OffThePost.org

Travel is a massive reason. It means you essentially have to draw twice as many fans to make it work than Utica would. Basically a team in OKC will always be an outpost and either has to do a lot of their travel north/northeast or across all of Texas. No team in Omaha anymore makes it even harder.

We're losing a lot of teams in and around Texas. Houston, OKC... makes it a much tougher go for San Antonio and Austin not having OKC or Houston anymore. We need basically an entire division in that area and an entire division in and around California for AAA minor league hockey.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

FWIW, this article from August said that in two years Edmonton would close up shop in OKC and move their team to Bakersfield:

http://www.howlings.net/2014/08/21/cant ... was-built/

Could be doing this a year early.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

It sucks that those markets are losing teams when they were able to sustain it previously. Texas has had a lot of minor pro hockey(at one point I think they were the league with the highest number of minor pro teams).

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

I can't see how in hell an AHL team couldn't thrive in Houston. That city is ridiculously huge.

On a side note, WTF is up with the Oilers and AHL affiliates? Just not a great track record. Remember the Toronto Roadrunners?

The issue in the AHL isn't the size of the market, it's the operation costs. Glen Falls and Utica work because they can do a whole 5 game road trip in the mileage it takes to go from Houston to OKC (and not even back).

For Texas/OKC to thrive in the AHL there needs to be like 4 or 5 teams in Texas to play and probably Omaha. I think it could work it'd just need some commitment. Make travelling 2000 km to play a conference opponent a non-issue.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

The time will one day come where there could be two AHLs, perhaps merged with the ECHL. Two 16 team leagues. Makes more sense, no?

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The rumours are the Pacific division teams have discussed setting up farm teams on the coast and are apparently pretty serious about it. Time will tell but it does make sense.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Having your farm team thousands of miles away is just stupid.

There should be east/west AHL conferences, with all the teams having their affiliates relatively close by.

The Flames having their affiliate in Glens Falls, NY is just dumb. There has to be a city near Calgary that could support an AHL team.

List of affiliations: http://theahl.com/nhl-affiliations-p171464
Some make great sense and others don't.

One of the only reasons I could see for having a farm team far away is to try and grow your fan base from a grass roots level. Have people watch a player grow in the AHL and appreciate him, and watch him 1500 miles away on a team you'd otherwise have no interest in at all. But besides that, I really can't see the reasoning. The AHL & ECHL have a lot of similar sized rinks. Far easier said than done, but if they could sort of combine the leagues into one big association and move affiliations closer to each NHL team, it would make far more sense logistically.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

AHL West is definitely the way to go. I'm sure the Kings would LOVE to have a closer affiliate than effin' Manchester, but there just aren't any alternatives.

Then the two leagues can get together for one big championship series. That'd be cool, almost old-style World Series since the two teams wouldn't ever face one another during the regular season.

I wish the Cutthroats had worked out. Maybe Armstrong can resurrect them as an AHL franchise. The Eagles at least are doing well in Loveland. If they got bumped up to AHL status I think they'd thrive big-time. Unfortunately that's two CHL franchises (Butch and Harmy remember the Rocky Mountain Rage, and now the Cutthroats) who have tanked in Colorado. 1 for 3 so far. Not exactly a stellar track record.

And it's too bad Lincoln and Omaha aren't closer together. They could ALMOST make an AHL club work if that were the case, given how fast Lincoln is growing.

Seriously can the media please stop handling the Edmonton front office with kid gloves?

http://www.thescore.com/news/662685

Another more appropriate title: "The Edmonton Oilers front office are idiots. Everyone but them knows it."


Draft changes should be instituted so that there are restrictions on the number of top-whatever picks you can get over a period of time. Stop rewarding idiots for being idiots.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

What a waste of talent.

Draisaitl should be playing in the World Juniors and everybody but the organization that drafted him and rushed him knows it.

Yak needs to get out of there before it's too late. I feel terrible for the kid. Thrown to the wolves from the start.

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Oilers lose 5-1 to the Arizona Coyotes.

Ben Scrivens gives up 2 goals on 3 shots in exactly 5 minutes of ice time. SV% of .333 which would be fantastic if it were a batting average.

Fasth does a little better, giving up 3 more on 19 shots. .842.

And to top it all off, SAM GAGNER either scores or assists on all but 1 of the 5 Arizona goals.

If this ain't rock bottom...

On a side note, WHO THE FUCK scheduled it so the Coyotes and Oilers already faced one another five times before Christmas!?

Arizona won all five by the way. They have seven wins against the entire rest of the NHL so far.

Now THAT is a stat.

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Toronto and the Wings finished up their 5-game season series on December 13th

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

BOLD MOVES

http://www.tsn.ca/oilers-acquire-c-roy- ... o-1.170176

Could've claimed him on waivers for nothin', but I guess they're right up at the contract limit and (I believe) Nashville is retaining salary.

Apparently it has more to do with waiver rules making it tougher to trade him at the deadline (he'd have to be re-waived first) that led to this. Still don't know why they gave up Arcobello, who was on their team, and not some low level AHL farmhand to do it.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

I consulted The Internet, and there are deluded Oiler fans out there who felt Arcobello was a bust for not becoming a quality third line centre ...after only 78 career NHL games.

Sometimes you're in such a deep crater that you don't even know how bad things truly are.

Everything about this organization is toxic right now, from the owner to the fans. A mix of unrealistic expectations with no plan and no one to properly administer one.

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Next stop for the Oilers: entering the Spengler Cup!

https://twitter.com/BruceMcCurdy/status ... 5581986816

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb