I am really missing hockey. As I watched the Phillies impotent offense try and trick the fans into thinking they were contenders, I began flipping around only to find every channel filled with reality shows. I have 300 channels and all of them are bad movies or reality shows. There were a lot less channels when I was a kid, yet, there was always something on TV to watch.

Now, all I can stand to watch is football and hockey.
- PhillySportsGuy

I have the 2008 World Series on DVD. Also have the last two games of the 2008 NLCS on disc... for hockey, I have the Soviet game from 1980, AND the Finland game from 1980, so when I get really desperate in the coming weeks, I will have somewhere to take refuge.

Thank God for the NHL Network
And Bruce Campbell movies
- jmatchett383

I actually enjoy watching MLB Network during the baseball season. MLB Tonight is good if they have good analysts on. I just can't watch it every night. MLB Tonight makes Baseball Tonight look like a joke.

There are a lot of reruns on NHL Network. At some point I feel like I'm watching the same stuff over and over again.

I used to love watching the history channel and discovery channel and animal planet, but now all of those networks just have reality shows.

Food network is either Diners Drive-ins and Dives or some contest about who can cook better.

Not trying to sound like a loser but there really is no educational television left. That's the stuff I truly miss.

Exactly Bill. When his team buys in, they play a solid 2 way game. When they go off the reservation is when there is an issue. And Bylsma attack and pressure is pretty much the same as Laviolette's.
- MJL

I think it will work much better in the Olympics as both coaches will have much better Goalies and defenders then they are used to lol. Maybe not as much offensive though.

Pros, or NHLers?
- jmatchett383

Either or, I completely don't understand the sentiment. It seems to me you can't have another Miracle on Ice because it's an iconic moment that's already occurred. It's not coming back regardless.

I am really missing hockey. As I watched the Phillies impotent offense try and trick the fans into thinking they were contenders, I began flipping around only to find every channel filled with reality shows. I have 300 channels and all of them are bad movies or reality shows. There were a lot less channels when I was a kid, yet, there was always something on TV to watch.

Now, all I can stand to watch is football and hockey.
- PhillySportsGuy

The NHL network has been running a lot of older playoff games.

I have the 2008 World Series on DVD. Also have the last two games of the 2008 NLCS on disc... for hockey, I have the Soviet game from 1980, AND the Finland game from 1980, so when I get really desperate in the coming weeks, I will have somewhere to take refuge.
- Doc_Sarcasm

Those are good for once in a while. I need something that I don't know the ending to.

I think it will work much better in the Olympics as both coaches will have much better Goalies and defenders then they are used to lol. Maybe not as much offensive though.
- flyers4487

It's going to be a collection of players from a lot of different teams, with little practice time. Style of play, and systems are likely going to be pretty basic. I think far more of the Coaching is going to be about lineups, and who to play where. To try and get some chemistry together as quick as possible.

Either or, I completely don't understand the sentiment. It seems to me you can't have another Miracle on Ice because it's an iconic moment that's already occurred. It's not coming back regardless.
- BulliesPhan87

I guess his point is that you have the best in the world vs. the best in the world, as opposed to the KHL All-Stars vs. a bunch of US college kids if the NHL doesn't participate.

Just for S&G's, I'm going to type out Jim Craig's Foreword to "The Boys of Winter", feel free to tl:dr.

Years before I ever heard of Lake Placid or the Olympics, before I knew the name of a single Russian hockey player, I was a kid in Massachusetts who wanted to be the next Bobby Orr. I grew up skating on Holmes's Pond, which took its name from our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Holmes, who owned it. A man named Phil Thompson, our postman, was the person who told me I should try organized hockey in the Easton Junior Hockey League. He had already been working on it with my mother. He was a fine postman and an even better salesman.

The game we played against the Russians in Lake Placid twenty-five years ago has been acclaimed and saluted in every way possible, but for me, it has always felt like a passage on ice, the attainment of a dream that started on Mrs. Holmes's pond. It's impossible for me to separate the miracle that we achieved as a team with the memories and gratitude I have for all the people who helped me get there, from my mother and father, my sisters and brothers, to ten years' worth of coaches and friends and teammates. You don't make a journey like that alone. You make it with a lot of love and sacrifice. That's probably why I was searching the stands for my father after we won the gold medal against Finland. It was a moment begging to be shared.

I don't believe those Winter Games in Lake Placid will ever be duplicated. I don't say that because we beat maybe the greatest Soviet hockey team ever assembled, or even because Eric Heiden won five gold medals, a performance that I honestly think dwarfs what we did. I say it because there weren't doping scandals or an Olympic Village that was overrun with millionaires and professionals in Lake Placid. Herb Brooks, God rest his soul, wasn't coaching a Dream Team. He was coaching a team full of dreamers. There is a big difference. In Lake Placid, it didn't feel as if the Games were being run by corporations. It felt as if at the heart of them was a brotherhood of athletes, the best in the world, deep in the Adirondack Mountains.

I've visited quite a few places that have hosted the Olympics in the past, and you almost can't tell that the Games were ever there. You aren't in Lake Placid for more than a minute before you are flooded with Olympic memories, whether it's from seeing the Olympic Arena at the top of the hill, or the oval next door where Heiden skated into immortality. Whenever I'm in town, I like to go out at night when it's dark and quiet and the shops are closed, and stand in the middle of Main Street. I close my eyes and in an instant it takes me back to that magical Friday night of February 22, 1980, to the memory of walking down that same Main Street with Mike Eruzione and our fathers, and other family members, and ABC's Jim Lampley interviewing us as we went. Snow was falling, and everywhere you looked people were waving flags and chanting "U-S-A-, U-S-A." We were in our primes, athletically and physically. We were surrounded by people we loved, getting loved some more by people we didn't even know. We had just done the impossible, and we were happy to be alive and thrilled to be Americans and thrilled to think that Herb was right: maybe we were meant to be here. It's a feeling you wish everybody could have at one point in their lives.

Being in that goal on that Friday night was the pinnacle of my athletic life, the greatest joy I have ever known as a hockey player. It was the culmination of a journey, and then other journeys followed, for all of us; that is what this book is really all about - the journeys that brought us to that semifinal game against the Soviet Union, and those we've taken since. Sometimes people ask me if I wish I could go back and do it again, if some part of me is sad that I will never experience that pinnacle again. You can't look back. You can't dial up euphoria on demand, or try to re-create what happened a quarter century ago. You move forward and try to be a better person every day than you were the day before. You take each day as a new journey, even as you are grateful for the ones you have already had.

-Jim Craig
North Easton, Massachusetts 2005

And that my friends is what the Olympic spirit should always be about.
- Doc_Sarcasm

I read your last sentence in Linus Van Pelt's voice complete with ", Charlie Brown" at the end.

Those are good for once in a while. I need something that I don't know the ending to.
- PhillySportsGuy

Do you remember that wild Mets game from 2008? The Phils were up 5-0, Mets tied it. Phils went up 8-5, Mets tied it. Mets went up 10-8. Burrell hit a solo shot in the 8th to make it 10-9. In the 9th, Wagner on the mound. Werth stole 2nd and 3rd on consecutive pitches. Utley hit a walk-off hit for an 11-10 win. I pop that game in every now and then.

The US actually has some pretty good skaters who may work well on the large ice. Ryan, Kessel, JVR, Parise, Kane. Who will be the centers?

Hey Bill,

Do you see Murray as the successor to Lavy? Asking that, I really like the job that Paddock did when he was coaching the Phantoms. Paddock seems to know how to get the most from his players without alienating them. I still remember the horrible Phantoms team, the way he turned them around, and at least had them winning a few games at the end of the season. Do you think that Paddock will ever get his chance with the Flyers?
Another quick question. What is the deal with Reese as the goalie coach? In my opinion, I really haven't seen a lot of improvement with the goalies with him in there as a coach. Who would you like to see as a goalie coach? Please, don't say Bryz.; no more Yoda please.

Thanks for keeping hockey going for us during the quiet part of the year. Otherwise, I'd be curled up on the sofa in the basement hugging my Flyers blanket, and sucking my thumb...lol. After many years of marriage, at the top of the steps my wife still asks me to whom am I speaking with when I watch the Flyers play.

Take care,
OB1

Do you remember that wild Mets game from 2008? The Phils were up 5-0, Mets tied it. Phils went up 8-5, Mets tied it. Mets went up 10-8. Burrell hit a solo shot in the 8th to make it 10-9. In the 9th, Wagner on the mound. Werth stole 2nd and 3rd on consecutive pitches. Utley hit a walk-off hit for an 11-10 win. I pop that game in every now and then.
- jmatchett383

I remember it like it was yesterday. For some reason that game has stuck with me.

The other was when Chase Utley scored from second on a routine grounder to the pitcher. It was the infamous Harry call of "Chase Utley, you are the man!"

I guess his point is that you have the best in the world vs. the best in the world, as opposed to the KHL All-Stars vs. a bunch of US college kids if the NHL doesn't participate.
- jmatchett383

I understand that those are the circumstances that made 1980 so amazing, but I still don't think it's a great rationalization for wanting to prevent North American talent from playing for their teams.

Now, the risk of injuries and the shutting down of NHL hockey, I understand. I don't share the sentiment, but I understand it.

I remember it like it was yesterday. For some reason that game has stuck with me.

The other was when Chase Utley scored from second on a routine grounder to the pitcher. It was the infamous Harry call of "Chase Utley, you are the man!"
- PhillySportsGuy

I remember the call, but don't remember the game.

I understand that those are the circumstances that made 1980 so amazing, but I still don't think it's a great rationalization for wanting to prevent North American talent from playing for their teams.

Now, the risk of injuries and the shutting down of NHL hockey, I understand. I don't share the sentiment, but I understand it.
- BulliesPhan87

I don't care either way, but I prefer the Canada/World Cup to the Olympics.

The US actually has some pretty good skaters who may work well on the large ice. Ryan, Kessel, JVR, Parise, Kane. Who will be the centers?
- PhillySportsGuy

Good question. I'm guessing Ryan Kesler, David Backes, Paul Stastny, and Derek Stepan.

Stepan is a very good player. I hope there's some way he ends up leaving the Rangers for a team in another division.

I was having an argument with my friend yesterday about how these rivalries are a bigger deal to us fans than to the players and coaches involve. This came up after he said Crosby and Giroux would not be able to get along on Team Canada because they "hate each other". I told him that they were hockey players as well as adults and would be completely fine.
- NickTheKid87

I think they'll be fine, but I doubt they'll play on the same line. Stamkos and Giroux were a good combo at the World Champs this year so they might well stay together.

I read your last sentence in Linus Van Pelt's voice complete with ", Charlie Brown" at the end.
- Flyskippy

That's awesome. You have my express written permission to refer to me as "Linus" from here on out.

I don't care either way, but I prefer the Canada/World Cup to the Olympics.
- jmatchett383

I don't follow international play really, but I did tune into the last Olympic tournament. I really enjoyed it (despite the disappointment in the end for USA), so I don't mind seeing it every four years. Sure beats the pants off having the ASG, anyways.

I don't follow international play really, but I did tune into the last Olympic tournament. I really enjoyed it (despite the disappointment in the end for USA), so I don't mind seeing it every four years. Sure beats the pants off having the ASG, anyways.
- BulliesPhan87

All Star Games in all sports are awful. The 2 best moments in All Star game history (all sports) were the Randy Johnson/John Kruk incident, and Chase Utley with the "Boo, (frank) you" comment. As for hockey, I used to like the mid-90s East/West, and I really like the Heroes of Hockey game they used to have. I remember Bobby Hull (I think it was him) getting a penalty shot. One of the players brought out a char and pushed him in on goal. That games today are boring.

I actually am really into the WJC nowadays. John Carlson's OT GWG in 2010 was absolutely amazing, and I was routinely getting up at 3 AM this past winter to watch every CAN/US/SWE game.

I am really missing hockey. As I watched the Phillies impotent offense try and trick the fans into thinking they were contenders, I began flipping around only to find every channel filled with reality shows. I have 300 channels and all of them are bad movies or reality shows. There were a lot less channels when I was a kid, yet, there was always something on TV to watch.

Now, all I can stand to watch is football and hockey.
- PhillySportsGuy

NHL Network really needs to do something to boost it's off-season coverage. Who really wants to watch the playoffs over again, or see 10 hour blocks of Oil Change? They really need more:

Some Show ideas:

REALITY BASED:
Day in the life of: Follow hockey players for 1 full day. Could be during the season, could be off-season...

NHL Cribs: yea, pretty self-expalinatory.

Making the team: Follow 5 different NHL prospects in thier off-season and training camp as they attempt to make the NHL team.

HOCKEY BASED:
Inside the System: Look into the system of each minor league team... learn about prospects, etc.

Hockey Jobs: Look at NHL jobs around the league.... Ice guys, arena guys, etc.

Season in review: Reviews each teams season.

NEWS/TALK:
NHL Access: 1 hour nightly show that highlights news of the day, talks rumors, and takes guest calls.

Then you can fill the other hours with repeats of the above shows, old "revelent" hockey games, and hockey movies.

I remember the call, but don't remember the game.
- jmatchett383

Against the braves. Phillies were behind and Utley came to the plate with the bases loaded. Lefty pitcher vs Utley and he hammered a double to the opposite field gap to clear the bases. The Phillies took the lead.

On the very next pitch Utley takes off for 3rd (Theres 1 out). Howard hits a slow bouncer back to the pitcher. He takes his time and underhands the ball to first. Utley rounds 3rd and comes home. He slides hard into the catcher and scores.

It was the most exciting series of events I have ever seen in a regular season baseball game. My dad and I were having a conversation and just stopped talking and watched.

NHL Network really needs to do something to boost it's off-season coverage. Who really wants to watch the playoffs over again, or see 10 hour blocks of Oil Change? They really need more:

Some Show ideas:

REALITY BASED:
Day in the life of: Follow hockey players for 1 full day. Could be during the season, could be off-season...

NHL Cribs: yea, pretty self-expalinatory.

Making the team: Follow 5 different NHL prospects in thier off-season and training camp as they attempt to make the NHL team.

HOCKEY BASED:
Inside the System: Look into the system of each minor league team... learn about prospects, etc.

Hockey Jobs: Look at NHL jobs around the league.... Ice guys, arena guys, etc.

Season in review: Reviews each teams season.

NEWS/TALK:
NHL Access: 1 hour nightly show that highlights news of the day, talks rumors, and takes guest calls.

Then you can fill the other hours with repeats of the above shows, old "revelent" hockey games, and hockey movies.
- youarewrong

They already do have a bunch of those.