>> ^bareboards2:

Made me cry.
Then made me gape. HOW BIG IS THAT CAPTAIN?????



Zdeno Chara is the largest player in the NHL, 6'9" tall, 255 lbs. Without skates or pads. A giant.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by eric3579.

Good sportsmanship is great, and a good thing to encourage. However, this rule doesn't punish "bad" sportsmanship, unless your standards for "bad" sportsmanship are so ridiculously hair-triggered that you'd prefer to watch all sports being played by Robots versus Vulcans.

It is possible to be a gracious winner and yet remain visibly happy that you won. What does any any Olympic athlete do after winning a race, landing a tough jump, setting a new record, or having any other momentary success? They give themselves a little fist-pump, grin like idiots, puff out their chest and hold their head high -- and that is probably the bare minimum for even the most stoic competitor ever. Is that bad sportsmanship? No.

What happens at the end of every World Series, Superbowl, or Championship of any sport ever played? One team jumps up and down in a mass hug, acting like schoolgirls and completely unashamed of doing so, while the other team has their arms at their sides and stares blank-faced at the ground 3 feet in front of their feet. Is that bad sportsmanship by the winners? No.

I love the tradition in NHL hockey where at the end of any playoff series, the entire roster of both teams lines up and shakes hands with every member of the opposing team. This can happen after 7 games fueled by hatred and bad blood, bench clearing brawls, or whatever. They put that aside, line up, shake hands, and congratulate each other on a well-fought series. Is that good sportsmanship? Yes!

Encouraging good sportsmanship makes sense. Coming up with punishments that can potentially alter the outcome of games for some behavior that is arbitrarily decided is "bad" sportsmanship is crazy.

(We, the undersigned, put forth his name)

Whereas Reggie Leach was born and played
Minor hockey back in my home town
The Rifle fired his first five hundred here
Slapped his way into the NHL

(We, the undersigned, put forth his name)

Whereas some of us weren't always fair
To the Native kid on borrowed skates
Chippy Goolies and Ukrainians
In the corners with our elbows up

(We, the undersigned, put forth his name)

Whereas Reggie on a playoff run
Could make a dad go buy that new TV
Put his youngest by the window; place
The split antenna in her tiny hands

(We, the undersigned, put forth his name)

Whereas photos from the old Tribune
Of Reggie smiling with the Stanley Cup
Curled their corners, dropped off bedroom walls
Left a square of where they used to be

(We, the undersigned, put forth his name
To the Hockey Hall of Fame
We, the undersigned, put forth his name
To the Hockey Hall of Fame - therefore,
We, the undersigned, put forth his name
To the Hockey Hall of Fame)

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by geo321.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by Barseps.

>> ^messenger:

Whose Bs stole what?! The Boston Bruins are among the most Canadian teams in the NHL. Only one team, Edmonton, has fewer non-Canadian players (7) than Boston (10). So, congrats on your Canadians overwhelming the other Canadians. I cheer for the team with the most Canadians on it, which, naturally, is the team that's going to win the Cup anyway. >> ^bmacs27:
My B's stole your drinking vessel :-P.


You don't seem to understand. We pay the Canadians, and thus they are OURS. All the semantics in the world won't take away our chalice :-).

My little cousin used to be a forward in a Canadian private school. Now he's a marine in AfPak because he wasn't tough enough.

Whose Bs stole what?! The Boston Bruins are among the most Canadian teams in the NHL. Only one team, Edmonton, has fewer non-Canadian players (7) than Boston (10). So, congrats on your Canadians overwhelming the other Canadians. I cheer for the team with the most Canadians on it, which, naturally, is the team that's going to win the Cup anyway. >> ^bmacs27:

My B's stole your drinking vessel :-P.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'riot, vancuver, nhl, mob, bmw, car' to 'riot, vancouver, nhl, mob, bmw, car, stanley cup' - edited by xxovercastxx

Interesting...but missing some information I want. This video seems to make the assumption a typical NHL rink is only made once throughout the year...

What I want to know is how crews can take apart the ice rink within 24 hours, and put the rink back up again within 24 hours. Not just the ice either, but the boards and all that jazz. This video demonstrated installing an NHL rink that seems to require at least 2 days, which is immensely slower then it is being done in multiple arenas.

For example, Rogers Arena (then GM Place) was the home to the Vancouver Grizzlies and the home of the Canucks. There would frequently be a Basketball game one night with a Canucks game less then 24 hours later and a concert less then 24 hours after that. How do they they put things together so quickly? How do they melt and drain the ice, and then install an NBA basketball court within 24 hours followed by reinstalling an NHL rink immediately after within 24 hours? 20 hours is more realistic, as they wouldn't be able to start till about 11pm that night and would have to be ready by 6pm the day after (as pregame skate is about 1 hour before faceoff which is 7pm). That's a video I want to see.

This is IIHF though, not the NHL.

Typically, if someone keeps the stick below the crossbar, it's okay.

There are two aspects of the rulebook that I think might apply here; from the official NHL rulebook:

80.1 High-sticking the Puck

"Cradling the puck on the blade of the stick (like lacrosse) above the normal height of the shoulders shall be prohibited and a stoppage of play shall result."

80.3 Disallowed Goal

"When an attacking player causes the puck to enter the opponent’s goal by contacting the puck above the height of the crossbar, either directly or deflected off any player or official, the goal shall not be allowed. The determining factor is where the puck makes contact with the stick. If the puck makes contact with the stick below the level of the crossbar and enters the goal, this goal shall be allowed."

The puck made contact not with the shaft, but with the blade, at the time of release; and judging by the slo-mo replay, the blade was below the height of the net, only the shaft was above the height of the net. This means that the ref's made the right call, awesome goal.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by geo321.

@GeeSussFreeK

I agree that it is a move in the right direction. It is a very important step to assist in harm reduction for citizens; however, it completely fails in some areas.

One area of harm reduction that it completely misses is the lack of quality control. Unless you do independent analysis of what you are buying (assuming you have some lab equipment, knowledge, time, and desire), you have no way of knowing the purity of the illegal(or decriminalized) substance is being bought. This is bad in two ways: (1) the can be cut with harmful (varying degrees) substances to increase overall profit and (2) this can greatly affect the strength of the substance - which leads to accidental overdoses.

The second area of fail for decriminalization is that it doesn't affect the criminal supply structure at all. It doesn't remove the drug dealers off the street and doesn't stop any money from being channeled back to the drug cartels.

The above two points (and I'm sure some other ones) are why you will find some people who strongly oppose decriminalization as a midstep towards full legalization and control. I think that some feel that decriminalization wouldn't be good enough or that it would be a false midstep (i.e. offered up to placate the people and kill the momentum for full legalization.)

Again, decriminalization is fantastic for helping those that are addicts. The government did a big study on veterans come back from Vietnam because a large percentage of them did various/multiple drugs while there because it was so stressful. They found that after a year of being home, less than half still used drugs. It was either 3 or 5 years later, a small percentage used recreationally and 1-3 percent still used them very frequently. I've read several studies on this phenomenon and it holds out that 1-3 percent of people that try a substance become an addict (varying degrees.) Most people just need a perceptual change if they start abandoning their responsibilities because of *insert object of obsession here* (i.e. kick in the pants.) Personally, I ran into this with NHL 2010 for the PS3. Seriously how much more fun can it get? But I started missing homework, missing deadlines from my personal projects, etc. I realized this and actually sold my TV and PS3 to some coworkers to get it out of my place. However because of brain chemistry or personality traits, addicts need professional help. Decriminalization can free a person from the criminal burden when seeking help for substance addiction. (Small side note to pre-address expected thoughts in some people's heads: most addicts get caught doing illegal things like breaking into houses, etc... The point is that most addicts get into this position to feed and because of their addiction. I'm not advocating ignoring the responsibility for those actions, but most reactions focus on dealing punishment instead of treating the root cause.) Over time, decriminalization can also help with removing the social stigmatization of seeking help for addiction. But to be honest, legalizing would be better at that.

I don't see decriminalization as very likely across the US. Fear is the daily diet here and drugs make great PR material for fear. Also there is a great deal of money and the government fighting it. Most government bodies get extra money in their budget to fight the "war on drugs" and don't want to give up that money. Lobbying efforts will mainly be against it: by pharma (why pay for something when you can just grow something that addresses your specific need?) and prisons (US's new slavery system - See how they learned! Now with less visibility and a few whites too! ^{I kid, I kid}) In this regard, I hope that California will take the lead in showing the nation that the world won't come crashing down when this happens. It will eventually as the older people die off. That sounds callous, but it reminds me of scientific advances. Typically a generation can only go so far because of the mental knowledge base that they grew up with. Future generations grew up build their knowledge foundation on the mid- to end-work of the previous generations and are able to look at it differently and advance it.

Well, that seems to be a subject that can make me type... I need to go some work done.

[redacted]