2012 NHL Offseason Thread

[Strat-Mangler]

Originally Posted by Darth Handsome

You're like.... Yoda.

A Star Wars reference from somebody whose alias begins with "Darth."

What a surprise!

[Darth Handsome]

Originally Posted by Strat-Mangler

A Star Wars reference from somebody whose alias begins with "Darth."

What a surprise!

You do have vision!

[Strat-Mangler]

Originally Posted by mkandolf

Flyers fan got into it in the media scrum with Gary Buttman. Interrupted the thing and then still managed to get Buttman to speak with him for a few secs afterwards. Guy is from my hometown! Priceless!

The guy takes some of his time to have a 1-on-1 exchange with a fan who frankly should've been escorted out as it was a media interview and you still call him Buttman. Really?

Ugh.

[MJ5150]

Between the Flyers owner leading a new group pushing for an agreement to this Flyer fan conversing directly with Gary Bettman, we will all have to thank the Flyers for saving the NHL.

People are mad at Bettman as if he caused the lockout. Bettman works for the owners and does what they tell him. If you want to be mad at someone, plug the name Jeremy Jacobs into your favorite search engine.

-Mike

[Darth Handsome]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Between the Flyers owner leading a new group pushing for an agreement to this Flyer fan conversing directly with Gary Bettman, we will all have to thank the Flyers for saving the NHL.

Too, if one assumes the popular point of view that Philly's 'incredibly stupid' signings over the years contributed to the need for a lockout in the first place, it could indicate that the entire league hinges on them!

[burk48237]

I ate thanksgiving at my buddies today and his dad is a big wig at Oakland Hills Country Club. Anyway he played nine holes with Steve Yzerman today and Stevie Y said this seasons is done. He says they won't play until next year. Evidently Stevie had some choice things to say about the weasel Betmen too.

[mkandolf]

Buttman effectively only has to answer to 7 owners. 7. That is all he has to keep happy to keep this lockout going. Period. It would be 8 but since the NHL currently owns the Coyotes... Currently 22 owners can vote to end this lockout but it won't happen unless 23 vote to end it.

No matter what silliness is getting reported out there from whatever sources we may be copying and reposting, the fact remains it will all come down to who can keep his numbers in a row longer, Buttman and his 7 owners or Fehr and the players union. Which one do you think will break first?

[corndog]

Originally Posted by Darth Handsome

The more I see Donald Fehr's face, and the more he opens his sewer, the more I hate the union.

I heard an interview with Steve Fehr today, man was he arrogant. Negotiation takes two willing sides working towards a common outcome, he had nothing good to say. I wouldn't give him a nickel in negotiations. I'm not a fan of Bettmans either, but the owners have the control, and always will.

I am a long time nhl fan, but going through this every five years is tiring, I really don't care anymore. With part time players making $500k/year, its the rich fighting the rich. I'm tired of it, my life won't change if the NHL never comes back.

[Darth Handsome]

Players come & go. The team will always be bigger. This generation of players can sit for the rest of their lives for all I care. Dress up the Brandon Wheat Kings or the St John's Ice Caps in Winnipeg Jets gear, and we will be out to support them. Price the tickets accordingly and Bob's your uncle. As I said earlier, the players are only part of the product. They'd better get that through their thick skulls.

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by mkandolf

.....Bettman and his 7 owners......

Do you think Bettman is driving the lockout and found seven owners to agree with him? I have more questions for you, but they depend on how you answer this question.

-Mike

[corndog]

Originally Posted by Darth Handsome

Players come & go. The team will always be bigger. This generation of players can sit for the rest of their lives for all I care. Dress up the Brandon Wheat Kings or the St John's Ice Caps in Winnipeg Jets gear, and we will be out to support them. Price the tickets accordingly and Bob's your uncle. As I said earlier, the players are only part of the product. They'd better get that through their thick skulls.

Exactly. Its much more exciting watching Connor McDavid bust his arse every game than watching most NHL'ers "go through the motions" during a game.

[mkandolf]

I don't think Buttman started the lockout on his own. I do believe he began it at the behest of the owners. But I do believe he put a carrot in front of the owners that he believed he could deliver quickly and now he's driving it to that end so long as he has 7 owners in his pocket.

[mkandolf]

Well, the NHL might as well go ahead and fold. Federal mediators had 2 days to go at it and then just decided they had enough. Her's cut and paste from what I found on the Philly boards:

Bob McKenzie‏@TSNBobMcKenzie Sounds as if there's no traction or progress coming out of the mediation session. Official statements to follow, no doubt.


Pierre LeBrun‏@Real_ESPNLeBrun
NHL-NHLPA meeting with mediators over. Told no progress


Katie Strang‏@KatieStrangESPN#CBA Can confirm meeting is over for the day. No progress. Sounds like that's it for mediation process entirely. Two sides too far apart


Sam Carchidi‏@BroadStBull The history of the NHL...the dramatic Cup runs...the Orrs...Howes....Clarkes.....has been spit on by the #NHL and #NHLPA.


Sam Carchidi‏@BroadStBull Daly says no progress made. "We are disappointed the mediation process was not successful." (They gave it 2 whole days!)


Dave Isaac‏@davegisaac Bill Daly on mediation: "We are disappointed that the mediation process was not successful."


Dustin Leed‏@D_LEED Bill Daly: " presiding mediators concluded that the parties remained far apart, and that no progress toward a resolution could be made"

[MJ5150]

Dartmouth hockey FTW! Manchester Monarchs FTW! Youth leagues FTW! I forgot about the NHL.

-Mike

[mkandolf]

Next negotiations: Bettman and Daly out. Fehr and Fehr out. All owners in. Cross section of players with legal rep in. ???

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl--fa...034356039.html

According to the article, players don't trust Bettman, owners don't trust Fehr, both for properly representing positons to their clients. So Bettman supposedly proposed this thing to everyone. Get the two sides together directly. Could be interesting. Next board of governors meeting is Wednesday when they are sure to cancel more if not all the games. We're already into mid-December with cancelations.

[Strat-Mangler]

Originally Posted by mkandolf

Well, the NHL might as well go ahead and fold.

It just might come to that.

There's talk about eliminating the NHLPA which would give the players the ability to sue the NHL owners for the money they're owed. There would of course be no hockey during this entire legal process and you can bet that with the amount of money we're talking about (hundreds of millions), this wouldn't be solved for months or even years.

Consequently, the interest would wane and I'm not entirely convinced that the NHL would be able to get back on its feet after foregoing any business for 2+ years.

In the meantime, all I can think of is how unreasonable and shady Fehr seems to be. Everytime he says anything, he sounds like he's simply a man in love with the sound of his own voice. He loves to argue for the sake of arguing. Don't think he believes in compromise or conceding anything. He's most likely promising the moon to the players and at this point, there's not much the players can do.

Meanwhile, some players are expressing their disgust with how things have degenerated. Hamrlik is the latest one who stated that he's in his 3rd career lockout and he's sick of this. He just wants to play for whatever little time he has left. Some of his teammates threw him under the bus including Ovechkin and the team captain who even went so far as to say "How can I trust him to back me up on the ice, now that he's stabbed us in the back?" I'm paraphrasing.

Hamrlik replied that he's earned the right to be able to voice his opinion.

Ovechkin and a few others are threatening to never come back if there isn't an agreement between the 2 parties soon.

Etc, etc, etc.

The whole thing's a mess because everybody's being extra greedy. Throw in the male ego into the situation which makes it so nobody wants to blink first and lose face and you have a hell of a mess.

[Strat-Mangler]

They should just cancel the season already or else we'll have a repeat of 2004 when Bettman canceled it officially in JANUARY!

[FretlessMainly]

Talk about a consummate display of complete disfunctionality.

Meanwhile, there are three college games on TV tonight: #9 BU leads #1 BC 2-1 at the second intermission, and these two teams just don't like each other very much. #2 UNH is on a local NH station, leading UMass Lowell 4-1 after two. Later, Denver hosts Wisconsin. This game, like the BC-BU game, is on NBC Sports Network. So, I would think that these games are nationally available on most cable networks (assuming you have the package).

Check out some of these college games and the Canadian league on NHL Network to get your jones sorted.

[MJ5150]

I've been enjoying the college hockey this evening on TV. Saturday night we're going to see #11 Dartmouth take on Bentley in Hanover. On Wednesday, Dartmouth hosts Vermont on national TV, NBC Sports with Mike Emrick and Pierre McGuire calling the game. I'm already excited enough, but then they announced that five former Big Green players now in the NHL will be at the game too......Lee Stempniak, Ben Lovejoy, Tanner Glass, David Jones, and Nick Johnson. Two of those guys Pens, Johnson being a former Pen.

-Mike

[FretlessMainly]

Good stuff, Mike. Sunapee to Hanover's a bit of trek, even if we do live in a small state region. I'm fairly close to BU, BC, Northeastern, and Harvard, but I haven't made it to a game yet. I'm thinking that the 2013 Beanpot would be a good place to start.