NHL 2013: Off-Season Running Thread

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

You ask his employers, and in his eyes, those are the only ones that truly matter, and almost all of them will say he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. He has made them a lot of money.

Both groups are to blame here. They should have started negotiations at Christmas or the All-star break, not a month before the deadline and then come out of the gate with low ball offers and not even in the same galaxy

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Starting negotiation earlier would have done nothing. With the gap this wide only the pressure of a deadline has made either of them move the slightest bit. Can you imagine the owners in the middle of the season asking for this paycut? They can talk all they want but they wouldn't have wanted that PR during the season

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

This will affect leagues all the way down the line, especially with NHL teams flooding their AHL affiliates with between 15 and 30 players. Guys who would've competed for AHL jobs will end up going to the ECHL or Central League, etc.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Very true and guys in Europe will be out of jobs as the leagues fill with NHLers looking to make a few bucks.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

True. I thought about this because we have a team at basically the Class A level (Southern Professional Hockey League) here where I live and I'm sure they'll get guys who might have otherwise been in a higher league. Will probably raise the talent level of the local team, at least until the lockout ends.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

No way I would go to the KHL, unless it's now a bus league.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

I really, really, really hope I am wrong on this, but.....

I'm more pessimistic than a month ago about a quick (before US Thanksgiving) resolution. It just seems like neither side is trying. With so much at stake, common sense would seem to argue you should be meeting every day instead of once a month. That's the real bummer here, that they don't seem to even be trying to find a solution that works for both sides.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Mark, that's pretty much a summary of how I feel. Seem like both sides are waiting for the other to budge...an inch.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

As a fan, I'm just disappointed they don't seem to get it. The league has made a TON of progress since the 2005 lockout:

Got a national US TV deal, cable and OTA, with a network that actually respects it.

Winter Classic has been a hit with fans.

Revenues have climbed every year.

Competitive balance: seven different Stanley Cup winners, including a No. 8 seed last spring.

Rule changes that have made the game easier to watch.

Exciting, marketable star players who fans can really like.

I just hate to see them throw it all away. For the marginal fan, especially in non-traditional markets, it will be all to easy to ignore and forget about a league that isn't playing for a while. Too many other diversions and things to watch and do. And, of course, a lot of collateral employees (team employees, arena workers, TV people, etc.) will get hurt by a work stoppage. In a nation(s) still struggling with high unemployment, that's not real good, either.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Settle in Mark et al. It's probably going to be a long one. I would be surprised if they're playing hockey next year. Instead, support your local junior or college teams.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread

Because this is great PR right now? Hell, they wouldn't even have to be public meetings, but lay the ground work and foundation for negotiations so that when that first low ball offer is made, the PA isn't thrown for a loop, ignores it, and comes back with a completely different offer on a completely different wave length. There will not be hockey this season. Nothing is going to happen until Bettman and Fehr can get over themselves and find a language in which to discuss a new CBA and I do not see that happening before the New Year. Had they started this process earlier, maybe we see hockey by Christmas, maybe not, but damn, at least there isn't the overriding feeling that neither side really gives a shit whether they play the game again or not. The fact that the NHL became the first major professional sports league in North America to lose an entire season to a labour stoppage and just seven years later we're staring down the exact same thing again is complete and udder bullshit. I don't agree or disagree with one side more than the other, they're both fucked. And that pisses me off to no end.

 

Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread