms, hundreds of flights, fights, contact. what could possibly go wrong. Right now we don’t allow travel in cars between Ontario and Quebec, Ste Agatha and Laval. Do we really think billions of viruses will decide to call off the epidemic and deaths to get in some playoff games? |
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Post by folatre on May 20, 2020 11:00:08 GMT -5
In Spanish we say, poderoso caballero es don dinero.
It's all about the money. Sure, the owners are greedy but it is not as though the players are being led down a road they do not want to travel. They too cannot stop thinking about their bottom line.
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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on May 20, 2020 13:52:34 GMT -5
When there are days when the dead from the epidemic outnumber those on 9/11, and with early deconfinement, it's likely to have a massive 2nd wave in the USA with more such days, I find it hard to consider hockey important at all. I'm kind of there now ... I would watch a live game but at the same time, I'm not watching a lot of the historical games the networks have been showing ... I may tune in the odd game in but I never stay there ... I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in another thread, but I'm not missing hockey all that much ... Yes ... they've already proven they can do it ... Cheers. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on May 22, 2020 10:17:29 GMT -5
Another interesting fact about the proposed 24 playoff gig is that there is no home ice advantage. No screaming fans, no home team booster from a seventh man. Even if you are playing in your home arena in one of the hubs, you will have a slight advantage regarding the boards and bounces, but that’s not much. Essentially isolated in the same hotel for a long stretch like everyone else.
The league would also have to lockdown several adjacent restaurants and other venues for just the players to avoid any risk of contamination from outside sources. Testing and cleaning protocols will have to be top notch. Just think what happens to teams during a normal flu season. One case undetected could blow everything up.
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Post by BadCompany on May 22, 2020 11:03:46 GMT -5
The league would also have to lockdown several adjacent restaurants and other venues for just the players to avoid any risk of contamination from outside sources. Testing and cleaning protocols will have to be top notch. Just think what happens to teams during a normal flu season. One case undetected could blow everything up. It's so easy to get caught up in the argument that "they are young, elite athletes, in great shape, so it won't affect them" but that's just not the case. Just because they don't die doesn't mean that they can't get very sick. Ask Georges Laraque, who is only 43 years old, and who was training for a marathon at the time of him getting sick. Still ended up in the hospital for three days, and I'm going to guess his conditioning totally nose-dived. And that completely ignores the fact that NHL players don't travel alone. Claude Julien is 60 years old. What happens if he gets sick? How about GMs? Should the 78 year old Lou Lamoriello be allowed to watch his team in person? How about 65 year old Ken Holland? Those are just the "names". How old is the travelling secretary for each team? Equipment managers? Team doctors? According to THIS article 45 people travel with the Winnipeg Jets, 23 non-players. Do any of them have underlying conditions? What about the media? How old is Pat Hickey? He's been covering hockey for something like 55 years now. Will he be allowed to go? Should he? Mike Lange, famous play-by-play announcer for the Pittsburgh Penguins, is 72. Joe Bowen is 69. How about all their support crew? Technicians, cameramen, audio, visual, etc.? So many questions. |
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Post by PTH on May 22, 2020 11:55:52 GMT -5
Another interesting fact about the proposed 24 playoff gig is that there is no home ice advantage. No screaming fans, no home team booster from a seventh man. Even if you are playing in your home arena in one of the hubs, you will have a slight advantage regarding the boards and bounces, but that’s not much. Essentially isolated in the same hotel for a long stretch like everyone else. It would be interesting to see how much the on-ice factors for home-ice (ie, last change) really matter, and I wonder if linesmen would be able to "favor" a team with a paper home-ice advantage as they seem to be instructed to do in general. That's why I don't see it. Players aren't exactly angels either, some would want to sneak out, even if just to get away from an annoying roommate. And just one case getting in could cancel the whole deal. And maybe by then next season is already planned, so you've lost this summer as well as 20 games next season. And all because a 21 year old wanted to hook up with a sweet-looking puckbunny. |
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Post by PTH on Nov 20, 2020 19:52:07 GMT -5
Nope. NHL season is toast. They won't officially write it off for a while, but once we reach Italy-level fatalities in multiple NHL cities (in 2 to 4 weeks, I'd guess), even talk about sporting events will fade away. Well, I was kind of right about the season. I'm still surprised the playoff bubble worked out, though. This prediction is looking damn good. Spot on. I'm wondering if 2021 is realistic. I seriously should have. (has gone from around 332USD to 488USD) Didn't, and given how airlines tend to go belly-up, glad I didn't. |
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Post by franko on Nov 20, 2020 20:37:11 GMT -5
Didn't, and given how airlines tend to go belly-up, glad I didn't. naw, you don't get the flight once the airlines are going, you just get a voucher for the money paid . . . you get to pay the extra for the "new" flight when you take it |
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Post by PTH on Nov 22, 2020 22:02:57 GMT -5
Didn't, and given how airlines tend to go belly-up, glad I didn't. naw, you don't get the flight once the airlines are going, you just get a voucher for the money paid . . . you get to pay the extra for the "new" flight when you take it Yup. Moreso since I tend to choose my destinations at a few weeks notice, based on cheap flights - so having a voucher with a specific airline doesn't do anything for me. Apparently airlines are deliberately cancelling flights at the very last minute, so people book with them and will have to stick with that airline when flights actually resume... |
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