Read old hockey discussions from as far back as 1981 (google groups)

[Mouse21*]

mind=blown.

the internet ****ing existed in the early 80s? what?

 

[Strangle]

Some great 'value of: Doug gilmour' stuff on there!

In 1994 someone was suggesting Gilmour for yzerman + Coffey. Wow, that's value!

 

[oilersfan87]

Great find! I know what I'm doing all day today

 

[Habsfan18]

I still search through the site every now and then to see if I can come up with interesting discussions.

Anybody find anything else worth sharing?

 

[jigglysquishy]

Wow. Awesome good reads.

Gretzky haters existed back in the early 80s too haha.

People were pretty confident about Saskatoon getting a team too.

There was a consensus Ottawa couldn't support a team and that Hamilton would get one right away.

 

[Hammer Time]

Common opinions on Usenet, 1995-1996:
1) Yzerman is a choker who puts up lots of regular season points but can't get it done in the playoffs.
2) Fedorov should join the Russian diving team.
3) You can't win a Cup with so many Russians.
4) After losing four straight to the Devils, everyone knows how to beat the Wings, and their Cup drought will go on for many more years. Oh, and BTW the East is by far the stronger conference.
5) I hate how Red Wing fans get so cocky when all they've done is put together a 62 win regular season ... the playoffs are what counts.
6) The Wings went to Game 7 OT before they could get rid of the Blues on a lucky Yzerman goal, a team far below them in the standings. That's not the sign of a good team.
7) Vernon isn't a big game goalie. The Flames didn't win the Cup because of him.

Common opinions on HFBoards, 2010-2011:
1) The Sedins can win Art Rosses but disappear in the playoffs.
2) The Sedins should join the Swedish synchronized diving team.
3) The Canucks have too many Europeans to win a Cup.
4) After the Bruins demolished them in the finals, everyone knows how to play them. They're not going back to the Cup anytime soon. All that "West is stronger" talk is BS.
5) I hate how Canucks fans feel such a sense of entitlement over the Presidents' Trophy.
6) The Canucks went to Game 7 OT before they could get rid of the Blackhawks, on a lucky Burrows goal. They're so overrated.
7) Luongo isn't a big game goalie. Team Canada didn't win gold because of him.

Déjà vu?

 

[jkrx]

Common opinions on Usenet, 1995-1996:
1) Yzerman is a choker who puts up lots of regular season points but can't get it done in the playoffs.
2) Fedorov should join the Russian diving team.
3) You can't win a Cup with so many Russians.
4) After losing four straight to the Devils, everyone knows how to beat the Wings, and their Cup drought will go on for many more years. Oh, and BTW the East is by far the stronger conference.
5) I hate how Red Wing fans get so cocky when all they've done is put together a 62 win regular season ... the playoffs are what counts.
6) The Wings went to Game 7 OT before they could get rid of the Blues on a lucky Yzerman goal, a team far below them in the standings. That's not the sign of a good team.
7) Vernon isn't a big game goalie. The Flames didn't win the Cup because of him.

Common opinions on HFBoards, 2010-2011:
1) The Sedins can win Art Rosses but disappear in the playoffs.
2) The Sedins should join the Swedish synchronized diving team.
3) The Canucks have too many Europeans to win a Cup.
4) After the Bruins demolished them in the finals, everyone knows how to play them. They're not going back to the Cup anytime soon. All that "West is stronger" talk is BS.
5) I hate how Canucks fans feel such a sense of entitlement over the Presidents' Trophy.
6) The Canucks went to Game 7 OT before they could get rid of the Blackhawks, on a lucky Burrows goal. They're so overrated.
7) Luongo isn't a big game goalie. Team Canada didn't win gold because of him.

Déjà vu?

The difference being (and no offense) that the canucks isnt close to as strong as the Red Wings were but I agree some of the talk thats been going on after the cup loss is ridiculous.

 

[Passchendaele]

Wow.

I didn't even know discussion groups existed in the early 90s, let alone the mid 80s.

 

[darkhorse686]

Common opinions on Usenet, 1995-1996:
1) Yzerman is a choker who puts up lots of regular season points but can't get it done in the playoffs.
2) Fedorov should join the Russian diving team.
3) You can't win a Cup with so many Russians.
4) After losing four straight to the Devils, everyone knows how to beat the Wings, and their Cup drought will go on for many more years. Oh, and BTW the East is by far the stronger conference.
5) I hate how Red Wing fans get so cocky when all they've done is put together a 62 win regular season ... the playoffs are what counts.
6) The Wings went to Game 7 OT before they could get rid of the Blues on a lucky Yzerman goal, a team far below them in the standings. That's not the sign of a good team.
7) Vernon isn't a big game goalie. The Flames didn't win the Cup because of him.

Common opinions on HFBoards, 2010-2011:
1) The Sedins can win Art Rosses but disappear in the playoffs.
2) The Sedins should join the Swedish synchronized diving team.
3) The Canucks have too many Europeans to win a Cup.
4) After the Bruins demolished them in the finals, everyone knows how to play them. They're not going back to the Cup anytime soon. All that "West is stronger" talk is BS.
5) I hate how Canucks fans feel such a sense of entitlement over the Presidents' Trophy.
6) The Canucks went to Game 7 OT before they could get rid of the Blackhawks, on a lucky Burrows goal. They're so overrated.
7) Luongo isn't a big game goalie. Team Canada didn't win gold because of him.

Déjà vu?

Haha, brilliant parallels drawn there

 

[darkhorse686]

BTW thumbs up to the guy who found these old discussions

 

[Hoser]

Common opinions on Usenet, 1995-1996:
...the East is by far the stronger conference.

I would say this was true that season. The West save the Red Wings, Avalanche and Blackhawks was pretty weak. The #4 seeded Maple Leafs would have finished well out of the playoffs if they were in the East (Leafs had 80 pts, vs. the (#8) Lightning's 88).

 

[nutbar]

Reading posts from 10-20 years ago in which Zetterberg is a fringe prospect who won't make the NHL, trading Forsberg's right to Quebec is OK because you got Ryan Sittler, Lidstrom has no heart and L.A. wins the trade sending Darryl Sydor to Dallas because they get Churla and Zmolek back.....is like a warning from the past about making definitive statements on message boards about things you can't possibly predict with any certainty.

Ryan Sittler! Holy hell...

And the fact that's it's 2011 and Hamilton still doesn't have a team would have blown these guys' minds.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Hello there. Bobby Hull is older than my father. This is ancient in
hockey playing standards, where 27 year olds are considered ``veterans''
and 30 year olds are called ``aging''. Almost all hockey players are
Canadians less than 35 years old. Most are in their early 20s. All of
these people did junior hockey in Canada which is more organised than
football in the US.

As kids these people were *forced to wear helmets*. This is the ruling.
If the NHL forced people to wear helmets, they would wear them but lots
of people would mind. Remember that all the people these days who are
not wearing helmets chose to take them off. Hockey helmets do decrease
your periferal vision, and it is the case that a player will whack a helmeted
player on the head if the referee i snot looking. This sort of thing does
not happen as frequently to unhelmeted players. Also, if you are ever in a
fight, a good many of the more comfortable helmets turn out to be lousy
protection from directed punches and can do a great deal of damage. There
are helmets that do not have this problem but they are lousy helmets for
performance reasons.


Helmets are hot. I've seen kids pass out because they were too hot in their
helmets, though never a profesional.

The fact is that unhelmeted professional hockey players have chosen to live
this way. They are not minors. Why are you in such a hurry to take this
choice away from them?

See: mandatory visors, circa 2011

 

[Habsfan18]

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....d5927a056047?q="jimmy+waite"#4648d5927a056047

Pittsburgh vs Chicago game 4 ('92) talk that eventually turned into a Hasek discussion.

Reading the last post in the thread, some fan believed that Hasek + warm body could fetch Dave Andreychuk, Dale Hawerchuk, and Christian Ruutu in a rumored deal with Buffalo.

Also of note:

But you probably won't see an NHL team hang it's hopes on a Euro goalie, given the old boy opinion that they are 2nd rate, and the lack of championship success with imports (from Taako to Myshkyn, possibly excepting the late Lindberg from Philly).

And here's a thread on the actual Hasek to Buffalo trade. Remember to go to top and click expand all.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....54993ea16913?q="jimmy+waite"#d96054993ea16913

 

[Peter9]

Fascinating. My guess is that most, perhaps nearly all, those who posted on the net in the 1980s were associated with educational institutions and had access to their university's computers. Some of the posters' addresses in these old threads demonstrate that. And perhaps some were government workers or worked in the technical departments of large businesses. Most average Joes and Janes had no access to the Internet until the 1990s.

I participated in the rec.sport.hockey usenet boards and the CompuServe sports forum's hockey section as early as 1994, and I wish some of those threads had been preserved. In 1994 only a small minority of the population had Internet access--computers still remained relatively expensive--but soon thereafter people began to buy computers and gain Internet access in droves.

I guess there are some posters on this board who are so young that they do not remember a computerless and Internetless time. If not yet, there will be in a very few years.

 

[66871]

Good to see that 'classless' was in use back in the mid-80s.

 

[Lugaid]

This is fantastic. I read some report about Peter Forsberg's first training camp with Quebec:

"He is playing, but not very well. Actually I have never seen him
playing well. In the last World Champs he wasn't very good either.
I think Mats Sundin is better than Forsberg. Forsberg is not bad, but
not spectacular either. Finns Koivu and Peltonen are better. "

 

[Use the Schwartz*]

mind blowing stuff. wow.

it feels weird. I wasn't born until 92, so I don't know a lot of the players. But reading people talk about "Forsburg"(as one guy called him) and a lot of other Europeans just makes me laugh now.

It's like some Terminator ****. We're here, in the present, but are reading about the past. But the past, is referencing the present, which is their future, but our past...

 

[Jumptheshark]

People used the internet back in 1985?

Let alone a discussion group on hockey

internet goes back to the 70's when it was used for military and university

in the early 80's it was in a beta format

 

[guyincognito]

Is this the thread where people date themselves? I was not aware it went *that* far back. Early 80's is sick. I think you'll find a decent number of pre-lockout posters that have crossed over from there on the various sites.

 

[Passchendaele]

Toronto would be crazy to trade Damphousse and Marois for Sakic and Lindros(?)

-November 30, 1990

That's golden.

 

[Hobnobs]

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....d5927a056047?q="jimmy+waite"#4648d5927a056047

Pittsburgh vs Chicago game 4 ('92) talk that eventually turned into a Hasek discussion.

Reading the last post in the thread, some fan believed that Hasek + warm body could fetch Dave Andreychuk, Dale Hawerchuk, and Christian Ruutu in a rumored deal with Buffalo.

Also of note:



And here's a thread on the actual Hasek to Buffalo trade. Remember to go to top and click expand all.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....54993ea16913?q="jimmy+waite"#d96054993ea16913

Sending Bo plus Ruutu for Hasek is a little steep for Buffalo, isn't
it? Unless this works out to be a three-way such that in closing a
deal for Ruutu the Hawks will send someone to Buffalo that can be
immediately flipped to Winnipeg to close out that first Beauregard
transaction ... if this is so, who might it be, tout le gang??? (-;

 

[begbeee]

It is really sad to see the Toronto Maple Leafs struggle like they are.
Toronto, home of the hockey hall of fame, and a hockey center, has a
NHL franchise that is an embarrassment to the league. What has gone
wrong with this organization? 1985

 

[Habsfan18]

Toronto would be crazy to trade Damphousse and Marois for Sakic and Lindros(?)

-November 30, 1990

That's golden.

Pretty funny now, but to be fair Damphousse was coming off a 94 point season (breakthough year), and Marois was coming off a 76 point season (in 68 games). Both players were viewed at that time as big parts of Toronto's future. This guy probably thought Marois especially was going to be a star.

But even then, there's no way Quebec would have made that trade. Especially since they knew they had a shot at Lindros.

 

[Habsfunk]

Habs fans should without a doubt be very excited about the arrival of Saku
Koivu this year. His penalty minute totals from Finland seem to suggest that
he'll play a physical game in the NHL, despite his lack of size. However, it's
that same lack of size in Montreal that has to be a big concern. The trade with
the Islanders helped somewhat, but with a bunch of key players like Koivu,
Valeri Bure, and Mark Recchi all being under 6'0'', you have to worry that the
Canadiens really need to get some bigger players around them.

Nowadays in the NHL, everyone seems to be obsessed with size, size, size.
And to a certain extent, I don't buy into it. Smaller skill players like Recchi
and Theo Fleury seem to do just fine. Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better
in hockey-but I have to be skeptical that a team like the Canadiens that has a
whole core of smaller players up front will be able to succeed over the 84-
game season and still have enough left for a run in the playoffs. Opinions???

Heh... http://groups.google.com/group/alt....5ffd5e2ca723/43e486b6815ead5c?q="saku+koivu"#