Now you can download full-length NHL games and watch them on your time. Whether it's a memorable game or a keepsake of your first in-arena experience, NHL Video is always available on Google.

OK, this is interesting, and apparently free for the next 2 weeks. However, they don't seem to have the latest games.

NHL on Google Video

It also loses the drab, retro, muddy orange, which long served as its main color, in favor of silver to connote the Stanley Cup, North American hockey’s ultimate badge of honor. Silver is a better color in general because it allows the shield to have a sheen, a kind of winking sparkle of glory.

What a bunch of bullshit. The old orange and black NHL logo has been with us for as long as I can recall and its fucking cool. This silver logo is the final nail in the coffin of my youth.

The NHL letters are now upward slanting, whereas with the old logo the NHL letters slanted down. This evokes a spirit of moving up, moving forward, and speeding ahead.

It evokes the spirit of lame. You think by ruining something that has been an icon for decades will make your stock price go up? Sorry, the logo isn't going to have an iota of impact on the success or failure of hockey. Try lowering ticket prices. Seriously. If the stadium isn't packed you haven't found the right spot on the supply and demand curve. Give me my old logo back. Hockey is about orange and black. You might own hockey but you will never own our culture. We want our culture back.

Update Well, this is quite inarticulate, but I was very drunk when I wrote it. Having slept it off, I must say, I agree with the sentiment if I think I could have written it better.

brandchannel.com | National Hockey League New Logo | Sports and Entertainment | brands | brand | branding news

A Staten Island, N.Y., player barked an expletive in the dugout within range of microphones and with cameras zoomed in. His manager responded by smacking the kid on the face.

ESPN reportedly has instituted a delay to avoid another ugly word slipping onto the air. We're not sure what they're going to do if another kid gets coach-slapped.

SO, ESPN has instituted a 5 second delay to protect the adults in the viewing audience from hearing swear words uttered by the children. We also seem to have no problem with smacking the children around if the disrespect our authority. People are fucked up.

It's time to cancel these 'Bad News Bears' or rein in ESPN | IndyStar.com

The old idea that the "big four" major professional sports leagues are the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL.... The NHL doesn't belong in this company and hasn't for quite some time. Dramatic evidence was provided this season when the average Nielsen rating of regular-season games... was a stunning 0.2. To come to grips with 0.2, consider that... It means an estimated audience of 117,000 in a nation of more than 290 million.

On a national basis, the NHL would seem to be less "major" than any of NASCAR's three series, the Indy Racing League, the golf and tennis tours for men and women, Major League Soccer, the WNBA, Arena Football, the Westminster Dog Show and televised card games on ESPN, NBC and the Travel Channel.

Apparently Americans don't give a fuck about hockey.

TimesDispatch.com | Sports Focus: Hockey's Demise

Links for photos and video of the Ski and Snowboard jumping event last weekend on Fillmore Street in downtown San Francisco. Gnarley.

ICER AIR 2005

This dude jumped the Great Wall on his skateboard. Next stop, Springfield Gorge!

The Official Site of Danny Way | Photos

He went to sleep in the early morning, woke up sometime after noon and immediately took a dose of Purple Haze acid. Ellis would frequently drop acid on off days and weekends; he had a room in his basement christened "The Dungeon," in which he'd lock himself and listen to Jimi Hendrix or Iron Butterfly "for days." A bit later, how long exactly he can't recall, he came across Mitzi flipping through a newspaper. She scanned for a moment, then noticed something.

"Dock," she said. "You're supposed to pitch today."

Ellis focused his mind. No. Friday. He wasn't pitching until Friday. He was sure.

"Baby," she replied. "It is Friday. You slept through Thursday."

Doc Ellis pitched a no-hitter against the Pirates while high on LSD.

Jello wrote:
] This guy rides his bike between mountains, and climbs them,
] for months at a time, in over 50 countries so far. He is so
] hardcore, he brings his own morphine, scalpels, thread and
] needle in case he has to perform self surgery and stitch
] himself up in the middle of nowhere. He is my hero. Oh my
] god, this guy is tough. Hello bicycle cowboy.

Wow...

RE: Corax: Around the World by Bicycle

] Aside from buying teams through bankruptcies, NHL owners
] could offer to buy and fold teams in flawed markets. One
] banker suggested the league could afford to reduce the
] number of teams to as few as 22 using this strategy, and
] that many owners, realizing their teams would never make
] money, would be willing to accept $50 million to $80
] million for their franchise.
]
] Said the banker: "Since it will make the NHL a more
] financially stable league, I'm confident that those banks
] that lend to the NHL will give the league the money, at
] least $500 million, to do this in a heartbeat."

An interesting analysis of the finances in the NHL.

The risk of loosing the preds or the thrashers...

] NHL veterans Chris Pronger and Jim McKenzie think this
] lockout is far worse than the one that wiped out half a
] season 10 years ago.
]
] They don't think they'll be playing again until 2006.
]
] "I think you're looking at, at the very earliest, January
] '06 for the start of a season," said McKenzie, a forward
] with the Nashville Predators.

Veterans Pronger and McKenzie don't think hockey will return until 2006