THE REAL GEAR HOCKEY THREAD!

Have my Winter Classic Leafs Jersey already.

What truly bothers me is calling Detroit "hockeytown" but I think watching that stadium fill up blue will do all the talking needed.

I'm gonna try...but I'm from Mississippi, so College Football does it for me...

Lol Matt your status. The Red Wings are old. They won't beat the Leafs. henge needs to get on here.

Hey you never know. Adding bolland and bernier is a good start.

I'll give you that, it's a sport created by Canadians, with deep Canadian roots. But the shift to an International influence is unmistakeable:

Players by nationality

Although I don't see Canadians being much less than 50% of the league's roster, the success of Canadian ownership is the real question. I tease, but as a fan of the game I am concerned. Great hockey requires a good balance at all levels, but with the last 19 Cups going to US teams, it's not there.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Cinderella final of the Coyotes and Leafs. But now I am dreaming! About the Coyotes, anyway.

Heavy statement, there.

Also, I agree, there is great financial imbalance in the league, and the profitable teams suffer for it. As a Coyotes fan, I recognize that the Phoenix area has a long way to go regarding fan support. Even when they win, it's still a struggle to fill seats.

Except the Bruins

What do you mean

TO AN EXTENT the idea that teams shouldn't be able to buy their way to championships is in my opinion a good one. It creates parity, except for Boston, Pittsburgh, LA and Chicago all showing up deep in the playoffs after all appearing like clockwork in the last few years but there has to be a standard. You can't get into an NHL game for $25 that's not acceptable, let's assume the average ticket price is $25 and concessions spent at a game (most of these joke markets include free parking, food and even merchandise) is $20 bringing our total up to $45. Let's also make a massive leap of faith and assume all these teams are putting 18,000 asses in seats for every home game. That's 33.21 Million Dollars in ticket revenue. I think we can all safely say this number is nowhere near close to what some of these basement dwellers are generating but let's go with that. 33 million isn't half of what the salary cap is. This doesn't include money generated from a TV deal, I have no idea what that's worth but my guess would be not much if you can get people to watch the games in person. This also doesn't take into account the building, costs of staff and a host of other things.

ULTIMATELY WHAT ENDS UP PISSING ME OFF is paying $200 for a ticket to a shitty team that has next to zero talent because the real talent would rather stay in a market that can't support the team and use my money to prop them up. That's not parity.

I just turned down last row leafs tickets verse the Jets for this year, trust me jcoutu1 at $60 I'd be at a ton of games. That seat is $130 a ticket here, Beer is the same plus parking. I WISH we still had AHL here. Much more affordable. True North is supposedly looking into a WHL team here but unfortunately only surveyed interest from Jets season ticket holders so I could imagine some of them not being interested in spending even more money on hockey tickets. What really surprised me was how easily people here could afford tickets. When they announced the drive to 13,000 I thought it wouldn't happen, three minutes later I was proven wrong. For those who aren't familiar Winnipeg is the asshole of the country. Crime, poverty and socialism.

Also if you or Mobeach get a chance to snag a Milan Lucic autograph make it out to Jordan! That guy is a beast and I'd pretty much trade anyone for that guy to be on my team. Let's just hope he never goes home to Vancouver.

You drive an awfully hard bargain! I love my C42s!