NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Sea Bass · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

hockeybeat said:

Tim Thomas can now revert to being the backup he is, as the Bruins traded for Manny Fernandez.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=212343&hubname=nhl
Click to expand...

A backup that pulls down $3M. Fuck Mike O'Connell.

Huggy · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Looks like my man Bates Battaglia is done in Toronto. Too bad, I thought he had a great year for the Leafs. Hopefully there's another team out there that will take a chance on him.

Rock on Double B...

ondeadline · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Hopefully Rutherford doesn't get all sentimental and sign Bates for a return to the Canes.

Huggy · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Hey, you never know. He still lives there, comes pretty cheap (he only made $400+K with the Leafs last year). Played every game for them too.

ondeadline · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Yep, I believe Bates owns a bar in the Raleigh area.

Huggy · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

He does, Lucky B's. He told me he left on very good terms with Rutherford so you never know.

spinning27 · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Kritter47 said:

Mirtle's blog shows a complete lack of understand of why Nashville has struggled attendance wise. It has nothing to do with hockey being "beloved" or not. It has everything to do with Leipold and his front office ticking off Gaylord and other corporations in Nashville enough that they no longer purchase the expensive season tickets in the lower bowl.

I hate columns like that. "It's not that we don't want hockey there, it's that it obviously doesn't work" when that's not the case.

Several of the now thriving markets - San Jose and Tampa to name two - struggled early with growing the sport, even as much as 8-10 years into the franchise in the case of the Sharks. Nashville's struggles, especially since they stem from a personal dispute in the corporate world, may be more of the same.

I think a team in Hamilton is the last thing the league needs, quite frankly, especially with an owner like Balsillie who has a clear disregard for how to handle things in the business world.

Finally, how is Bettman treating this like an afterthought? The way the scenario plays out is this - Balsille and Leipold come to a handshake agreement for $238 million. The franchise cannot be moved yet and may not be moveable in the next few years (the 14,000 attendance out clause has not been triggered, the city of Nashville can prevent that clause from being triggered by purchasing the extra tickets, and season ticket sales in Nashville have jumped significantly, especially among the corporate world, since he announcement). And even if they could be moved, the teams in Buffalo and Toronto could block a move to Hamilton, so that city may not even be in the mix.

Instead of waiting for the sale to be finalized on paper, before he gets approved by the BOG, before he finds out if the Preds even can move, Balsillie goes out and makes an ass of himself by all his K-W/Hamilton area campaigning. While he's doing this, he refuses to enter into a binding agreement with Leipold. Leipold understandably gets peeved and says "screw you" to Balsille.

I see nothing that Bettman or the Preds did wrong to deprive the poor Hamilton natives of their hockey team. I see a Canadian businessman who did everything wrong and screwed up any chance of him purchasing a team while putting a big dent in his shot at being granted an expansion franchise.

I would like to see a breakdown of revenue and exactly how much of that comes from a.) the Habs and Leafs and b.) the Canadian television deals. Plus, I've heard both "one-third revenues" and "one third non-gate" revenues - which is it?
Click to expand...

I think people like Mirtle -- and frankly, most Canadians -- don't understand that their culture is the reason the sport has struggled in the U.S.

In the early to mid 1990s, as hockey was growing in popularity in the U.S., the Canadian hockey culture basically made the sport unwatchable. It wasn't the European style that slowed the game to a crawl. It wasn't the kids from the American college system. It was the Canadian junior system that failed miserably in teaching skill development and NHL coaches who saw that the only way to win with unskilled players was to clutch and grab and trap.

But instead of introspection and change, all you get from the Canadians is how great the game is and they seemingly could care less whether America is turned on by it. They'd rather maintain the status quo than explore the potential for growth. The game is certainly better since the lockout, but it has a long way to go. But I don't remember hearing a lot of Canadians criticizing it even before the lockout.

Boomer7 · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

spinning27 said:

I think people like Mirtle -- and frankly, most Canadians -- don't understand that their culture is the reason the sport has struggled in the U.S.

In the early to mid 1990s, as hockey was growing in popularity in the U.S., the Canadian hockey culture basically made the sport unwatchable. It wasn't the European style that slowed the game to a crawl. It wasn't the kids from the American college system. It was the Canadian junior system that failed miserably in teaching skill development and NHL coaches who saw that the only way to win with unskilled players was to clutch and grab and trap.

But instead of introspection and change, all you get from the Canadians is how great the game is and they seemingly could care less whether America is turned on by it. They'd rather maintain the status quo than explore the potential for growth. The game is certainly better since the lockout, but it has a long way to go. But I don't remember hearing a lot of Canadians criticizing it even before the lockout.
Click to expand...

I don't buy this argument. What exactly changed in "Canadian hockey culture" between the late '80s/early '90s (when the league was at its free-wheeling best) and 1995, when the Devils won their first Cup? I blame the NHL's decline on a) the money, because skyrocketing salaries gave players and teams far more incentive to play defensively, and b) overexpansion, which (even with the influx of European talent) brought all of those unskilled players into the league.

Now, you can say that North American sports have suffered in recent years from a tendency to teach tactics and stress winning at a young age rather than teach skill. But that tendency applies to soccer as well as hockey, and it's certainly not limited to Canada. (I wouldn't call U.S. college hockey a breeding ground for exquisitely skilled players, either.)

And if you didn't hear a lot of Canadians criticizing the game before the lockout, you weren't listening.

Huggy · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Pierre McGuire is yelling on my TV about how hard it is to "recruit" players to come to the Leafs now. It is way too fucking early in the day for this shit.

Boomer7 · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Huggy said:

Pierre McGuire is yelling on my TV about how hard it is to "recruit" players to come to the Leafs now. It is way too fucking early in the day for this shit.
Click to expand...

At least he's gotten off the Cherepanov rant.

Huggy · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

And we also have Doug MacLean, who led the Blue Jackets into so many disastrous free-agent signings. How'd that Todd Marchant one work out, to name just one?

Huggy · Jul 1, 2007

Re: 2007 NHL awards, draft and off-season running thread

Boomer7 said:

Huggy said:

Pierre McGuire is yelling on my TV about how hard it is to "recruit" players to come to the Leafs now. It is way too fucking early in the day for this shit.
Click to expand...

At least he's gotten off the Cherepanov rant.
Click to expand...

Too late, they just replayed it.

Log in or Sign up

NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Sea Bass Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

ondeadline Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

ondeadline Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

spinning27 New Member

Boomer7 Active Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

Boomer7 Active Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Sea Bass Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

ondeadline Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

ondeadline Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

spinning27 New Member

Boomer7 Active Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

Boomer7 Active Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

Huggy Well-Known Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches