HabsCast Hockey Blog

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Because of the atrocious play from the Maple Leafs this season, ratings on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada have been on a steady decline.

The Maple Leafs are in the midst of a crisis and because of the “democracy” on the board of directors, no one that deserves to be fired is being fired. According to Richard Peddie, President of MLSE, the hiring of John Ferguson Jr. was a mistake and in order to fire Ferguson there must be a majority vote within the board. This is why it’s better to have one owner rather than many. Things don’t get done whenever there’s an issue. It is for this reason that the Maple Leafs are so f!#^ed. They should fire JFJ and hire Gilmour. Now that’s a winner!

Anyways, back to the main point here. As a result of the Leafs sucking, the CBC are planning to air more Montreal and Ottawa games since they’re having better campaigns so far this season. There’s also more demand across Canada to see either the Senators or Canadiens in the 7PM slot.

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It’s official. The NHL board of governors has agreed to reform the schedule so that every team will play each other at least once. The new format will see a team play 24 divisional games, 40 conference games, and 15 inter-conference games. There will also be a 3 game inter-conference wild card for each team. The idea behind the reform was to allow each team and city an opportunity to see more of Eastern Conference stars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. Additionally, Western Conference teams were complaining about the travel that their teams were doing. I don’t see how this schedule will fix that, but it’s going to be fun seeing more of the Red Wings, Blackhawks, and Ducks.

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HabsCast has just launched an apparel store to serve all your Habs / Hockey t-shirt needs.

We have designed our first three shirts, which include “Trade Ryder”, “Cashin’ Yashin”, and the ever so popular, “Fire JFJ”. Shirts start at 16.99 + Shipping. We will be designing more shirts soon, so stay tuned.

Also, if you have a shirt or idea that you’d love us to design for you and if you have any funny suggestions, don’t hesitate to post them in the comments section of the Habscast Store.

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Would Southern NCAA Hockey expansion help the NHL?

We all know that the NHL’s Board of Governors decided in the early 1990s on a plan to grow the game in the southern US via expansion in a long-term effort to expose more of the US to the game. The obvious goal is to eventually get a significant US network contract. The board then hired Bettman to carry out this mandate and he himself has seen the league add 4 teams under his watch to increase the league to 24 American teams.

In virtually all the new southern US NHL cities, youth hockey has exploded. Additionally there are now many prospects coming from the South. For example, there are many Californians who currently play in the Canadian Hockey League who have grown up with the game in the post-Gretzky/expansion era.

Now, given the popularity of college sports in the US, and then tie in how many NCAA fans follow their stars when they graduate to the NFL/NBA/MLB - why hasn’t the NCAA expanded hockey into the south?

My thinking (and I am completely ignorant about how NCAA hockey works, so bear with me) is that with an increasing hockey talent pool available in the US, why not expand the number of teams to the south? From what I understand, many Americans do not follow hockey because they simply are not familiar with the game, rules, etc and this is because they have not been exposed to the game. By having more college teams involved, it would expose many college students to the game (in supporting their campus teams) before they become professionals out in the work-force. These former students might be more likely to give NHL/minor-pro hockey a chance due to this exposure, and in following their former college stars. This would help develop a stronger overall hockey market in the US in a positive feedback loop.

Any thoughts to this? I think that the NHL (if they ever discuss such matters together) should be encouraging this. Again, I am not one with NCAA-hockey, so are there any news/talk of expansion? Does anyone else here think that NCAA expansion to the south would help the NHL?

[Topic via HFBoards.com]

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George Parros / Ron Jeremy (Porn Star)

Anson Carter / Wyclef Jean (Singer)

Roberto Luongo / Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat)

Ted Nolan / Hugo Chavez (Venezuelan President with Friends)

Cory Perry / Hobbits (Lord of the Rings)

Claude Julien / Bill (King of the Hill)

Ryan Smyth / Jay (Jay and Silent Bob)

Thomas Vanek / Haley Wickenheiser

Mike Commodore / Seth Rogen (Knocked Up)

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