NHL and NHLPA had 7 hours of discussion yesterday and have talks scheduled today too. No media. Today will be a very important day for hockey.
NHL and NHLPA had 7 hours of discussion yesterday and have talks scheduled today too. No media. Today will be a very important day for hockey.
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Warning: This is going to get a little colorful
So the NHL and NHLPA are meeting for a third straight day today. They have talked for 13 hours the previous two days, more than they have in the previous month and change combined. If I could get an interview with Gary Bettman, I would ask him this question. Gary, why the fuck are you waiting until November to get serious about this? Why not do this in fucking July? The NHLPA knew you were willing to cancel games, hell you cancelled an entire season last time, so there is no way this was some looming will he, won't he type of threat. Why would you voluntarily ruin a quarter of the season, at least, by refusing to have discussions, this applies to the NHLPA also, knowing full well that the player's knew you would cancel games? Why get serious now and not FOUR months ago before a single game was lost? Why not get this shit done BEFORE your crown jewel money printing game, the Winter Classic was cancelled? That Winter Classic was going to be a fucking gold mine. We are talking 100,000+ people here and not just for the game. That many people were going to the alumni games too. Why did it reach the point where the owners lit literally $100 million on fire in cancelled games, advertising, and the WC before you were willing to get serious here? Did you realize that gee the players do have other options besides the NHL? If so, how was that a fucking surprise? The players have shown that they have other options for years. Were you not aware of the existence of the KHL, SEL, etc.?
There were no fucking surprises here. The players knew the owners would cancel games, they did it in 2004. The owners knew the players had other options besides the NHL. Why the fuck did it take them four months more than it should have to sit the fuck down for three straight days and start seriously taking a hammer to the wrinkles in the steel? Honestly, what bargaining position of power is gained by the owners in cancelling games when the players already knew they were willing to do that based on past precedent. There were no surprises here.
Maybe, just maybe, the owners should have spent June and July getting this deal done rather than screwing every hole they could find in the previous deal which they then promptly pretended never happened when all those contracts showed up on their doorstep and they refused to take responsibility for their reckless behavior. If the NHL has struggling entities that can't survive in the league thanks to their markets, fucking prune those dying branches. When you are growing a tree, you prune branches that are weak and dying. You don't sit there and let them fester continuing to suck some nutrients from the rest of the tree.
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the European leagues all the players have gone to probably have better TV deals than the NHL
Wow four whole days in a row of labor talks, are they sure they don't want to rest for a few weeks or months and catch their breath?
These talks for the last 4 days don't really mean shit, just so everyone knows. They just agreed to meet 4 days in a row, that's what Bill Daley and Steve Fehr met about in Chicago a bit back. According to Doug McClean (former GM, current Sportsnet analyst) there isn't any traction. Gary Bettman and the NHL are apparently quite frustrated with the PA, Fehr is talking very little during the meetings this week. He did the same thing with the MLB and didn't even end up making the deal, the second in command so to say, was the one who actually made their deal. I'm assuming they won't get a deal done until Steve and Don decide to make a deal. I'm just hoping this doesn't get ugly, because a December 1st start is still very possible but if Bettman takes Donald Fehr's patient negotiating as personal as he did with Goodenow in 04-05, this is going to be a full year gone. He looks really mad after all these meetings, like things aren't going well. Who really knows whats going on, but this is so unprofessional.
Last edited by Zeoni; 2012-11-09 at 07:41 PM.
What do you expect? As has been said, does the league really think that Fehr would come out of retirement to lose a bargaining agreement for the players? No way in hell he does and it's good the players have someone there who just won't up and give in to the owners demands. The best option the league has at this point if they want to have some form of a season would be to abandon the salary cap completely. Maybe the owners will go for it, doesn't hurt to try and hey, maybe the player won't have a problem with the owners nickel and dime tactics when it comes to revenue as players will be able to get paid what they are worth per season and there won't be anymore front loading of contracts to boot, making the salary cap completely irrelevant.
Don't go to see Skyfall.
MMO-C nightly hockey chat http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=#mmoc-hockey
MMO-C nightly hockey chat http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=#mmoc-hockey
Well, Fehr is a patient man and he will set back and let the owners and Bettman boil over in frustration. People think the players are greedy when in hindsight, the owners are the one's being greedy and are continually showing how much they want to put a choke chain around the throats of the players when it comes to contracts, free agency and pretty much everything else. Such a shame too because the players deserve better and the fans deserve to see their favorite sport being played.
I hate all of these F***s...
http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/i...-where-were-we
---------- Post added 2012-11-13 at 10:38 PM ----------
50/50 split seems fair if the existing player contracts retain 90% of their value for players younger than 30 and 95% value for players aged 30 and over. A Soupy clause would also be nice. Soupy must waive 25% of his contract value and return to Chicago immediately. In return, Toews will win him 3 more Stanley cups.
---------- Post added 2012-11-14 at 11:33 AM ----------
i never liked this book...