I hate NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. He's a bum. He's ruined the hockey season, he's ruined our moment as fans to celebrate our team winning the Cup, because the lockout took away opening day and the banner raising won't be the same when it happens, and if he doesn't stop the direction he's heading, he's going to destroy the league. He needs to stop being so inflexible on the salary cap issue, a few teams are out of control (NY Rangers anyone?) but instead of instituting a luxury tax that would help reign in those teams, he wants to ruin it for everybody.
Plus, now I keep having to hear people like World magazine claim that nobody in the south cares about hockey because it's not being talked about enough on sports radio or something, when there's absolutely nothing to talk about, the coaches are under a gag order, the front office isn't arranging player interviews, and half of the players are out of the country anyway. Give us something to talk about, some progress in negotiations, some small sliver of hope to grasp hold of and we'll go to town with it. Otherwise, it's just too darn depressing.
The Lightning handed out championship rings to the players who were still around, but instead of a big ceremony opening night, it was some weird little event and only 15 guys showed up because the rest are off in Europe somewhere and the players wanted to have the Stanley Cup there for their lunch after they got the rings, but it was booked to be in Minnesota and the stupid idiot league couldn't even rearrange that so the team that won it could have it when they get the rings. It just sucks. The St. Pete Times has an article about the ceremony that has some extremely scathing comments from Tim Taylor about how Bettman's made this day, that should have been huge, into a joke and about what they've done to the fans. He said, among other things "I don't think we'll ever forget the treatment the NHL has given our team in trying not to let this happen," forward Tim Taylor said. "It was a joke. For this community not to share in this? I think it's a slap in the face the NHL has given our fans because they should've been involved. This should have been at the Forum in front of 22,000 people as we walk up and get the rings and open it up and show the fans. I personally feel the NHL has taken some of that away from us." The only reason they make any money is because of the fans, but we're the ones who are getting screwed over the worst in all of this.
We'll survive, hockey will survive, even in Florida, but it's not going to be the same. And just a warning, if anybody tries to diss hockey in Florida and say that this is going to make the sport disappear, prepare to get flamed, I'm not in the mood to hear that sort of crap. Hockey is entrenched in this state, and just like the baseball strikeout didn't stop kids from playing baseball, this isn't going to stop kids from playing hockey. In my county alone, we have everything from Mites to Junior hockey, and next year we're getting an ECHL affiliate complete with a brand new hockey arena, so whether you like it or not, hockey is here to stay.
Posted by kathryn at Noviembre 17, 2004 04:35 AM | TrackBackHey Kath,
Love you're enthusiasm for the game, but after this strike, hockey is dead in Tampa. Most ppl who live there didnt even know they had a team until the playoffs last season. Say it with me...."Go DevilRays!"
Posted by: Johnny at Noviembre 28, 2004 09:48 PMJohnny, how can you say that most people in Tampa didn't know that they had a team? Are you from Tampa? Do you have any clue about anything other than anti-Tampa rhetoric by the Canadian press? Sorry, but hockey ain't going anywhere.
When the Tampa Tribune is running results from the Playstation NHL 2K5 mock season in the sports section every week, I don't think hockey is dead in this area. You wanna know why it's not going anywhere? It's because in the last decade, hockey has become entrenched as the sport of choice for an awful lot of kids in this area to play, and they aren't all going to suddenly stop playing just because the NHL isn't. And guess what those kids are dreaming about when they play? The same thing that every other kid on skates with a hockey stick in their hand dreams about--making it to the NHL and winning the Stanley Cup.
Posted by: kathryn at Noviembre 29, 2004 12:35 PMargh i hate everyone that made THE NHL BE GONE FOR THIS YEAR. I AM SO MAD. I'VE ONLY WATCHED FOR ONE YEAR AND I WANT MORE, BUT noooo THEY HAD TO RUIN IT FOR TAMPA, FOR ME, FOR TORONTO FOR CALGARY cuz i love them too AND THEY RUINED IT FOR CANADA. THANKS A LOT YOU STUPID IDIOTS I HATE YOU SO MUCH!:@:@:@:@:@ ARGH. BY THE WAY JUST TURNED 13 A WHILE AGO;.... EVEN THO I WANTED CALGARY TO WIN THE CUP, AND I WAS ALMOST CRYING WHEN THEY LOST, I eventually FELT HAPPY FOR TAMPA AND NOW I LIKE THEM. they were so happy, some of them had little babies and some of them had their wives, and some of them were the happiest and that made me happy. anyway, they never won b4 and they had their chance to shine, and at least now calgary and tampa are tied. if tampa won again, that would make me mad cuz calgary should have gotten the cup in game 6, THE PUCK WAS in, but i was actually HAPPY FOR THEM! go lecavalier, go richards, go St. Louis! i love u!!! MY WHOLE CLASS WATCHED THE PLAYOFFS WHEN LEAFS PLAYED SENS, THEN LOST TO PHILLY, THEN TAMPA AND CALGARY. EVEN THO SOME OF US WANTED CALGARY TO WIN AND SOME OF US WANTED TAMPA TO WIN, (only liek 3 people tho, sorry) IT BROUGHT US TOGETHER, MADE US COMPETITIVE, MADE US SHOW SUPPORT...COME ON THATS WHAT REALLLY MATTERS. I BET THOSE PLAYERS FEEL REALLY BAD..SO DO I. i LOVE TAMPA AND CALGARY AND LEAFS AND NEW JERSEY. I'M SO SAD...IT'S JUST SO UNFAIR.
Posted by: billy bob at Febrero 16, 2005 10:58 PMcalm down kathy or whatever.
the puck was not in the net in game 6 in was in the air so it lookd like it as in the net.but it wasnt I LOVE TAMPA GO TAMPA GO
Posted by: daniel at Febrero 24, 2005 02:45 PMThe south east division will be closed because not enough people care about hockey in the south. Why dont you all stop bitching like little girls and chill out til we have more hockey.
Posted by: Common Sense at Abril 18, 2005 05:23 PMFirstly, TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING SUCK!! THE FLAMES WON THE CUP IN GAME 6 AND YOU ALL KNOW IT!!
And Kathryn, you said that hockey is a big sport in tampa.. HA!
You obviously haven't been to calgary.
I know people who flew to tampa and walked up to the st. pete times forum and bought tickets. Tickets in calgary were very very very very hard to come by. I sold a ticket at the top of the second bowl for game 6 for about $800.
Beat that.
Hockey has absolutly no meaning in tampa compared to the way it does in calgary.
AND THE PUCK WAS IN!
Walked up and bought tickets? Sure wasn't for game 7 unless they found a scalper. There were a handful of standing room only tickets that were availble for games 1 and 2, but those didn't even go on sale until the day of game 1, I paid $400 bucks for 2 of those tickets, because my only other option was to camp with hundreds of other people in hopes of being able to get one of the 200 $8 tickets. There were absolutely no tickets to be found for game 7, and if you scalped a ticket for the 2nd tier (and what sort of fan scalps a ticket when their team is in the position to win?) for $800, you got cheated. The cheapest of the cheap nosebleed tickets were going for more than that for game 7, if you could find one. The radio station gave away a pair of club tickets for game 7, they bought them from a ticket broker and it was the most expensive giveaway in the history of the station. And for game 7, there were so many people jammed onto the plaza to watch the game projected on the parking garage that the police wouldn't let anybody else on for safety's sake. However, unlike all of the dodos on the Red Mile who stood on sidewalks and couldn't see the game, the people who couldn't get onto the plaza went somewhere with TVs so that they could actually SEE the Lightning win it.
Oh, and if hockey means so much to Calgary, why is it that the top level was closed until the playoffs, that you almost lost your team because not enough people were going to games when they were horrible? We were never in danger of losing our team (even with the idiot owners we've had). The Lightning have always had all levels of their arena open, we still hold the playoff attendance record from back when they played in a baseball stadium (people were even buying tickets where they couldn't see all of the ice, just because they wanted to be there), and the only thing that broke our regular season attendence record was playing a game outdoors in a football stadium. Even when the Lighting sucked, their average attendence was on par with other teams around the league with similar records (and if we didn't care, we wouldn't have gone--the Devil Rays suck no more than the Lightning ever did but the Lightning put more fans in the seats of that same building than the Rays can).
Oh yeah, and the Bulin Wall STOPPED THE PUCK!
Posted by: kathryn at Mayo 7, 2005 01:31 AMWas just wondering. How many ice rinks are in the general Calgary area? .(if anyone from Calgary is still on line in this thread)
Youth hockey and in general has a great following here. Good participation level BEFORE the Cup in this area. We've got tons of folks from the noth and from Canada that love the hockey scene down here. (Including native Floridians) Since THE CUP youth hockey has sky rocketed in the Tampa area. The rinks are jammed every day from before sun up to well after sun down 365. Both on the ice and our roller leagues are full of players at every age. I was born and raised here and would have loved to have played the game as a kid but it simply just wasn't around 20-25 years ago. I play now and also help coach the kids. My son being one of them. He's friken hockey NUT... And like an earlier poster said.... EVERY kid that laces'em up dreams about Lord Stanley's Cup... you don't have to be Canadian to dream of hoisting the greatest trophy in sports. Just becasue we are from the south doesn't mean that we don't enjoy every aspect hockey just as much as some one from Canada. Canada just simple doesn't OWN the religeon of Hockey.... I'm just as passionate about it as every other hockey fan. For cryin out loud.... what could be better than playing hockey in the middle of 95 degrees and 100% humidity on summer day in a nice cool rink on a saturday afternoon? The ultimate escape from the hot summer months.
Oh and the puck was never in.... you just keep beleiving that.... cuz thats the only scenario that even sounds the least bit possible. they had plently of chances after that to make it happen in regulation AND in the OT's. PLUS Calgary had the same EXACT oppurtunity in game 7 and could not get the job done.
Posted by: 2min4cc at Mayo 13, 2005 01:54 PM