How bad would the ratings be for Ducks v. Lightning?
http://www.statista.com/statistics/305801/average-tv-viewership-nhl-stanley-cup-games/
Curiously enough it looks like overall there’s been a slight increase since 2008. The exception is the strike year of 2012 which saw a big nose dive. Not sure if this data was the entire playoffs or Finals only.
I’m sure NBC would rather see Chi/NY.
Watching the lightning a little the other night, boy I wish we had a guy on our team who had the kind of velocity stamkos has on his wrist shot. Harder than a Brodziak slap shot.
My nephew has the bolts making the finals on his bracket.
I kinda took a liking to the Capitals after watching the series “The road to the winter classic” Trotzy seems like a good guy, he has a son with Down Syndrome. Anybody watch that? i caught it on Netflix. It’s uncensored and man, Coach Q can is pretty colorful on the bench! I highly recomend watching it.
Ducks or Hawks?
Rangers/Caps or Lightening?
As hard as it is I find myself pulling for Chicago to reach the finals.
I really liked the Road to the Winter Classic show this year. I wanted the Caps to find a way to win last night because I really would like to see Ovi win one. That, and my hatred of all New York sports really had me pulling for the Caps.
I also find myself pulling for Chicago, as hard as it is to admit it. That’s one team that even though they’ve left me disappointed for three years in a row now, I really do like watching them play. There players play with class and skill. It’s something you have to respect. And Coach Q is funny to watch on the bench.
I’ve got Chicago in 6 vs the Ducks, and the Lightening in 5 against the Rangers.
TB win over NY will have me wrapping up the IDO NHL bracket challenge… 
@roosterrouster, was that from this year’s tournament? I didn’t see him on the roster.
DT
No he was 19 then in his first World Championship Tournament. He is 23 now thus 4 years ago…
I wonder why he didn’t make this year’s team?
DT
TB win over NY will have me wrapping up the IDO NHL bracket challenge…
I was completely subjective in my picks. If I could go back and do it again…
I probably would have still screwed up the Central taking the Blues over the Hawks.
Anybody watch the Ducks whip the Blackhawks yesterday? Just caught up on the DVR recording. Looked to me like once the Ducks were firing on all cylinders and the Hawks looked dazed and confused. In as much as the Blackhawks have great depth, the Ducks beat them with even more depth.
Man there’s some good teams in the West. Hate to say it, but when I watched the Ducks give the Jets a sound ass whipping in R1 I was thinking man I’m not liking the Wild’s chances against them in a best of 7. We had our hands full just with the Jets this year in the regular season.
The Hawks better get it together. I wouldn’t want to go down 2-0 to the Ducks.
Grouse
The Ducks and Tampa feel very similar to me.
How’s this for hindsight. How about we nab Kesler over Vanek and trade Koivu? We’d get a nice return on the Kaptian and Kesler fills in his slot.
I think Bolts/Ducks is where we are headed. Ducks for sure, but you never know with Lunqvist. And despite the last game, they keep all their games close.
We really need one more guy to step up next year. Those two teams have 2 youngsters who are tearing it up. We have Zucker and Nino. Just need to have a season where we don’t get behind the 8 ball and have to scratch and claw for 40 games just to get in.
Tampa Bay Tampa Bay.
A California-Florida Cup Series?
Everyone was all jacked about the Wilds chances, even odds makers in Vegas. Now they seem like boys amongst men.
We really need one more guy to step up next year. Those two teams have 2 youngsters who are tearing it up. We have Zucker and Nino. Just need to have a season where we don’t get behind the 8 ball and have to scratch and claw for 40 games just to get in.
On balance, I think you’re right Pug. Ducks v Lightening is probable, but that could change if the Rangers suddenly pull their heads out of their buttskies. What was it like 5 or 6 penalties given up by the Rangers and Tampa scored on 3? Good luck winning a hockey game when doing that. Every time I looked up, the Rangers were in the box again.
I don’t like the Wild’s chances of getting more firepower. The problem is going to be that what is available is going to be expensive and I’m not sure how that would stack up against the available cap space since the Wild aren’t dumping any big contracts. The biggest I can think of is that Harding is done. I’m not sure what the Wild’s cap situation is like, but I don’t think there’s a ton of money available.
Maybe there’s a trade possible. Be interesting to see. There could be some players out of the Oilers that might be available for a trade because with McDavid headed their way, the Oilers are shopping for defense, not offense, so we might have something to offer them.
Grouse
Admittedly, I didn’t watch the game. I need to start getting back into at least the Lightning. I think the sting is about gone.
From what I read of Russo they are looking at about $10M caps space…before extending Granlund and signing Dubnyk. Won’t be much left over after that considering Fletch would like at least $2M or so in space to accommodate in season trade or ability to sign if injuries come up. Plus, there is a much of bottom 6 free agents to figure out what to do with.
Based on that I wouldn’t even want to venture to guess what Fletch is going to do. I think anything is possible at this point, but most likely its going to be quiet.
What was your favorite Matt Cooke moment? He was placed on waivers today.
Watching Dutchboy lavish his affections onto him.
Watching Dutchboy lavish his affections onto him.
He did seem a bit smitten.
What’s going to happen with Dubnyk? I also see Niemi is out there. http://m.startribune.com/sports/blogs/308210001.html
DT
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mplspug wrote:</div>
Watching Dutchboy lavish his affections onto him.
He did seem a bit smitten.
One of the biggest man crushes in IDO history? 
DT
Someone want to go tell him in the hey dutchboy topic?
Back to another Russo article…
Other goalie options
If the Wild doesn’t re-sign Dubnyk, it’ll likely be in the market for a goalie because of the struggles last season of youngster Darcy Kuemper and oft-injured Niklas Backstrom.
San Jose’s Antti Niemi and Calgary’s Kari Ramo are free agents.
Goalies on the trading block include the Rangers’ Cam Talbot, Vancouver’s Eddie Lack, Ottawa’s Robin Lehner and Craig Anderson and Chicago’s Antti Raanta.
Of those guys I’d be interested in Lehner, Anderson and Raanta.
I’d take Anderson only as a guy who can push Kuemper. Lehner because he is young. Raanta, because I like his potential. I am not too interested in any of the others.
Its been proven you just need to be an above average goalie with sound technique to play lights out here. I wouldn’t necessarily be unhappy with whoever they bring in, as long as they bring someone in.
This team has proven that it can elevate a goalies game…it has also proven that if a goalie is shaky the whole system collapses and they get into a funk without confidence in the tender.
And so the season starts again. Cooke on waivers and unlikely to be claimed, so he’s gone in a buyout. I liked Cooke, but we just need more than he could provide.
Word has gotten out that Backstrom had elbow surgery after an injury late season last year, so he’s considered injured and cannot be bought out without many more complicated moves. This was a problem the Wild don’t need and so to some extent the logjam of goalies we can’t play continues.
Vanek was also playing hurt for the playoffs last year and had sports hernia surgery right after the season ended. Will be interesting to see how he comes back.
Dubnyk allegedly wants 5 million a year, but he’s unlikely to get that here or anywhere else in the league based on only a 3 month track record of goaltending at a high level. I would guess both he and his agent know that.
Several interesting free agents have expressed interest in coming to MN, but are all high dollar signings so it seems unlikely any of them would work out unless there are some other players thrown into a trade package.
Several Wild draft picks taking place in world junior camps. After Dumba moved up and made an impact, it’s got me wanting to see more of our young players paying off. I hope I’m not overly optimistic, but that Tuch kid looks like a force, big strong and tough to knock off the puck. Oh please…
Grouse
As long as Tuch doesn’t turn out to be a Coyle. I’ve really yearned for a good Power Forward on this team. Right now I guess Nino is the closest we have to that. Nolan was the only legit power forward we’ve had, that I can remember, even if it was in his twilight years.
We talked about Stanley Cup TV rating a while ago. 2015 had the 2nd highest ratings avg since the Chicago/Boston cup finals. 3rd highest was the 2010 Blackhawks/Flyers series. I guess if you want ratings forget NY or LA.
We talked about Stanley Cup TV rating a while ago. 2015 had the 2nd highest ratings avg since the Chicago/Boston cup finals. 3rd highest was the 2010 Blackhawks/Flyers series. I guess if you want ratings forget NY or LA.
IMO that just shows that the ratings are not just directly tied to market size and the NHL and NBC can get over their panic attack every time it looks like either a southern or small-market team is going to make it to the Cup.
Fact of the matter is that yes, the NHL did have a “southern problem”, but that’s not a catch all to say that nobody cares about hockey anywhere south of Chicago.
Ironically, one of the conspiracy theories that comes up often up there in Canadaland is that the NHL hates Canadian teams and does everything possible to stack the deck against Canadian teams because having them in the Cup kills American TV ratings and that’s a drag on revenue.
Freaking weird, I’ll never understand Canadians, it’s like a foreign country up there.
Grouse
I’ve really yearned for a good Power Forward on this team. Right now I guess Nino is the closest we have to that.
Further proof, if any were needed, that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Grouse
Chicago’s only thing close to a power forward is Bickel and he was hurt in the finals. They aren’t a necessity, but I’d like to have one.
The TV ratings and the amount of people watching the finals would have been substantially higher if the Rangers would have been in the finals#obvi
I hate new york. It was a good day when they lost for me.
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He did seem a bit smitten.
