mkscrewy

argh removed by the time I take lunch. was really looking forward to this on an otherwise miserable day...

What exactly are you going to be pissed about and what are you going to do about it? Fight Wayne Simmonds?

what i like about Bourdon is his commitment to stick to his guns and drill a 5'2 guy with a mask on from behind into the boards. and even though he got a penalty he stood up like a man and fought whoever it was on that buffalo team.

Let's send this Claude Giroux after Malkin next time. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Giroux_(wrestler)

yeah well he can also start a fight in the waning seconds of a (SCF) game when his team is losing badly and somehow avoid the mandatory 1-game suspension there too.

so they were talking trash and Malkin tried to elbow him? i only saw the replay but it didn't show anything that happened to lead up to it.

like what?

i'll take a couple shots to the head with the puck in lieu of Hartnell running him over.

part three: A Brain Going Bad http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/sports/hockey/derek-boogaard-a-brain-going-bad.html?_r=1&hp

I gotta say after reading these articles I'm beginning to feel the same way. When I was growing up, there weren't any hockey fans in my family. My brother and I were the first, and fighting was a big part of us getting into it in the mid '80s. My mom's family lived on 9th and Spring (still do) but I'm not sure how big the Flyers were in Chinatown back then, or even when they won the cup. My uncles were Philly fans, but not Flyers fans necessarily (you all know what I mean). Anyhow, the fighting and aggressiveness really drew us into the game. I had a Hextall jersey and my brother had a Dave Brown jersey, which my nephew now wears around. I still love a good fight in the game, but I'm not so sure I can fully enjoy it as thoroughly as I once did. We always hear about guys like Boogaard who are great personalities off the ice, soft-spoken, great with kids and fans etc., and on the ice are like cornered wolverines. And we always hear about how fighting isn't in their personality and how there's this mental hurdle they have to get over to get geared up for fights, pacing in the locker room, an obvious physical and mental strain when they know they have to fight—like Myhres's quote and Dave Brown's paraphrase above. I knew and read about all of this before, but I really think I didn't get it like I do now, reading Boogaard's notes and the mental and physical tolls exacted and exacerbated every night and every season, with the pressure of the job (and losing it) and expectations from the fans and teammates compounding it further. It didn't really seem quantifiable until this series of articles and videos, which obviously I think are quite good. I think about guys like Boogaard as a kid, growing up with dreams of an NHL player, scoring goals, getting their team to the Cup, and then having to make that shift to where the only way they'll make it to the NHL is with their fists, and making that decision at 16-17-18 years old. I'm finding myself agreeing with HF101's perspective more and more: I don't think fighting should be taken out of the game but maybe it's time to change the culture of the NHL and begin reducing the role and importance of the enforcer. I don't know what this would mean for other leagues in Canada, but it would probably take a lot for a movement like this to take place—probably a complete cultural shift. But you read about guys like Boogaard and Rypien this past year dying of prescription drug abuse, whether or not they mixed alcohol in with it or whatever, mental issues of depression, changes in personality and I have to ask how many guys would say it's worth it? I'm sure there's a few present and past enforcers in the NHL who would say they'd do it all over again, but how many (like Somerfeld) wouldn't?

this is part two http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/sports/hockey/derek-boogaard-blood-on-the-ice.html the videos on the left sidebar are worth watching. interviews with Todd Fedoruk on addiction, being an enforcer, getting his face broken by Boogaard; interview with DJ King reviewing video of one of his fights with Boogaard. A lot of great work done in this series. Link to the videos: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/04/sports/hockey/boogaard-video.html

just started reading it, but pretty fascinating so far. this is part one of a series of three. http://www.nytimes.c...wl.html?_r=1

@Ladyneat: lucky you. i tried really hard to enter every contest i could to get a ticket to the last Flyers WC but had no luck. This year i just had to say screw it and put it on the credit card no matter what it cost in order to go. i'm not surprised at all that i got the gyp but sometimes you just have to eat sh!t i guess. hope to see your pics from the WC. mine will be of ants haha.

mine are supposed to ship the week of Dec. 19

hm... fees were probably built into the total cost of the ticket. $249/each in the 429 section, plus another $20 fee and another $3 invoice fee (wtf); total was $521 for two tickets. the way it is set up, there is no breakdown of the fees plus actual cost of the ticket. maybe once i get my physical tickets i can see how badly i was ripped off haha.

i just got tickets via the NHL lottery. not cheap for 400 level seats: $260 apiece with all fees included. interesting that lottery winners had tickets (supposedly) predetermined and linked to each account upon receipt. has its pluses and minuses i suppose. anyway, i'm going! i say hell yeah!

damn nice prediction SC