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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2013 12:50:12 GMT -5
The great thing about Top 10 lists for anything is that there's no right one. Everyone has a different opinion about these sorts of things, and its neat to see how other people feel about those topics. My lists weren't necessarily the ten most accomplished players, but rather those who played consistently at a high level throughout their career. In some cases, it's hard to compare the players who played 90 years ago to the guys who played 20-30 ago, simply because so much has changed since then. I do think however that Pittsburgh's window for a legitimate run at the Stanley Cup is close to ending, probably within the next 2-3 years. I feel the same way with my teams. It would take a seismic event for me to even consider switching allegiances. I agree about the no right one and that was the point I was making about it being a subjective opinion. Wasnt trying to say the guys I mentioned are right and yours are wrong so I apologize if you took it that way. I will say Heatley over Iginla and the Sedins is objectively wrong though haha. It seemed like you placed more value on players that have had long careers and less value on the current stars. |
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Post by International Hockey Club on Mar 27, 2013 15:08:11 GMT -5
Also really shocked to hear you were a Pens fan for 15 years and now aren't. I dont know how people can switch allegiances with pro teams unless they are a casual fan. Alright, here's my two cents. I was basically born and raised wearing the black and gold, which had been my brother's favorite team (my mom grew up watching the Rangers, then basically swore off hockey after Lockout I until he started watching it shortly after) and my parents' adopted team. it also helped that the newest attraction in NEPA - the new AHL team at the time, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton - was a Pittsburgh farm team. So naturally, I went with what they did. While I grew up, the Pens were AWFUL. So bad that they had guys like Steve McKenna on the first line. Of course at the time they were a low-budget team since they had gone bankrupt. A bunch of players I had seen with WBS, even the mediocre ones (Shane Endicott, Eric Meloche, and fan favorite Andy Chiodo) were being sent up. It was awesome to see them in the NHL. I think it was during the 2007-08 season when I started to sour on them. I don't know why, but suddenly I found myself watching Pittsburgh less and other teams more. In particular I was watching Dallas's surprising run to the Conference Final seeing as a friend of mine played for them (Still does, but he's been banished to the AHL this season). 2009-10 was the year it really started to sour. I think I watched two full-length Pittsburgh games that year (Although I did have some personal issues that year) until the playoffs. There were increasing amounts of people who claimed to be Penguins fans but knew little about the team during the lean years, and even during the 90s glory days had only heard of Lemieux, Jagr, and Francis (seriously, Tom Barrasso never gets ANY love?!). That and the fact that that was really the year the team started to play dirty. Most famously there was Cooke ripping off Savard's head (and Savard has seldom played since). But there was also Malkin with a cheapshot, concussing Willie Mitchell, a personal favorite non-Pen of mine at the time (I still do like Mitchell). On my 14th birthday in a game that the Pens played so badly they threw Alexander Pechurskiy (who?) in goal. The next season was when I swore them off, shortly after attending the Winter Classic. Both fanbases (the place was basically divided up) were not the brightest bulbs in the box, but then, after the Pens lost, kept trying to pose "WE HAVE CUPS THO" on the Caps fans. As I say to Yankees fans: If you live any more in the past, your games would be on History Channel. Oh and might I add the team got even dirtier? I tried cheering for them one last time in the playoffs against Tampa Bay, but just couldn't bring myself to it. Enter Nashville, who filled the void and for the two seasons since (but not next season) has been my #2. I pulled for them in the playoffs. Then the Brunt article came that the Thrashers were moving to Winnipeg and then the actual announcement and all hell broke lose. I finally decided "well, what better to start new than with something totally new?" and chose to cheer for the Jets and have not looked back. It kinda helps that I saw the Wolves - then the Thrashers' AHL affiliate - in the Calder Cup Finals; although only two of those players played for the Jets last season (defenseman Arturs Kulda as well as PAVELECTRICITY), I enjoyed watching the series altogether. The way it stands now, I will NEVER, EVER, EVER (SHUT UP TAYLOR SWIFT) swear off the Jets. I still will watch a #2 team next season - Columbus - just for nights when the Jets aren't playing, but the Jets are my team. I have a Jets jersey (autographed too), an IceCaps jersey, two Jets shirts, been to two Jets games (I'm 1-1 so far) and 4 IceCaps games (I'm also batting .500 at 2-2). As for Pittsburgh? After last year's playoff series, lost all respect for them. They were DIRTY. This isn't the Penguins team I grew up watching. I'd rather support a clean team during the awful 2001-2006 years than the dirty team they have now. (And yes, it may seem hypocritical seeing as my team employs Patrice Cormier, but he's cleaned up his act since the whole Mikael Tam thing, like Bertuzzi with the Moore thing) /long story TL;DR: Sworn off due to idiotic fans and dirty play |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2013 15:26:31 GMT -5
Thanks for the background, it was an interesting read. I also dislike all the bandwagon Pens fans so it was intriguing to hear you jumped ship at a time everyone was piling on the bandwagon.
I think you were lucky in that you were young enough that you never really formed an intense bond with your team enabling you to switch rather easily. I remember those older Pens teams and how bad they were.
I'm born in 85 and have been a Leafs fan since the early 90s with 93 being the first real memorable year for me as an 8 year old and the Leafs being the best team in the NHL that season and were the deserved Cup winners that year if not for Kerry Frazer and Wayne "the weiner" Gretzky. Sorry Habs fans, but we would have destroyed you in the finals as MTL was all Roy and we had already beat Cujo in STL who arguably played better in that series than Roy did in the finals. Those years transitioned into the Sundin era where we were continually Cup contenders with a few deep runs. The most recent incarnations of the Leafs havent been much to cheer for, but its times like these that make winning even sweeter in the future since we aren't a spoiled fan base used to icing contenders. Unfortunately Toronto is also a market where all the "Leaf haters" in the lean years all of a sudden are fans when the times are going good and that is maddening. We have the biggest and loudest fan base, but also the most poser fans that don't really follow the team or believe everything they read in the media and think Kessel is a bad player and Phaneuf should be shipped off to the minors. Im not sure how knowledgable you guys all are with "fancy stats" but Im a big advocate of the more advanced statistical analysis like corsi, fenwick, PDO, WOWY etc.
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Post by International Hockey Club on Mar 27, 2013 15:44:50 GMT -5
The Leafs may have the biggest fanbase, but not the loudest. Jets, Habs, Sharks (yes I said that), Bruins, and Rangers are louder that I can think off the top of my head (although the old Leaf playoff games were pretty loud, but that was before suits took all the seats)
I also don't think they would have beat the Habs; no team has ever won three seven-game series in a row and they would have been the first. IMO they'd be out of gas, although that Game 7 was probably one of #99's best games ever, if not his best game ever
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Post by International Hockey Club on Mar 27, 2013 15:54:51 GMT -5
But to give you an example of how idiotic Pens fans are/can be:
The other night, at Norfolk/WBS, the puck got lifted up off the moorings and went into the back of the net, THROUGH the back of the net. So naturally, the ref makes the right call: No goal. When he says so, everyone boos and starts chanting REF YOU SUCK, even though it was obviously not going to count.
Part of the reason why I love going to IceCap games down here is so that I can make fun of the fans when they judge by their heart and not their brain.
Oh and a message to those people wearing those gold Lemieux jerseys, complete with the C: He never wore those jerseys, let alone was captain in them. Better luck next time with your counterfeits.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2013 15:55:22 GMT -5
The Leafs may have the biggest fanbase, but not the loudest. Jets, Habs, Sharks (yes I said that), Bruins, and Rangers are louder that I can think off the top of my head (although the old Leaf playoff games were pretty loud, but that was before suits took all the seats) I also don't think they would have beat the Habs; no team has ever won three seven-game series in a row and they would have been the first. IMO they'd be out of gas, although that Game 7 was probably one of #99's best games ever, if not his best game ever Should have been more clear, I didn't mean loudest as in crowd noise I meant loudest as in most vocal fans on the internet, most media coverage, most tweets, most page views for websites running Leafs stories, most posts on HFboards etc. That type of loud where you are always hearing Leaf stuff due to the size of the fan base. A lot of that noise are from dumb fans who don't know what they are talking about though, which gives Leafs fans as a whole a bad rap. We will have to agree to disagree on TOR/MTL final no way of actually knowing so I could say they would have swept them in 4 straight outscoring them 17-3 and although that is obviously very wishful thinking it is in the past and unfortunately it will never change and Habs won and Leafs lost to LA  |
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Post by International Hockey Club on Mar 27, 2013 16:00:10 GMT -5
The Leafs may have the biggest fanbase, but not the loudest. Jets, Habs, Sharks (yes I said that), Bruins, and Rangers are louder that I can think off the top of my head (although the old Leaf playoff games were pretty loud, but that was before suits took all the seats) I also don't think they would have beat the Habs; no team has ever won three seven-game series in a row and they would have been the first. IMO they'd be out of gas, although that Game 7 was probably one of #99's best games ever, if not his best game ever Should have been more clear, I didn't mean loudest as in crowd noise I meant loudest as in most vocal fans on the internet, most media coverage, most tweets, most page views for websites running Leafs stories, most posts on HFboards etc. That type of loud where you are always hearing Leaf stuff due to the size of the fan base. A lot of that noise are from dumb fans who don't know what they are talking about though, which gives Leafs fans as a whole a bad rap. They were FLIPPING when the Jets beat them 5-2 up in Peg City. It was hilarious reading the HF threads |
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Post by Nova Scotia Titans on Mar 27, 2013 17:55:15 GMT -5
I can recall being four or so years old when I asked my dad one day which NHL team was closest to where we live, and he said Boston. Hoping for a Canadian city, I asked him which Canadian NHL team was closest. He said Montreal, and the rest is history, lol. From there, I've kind of grown a love for the city of Montreal. I've only ever visited there once (driven through it multiple times), and I loved it.
My father is a Vancouver Canucks fan, having been born there. He's also a B.C. Lions fan, and a Seattle Seahawks fan as well, if I recall correctly. My brother is a less intense hockey fan, but he is an Ottawa Senators supporter. My mother and sister are not interested in sports.
Practically all of my family on my mother's side is from Toronto, so I find it kind of funny that I have no interest in those teams. My great-grandpa was a Canadian Football Hall-of Famer who played for the Toronto Argonauts as well as another Toronto based team, winning the Grey Cup twice, in 1930 and 1933, yet I'm a die-hard Montreal Alouettes fan. Go figure.
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Post by International Hockey Club on Mar 27, 2013 18:27:30 GMT -5
My family sports teams:
Brother: Penguins, Ravens
Father: Penguins, Phillies, Raiders
Mother: Penguins
Me: Jets, Red Sox, CFL Blue Bombers
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Post by Nova Scotia Titans on Mar 27, 2013 20:07:52 GMT -5
Jarome Iginla is a healthy scratch for tonight. Sounds like a trade to Boston is imminent...
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Post by International Hockey Club on Mar 27, 2013 20:11:08 GMT -5
Jarome Iginla is a healthy scratch for tonight. Sounds like a trade to Boston is imminent... If all the scratches are a bellwether: Iginla + Krys Kolanos for Khokhlachev + Bartkowski, perhaps with picks thrown in Somehow I nailed Khokhlachev's name without looking |
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Post by Nova Scotia Titans on Mar 27, 2013 20:55:38 GMT -5
Darren Dreger is saying that the Phoenix Coyotes situation may finish with the team being relocated by the end of this season!!!!
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Post by Nova Scotia Titans on Mar 28, 2013 5:09:17 GMT -5
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Post by habsfanatical on Mar 28, 2013 9:20:42 GMT -5
Pens going for it all with the Iginla trade.. Hopefully Pens out in the 1st round, maybe I'm the only one that enjoys favorites losing early lol
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Post by Nova Scotia Titans on Mar 28, 2013 9:22:52 GMT -5
And they still have 4 million in cap space!
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