Anyone else hate the month of August??

[LAKINGSFAN]

There is essentially no hockey news of any kind. All of the free agency news has pretty much subsided. Even the guys on NHL channel on Sirius radio goes on vacation. The discussions on this board stop.
At least the NFL is about to start so that should hold me over until camps start.

 

[Psych3man]

Fully agree, LA, fully agree

 

[Vegas]

I almost had the chance to see an NHL game in China next week. Escaped a business trip, which would have been horrible. The only saving grace was seeing the Flames and Bruins play. My boss is going instead of me and he's a Flames fan. I suspect having the chance to see the game factored heavily in his decision to go.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I have hated the last 2 Augusts because I have been in Florida 3 times in that month. The weather is awful, the flight sucks and I dread it every year. Luckily next year we are in Vegas.

On the NHL front, it is indeed the slowest month usually of the off season, and always feels like the longest. There are still a few recognized RFAs not signed, but with no news that pretty much means they are apart on contract and training camps open next week.

Maybe it'll pick up then...

 

[davnlaguna]

Watched the rookie game on Saturday
(On line/fox sports go)
Sloppy one hockey

 

[Stunner_At_Staples_Kings]

I did Kings/Dodgers night August 25th. Was okay. Got the Dodger/Kings jersey, which turned out pretty cool.

Also did the Kings 5K "Run" (I walked it). Pretty cool energy and they used it to "Officially" kickoff the season.

I hear you, on August, but there's enough stuff going on. If you do Fantasy Football, that's a good time to do the drafts. We geek out and get the literal draft boards and stuff. Make it a party. Get beers, pick your players, and rip on each other for who people pick.

Also, a ton of concerts and shows, so those wind down, as sports ramp up.

But I'm definitely ready for hockey to get going. NFL Sunday was awesome yesterday, but peak sports is October (Hockey is back, NFL in full swing, and even baseball Playoffs).

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I'm part of a skilled trades association here in OC and we were at the Angels/Astros game on Aug 25. Good turnout, about 185 people from our group, game was good too - Angels made it close at 4-3 but the kids were acting up so we left and then we found out Houston poured it on and won 8-3 so I didn't feel too bad. What I did feel bad about was spending $14 on a Coors Light tall boy - WTF??

I haven't done any fantasy since our last FHL and I am not as well versed with NFL players as I am with NHL players so I stay out of fantasy football leagues. I really only watch the Giants, so apart from them I have no idea who is good, who is not, who is favored, etc.

I don't have Sunday Ticket because I can't justify the price only to watch NY so I am relegated to either national Giants games or the recaps on the NFL Network, which I got to see Sunday night. G Men put up a good fight against the second best defense in the league I guess, that pick 6 killed them. I also think Barkley is going to be a superstar, he is a highlight reel in the making.

I did put my Giants flag outside of the house this weekend, but that will be coming down in less than a month when hockey starts and the Kings flag goes back up. This off season seems to have dragged out worse than others, even in non playoff years, for some reason.

 

[Stunner_At_Staples_Kings]

You gotta go NFL Redzone. It's honestly, a game changer.

I just got Slingtv, and added it on, but there are other deals out there.

But basically, the host is so self-aware and engaging, and he has this whole staff that put the games that are most likely to score up on the screen. Any team that's within the 20 yard line (The "Red Zone") they just go to that game. If there are multiple teams about to score, they'll put them all up (up to 4), and the guy goes "We're going quad box". Seems douchey to write that, but man it's just awesome.

In the morning, they have the countdown, and at exactly 10am, the dude comes on and he's like "Welcome. We're seconds away from kickoff on the morning games. It's time for 7 hours of commercial-free football"

If they go to a game and that channel tries to go to commercial, he goes "Get that commercial out of here. We don't do commercials".

It's just so..... 'Merica. Can't really say much else.

*Side note. For anyone into the Rams. They have this Game day pass (I google Rams $250). $250 to go to every single Rams home game (All 7). It's in your name, and you can't transfer tix (YOU have to be the one to go). You seat might chance every game, and they email you your seat 5 hours before the game. But yeah, $250 total. Packers game is worth that alone. Offer expires 9/14.

 

[LAKINGSFAN]

I do enough fantasy to keep me busy all year round. We do a hockey, football and baseball here at work. I ended up taking football off this year. The baseball season wore me out and I just needed a break. I think I will take baseball off from now on and stick with football and hockey.

My original post was really to say that I really enjoy coming on this board to read the comments (even though I rarely post) and even the board was dead.

I agree that the Sunday ticket price is crazy. I bought it a few times years ago and I realized that I was really watching the national games more. Also, I got upset that even though I had HD receivers with Directv, they wanted to charge me more money to get the NFL ticket in HD. That was the reason I stopped.
The wife is a huge Cowboy fan so last year we went to Dallas on thanksgiving to watch them. It was fun but they lost. I think I will wait until they get better before I start buying tickets to another game. Too much money for hotel, travel and games for me to throw around when they arent that good.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Will definitely look into the NFL Red Zone, but Mrs. Puck has become a finance nazi recently because she is trying to get us out of debt so extra spending got the kibosh. If this is going to cost more money, it ain't happening - I mean she even has me on a beer budget (I don't even drink that much anymore, like maybe 10-12 drinks a month and most of that is in two sittings at a party or something so I average about 3 a week if that), took away my credit cards and moved us to the envelope system.

I jokingly bitch about it but understand why she is doing it and support it, especially because the Child Custody Evaluation happened at our house today so shit is about to get real and we have to prepare for having the girls full time (hopefully). Running a house with 6 people, our grocery bill alone is nuts let alone everything else ((last month's electric bill was almost $700 so we have started to get quotes on solar).

Right now we have the second tier DTV package (forgot what it's called), which is a significant downgrade from the top end package/all premium channels/Playboy TV add on we had for a few years but changed about 4-5 months ago. I thought I would die not being able to see Homeland, Shameless, The Affair, etc. but with Netflix and Kodi I honestly haven't missed anything at all. Should have gotten rid of that stuff years ago. I did call in 2 days ago because a discount rolled off and I asked about additional promotions available to current subscribers, and somehow I got $55 off a month/12 months discount. I just about shat my pants because since AT&T bought them, their service, quality and customer experience has gone downhill so I was expecting push back. Pleasant surprise.

I'll check out the Rams deal, I was hoping Big Blue would come to CA last year so I was stoked when I saw they were and it was a home game for LA. I see the time says 6am or whatever and thought it was typo, I go to check ticket prices and see they are playing overseas in Europe or Asia if I recall and it was considered a "home game" for LA. I was annoyed, need to check and see if they will really be coming to CA this season - the last time I saw them live was 1993 when they came to Anaheim Stadium to play the Rams.

Sunday Ticket, I agree, it's way overpriced. I don't mind spending the $140-160 on NHL Center Ice because I watch every team whenever I can (not in recent years though,the kids take over the TV so I stopped subscribing. Will again in a few years).

Sunday Ticket was a freebie for me last year because I called and created a big stink so they tossed that in for free but it looks like I picked the worst year to get it because almost the NY games were on national TV and I barely watched Sunday Ticket. You get one freebie on it from my understanding so I blew it on a year when I really didn't need it.

 

[Stunner_At_Staples_Kings]

Yeah I cut cable about 6 years ago. I have Netflix and Hulu. Then I trade that Netflix for my buddy's HBO. Those 3 pretty much get you everything you need. There are also shows on Amazon Prime, but I haven't gotten into them yet.

The only key was sports, which are the only thing you can't really watch later (It's just not the same). So I did SlingTv which has different tiers.

I'm currently in on their package that has Fox Sports West and then I added "Sports" which has Redzone, and then $5 more per month for digital DVR (To record shows for later). Total for all that is $40, and no Contract (which I love, because I really don't want it after football ends). I go to most Kings homes games and do radio for the road (Or bar if it's a big game). The only terrible part about SlingTV is that it doesn't work on Playstation, so we have to use Roku or Chromecast (or Xbox, or pretty much ANYTHING except Playstation). So I have a Playstation 3 and 4 that I can't use the Sling for.

That's been a good enough system for my wife and I.

 

[Stunner_At_Staples_Kings]

Preason, but Stubhub has Premier and Suite tix for as low as $15 right now. The minimum for the site to sell is $6, or those other seats would be less than $6 too.

Today, Thursday, and then next Saturday are the only preseason games at Staples. Then the regular season is coming up pretty quick. Interesting comments by Kovalchuk that the Russian training camp is 6 more weeks than NHL, so he said you basically have to show up to NHL Training Camp in shape, or you won't be able to make it.