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The Zulewski report
By Tom Zulewski July 22, 2009 |
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ESPN again wants no part of NHL Hockey: Poker beats the hockey hand every time and knowing that ESPN and ABC did the last Stanley Cup Final before the lock out in 2004 and the ratings were not all that stellar and the growth of high definition television and now that everybody is broadcasting digitally thats kind of going to give it some kind of impetus if it's to change somebody's mind. High definition helps hockey, high definition doesn't mean squat to poker because the cards are pretty much the same size same shape. You can still see what your looking at out of standard definition or high definition television. You got much more riveting entertainment with hockey than you do with poker. The nepotism, the poor judgment of the Blackhawks brass: Former Blackhawks General Manager Dave Tallon who was fired and replaced by Scotty Bowman's son Stan Bowman 36 and when I first saw that here is Scotty who led the Wings to three cups and went quietly into retirement. I thought he was consulting with the Wings but now he has his hand in Chicago. Now Scotty has his boy in the GM's chair over Dave Tallon a former respected hockey broadcaster and who worked aside Pat Folio all those years and now it's fishy. The words family and the former Hawks owners the Wirtz' that same day when they took over son Bill Jr. was named the new GM. Bill Jr didn't do nearly as good of a job because Daddy said Jr. would work better why the Blackhawks were incompetent all those years. The Hawks signed Marian Hossa to a 12 year deal with Chicago. Hossa didn't produce in the Cup finals for the Wings so he thinks he had a better shot in Detroit now he's running over to Chicago? Nah, no, no, I hate to disappoint you Marian the Red Wings are a much better ran organization than the Hawks are. This was a great deal that the Blackhawks got as far as they did this time around but don't expect anything close to a repeat maybe with him and Andrew Ladd they might get back to the West Finals but until they get to a Cup Final and break they're hex you know the Blackhawks are the team to beat and they are the team with the longest Cup drought 1961. Scotty's influence on the Hawks: Scotty if you weigh it had a good 75% chunk of pull of influence of getting his son Stan the job because of his reputation of being with the Red Wings that's probably it. If you have to look ahead it's going to be an interesting year ahead in Chicago if they can get better this year to get to the Cup Finals than this controversy with the Bowmans is going to be a memory. The Hawks are sore about losing to Detroit in the Western Conference Finals and they really looked bad in several of those games with Tallon out and with Hossa in and Martin Havlat out the mix is clearly disrupted and you have to watch this club carefully. Which is why I said the Hawks have to repeat what they did a year ago or the talk in Chicago is going to get louder and louder. There will be a lot of talk in the Windytown if Bowman Jr. can't make things happen like Tallon did. Winter Classic at Fenway: It's July better buy your snow gloves now. The NHL announced last week that the Boston Bruins will be hosting the NHL Annual Winter Classic on New Years Day at Fenway Park an event that has been a sell out each of the last two years in Buffalo and in Chicago and the 2003 Heritage Classic that started this outdoor thing in Edmonton which is fantastic. I don't know how many bodies their going to be able to stuff at Wrigley Field that will be probably pretty well filled all 40, 000 plus. You get 40,000 and in Buffalo and Chicago you can get over 40,000. The place where it should be held at is Foxborough if the game comes back to Boston where they create a real traffic jam. Tom Zulewski does the Tom Tom report each week for Sportstalk Radio |
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