via en.khl.ru

Every year around this time, the top leagues in Europe are nearing their playoff finals. I always want to watch, but I never find a legitimate way to do it. In my experience, all I've found are very low-quality illegal streams.

Can anyone here provide suggestions for watching the KHL, Elitserien, or SM-liiga playoffs from North America? I know ESPN3 has streamed the KHL playoffs in the past, but I'm not sure they are this year. I'd even be interested in watching the smaller leagues if I could--the Czech Extraliga, Slovak Extraliga, National League A, and DEL.

via en.khl.ru

Every year around this time, the top leagues in Europe are nearing their playoff finals. I always want to watch, but I never find a legitimate way to do it. In my experience, all I've found are very low-quality illegal streams.

Can anyone here provide suggestions for watching the KHL, Elitserien, or SM-liiga playoffs from the US? I know ESPN3 has streamed the KHL playoffs in the past, but I'm not sure they are this year. I'd even be interested in watching the smaller leagues if I could--the Czech Extraliga, Slovak Extraliga, National League A, and DEL.

I'm a sucker for lists. So as 2011 comes to a close, I've been thinking about my favorite Caps games of the year.

The comeback-and-double-OT playoff win against the Rangers is a given.

The Winter Classic is also a given to me. It wasn't the best hockey played, but there's more to games than that, especially when it comes to the Winter Classic.

But after those two, it's wide open. What are your favorites of the year?

There's the back-and-forth 7-6 win over Anaheim last season. The "Ovi not on the ice" OT win over Anaheim last season. The home opener 6-5 SO win over Tampa this season. The list goes on. What about blowouts? Does the 7-1 win over Detroit count as a "good game"?

With Vancouver and Portland joining Major League Soccer in 2011, Montreal joining in 2012, and a presumed 20th team joining in 2012/13, the league will once again have to shuffle the conference deck. In 2010, we've got perfect equilibrium: two conferences of eight teams each, with every club playing a home-and-home with every other club. But it won't last. Where do we go from here?

For discussion's sake, let's assume the 20th team will be in the East--almost all potential sites for the new club are east of Kansas City.

KEEPING THE TWO-CONFERENCE SYSTEM

If MLS doesn't change its structure, two Western teams will join MLS next season, with two Eastern teams following shortly after. But a problem arises: the transitional year of 2011, where we'll have 8 teams in the West and 6 teams in the East. There are a few options for next year:

• Make no changes: We could just deal with lopsided conferences for one season, and let it even out as Montreal and Team 20 come into the league later. But this isn't ideal; a conference difference of two teams significantly hurts Western teams in the hunt for playoff spots.
• Move Colorado to the East for one year: To create even conferences of 9 teams each in 2011, one Western team would go to the East. No one wants to split the two Texan teams, so the easternmost remaining team in the West is Colorado, who would return to the West once Montreal has joined. I'm not sure how happy Rapids fans would be about this, though.
• Use a three-division structure for one year: Some B&RU commenters suggested switching to a 3-division system of 6 teams each for 2011. The divisions would be West (VAN, SEA, POR, SJ, LA, CHV), Central (RSL, COL, KC, DAL, HOU, CHI), and East (TOR, CLB, NE, NY, PHI, DC). Once the two new teams join, the league would move back to an even two-conference structure.

DISSOLVE THE CONFERENCE SYSTEM

Personally, I love 2010's perfectly even, "home-and-home with every team" structure. Our last option is to get rid of conferences altogether, use this even home-and-home system, and have the top 8 teams qualify for the playoffs, regardless of geography or how many teams are in the league. It's fair to every team--the only downside would be a slight increase in league travel expenses. North American pro sports fans are unfamiliar with a conferenceless league structure, but most soccer leagues around the world are this way. One could argue this discourages regional rivalries, but I think Arsenal and Tottenham keep up their derby just fine. Plus, as D.C. United fans, we've got a burgeoning trans-continental rivalry with the nice folks in Seattle.

I've thought about getting a hockey-related tattoo for a long time. The Caps matter to me more than most things in life should, but... it's still a tattoo of a sports team.

What do you guys think of hockey tattoos in general? Do you have one? Would you ever get one? Is passion for the Caps reason enough to etch it in one's skin forever?

If I were to get one, I'd wait until we win the Cup, and get a Weagle somewhere on my arm. Is this a bad call?

I'm torn. On one hand, if I saw someone on the street with a sports logo on their skin, they'd come off as a dumb jock to me. But I'd like to think hockey, and the Caps in particular, are slightly different.

When it comes to picking a team to cheer for/against in the Devils/Flyers series, I'm torn.

On one hand, as a Caps fan, the Flyers are obviously Enemy No. 2, second only to the You Know Whos. Philadelphia's destruction of the Caps' hopes and dreams in OT of Game 7 after the Cinderella story of a 2007-08 season is just the most recent in a long history of hating the Flyers. Not to mention the general douchebaggotry of Philadelphia sports fans.

On the other hand, if the Flyers beat New Jersey and the Caps beat Montreal, we'll have a WSH-PHI showdown for the conference semifinals. I'd much rather face the Flyers in Round 2 than the Devils in the conference finals, for two reasons. First of all, Philly is the weaker team, and the Caps just barely avoided getting swept by NJD this season. Secondly, a chance to eliminate the Flyers personally would be redemption for the Caps, vindication for two years ago.

So what do you think?

From March 6-13, I'll be in Toronto. What do the Rink Rats suggest I do while I'm there?

I know this is slightly off-topic, but it's the Olympic break, Toronto is a hockey Mecca, and I value the opinions of the Rink more than any other community on the internet (not to mention I got great Rink suggestions for going to Puerto Rico).

I'll be driving up there with a friend, crashing on the floor of an acquaintance at University of Toronto, and spending the week low-budget adventuring. What would you do if you were a pretentious 20-something in TO?

MLS has said its goal is to expand to twenty teams by 2012, adding Philly this year for sixteen and Portland and Vancouver next year for eighteen. The question still looms: who will be the last two expansion teams?

There are a fair number of options:

• Atlanta - Currently, there are no MLS teams in the southeast, so many of these cities are in that region of the continent. Some would argue against Florida teams, since we already had the failed teams in Tampa Bay and Miami. Atlanta is the biggest metro area in the Southeast that isn't Miami.
• Birmingham - The mayor of Birmingham, AL has stated his desire to bring an MLS side to the city. While the obvious downside is that it's a very small city in an area that's not traditionally soccer-friendly, the upside is that an MLS Birmingham team would have a monopoly over the local pro sports market there.
• Detroit - Detroit is a big market that's never been tapped for MLS. It is Detroit though, so the economy isn't exactly booming for potential merchandise sales.
• Miami - Yes, Miami Fusion FC already failed in South Florida. But Major League Soccer has grown exponentially since the team disbanded in 2001. Plus there's already a successful minor league team there, Miami FC.
• Montreal - This is the biggest no-brainer to me. Some Americans don't like the idea of having three Canadian teams, but I think it's stupid to ignore great potential markets. Montreal also already has a great minor league team, the Montreal Impact. They're the only non-MLS side to compete in the Canadian Championship (to determine Canada's entry into the CONCACAF Champions League), along with Toronto FC and 2011 MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps FC. It just makes sense to upgrade the Impact to Major League status.
• New York - Rumor has it that the owner of the New York Mets wants to create a second New York MLS team and bring it to Queens. NYC is a huge market, but the Red Bulls aren't exactly selling out all their games yet...
• Ottawa - The city of Ottawa has campaigned increasingly for an MLS side. At first glance, one would think that if MLS were to add a third Canadian team, they'd go to Montreal first. But if you've ever been to Quebec, the Montreal Canadiens are on French Canadians' minds every single day, and the Ottawa Senators don't have nearly as strong a hold on the Ottawa sports market.
• St. Louis - St. Louis is another common-sense candidate for an MLS team--but is Kansas City too close? Probably not. I guess we'll find out.

SBN doesn't let me create a poll with the ability to choose two options, so just pick your top choice.

Charlotte Checkers 5, South Carolina Stingrays 4

I had no idea what to expect going into yesterday's matchup between South Division rivals Charlotte and South Carolina. I'd never been to an ECHL game, or any hockey game south of DC for that matter. But I'm on vacation in Charleston, and what better way to spend my time in the South than by going to a hockey game?

It was a close game all the way until the end, where the Rays were unable to convert on a 6-on-3 (with the goalie pulled). SC never held the lead, but was able to answer each Charlotte goal with one of their own--much like the Caps, the Rays played much harder when they were losing than when the score was tied. 
Big standouts for the Rays were center Matt Fornataro, wingers Gregg Johnson and Dain Prewitt, and and defenseman Johann Kroll with an apparently famous pink hockey stick. I would've watched out for Josh Godfrey, but he was up in Hershey. 
The level of play was much lower than the NHL, obviously, but I think it was a step above the college hockey I've watched.

What was more interesting to me than how individual Caps prospects played was the experience itself. For $15 I was able to sit four rows back, right behind the penalty box. There must've been around 5,000 people at the game--not bad for a minor league hockey team in South Carolina. Being the defending Kelly Cup champions and recently coming off a 13-game winning streak doesn't hurt.

The crowd was a good mix of Southern football fans, families who just wanted something to do with their Sunday afternoon, some Canadians on vacation, and a surprisingly high number of older folk who have been season ticket holders since the team was founded in 1993. There was a wide variety of NHL jerseys in the stands; lots of Caps jerseys, but I saw more Pens sweaters than anything else. Ugh. Not sure if this was because there are a high number of Pittsburghers (is that a word?) in Charleston, if it's because the Pens are the big bandwagon NHL team, or a combination of the two.

As a uniform enthusiast, I thought the Stingrays' unis looked sharp (save for the big Ford sponsorship patches, but I guess that's unavoidable). A clean look with a sleek stingray logo made the Rays look a step above what we think of as your average cheesy minor league hockey jersey. There were a ton of fans sporting Rays sweaters, too.

Stingrays fans have a love-hate relationship with DC and Hershey. As one could imagine, it's frustrating when all your team's best players constantly get sucked up to the parent clubs. They went through something like nine different goaltenders last season. On one hand, fans want to see the players succeed, but on the other, that success involves leaving the ECHL. Regardless, the fans know the players on a very personal level, in ways NHL fans could never do. A woman I spoke to hadn't missed a Rays home game since they were founded, and said the players freaked out if they didn't see her up against the glass before games watching them do warmups. They constantly have events like season ticket holder lunches with the players, things that bring them much closer to Charleston as a community. And at the game, I got a feeling I could never get at Verizon Center, unless one day maybe I'm rich enough to have front row season tickets--it smelled like hockey. The scent of rubber, ice, and sweaty hockey gear is something that brought back memories for me, and is something missing from our high-caliber NHL games.

If you're ever in the Charleston area and you're a nerdy enough Caps fan to read Japers' Rink, there's no reason not to go to a Stingrays game.