Do we want Carolina or Boston?

[deliverance]

Here's a good article on Sidney Crosby for Pens' fans:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1848 ... -greatness

[abpk2903]

Great post Walter.

Here is what I feel is the difference between the team last year and this year.

Here are the people that left:

Hossa, Roberts, Ruutu, Malone, Laraque, Sydor

Now lets look at who the Pens got:

Guerin, Kunitz, Cook, Fedotenko, Satan, Boucher, and Adams

Hossa may be the best player on either of those lists but look at the depth the Pens have added. Crosby line last year had Hossa and Dupuis along side him. This year it has Guerin and Kunitz which is a definite upgrade. Roberts was wore down towards the end of the year of no one on this years list has. Cook is a more skilled grinder than Ruutu. Fedotenko has won a cup along with Adams. Boucher is very solid defenseman and Satan has proven to be a good NHL player over the years.

What separates the Pens from other teams right now is their depth. Sykora and Dupuis would be a second (or first) liner on probably all put 3 or 4 teams in the NHL. They are being scratched for the Pens. Godard is a solid NHL player also a scratch. The Pens dress 7 defenseman and many would argue that GoGo would be a solid NHL defensemen. Satan would be on line 1 or 2 on nearly every other team in the NHL, he is on the 4th line of the Pens. The Pens 3rd line has beat the piss out of every other line it was matched up against. The fourth line with having either Crosby, Malkin, or Stall as a centerman is very explosive (more like a 1st line than a fourth). The Pens will just continue to come at their opponents line after line after line. As the Caps learned, you may be able to get a game or two off of them early in a series but they will literally wear you down to you cant skate with them anymore. Look at Carolina the first game of the series they were able to skate through the forecheck of the Pens. Then compare that to last night when it looked like the couldnt skate though a wet paper bag. If the Wings wanna beat us they better take both the games in Hockeytown because as the series continues the Pens seem to get stronger and their opponents seem to crumble.

With all that being said, the finals will come down to 1 person. MARC ANDRE FLEURY. If he can steal a game or two himself the Pens will lift the cup, if he costs them a game or two it will be a repeat of last year.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Problem is that Detroit is the best skating team in the NHL, they are the best coached team, and is the best pro franchise in the United States, in any sport. They are not going to get rattled. Pittsburgh has to play flawless hockey to beat Detroit, in my opinion. They're gonna have a hard time just controlling the puck.

[Former Wildcat]

ICE POLO!!!

Deliverance is very argumentative, but he is basically right. The rest of you are also argumentative but are basically right. Hockey is not as popular as the 3 major sports. Hockey fans are passionate. The NHL is terrible on tv and no one watches. The NHL is great in person and has great attendance. All right, move on!

[The Ancient Enemy]

If I had to rank hockey, I'd say it was third behind Football and Baseball, and there's an argument for and against it being bigger or smaller than basketball.

Both leagues play 41 home games, there's 30 teams in both leagues, and the arenas are comparable. Both leagues also have success in some small markets.

For 2009, here's the NBA breakdown in home attendance:

95-100%: 16
85-94%: 4
less than or 84%: 10

For 2009, here's the NHL breakdown in home attendance:

95-100: 17
85-94: 10
less than or 84: 3

We know that the NBA is bigger on television than the NHL. BUT... we also have to consider Canada and TSN. All 6 Canadian NHL clubs sell out, and we know hockey is as big in Canada as the NFL is in the US. If they added 2 more teams to Canada, they would also sell out. They don't watch basketball in Canada.

You cannot just look at the 85-100% attendance, though. You have to also consider the WORST franchises in terms of attendance. In the NHL, there are only 3 teams with 84% or lower. Only ONE, Atlanta, is less than 80%, at 78.9%.

In the NBA, there are SEVEN teams less than 80% (not just 84%) attendance for home games. Memphis is .3 from 69%!!!

The point I am making is that you cannot look at sell-out attendance as the end-all. You have to look at league-wide home attendance, and DEFINITELY take into consideration the attendance of those clubs at the bottom.

[Former Wildcat]

If we are going to bring in other countries, then you have a whole different list, TAE. You cannot just bring in Canada for convienence. In AMERICA, basketball is significantly ahead of hockey. Your point about the 6 Canada franchises only reaffirms this. The NBA is much more about TV and marketing than filling arenas, so I am not sure how important attendance is. Also, if you are going to bring in other countries, lets include the millions of Chinese who will never make it to an arena but are big fans of Yao (and for some strange reason Yi) and watch them on TV.

If we are going to talk about the whole world, then our list includes soccer, formula 1 racing, and basketball as a distant third. Hockey and baseball would be somewhere down the list. Football drops way down.

[WALTER4]

The dropping of hockey down the list in the world is an over exaggeration. I think you are severely underestimating how popular of a sport it is in Europe and Russia (just look at how many of the NHL's top players are from that part of the world). I will give (and I don't believe anyone can disagree) that soccer would be by far the number 1 sport then I would think it gets a little closer for second with baseball, hockey, basketball, and admittedly I don't know much about the world's fascination with formula 1, but I can see it fitting in here.

[The Ancient Enemy]

There are Canadian teams in the NHL. There are no NBA teams in Hong Kong or Romania. That's why Canada fits this argument.

[deliverance]

One out of five NHL teams come from Canada. One out of every two players in the NHL come from Canada . Why don't they just move the NHL to Canada and be done with it? :lol:

[Former Wildcat]

It does not fit because we are talking popularity in America. I don't think anyone will argue that hockey is HUGE in Canada. But we don't live in Canada. If we are talking about hockey popularity in America, then stats about Canadian attendance figures are irrelevant.

I agree that hockey is big in northern Europe and Canada, but basketball is big in South America, Europe, China, and even somewhat in west Africa. There is no comparison worldwide. The two sports are probably closer in popularity in America than they are globally.