Swede

Little early for April fools jokes.

Well when the puck is iced theres still a pretty good chance that it will be blocked or some how kept in play. You see it all the time a poor icing attempt that results in a goal or at least a good scoring chance. Over the glass is definitely a cheap move and should be called when appropriate.

$100 dollars is nothing for the right to fish for the whole year. I think most of us would buy one if the money was going to enforcement or to the resource. You need to find friends that can supply their own gear maybe?

You know what they say "No brain...no pain".

I always questioned why people feel the need to try to educate some bozo out breaking the law. Myself am there best buddy till I get out of sight than I call them in. Why try to educate them they already know what there doing is wrong, they just pack up and move to a different spot to poach. Only if it was a father with his young kids would I try to educate them.

I think they should raise the cost of licenses to around 100$ for a year and then have a license you can buy that lasts 1 month for about 25$ for people that don't like to fish all year long There always saying they don't have the funds so raise the cost to fish. Ya some people might not buy one at a higher price but I think most of us would.

When two Canadian teams face off, the refs have no clear agenda so they tend to do a piss poor job of reffing the game. This last CGY VS EDM game, I don't think any team was really favored. I saw missed calls on both teams. Crossckecking on Calgary's first goal setting up a 2 on 1 which resulted in a short handed goal for Calgary. There's no way the refs didn't see that. I'm not going to bother listing them all, but I'll say if you're going to call a 4 min high sticking call for drawing blood on one team then it should be called on both. Why should an Edmonton player get away with the same offence just because Calgary has a lead. Why should the ref get to decide calls like that based on the score. It's utter crap and totally manipulates the flow of the game. In the last 4 games I've watched, in two of them the announcers have said to each other "well if you're going to call that on one team than you should call it on both". They're not from calls that the reffs didn't see and that's why I say its manipulating the game. Now I'll be the first to admit that the Refs have a tough job to do. But having a hidden agenda makes it a lot tougher. I hate to break it to Gary Bettman but there's never going to be any Michael Jordans or Tiger Woods in hockey. Sure if Wayne Gretzky went to Disney Land there might be a few Canadians there that might recognize him. You can't make people love hockey its never going to be in the same league as baseball, football, or basketball in the lives of mainstream Americans. Why do I watch, well for the same reason as Rehsifylf. Every once in a while you watch a game that no matter who wins, you walk away saying "man that's what hockey is all about".

I'm going to send a letter to Bettman and request 2 more officials for every Flame's game. I don't think its fair for the other teams to face off against them with 10 players on the ice.

Well I am totally shocked that you would think I was talking about you RoFL. This might be a fly fishing forums but this is a hockey thread and reffing is part of hockey.

Sorry FNG, I should have made 2 separate posts, my second paragraph had nothing to do with you. I agree, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I don't mind if people are joking around about whining about reffing or beating a dead horse, but I don't bow to forum Nazi's telling me what I can post when I am only stating my opinion. This is the 1st year I've followed this particular Thread and I am not going to surf through the previous years to see what was discussed because it's irrelevant. Good luck to the Oilers tonight, they've been playing a great game lately and I'm expecting an exciting game.

I don't think anyone made the claim that the refs were the difference in that game FNG. I personally thought Columbus was the better team that night. Can't remember why the first goal was waved off but the second goal was a quick whistle by the ref. Had nothing to do with a penalty. Should have been a goal for sure. This is to the people that think they can dictate to others what they choose to post about. I'll post anything I want about any aspect of any game that's played and there's not a thing you can do about it. So suck it up its a long season.

Who's trying to turn this tread into a fight? What you're sick and tired of hearing doesn't concern me in the least. Yes lets ignore the real issues of hockey and just use this thread to get under people's skin when their favorite team doesn't win.

People must be blind or just don't pay attention when they watch hockey games. I agree with Hawg 100 % Its the timing of calls and non-calls. So you guys think it was fair when the Columbus player was breaking to the net and the Edmonton player put his hand on the Columbus players arm for about 1/2 a second and gets a holding call. Two minutes later Penny is breaking in on the Columbus net and the Columbus player has his whole stick and arm around Penny and is pulling so hard that when he finally gets out muscled he spins out and wipes into the boards. No holding call WTF oh ya Columbus needed a goal to get back into it. The late penalties at the end of the game on Columbus pretty much had to be called and thats the only reason they where. I played hockey all my life and reffed pretty much the whole time I played for extra coin lol. I stand right beside Brian.

All assume your an Edmonton fan. Well Smitty all put money on it that if Edmonton comes out strong and grabs an early lead you will see the refs do whatever they can to get Columbus in the lead.

I wonder if Columbus will get to start the game in Edmonton with 9 players on the ice too.

Like I said Sun its got nothing to do with who's playing. Well does seem like the refs favor US teams to me anyways. I might be a flames fan but I want all Canadian teams to do well, just not as good as the flames.

I agree with you guys somewhat, But thats just not what happens 99% of the time in the NHL. Professional hockey is the only sport I watch that I can predict when and what team is going to get the next penalty. Part of been a good team is having the discipline to know when and when not to take a penalty. Just call the game fairly and let the best team win.

Alls I mean is you shouldn't let both teams get away with things for half the game than start calling penalties on one team. They should be more consistent through out the game. You see it all the time in the NHL.I think it influences the out come of too many games.

One thing all say is that the reffing in the NHL is a joke. I don't care what teams are playing I hate it when refs dictate the tempo and flow of a game. In no other professional sport would refs be able to call or not call penalties at their own discretion. And that folks is why I wouldn't pay 5 cents to go watch a NHL game live. Hell I didn't even go when I got free seats in the seven row, right behind the penalty box at Rexall Place From my X boss lol.

Ya tipping pucks out of the air and into the net is pretty lucky, but does involve some skill. The flames deserved the win no doubt about it.

Grats Steve. It was a great photo and definitely the one I would have picked myself. Loved the way the you could see the reflection in its eye.

Ya I enlarged it and realized it wasn't a pike, but by than I didn't really care. lol

Looks like a little pike to me.

I like this brown because it's the result of a lot of hard work and fish less days trying to figure out a river that doesn't have a big population of trout. I was using a different approach and techniques, which resulted in catching this brown. It was cool to use a number of people's advise, put it all together for yourself and have success. As I was floating before I got to this spot, I was thinking about something that I had read about how to approach spots differently. Don't take the easy path and fish from the spots that most everyone would logically fish from. I got this guy by fishing the side of the river that people don't want to fish from, about 5 feet from my feet . The sight of him coming up, that close to me, smashing my streamer is something I won't ever forget. The best thing about these pictures is, it reminds me about how happy my father was when he netted it for me. The only thing that would have made it a better day, is if I was netting it for him.

Here's the flies that me and girlsfishtoo are adding to the collection. I will drop them off at Fish Tales in the next week or so. Thanks BigBowTrout for getting this organized and everyone that is contributing!