Penguins for sale - still and again

Oh, yeah, the game when the bantam refs were called into action. I haven't seen pinnies like that since, oh, junior high.

Not a big Schoenfeld fan, but that has to be one of the funniest all-time sports quips.

 

Was Clarence Campbell a "hockey guy?" Because, as FB has noted, when the NHL doubled the size of the league in 1967, they chose Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Oakland and Los Angeles as the new cities.

No Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Quebec City.

Bettman's NHL came out of that second lockout with a salary cap and a rollback in EXISTING contracts which was unprecedented in sports. Some baseball people wish Bud Selig could "fail" like that.

 

Clarence Campbell had been an NHL referee before being elevated to the presidency in place of Red Dutton, who gave up the job because he assumed he'd be going back to run the New York Americans. Whoops. Shoulda made sure the team was coming back from Bolivian first, Red.

But Campbell was never anything more than a puppet of the owners. Conn Smythe of Toronto and Detroit's Jim Norris (who also had Chicago and New York in his pockets) and their respective sons basically ran the league from the '40s right through the late '60s. Campbell held the presidency until 1977 when he was replaced by Ziegler, who had been a lawyer for the league and, prior to that, for the Norris family and the Red Wings (surprise, surprise). The league office was finally moved to NYC around the same time.

The only NHL boss who had any real control of the league AND who knew something about the game was Frank Calder. He was in charge from the beginning, 1917, until he died in 1943.

Regarding the 1967 expansion, it was an exercise in greed, nothing else. The Original Six owners wanted the money that would be generated by expansion fees and, of course, a TV contract. They had never needed the money beforehand, because healthy ticket sales had always kept every team in the black, but all of a sudden here's a chance to make $12 million ($2 million per each new team) in one pop. Yeah, like Stafford Smythe and his cronies were going to miss out on that.

They were not at all concerned about what was best for hockey or for Canada's place in the sport. Keep in mind, though, this was at a time when it was assumed that Canada would always rule the world of hockey -- we were being kind in allowing the rest of the world to share it, or so we thought. The Summit Series was still five years in the future.

BTW, since we're trashing Ziegler for Game 4 of the '88 final, don't forget to trash Bettman and company for Brett Hull's Stanley Cup-winning goal in '99. A goal like that would have been called back every single time during the preceding regular season, but they had to do some fast talking to justify the decision to allow that goal to stand. I think the people in Buffalo are still trying to shovel their way out of that steaming pile of bullshit.

Hey Smasher, guess who had warned that that very scenario would take place? That's right, it was Don Cherry. P.S. I don't drink Molson, I'm a Labatt man.

 

The '88 finals was all about pure executive ineptitude.

The '99 finals was all about pure officiating ineptitude. Once you have the commish butting in on one call -- yes, even the deciding goal of the Cup Finals -- you're on a slippery slope.

 

actually, two of the guys were Jersey guys, one of whom was a goal judge at Devils games. Ziegler was a disaster. Ziegler was on a radio station and appeared to be under the influence. The officials had their agreement coming up at the end of the 1988 season, so there was already tension with the league.

That was the first year the Devils made the playoffs, and the got thru two rounds and went to the seventh game against the Bruins.

 

Looks like Mario and some other Penguins ownership people were in Kansas City today.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/hockey/nhl/01/03/bc.hkn.sprintcenter.pen.ap/index.html

 

It's seven o'clock and time for the Penguin on top of your television set to go broke.

 

Oh, intercourse the penguin!

 

Nice to see the biggest name in team history out shopping the franchise to other cities.

 

Gee, he only saved the team how many times? And the city had how many chances to build a new arena to replace the POS the Pens play in?

But, yeah, by all means rip on Mario for finally turning the screws on the politicians.

 

Agreed. He's done just about all he can to save the franchise time and time again. It's not his fault that help hasn't come. Hopefully, actions like this will spark some action in Pittsburgh and eventually they put.