I was listening to the ESPN1000 wrap up show. First they featured Waddle and Silvy with ESPN expert levy who described how the start in the Blackhawks series have neutralized each other and how game 7 can only come down to the 4th lines. Next they featured Jurko and Carmen with another expert who stated this game will be put entirely on the backs of the stars.

This game is confusing to us non racists out there.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

ESPN hates hockey....they don't have the braodcast rights nor do they want the rights.

The stars normally drive the outcome because they are on the ice the most. In this series, the stars have been pretty weak with many speculating about them being neutralized. I believe Babcock mentioned that in his quotes after game 6 saying the 3rd lines are the difference.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

If Barry Melrose isn't on one of ESPN's many platforms, the NHL doesn't exist to them.

by the way, I watched about 65% of the Kings-Sharks game. You may be witnessing the beginning of a hockey fanship...of course Tom Cruise and the Beckhams watched it as well so I may just be another poseur.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

By all accounts, the people themselves who work in Bristol are all avid hockey fans. Editorially, ESPN is just made to not care.

Anyway, in a match like this one, it does come down to depth. Detroit owes their distance to guys like Nyquist and Brunner right now.

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ESPN needs Hartford back as their home team.

I could not possibly care less about what ESPN has to say about the beautiful Stanley Cup Playoffs. They have the N.B.A., so they are too busy pimping that product to care about the N.H.L.

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1923-1927-1928-1932-1936-1937-1938-1939
1941-1943-1947-1949-1950-1951-1952-1953
1956-1958-1961-1962-1977-1978-1996-1998
1999-2000-2009
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XXI - XXV - XLII - XLVI

I'm pretty sure ESPN offered the NHL more money than NBC did.

I'm old enough to remember the old Hartford Whalers. They played their home games at what they called "The Mall", now known as the XL Center. Back then, the Whalers played their home games there, and the Celtics used to play occasional "home" games at that arena which was adjacent to a shopping mall not far from ESPN's Bristol, CT campus.

Today, UCONN Men's & Women's Basketball teams play a bunch of home games at that arena, and there's an AHL team called the Connecticut Whale that call the XL Center home. The Whalers' franchise is now known as the Carolina Hurricanes and they won the Stanley Cup in 2006.

No, I don't think they did. The NBC network deal was always about profit-sharing, but they paid more up-front on the Versus side than ESPN2 did.

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Yea, you're right. Now that I'm remembering, I recall at the time bitching to my friend about not accepting the ESPN offer even though NBC offered more money.

Guys, before the NBC Sports Group paid a rights' fee in their current 10-year deal with the NHL, the "Peacock" didn't necessarily pay such a fee in their last national TV contract. ESPN didn't think it was worth the $$$$ to secure U.S. TV rights when they were available.

They heydey of televised hockey for me was late Western Conference games on the Deuce. Up at midnight almost every night watching Bure, Kariya, Selanne, Forsberg, Sakic, Roy, Fleury, or Tkachuk

The Mouse owns ESPN
The Mouse created a ficticious team to play in the NHL
The Mouse would love to have hockey again.

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DRINK BƎTTƎR. @theRIPH

Unfortunately, the Walt Disney Company no longer owns the Anaheim Ducks. They were sold in 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaheim_Ducks

i really don't need the NHL equivalents of tim legler, stephen a. smith, and co. to listen to on top of the other "experts clones" ESPN likes to trot out.

Penalty on SHARK, two minutes for unnecessary use of "necessarily"

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?????

Don't question him, SHARK. Just serve your time.

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-- source

NBC didn't pay a rights fee. They split ad revenue. That's it. Factual statement. You didn't have add "necessarily," which mitigates something that didn't need mitigating.

Sorry, I call a tight game. We're not in the playoffs of message boarding.

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NBC Sports Group did NOT pay a rights fee prior to the current deal they signed to continue broadcasting the NHL in this country. They are paying a rights fee now.

WSCR loves hockey

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

They do now, even though they no longer have the Blackhawks' broadcasts on the air.