Bill Watters Leafs TV blames Bettman for Team Canada losing

Status
Not open for further replies.

Kimota

ROY DU NORD!!!
Nov 4, 2005
39,188
14,060
Les Plaines D'Abraham
I think we should take PRIDE, Bettman should pride in knowing that the NHL has become more pure hockey than International Games. :teach: Once there was at least something romantic about it, it was about sportsmanship. But once you take that out, it leaves nothing. No points whatsoever for the NHL to ever go there ever again.
 

eye

Registered User
Feb 17, 2003
1,607
0
around the 49th para
Visit site
Big Mama said:
Thats odd since McCabe has scored as many goals as Pronger, Blake and JBo this season. Boyle is averaging .67 points per game and McCabe 1.1 points per game on an inferior team.

Why would Gretzky take the inferior offensive player Boyle over McCabe. Given that Team Canada was shutout 3 times McCabe should have seen more ice. But Boyle should have played ahead of any other d-men.

Stats don't tell the entire story. Boyle is faster and way more agile. He also had experience playing for Team Canada. McCabe struggled in Sweden last year for a reason and is a defensive liability who relies on his stick too much to defend and also Kaberle to set him up for his one timer. Not too many one-timers getting through to the net in the Olympics as the blueline is closer to the net. Something that Quinn and Gretz should have thought about.
 

eye

Registered User
Feb 17, 2003
1,607
0
around the 49th para
Visit site
zx81 said:
Not to defend his opinion but the game was never called like that before.
It's really exaggerated this season with maybe 33% of calls being just plain ridiculous.

I don't know how old you are but maybe you should go back and watch some classics. Very little hitting and everytime a player interfered he was penalized and everytime a player took more than 3 steps to finish a check he was in the box for charging and nobody ever hit anyone from behind. Even with the new standard of enforcement which by the way is just calling the book the game is much more physical than it was in the 60's and 70's and part of the 80's. I will say there was more fighting in the 70's and 80's but I don't call fighting physical play.
 

arrbez

bad chi
Jun 2, 2004
13,352
261
Toronto
Jimmi Jenkins said:
How do you Leafs fans justify paying money to listen to this idiot, my god. And for the record the fewer Leafs fans that subscirbe to Leafs TV and go to Leafs games, the sooner the team will get better.

Leafs fans pay the money to watch the 13 Leafs TV exclusive games. Bill Watters is the unfortunate sideaffect.

By the way, your last sentence is one of the most consistantly ignorant oppinions on the boards. If we stop going to the games (as if we could get tickets to begin with), the team will get better? Do you think they aren't trying? We're not talking about the Chicago Blackhawks here.
 

mytor4*

Guest
eye said:
I enjoyed Bill Watters daytime talks during the lockout but his act is getting old fast. I have never seen anyone talk out of both sides of his mouth as much as he does. I was once a fan of his but now I am going to cancel my Leafs TV $1.99 a month option.

After supporting Bettman 100% during the lockout and supporting the need to change the NHL and stick with it (all he has to do is go back and listen to himself in about 1000 tapes) he now blames Bettman for destroying the Canadian game. He says Bettman has taken physicality out of the game, hence, removing the emotional advantage Canada once had. He supported Bettman a few months ago but now that Canada and the Leafs are struggling he is singing a different tune. How does calling the rulebook the way it used to be called when Watters was growing up a Leafs fan take physicality and emotion out of the game? The reason we were not physical at the Olympics is simple. Our Defense were not mobile enough as Gretzky decided to go with size rather than agility and our Fwds. lacked speed and aggresion. Also, please name one Canadian player that had enough skill to hold onto a puck for more than 2 seconds in this entire tournament or put the fear of god into a defending player. The only ones we have were not playing, i.e. Spezza, Staal, Nash who hardly played and Crosby. The only D we have that could have helped offensively was Dan Boyle but Gretzky wanted size and didn't want to piss off Pat Quinn by not taking McCabe.

Funny thing, I don't see the top Euro clubs lacking emotion at this years Olympics and you definately can see they have more skilled top end players than we did at this years Olympics.

Let's learn from it. We need to improve our skills, our speed, our quickness and our agility. Lessons can be learned if Hockey Canada and the NHL decide to. I doubt they will.

watters is a complete *******. just a flunky
 

Jorge Garcia

Registered User
Dec 9, 2004
2,787
634
Let me get this straight. Watters thinks it's bad that the rules are now called in the NHL, and the game is wide-open and free-flowing???
So a dubiously-chosen Canadian team didn't win an Olympic tournament where none of these changes were made and the game is still slow, sluggish and bogged down in trapping. And this is somehow Bettman's fault?
Don't expect logic from Bill Watters.
 

Connorrhea

Registered User
Sep 17, 2005
988
60
Why would anybody listen to Watters? He still says he'd rather take Mats Sundin over Daniel Alfredsson.
 

eye

Registered User
Feb 17, 2003
1,607
0
around the 49th para
Visit site
Jorge Garcia said:
Let me get this straight. Watters thinks it's bad that the rules are now called in the NHL, and the game is wide-open and free-flowing???
So a dubiously-chosen Canadian team didn't win an Olympic tournament where none of these changes were made and the game is still slow, sluggish and bogged down in trapping. And this is somehow Bettman's fault?
Don't expect logic from Bill Watters.

I still wouldn't describe the NHL as "free-flowing" but it's definately a lot better than it was the past decade. Still too much trapping, sitting back and sagging 5 men in front of the goalie for my liking but much much better. Even though Finland and Sweden played this way I thought they taught everyone some valuable lessons on how important skill development is. Canada and the USA will never get it as playing games is more important to players and their parents and the vast majority of players/kids spend very limited time working on their games in North America.

Watters comments were a total turnaround on his previous stance. I guess I shouldn't have been suprised cosidering how often he contradicts himself.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->