The Ditch part deux

Two thumbs up hockeybob, that's great salesmanship!

 

That's on Oiler fan that wakes up in the ditch.

Bruins may have Swedish Heyzeus but the Hawks have their Hobey Baker guy. He's making his debut tonight.
Detroit has more prospects anxious to underwhelm and disappoint.

Bolland out for Chicago (because that's what he does) and Sharp is in. Emery getting the nod and Q gets to throw all the lines in the blender again so he'll be quite jovial following the game. The Hawks have just enough time to completely screw themselves by playing too many meaningless games with lines that have no business being together.

I hate "seeing what the kids can do". If they're done accomplishing things in the AHL, they're ready, if they haven't, keep them down and let other gms prove why it's a bad idea to do that.

 

good to see Halo and Matty found their way over, and good to see the old Avi Bob. things are starting to slowly get back to form.

Bob stop dogging the Rockford guys , thats a lineup I like. thier big, tough and talented. Id take Beach in a second. i know you hate him but seriously the Hawks(Bowman Sr is to credit) have a great farm system and tons of depth. most of those guys would be seeing some serious big league ice time on other teams



......now bring back Will the Thrill

 

love the ticket link Bob, that was top notch

 

Halo, heres the bottle I hope you dont mind some old school Detroit brewed and aged bad beer in Strohs

 

Tim I have a complaint, can we not do military time on here? or is there a way to get that off, very annoying

 

cutter9394 -

Check your time now and see if it is adjusted.

 

much better, thanx Tim

 

cutter9394 -

Not a problem.

 

I hate the "Curse of the Pres trophy" talk. Stupid storyline.

Since 3 of the last 6 cup winners have finished 3rd in pts, every team should shoot for that I guess. Don't finish 2nd in pts like the Pens because TB was the last cup winner that finished in that spot.

Grabass stupid storyline for the meatballs. Pens winning the cup will buck more statistical trends than if the Hawks win the cup or lose in the first round.

The playoffs are random. Better for puck possession teams to have the 1 or 2 seed and home ice, otherwise, it's just crazy trying to project regular season results to the postseason with a strong argument.

 

I should note that there is no way I would allow the Hawks to lose to Detroit in the first round. I won't have it.

 

lol.

and on this note, it's time for an anti-fantasy rant.

whatever happened to watching the games and enjoying them for what they are, and forming an opinion from things that aren't in a box score? imo, the deification of arbitrary statistics, stripped of context, is ruining sports, and fantasy is the prime cause of it. last season, we were told that a team which started on the road in the playoffs wasn't gonna win the cup. instead, the 8 seed beat the 6 seed in the finals.

that being said, give it up, bob. it's a universally accepted fact that the only team that can win the president's trophy and the cup in the same year is the wings

of course, vancouver should have won the cup the last several years running, but other teams were lucky and also, bettman, the league, the refs, and well, let's face it, 99.9% of the people on the planet hate the canucks and conspired against them. i thank bigpoppa for enlightening me about this dirty little truth.

to me, the bottom line is that in sports, "conventional wisdom" is often a crock. stop dissecting the statistics and watch and enjoy the GAME.

 

I don't think fantasy sports has changed that. I think most fans couldn't or didn't care to grasp many of those things before. Fantasy stats allow them to immerse themselves into details (shots, hits, ppp, faceoffs, etc.) that they never had reason to get into before.

I think the same hardcore fans that watched some of the stuff not in the box score are the same ones that can appreciate what a Stuart or Hjalmarsson do on the ice because of how their play impacts fantasy stats (less hits, less shots, strong pk, allow for line matchups, etc.) Similar in fantasy vs real football. Drive-by fans cling to fantasy topics and perspective becasuse it's what they like or what they know (care to try to know). Hardcore fantasy players (even non-hardcore NFL fans) pay attention to line play, defensive trends, corner matchups and what DCs do with their secondary against some offenses, etc. So while it has a detrimental effect on sport discussion with some fans I think it improves the discussion among others. I will concede it probably made dumb or novice fans dumber in football but I think the rest are better off.

I think the fans are just as stupid or smart as they've always been but the context of the conversation has shifted and the quantity of the information relating to the sport is increased. Overall, I actually think fantasy sports improves the conversation (I said improve, not "make awsum") because it forces the vast hordes of homer fans to pay attention to what's going in other franchises and at least provides a basis for what would have been ignorant opinions when comparing things around the league for decades before. Of course it's still there but I think it's better than it was. For example; I think use of the word "best" has dropped off exponentially from 15 years ago and before, in large part, because many of those people are in a fantasy league and see more stats every day or week.

I'll agree that it probably has the worst impact on football, but since baseball is very much an individual game and since the hardest things to do in hockey are scoring goals and stopping pucks, I think fantasy sports actually make the fans MOAR smarterer overall.
More information is better for the fan conversations overall, even if that information is in a flawed context like fantasy stats.

In other words, I'm saying your rant is for sux.

Is that universe ours or the one Bryzgalov comes from, or maybe the universe with the triangle head people?

lol, I'll agree with that thought 100 gazillion percent.

 

you're a fantasy player. your opinion is for sux

damn rosterbators.

seriously, tho, i disagree. more people are more focused now on things that don't matter, except to people placing arbitrary importance on contextless stats. check out a football glog lol - but be sure to tighten your chin strap and bring plenty of foil.

but i'll agree that baseball is about the least egregious example. at the other end of the spectrum, u have people hoping people on their team take penalties, because that's good. :rolleyes:

bellevue is not a "universe".

be careful, they see everything u post.

 

63% of all statistics are made up anyway. No way you can trust them.

 

Im a fantasy guy and always have loved the stats end of it since I was a little kid. its paid off in spades for me over the years but I dont watch a game and say 'hey why didnt Frank Gore get 30 touches' or 'the Wings lost but hey I got a hat trick out of Backes'. I have friends like that and its annoying, but I enjoy doing the fantasy sports. I will say though that I couldnt care less about the NFl and the only way I find the games in any way entertaining is to have an interest on the fantasy level. I see what your saying though Lulz, your CJ example in the game glog blog thing the other day was hilarious


by the way Bob when the Wings get into the playoffs we will make you sweat it out a few. for once the Wings are the underdog and have nothing to lose

 

63% of all statistics are made up anyway. No way you can trust them.


wrong Mo its 61.43%, but when its comes to the Lions chances of drafting poorly that number increases significantly to 98.69%. dont be suprised when Mayhew picks another receiver tonight with the 5th pick

 

If the Lions draft a wide receiver with the 5th pick I'll eat my hat. They'll grab someone on the defensive side of the ball (as they should). I'll give that a solid 96.79% chance.

 

lol, I seldom look at the football glogs.

I guess I just thought fans were bigger morons before than they are now (pre-booze) as a group. I think there were too many dumb and baseless opinions formed from opinioneers (writers and radios clowns of whom I was a victim before) because they never had to quantify or explain an opinion. Think of them as the Lion's, Browns, Leafs, or Cub's scouting departments. They watched and evaluated and didn't use fantasy stats (or any stats) and just sucked year after year. Yet they got to state their opinions and nobody could reasonably question their decision until it was way too late.

The part that I appreciate the most about fantasy sports is one that I thought you would really dig. The stupid fans are much easier to identify now. A fan ranting and screaming was very difficult to identify as a drunk, a pilgrim (holy traveler, and zealous believer), an enthusiastic fan, or a moron. Thanks to fantasy sports, in many cases, we can use what comes out of their mouths or keyboards to determine if they're a stoopid much quicker.

The other big benefit for me is that I think more fans have a clue about the opposing team. They can say more creative things other than Detroit SUX for example because they know Mule on the pp isn't going to get it done until recently.

I don't know, I guess it's a matter of preference of the kind of crap we can tolerate listening to. I don't like all the emphasis and screaming to "make another pass to so and so" or "get in a fight" but I dislike it much less most of the crap I used to hear about who sucks, who's good, etc. when they had no clue and no reason to explain why beyond a subjective opinion through clouded goggles. Maybe I'm happy somebody is watching the game and has a clue about why they're actually watching it (something that escaped most before I fear). I'll take a knucklehead screaming for a stat over the rah-rah moron. Probably just a matter of taste at the end of the day.

Amen on the penalties.

damn

damn again.

I think video games do more to mess up things in regards to fan consumption than fantasy sports because fans are watching for unicorns ( I think Byfuglien might be one of the unicorns, but that could be fantasy too). Of course I don't play the video games. This would probably be an appropriate time for my Anti-sports-video-game rant.

In the the words of the Austin Millbarge:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ePTZezN_Iw[/video]