<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="The Canadian Dreamalchuk" data-cid="202470" data-time="1372065459">
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The darkest time in hockey was in the 90s when Disney named a team after a shitty kids movie...when tampa pulled a shitty pr stunt by bringing in a pretty female goalie for a week so they could put her on nightly talk shows and when fox used a glowing puck. Throw in Wayner being traded to the Kings getting a massive payday which caused salary inflation all through the league. That was hands down the darkest days of hockey. made this game a fucking gong show and brought in a crap load of dumb fans who knew nothing about the game and still don't. Not to mention some shitty economics at the same time that killed 2 good Canadian teams, threatened almost all of them besides the Leafs and Habs..and also tore apart some important American teams. That was the worst time in the NHLs history without a doubt. There were real threats of losing the entire fucking league at points.</p>
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I know a shit load of people who stopped watching the NHL game durring that nightmare esp when the league began getting tackey with the mighty ducks and glowing puck shit. seriously it took a few years to get them back to watching again. even i was close to abandoning it. seriously it was tackey and insulting when that shit was happening. still recovering in a few areas from that garbage rebranding that failed. Thank god most of it has been repaired.</p>
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How some forget.</p>
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Oh and dont forget the Eagleson scandle crap. That was great for the league and its players at the time and of those in the past who he completely fucked up the ass.</p>
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1) I would have been a Kings fan if that never happened.</p>
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2) The fact the Ducks came into existence as well as the Gretzky deal years before came the result of Southern California being a decent hockey hotbed. Its not there yet, but its getting there now especially with Cup wins by the Ducks in 2007 and with the Kings in 2012. Emerson Etem is the first local to play for Anaheim. Yes, its taken that long, but they got there.</p>
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I can understand the glowing puck crap. But the fact of the matter is, being originally from Southern California, I likely would have not been as big a fan if I didn't understand my roots. My dreams of bringing a Cup home, let alone playing hockey, would have never taken place. I would have been a completely different person today if it wasn't for my love of hockey back in 1990, and I likely still would have lived in Los Angeles. We likely wouldn't have met on here, TCD, and if I did move here like I did, I likely would have been on the O-Boards being McDouche's hand puppet without knowing the real truth. Yeah I would have been one of those "bandwagon fans" we so love to make fun of.
I can assure you, though, that this is the only ass kissing of Bettman I will ever do. He gave other places a chance to begin a dream, and me a life I can never forget.
Bettman can still kiss my ass, however.</p>