Porter resigned. 1 year, 2 way 575k

Porter resigned to a one year contract. Don't know what the cap hit is, but that's solid organizational depth for WBS who can come up and not totally suck if it comes to that.

Porter resigned. 1 year, 2 way 575k
- cap1681

I was a bit slow. That's about what I would expect cap hit wise.

http://penguins.nhl.com/c...533&cmpid=pit-fb-penguins


Meh... safety move, spaling 2.0

http://penguins.nhl.com/c...533&cmpid=pit-fb-penguins


Meh... safety move, spaling 2.0
- Guile

at a quarter of the price.

at a quarter of the price.
- cap1681

Which is why I was never against Porter... I was also not against Spaling, except for his cap hit. Neither does anything wrong... just a very small amount of doing right.

Porter back to help wbs 2 way deal signed

How could you watch basketball when GOT was "Battle of the Bastards"? The most satisfying episode of that series yet!!!!
- sammy87

Best Game of Thrones episode ever!

I didn't watch the NBA game or GoT....

Great essay. Basketball is a boring sport in my opinion but there have been quite a few hockey games this season that were pretty bad too (i.e. every NJ Devils game).

Also, Pierre McGuire is a garbage pail kid.

Best Game of Thrones episode ever!
- LunaticFringe

Agreed. That was an unreal spectacle.

Cause everyone wants a playoff series thats toned down or theres 12 powerplays a side. That would be awesome.

I didn't watch the NBA game or GoT....
- Guile

US Open then?

I'm not gonna get in depth here, but the "travel/continuation" point was spot on, to me. Most players who drive the net for a dunk or layup do travel nowadays. You can take 2 steps and a pivot, and you can continue your motion while receiving a pass. I'm not saying these guys are Patrick Ewing, but a lot of the fundamentals and rules have been lost to emphasize the stars.

Oh my gosh... when I was reading this thread and got to the part about traveling, the first thing I thought of was Patrick Ewing vintage 1994... I'm sure my memory of it is skewed, but I have this vision in my head of Ewing taking four of those large, swooping steps across the lane without dribbling before attempting his shot. Couldn't watch that for very long, myself.

Porter resigned to a one year contract. Don't know what the cap hit is, but that's solid organizational depth for WBS who can come up and not totally suck if it comes to that.
- Victoro311

He's a perfectly fine 15th forward to have around. I don't like guys like Porter (or Ebbett i years past) taking away a call up opportunity from a higher upside prospect. But he's cheap depth so it doesn't bother me.

There's more to it than just simple player marketing/ treatment. In Canada the NHL is more popular than the MLB, NBA, and the NFL put together and there is no marketing strategy that is going to change that. In fact the KHL is the biggest sports league in Northern Europe as well, probably even bigger than soccer where all you need is a ball and a flat surface to be able to play. I think the US is split by socio-economic realities as much as anything. Basketball has become the hippest league and attempts to appeal to young people as much as anyone. They have a lot of school outreach, youth oriented campaigns. The NFL is still the sport of the southern US and the MLB seems to have an aging fan base but it helps that for most of their campaign they are the only sport being played in the summer months. I think the NHL is limited by how much it actually costs to play the sport and a lack of minority stars to grow the game outside of its traditional market. The NBA in the 90's went all over the world and put in basketball courts in urban centres and remote destinations alike. That strategy is paying dividends now as was growing the NBA to Canada as there are now quite a few Canadians in the NBA, enough to make our national team look pretty good going forward. It's just not cost effective for the NHL to try anything like that and it will always limit them. But even if the NHL fell out of favour in the US all together there could easily be a 10-12 team NHL exclusively in Canada and it would thrive.

All of this has truth to it, but it's not the main reason the NHL won't surpass the other sports for a long time, if ever.

The biggest reason is: it's not an American pastime yet and people generally don't watch sports they can't/won't play, or didn't play as kids. They just can't relate to it in the same way they don't relate to soccer and I'd imagine 75% of the American public doesn't even skate. But even soccer is becoming more popular as a pro sport in this country because that is changing and almost all schools have a soccer program, and guess what, pretty much everyone can run and kick a ball.

Basketball has been played at some degree by every kid in the country, even if it was just in gym class, while baseball/softball and football follow in that order as sports people can relate to because the played them to some degree as kids.

In Canada, kids play hockey as much as American kids play little league baseball, if not more and the ratings for it there are in step with things like baseball and basketball here.

The only reason hockey is as popular as it is in America is because it is an exciting sport. As far as excitement goes, it should be more popular than baseball and even basketball. Heck, if hockey was as boring as baseball it would have been dead in this country decades ago. But baseball isn't going anywhere because, well...it's as American as Apple Pie, right? That's the old school classic bigotry reason but it plays a part as well.

All the other stuff mentioned like the NHL's bad marketing and not allowing skill and it's stars to shine take a backseat to the main reason and that's just plain old grade school popularity. Even if they turned it into a track meet and did away with the interference, offsides, made the net bigger and the PPG went up to 10 and players like Crosby were breaking Gretzky's records, people would still not tune in because they JUST...DON'T...CARE.

The problem isn't with the NHL as much as it's with the ingrained habits of American culture. The NHL can't fix those and until every school has had a hockey program for a few generations and something cosmically earth shattering comes along to peak every ones attention, it will remain the no. 4 pro sport in North America, if not no. 5 if soccer ratings continue to grow.

I mean, go to places like Deadspin where there's 15 soccer stories to every 1 hockey story. That tells me that even the younger millennial audiences that read sites like that and Barstool are not big hockey fans either.

I love the fact that the Pens will be raising their banner against the Caps.........

Agreed. That was an unreal spectacle.
- SimpleJack

I was kinda hoping Ramsey got smooshed by the giant in spectacular fashion. I couldn't have been more disappointed or sad. GG Wun Wun.

Also have to think about how easy it is to access those sports. Baseball, football, and basketball require minimal amount of money and effort to find a place to play. If you want to play hockey (even casual street hockey), you still need to spend way more money, which not a lot will do. It's also a hell of a lot tougher to learn. It's not a simple running, catching and throwing. Kids are exposed to the other 3 sports way more than hockey so it's natural that people will follow them more.

I also think football gets so much hype because it's only 2-3 days (1 day per team) out of the week. There's so much time to build up the drama between matchups. I watch the pens twice a week and if it falls on the same time as a steelers game, I'll watch the steelers for the fact that it's only once a week

The biggest difference between the NBA and the NHL, is the fact that there are only about 4 good NBA teams. How many people who aren't fans of these teams could have told you there would be a sharks/pens stanley cup final? Warriors/cavs final was about as sure as halloween falling on october 31st.

Pens will open the next season at home 10/13/16 against Washington. So if they are lucky, the Caps can get a close up of what it actually looks like.

http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=886496&navid=DL|PIT|home

1. I already said I didn't watch any of the other games. Maybe the reffing was biased the other way in those games but still the point stands. It shouldn't be biased in any games.
2. I know the definition of travelling. I played all through highschool and was captain of our team. I still ref today. I know much better than you obviously.
3. See point one. I haven't watched. It's ugly ball regardless.
4. I understand far better than you. I still play real basketball. James Naismith ( the Canadian inventor of basketball) rolls in his grave watching what has become of the game he invented.

You seem like a typical bandwagon pens fan...
- Iggysbff

What is "real basketball?" When you shoot the ball from between your knees? Do you still use a peach basket? Do you still not allow dribbling the ball? And it's so embarrassing when Canadians pump the fact Naismith was born in Canada, that was the only thing born in Canada considering he invented it for Springfield university and an American citizen.

I was kinda hoping Ramsey got smooshed by the giant in spectacular fashion. I couldn't have been more disappointed or sad. GG Wun Wun.
- LlamaLord

The dumb thing is why did he waste that arrow on the giant that was already peppered when Jon was standing right beside him? He could have just as easily put that arrow into Jons head as the giants.

What is "real basketball?" When you shoot the ball from between your knees? Do you still use a peach basket? Do you still not allow dribbling the ball? And it's so embarrassing when Canadians pump the fact Naismith was born in Canada, that was the only thing born in Canada considering he invented it for Springfield university and an American citizen.
- Dcoms

See this is incorrect.

He had the game being played and developed it when he was at McGill university. He didn't publish the rules until Springfield which is where Americans claim he invented it. He was actually playing and developing it before that in Canada.