Wow!

I have to admit, it has been a really long time since I've seen anything in Darwin's Waiting Room that I agree with.

So I have to admit it gives me great concern reading this thread and actually enjoying it. Are they finally getting smart? Have they "dumbed me down" to their level?

You see, Hanibal is Matthew Sigafoose, you might remember him as the "brains" (a term used very, very loosely) behind Ulitmate Fighting on Ice Fans.com. After The Venerable Off Wing Opinion interviewed him and plugged his planned protest (which was about as well attended as a Carol Mosely Braun for President Campaign Press Conference) I had just a few things to say about the whole issue myself.

To his credit, Sigafoose reached out to me and wanted to have a chat. However to his discredit, his debating style left much to be desired. Anytime he was faced with a point that he couldn't refute with anything even closely resembling a fact, he just dismissed it as an improper comparison so he wouldn't have actually to confront it. That is of course, when he did confront a point head on.

And you should have seen the gasket he blew when I pointed out that he either has to live with the parade to the penalty box or let the NHL go back to the clutching and grabbing and hooking and holding that even he admits slowed down the game in the 1990's. But, this is a family blog so I can't post it, besides, I deleted the profanity laced tirade (once again telling me that it was an improper choice). I've also put his e-mail address on the spammer list, so I won't be hearing from him again.

But I find it interesting that he's getting the beatdown that he is over in Darwin's Waiting Room. Some of those people aren't the biggest fans of Gary Bettman (who is BTW?) but they refuse to sign his worthless petition and not just because it is a worthless internet petition. They make some of the same points I made that Sigafoose refused to address up front and head on. Notice that if he doesn't flat out ignore the point made, he brushes it aside as comparing apples and oranges. He only points to polls that are anything but scientific (but won't mention anything about how his grand "protest" panned out) to back up his contention that UFOI is what fans want.

Yet, the NHL of the 1980's and 1970's were hardly the "Glory Days" the UFOI fans make them out to be. I've been through this countless times and it is a point that UFOI fans like Sigafoose categorically refuse to address. One can only figure that the UFOI fans know that there is nothing they can say in response to it and ignoring the failure of the NHL at that point, hoping that it will just go away.

That one thread is almost enough to get me to reconsider changing my opinion of Darwin's Waiting Room, but then a thread like this comes along and all is the same again. (Yeah, the Caps should pick up every single player on the waiver wire and should have been involved in every single trade not mention offering a contract and signing every single UFA under the sun. Didn't we learn our lesson with Joe Murphy and Dmitri Kristich?)

BTW for an extra laugh, check out the cut on Larry Robinson's jersey. Awfully trim there isn't it?????