So the NHL wants us back... (RW77)

English: NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So the NHL is back with pretty much a joke of a season...but wait!

They have to get all those players back...  Will they succeed?  I'm not sure everyone will return.  There has to be concern that injuries may take control and there is no room to develop talent and anything that makes a team a team.  It's basically the ultimate scramble tournament format.  Who can get started fastest and play the best the quickest.  That's the test.

What does the NHL need to do to get the fans back?

Barry Melrose talks about how the fans always come back after a work stoppage, but I am hoping that they do come back... next season.  I think the fans should sit back and watch what the teams and the league does to try to earn our support back.  Here's a list of things that should be done:

1.  You know NHL Center Ice?  Yup.  Free for the season, playoffs, and ALL of preseason next year.  If they do anything for the offseason, that's free too.

2.  NHL Network - Free view for the same period of time NHL Center Ice is free (if possible... this might be more on the cable providers than NHL Network itself).

3.  The Players become available more than ever before.  ENDLESS autograph signings, school visits, community outreach programs, volunteer sightings.

4.  Promotion nights fall on EVERY GAME IN THE SEASON.  Teacher in the metro area?  Show us your ID and get $5 tickets!  Military?  FREE tickets to you and $5 tickets for one friend or nonmilitary family member with the display of a Military ID.  Civil Servant Night (see Teacher Night).  Got a hockey team of 12 year olds or younger?  Call ahead for seating and your entire team gets $1 tickets (Coach goes free) when they show up wearing their jerseys!

5.  Radio promotions - Give away ticket packs to the local radio stations

6.  The average ticket prices for NHL games (per Hooked on Hockey Magazine) for the 2011-12 season ranged between just under $30 (Dallas) to just over $123 (Toronto).  Well....  Dallas residents can look forward to $15 tickets.  I can see a Detroit game in Detroit for $25 (regularly $53.28).  Toronto residents still overpay at $61.50 per ticket but still...  Season tickets would be restructured to accommodate for the loss of games either by making this season tickets cost less than 50% of normal cost or discounting next year's season tickets by, say, 40% (I don't know....  either way it should be SIGNIFICANTLY discounted).

You cannot change existing TV contracts so unfortunately there is no free TV showings outside of what's mentioned but if it was possible, I'd do it.

I'd love to say Gary Bettman resigns but the smug so and so survives yet again to pull another work stoppage in 8 years.  You can market Sidney Crosby all you want but Gary Bettman is the face of the NHL and NO ONE outside of the ownership likes him.  What a better image saver than to offer Bettman early retirement?  The owners will never fire him, but surely Bettman could take the golden parachute and have roses pave his way back to obscurity if the League really cared about fan opinion (but they don't).

In any case, we'll see how things pan out but...  It's now or never for Columbus' Stanley Cup hopes.  :D

After 113 days NHL Lockout is over… Yay!

I woke up this morning to find out that the winter of discontent is over; the NHL and the NHLPA have agreed to sign a new CBA, according to Minnesota Wild beat writers Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.

"We have reached an agreement on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement," Commissioner Gary Bettman said at a joint news conference with NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr at 5:45 a.m. ET. "The details have to be put to paper. ... It's good to be at this point."

Do you hear that? Yay! The NHL lockout over! The NHL will no longer be the No Hockey League. I suppose now the NHL will try very hard to win back the millions of fans that they upset and too for granted. If the reports that I have been reading are correct, the new deal is for 10 years with a mutual opt-out after eight years.

So we shouldn’t have to go through another lockout until the 2021 season. Winning back the fans that they took for granted is not going to be an easy task, especially in this economy. Many fans will stay home and watch the game on NHL Center ice or get the games through their regional sports channels. I can say many.

Now the NHL teams have to fish their players out of the different European hockey leagues, especially the KHL.

The Kontinental Hockey League was a favoured (sic) destination, especially with the Russians as Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, Washington's Alex Ovechkin and New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk were among that league's scoring leaders, just as they usually are in the NHL. [TSN.CA]

So basically, for 113 days the NHLPA and the NHL owners who acted like a bunch of spoiled children. Finally got to work and signed a deal. This should have been done last summer. I think the fact that the NHL owners put that ridiculous proposal out in September, kind of slowed things down and polarized the two sides.


Now the NHL wants us back. I think they have one hell of a marketing job to do. It’s not going to be easy getting some of the casual fans back into the NHL arena’s to watch the games. The NHL had a lot of mojo after last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs and they squandered that momentum.

There might be some people that don’ want to spend that $70.00 - $200.00 to see a national hockey league game. I spent $70.00, for lower bowl seats the last time that I went to a Minnesota Wild game in March of 2011.

Honestly, I will be back watching the game from my living room, and I can’t wait to see the Boston Bruins play hockey again. I can’t wait to watch my Bruins smash P.K Subban and the Canadians again, but I am still angry.

I can’t wait to watch the Brad “Little Ball of Hate” Marchand’s antics as he drives the opposition fans and players nuts. I already have a shot across the bow to one of my buddies that hates Marchand.

Lastly, I still think that the Vancouver Canucks led by the Sedins Twins and Alex Burrows are still a bunch of diving frauds.

Make this happen NHL and NHLPA

This is something that I have seen tweeted and written print a few times in the last week, the is that the NHL owners have told the Commissioner Gary Bettman that cancelling the season is not an option.

Paper exchanged between NHL/ NHLPA. Bottom line: Big mkts. have told Bettman a cancelled season is no-go. Fehr knows this. So will grind.
— bruce dowbiggin (@dowbboy) January 2, 2013

If and when a new CBA is signed, word on the street is the NHL will make Centre Ice free for the season.
— Josh Rimer (@JoshRimerHockey) December 30, 2012

Santa Goon handing out thanks and more lumps of coal…

Tis the season to be jolly… For me personally, Christmas is one of the most wonderful times of the year. While I am not a big fan of cold weather and snow, I do love NHL and college hockey and ice fishing.

I have many things that I am thankful for… I am lucky to blog about of the best hockey teams in the nation with best fans in the world. I would like to thank the fans.

I would also like to thank my editor Andrew Eide for giving me an opportunity to write for the Hockey Writers Combine.

Big thanks to UND's Women's Hockey SID Derek Koenen, Matt Schill and @UNDSID Jayson Hajdu for all of their help in the pressbox and after games getting us the players and coaches to interview.

Now I am going to hand out some lumps of coal.

To the University of Minnesota Head coach Don Lucia for not scheduling the University of North Dakota for at least the next four years.

A big lump of coal to the NHL and NHLPA – Unfortunately, we have no NHL Hockey because of this moronic lockout and I would like to extend a lump of coal to the NHLPA and the NHL owners. I find both equally culpable. There is also no reason they shouldn’t have a deal by now. Get your butts to the conference room and get a deal hammered out. Enough is enough. Let’s get this thing figured out before we lose the second full season in less than eight years.

A lump of coal to the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee for not letting the players play with the half shields – if they’re good enough for the junior hockey players to wear – they should be good enough for the NCAA Division I hockey players to wear as well.

A lump of coal for the on ice officials in Division I college hockey – so far this season – I have seen some of the worst on ice officiating that I have seen for a very long time. I know it’s easy to sit in the stand or watch a game on TV and pick apart the officiating but it is what it is.  Almost nightly, the officials are blowing the checking from behind penalty, this needs to be called consistently, yet it’s not. The level of college hockey has never been better – unfortunately, the officiating is at an all-time worst. I will be handing out lumps of coal to the NCHC if they hire any of the current WCHA officials.

A lump of coal to Brandon Veal of the Mining Gazette and his hit piece that he wrote about UND Hockey and the NCHC.  Here is what UND head coach Dave Hakstol had to say about Veal’s moronic and bufoonish article. “I think honestly the guys read some of the press clippings around here and I don’t think they were real happy with an article that was in the paper here on Friday,” Hakstol said. "There was also all these tweets and twitter and all this, that were predicting that we were going to have packed it in because of a long first half, finished for finals and a big three week break coming. I think If we needed anything extra we certainly had it there.”   

A lump of coal to the NHL owners for signing a bunch of player’s right before the lockout and then not wanting to pay the players the full amount of the legal contracts that they agreed to pay the players. The owner of the Minnesota Wild, Craig Leipold should be ashamed of himself.

A huge lump of coal to the commissioner of the NHL Gary Bettman – just because – this is the third lockout since he has been the commissioner of the NHL and he will always go down in history as being the Lockout Commish.

Related articles

• WJC and NCAA Hockey television schedule (thehockeywriters.com)
• The only game in town? (thehockeywriters.com)
• Updated National College Hockey Television Schedule (thehockeywriters.com)

NHL proposes meeting between owners, players

National Hockey League Players' Association (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This newspaper article came through my twitter feed. After reading a few of these articles it would appear that the owners are pulling out all the stops to break the NHLPA. I can't think of anything else that they're trying to accomplish.

Seriously! What else could this be?

It would also appear that the NHL owners are trying to check the unions solidarity as well. I suppose they think they can peal a few of the players off to pressure the union to sign their deal that they presented earlier.

Like some have said, this lockout just might be about the players with the big contracts. I am beginning to lean that way.

Rob Rossi, Triblive --- Now with a second lost season in eight years a growing possibility, the league has proposed a meeting between only owners and players, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.

Daly declined to provide details, and he would not say whether all NHL owners or representatives would be available for the meeting that would exclude league and union executives such as commissioner Gary Bettman and union head Donald Fehr.

The Players’ Association did not say if it would agree to the meeting – though many players, including Penguins from Sidney Crosby to union rep Craig Adams, have said they would like to hear from more owners.

What do you think?

It would appear that the NHL owners have no intention of negotiating and seem to be dead set on cancelling another season if the players don't take their offer that is on the table. So we wait.

Hump Day links... Just give me my hockey now!

English: NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well there are quite a few news stores of note this morning in the college and professional hockey world.

The NHL Labor mess continues on and is proving to be an absolute gong show and it appears that there is little evidence that a solution is forth coming.

Like my friend Chris Wassel said on Twitter, they should just cancel the season already, instead of dragging out the agony.

Seriously!

It's beginning to look like this is where the NHL owners led by the lockout commissioner Gary Bettman are going. I used to get excited every time someone would post a story with a theory about a possible solution to the lockout that is now in its 74^th day and chugging towards 80.

Just cancel the NHL season already. Sure the odds are headed that direction.
— Chris Wassel (@ChrisWasselTHW) November 27, 2012

Notre Dame head hockey coach Jeff Jackson was fined for his comments he made about the officials in the post-game news conference. I don’t like this because I think that if the officials blow a call a head coach should be able to relay his displeasure about the officiating within reason. Over the years in college hockey I have seen some brutal officiating in college hockey.

There is a great story about former UMD Bulldog J.T. Brown in Tampa Bay online.

There is also a great story in Grantland about college hockey that mentions the WCHA and Minnesota and Wisconsin leaving and also the formation of the NCHC hockey conference. Obviously, there are some points of interest in this story will bring up all kinds of emotions and feeling from college hockey fans around the spectrum.

Apparently, the Toronto Maple Leafs are worth 1 Billion dollars. Yeah! 

There is a really nice story in All Habs about UND forward Mark MacMillan; Up Close with Mark MacMillan: Habs Prospect with Discipline, Character.

The College Hockey Rink Report ranks the college hockey conferences. Currently the WCHA is ranked second in his rankings.

Chris M Peters from the United States of Hockey had a very nice piece on the B1G teams and their struggles so far this season.

Joe Haggerty CSNNE makes a pretty good point about where the blame for the 2012-13 lockout lies, it's not Bettman. Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs is one of the big power broker owners that is driving this lockout and Haggerty is letting fans know where the blame lies. 

Related articles

• The only game in town? (thehockeywriters.com)
• Updated College Hockey Television Schedule (thehockeywriters.com)
• College Hockey takes center stage (thehockeywriters.com)
• Revised and Updated College Hockey Television Schedule (thehockeywriters.com)

Some CBA tidbits

Good afternoon, this is day 73 of the NHL lockout and we're no closer to getting an agreement than we were yesterday.

The NHL CBA talks have now decided to hire a federal mediator to help them in their squabble. Which for a short period of time gave NHL hockey fans a “sliver” of hope that there could be an end to this ridiculous work stoppage – the recommendation by the mediation team is non-binding.

This might be nothing more than window dressing. I am not giving up hope that just maybe, we finally can have a break through – we’re running out of time to have a meaningful season if this lockout drags on much longer.

Ed Tait; Winnipeg Free Press --- The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced Monday a pair of mediators will now be involved in negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA in an effort to bridge the gap between the two sides.

"I think both sides are prepared to try a new approach," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the Washington Times. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Added NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr in a statement: "We look forward to their involvement as we continue working to reach an equitable agreement for both the players and the owners."

Then one of the first official actions to come out of the federal mediators coming on board was to have one of the mediators removed from the team because of a twitter kerfuffle.

Kevin McGran; The Toronto Star --- In what could only be described as a bizarre twist, mediator Guy Serota was removed from the talks only an hour after being appointed due to the odd postings on his Twitter account (@GuySerota). Some of the tweets included references to masturbation and religious attacks on comic Sarah Silverman. He said it was hacked. It has since been deleted and replaced with nothing controversial on it.

He was replaced as a mediator by John (Jack) Sweeney, director of mediation services, once the hockey world got a look at Serota’s sometimes awkward musings on the social media site that has famously seen its share of hoaxes (recently during Hurricane Sandy), impersonators and the humbling of celebrities, like Alec Baldwin.

The ole my twitter account was hacked excuse. You really can’t make this stuff up – twitter references to self-gratification – some people should not post on twitter. When will people realize that you have to safeguard your twitter account but also; one tweet could ruin your whole life with one click of a mouse.

This is one of the best eye opening articles that I read today.

Barry Rozner; Daily Herald --- The reason there’s no agreement yet is that Gary Bettman has made promises he can’t keep. And if he doesn’t keep them and loses half an NHL season — or more — in the process, he will be out of a job that pays him $8 million a year.

That’s why there’s been little negotiation from the NHL. That’s why there’s no hockey. And that’s why there won’t be hockey until the owners order Bettman to sit down and negotiate, or a union decertification forces the league to bargain instead of bleed.

See, Bettman promised seven or eight owners that he could get another lopsided deal. If he doesn’t get it after losing a billion dollars in league revenue, he’s probably out of a job.

So Bettman is holding up the game to save himself, and one imagines he’s still convincing a small group of men that he can squeeze more from the players. That small group of owners, in turn, is keeping the arenas silent.

Doesn’t paint you a very good picture about the hopes of gaining a settlement for the CBA, unless certain owners want to have a new agreement.

Ian White calls Bettman an Idiot

English: NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am sure that my buddy Redwing77 will be happy to see than one of the players from his favorite team called Gary Bettman an idiot.

Personally I agree with White, when I see Bettman's face it reminds of all of the bad things that have happened to the NHL.

 Lets think about this for a minute. Bettman is the NHL commissioner that under his reign of terror has had three labor disagreements that have led to work stoppages. Also, Bettman is threatening to cancel his second season in eight years. Marvelous!!! Let's not forget the fiasco in the desert.

The Detroit News — Ian White has been one of the more vocal and frustrated players during this NHL lockout.

Commissioner Gary Bettman has caught most of White's verbal frustration the past two months, the length of this lockout thus far.

After learning of Bettman's suggestion for a two-week moratorium in negotiations, White called Bettman "an idiot.

"I personally think he's an idiot," said White Friday after a group of locked out Red Wings finished a workout. "Since he's come in, he's done nothing but damaged the game.

It will be interesting to see how long this plays out. Will we see more players speak out against the NHL Commissioner?  One also has to wonder if there are NHL owners that agree with White but aren't allowed to speak up at the current time.

Tweets of Silliness - Bettman wasn't two week Moratorium.

Daly: "Regardless of what we propose or how we suggest to compromise the answer is "no,"At some pt you have to say "enough is enough".
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) November 16, 2012

I really don't know why the two side can't come to an agreement and get a deal done. The NHL can't afford to lose another whole season. The NHL owners lead by one of the most unlikable people Gary Bettman is trying to break the player union or at least weaken it. If the season is lost, the blame in on the NHL Commissioner in my opinion.

Daly: "unfortunately, we have determined we are involved with Union leadership that has no genuine interest in reaching an agreement."
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) November 16, 2012

Series of Daly quotes on league initiated hiatus:"We have made repeated moves in the Players' direction with absolutely no reciprocation."
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) November 16, 2012

Sources have indicated Bettman floated the idea to NHLPA that both sides take 2 week moratorium.This has NOT been discussed further. #TSN
— Aaron Ward (@aaronward_nhl) November 16, 2012

#CBA Can confirm what @aaronward_nhl first reported, that Gary Bettman suggested to NHLPA's Don Fehr that two sides take 2-week moratorium
— Katie Strang (@KatieStrangESPN) November 16, 2012

My opinion: Bettman's 2 week moratorium makes no sense if he really wants a deal. Trying to burn calendar, put more pressure on players.
— Allan Walsh (@walsha) November 16, 2012

57% is irrelevant now that both sides talking about principle of 50/50. NHLPA agreed to eliminate back diving deals. @globekpd
— Allan Walsh (@walsha) November 16, 2012

Related articles

• Did Bettman over play his hand? (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

Did Bettman over play his hand?

Here is my question as the lockout continues towards day 60 – has the NHL owners and Gary Bettman over played their hand? From reading some of the articles that I have seen the last couple of days it would appear so.

Mark Spector; Sportsnet.ca --- Somehow, commissioner Bettman and his deputy Bill Daly have made it their quest not just to get the players to a 50-50 share of Hockey Related Revenues, but also to dictate when a player can become a free agent, when he qualifies for arbitration, how long he can sign for, what colour his car should be, what he should name his dog…

Bettman wants half the pie for his owners, but also wants to tell the players what kind of ice cream to put on their half. Even people who work with the teams don't see the wisdom in losing games over that, we're starting to learn.

The rest of the hockey world sees it as a sign of unparalleled greed by the owners.

"The dollars are set. Why are the teams so concerned about how the dollars get split up among the players?" a prominent agent asked on Monday. "Why the heck do they care if Player A gets 20 years at 20 million, or 1 year at $500,000? The players' pool is fixed."

 Perhaps it is a snapback from all those previous CBAs in which Bettman failed to close enough loopholes to keep salary escalation from occurring.

Is there a solution looming.

This is good news... Right?

NHL-NHLPA meeting still going....
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) November 7, 2012

#CBA As of 9:25 p.m. ET, talks between NHL/NHLPA still ongoing. Interpret that as you wish...
— Katie Strang (@KatieStrangESPN) November 7, 2012

Is a deal close between the NHLPA and the NHL Owners

You have to wonder if a deal is close to being done. Articles like this give me hope that we can salvage a NHL season.

Dan Oldfield, CBC Sports --- We've heard that the No. 2 guys in the NHL and the NHLPA, Bill Daly and Steve Fehr, held a "marathon" bargaining session this weekend. We also learned there are plans to bring the parties together for more formal talks this week. What does that mean?

I’ll be bold here and say it means a deal is inevitable.

One can only believe that a marathon session (with several breaks) means that Daly and Fehr had something to talk about and they were clearly checking compass directions with other key players. More than that, there obviously is reason to return to the table. They would not be doing this merely to restate positions already well known to each other.

The two sides are meeting today in New York City. According to the NHLPA the following players Craig Adams, David Backes, Martin Biron, Chris Campoli, Sidney Crosby, Mathieu Darche, Ron Hainsey, Johan Hedberg, Milan Lucic, Manny Malhotra, Steve Montador, Shawn Thornton, Kevin Westgarth.

Tuesday Morning ponderings

I haven’t really been following the CBA lack of a negation’s as closely as I was before the college hockey season started. It’s becoming evident that the NHL owners are trying to see if the NHLPA’s resolve will develop fissures and start to fall apart. It doesn’t really appear to be happening just yet, although according to Michael Russo, “there are some players that are starting to fret over lost wages.”

I suppose, if you’re an older veteran NHL player like former SCSU Husky forward Matt Cullen, you only have a finite number of years to play before in the professional ranks before you become too old to play in the NHL anymore.

The thing that really bugs me is that this is the third lockout of Gary Bettman’s 19 year tenure as the NHL commissioner – so in my opinion he will go down in NHL history books as being the lockout commissioner. Bettman is highly unpopular with the NHL fans and the players – but he isn’t going anyway fast according to Christopher Botta of the Sporting News.

Octagon agent Allan Walsh, a persistent critic of Bettman’s, struck a similar chord last week. “The writing is on the wall,” said Walsh, whose clients include Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. “Every sports commissioner has a certain shelf life, and Bettman’s has expired. We all know the lockout will end at some point, but Bettman has become such a toxic commodity for the game, it’s untenable after three lockouts that he be the person to grow revenues in partnership with the players going forward.”

ut unlike Logan, Bettman—who answers to the owners of a 30-team league and has the support of an overwhelming majority of them—is not going anywhere.

“Gary’s in this for the long term,” said Harvey Schiller, the former president of the Atlanta Thrashers and now chairman and CEO of GlobalOptions Group, a risk management and business solution company in New York. “He has majority support of ownership. Gary has made a commitment to them and they have made one to him.”

I consider myself a big time NHL fan and I watch at least 5-6 NHL games every week on the NHL Center Ice package, “when” the NHL is playing and not locked out. While I am saving myself $170.00 by not having the NHL this season, I would much rather spend the money.

So I find myself at a loss to find anything decent to watch on the television most nights. I guess I would rather watch the NHL than Broke Girls and Revolution, even though I do think both are decent shows.Personally, I would much rather watch the Minnesota Wild and the Boston Bruins, however, we don’t have that option right now.

I have seen some of the people that I follow on twitter say that they won’t be watching the NHL once the lockout is over – myself I will be crawling back the minute they solve this mess.

I do think that blame is on the NHL owners, I am with Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter who said.

“If you can't afford to (sign contracts) then you shouldn't do it. (Owner Craig Leipold) signed us to contracts. At the time he said everything was fine. Yeah, it's disappointing. A couple months before, everything is fine, and now they want to take money out of our contracts that we already signed.”

So for the time being – a fair number of us just have our college hockey – I know that’s how I am going continue to fill my NHL void with NCAA hockey until the NHL owners and the NHLPA come up with a solution. There have been a few other options that popup from time-to-time, I currently have a KHL game to watch on my DVR at home and there is going to be another KHL game on MSG on October 31st.

NHL Islanders moving to Brooklyn after 2014-15 season

Here is an interesting story, the New York Islanders are moving from Long Island to Brooklyn and will play in a Barclays Center after the 2014-15 season.

Tim Panaccio, Flyers Insider --- The familiar refrain for most sports fans in the United States when it comes to trying to figure out some of the things the NHL does has always been, "it’s hockey."

That would explain how, in the middle of the NHL’s third lockout under commissioner Gary Bettman, in which the season is in peril and there are no collective bargaining talks scheduled, the league would announce a franchise transfer.

The New York Islanders, according to the New York Post, New York Daily News and TSN, will announce Wednesday they are moving to Brooklyn to play in Barclays Center when their lease at Nassau Coliseum expires after 2014-15.

Say it ain't so - the NHL is heading to Brooklyn newsday.com/sports/hockey/…
— Howard Bloom (@SportsBizNews) October 24, 2012

Still no confirmation that #Isles move to Brooklyn in 2015 is a PERMANENT relocation. Could be some news (and spin) at presser.
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) October 24, 2012

Nassau coliseum was awful when I played in it -cannot stay in that building / don't care about seating numbers, similar to wpg #NYIslanders
— Ray Ferraro (@rayferrarotsn) October 24, 2012

Not so fast - NHLPA and NHL Owners no closer to a deal

English: NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Tuesday the NHL owners put forth another proposal for a new CBA – shortly thereafter there was a lot of excitement that finally we might get an NHL season.

Donald Fehr came out on Tuesday and said, "Simply put, the owners' new proposal, while not quite as Draconian as their previous proposals, still represents enormous reductions in player salaries and individual contracting rights."

Today, the NHLPA put forth three (3) counter proposals to the NHL owners and Gary Bettman and the NHL owners balked at all three of them.

TORONTO — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman received three counterproposals from the players’ association on Thursday and left the negotiating table “thoroughly disappointed.”

No new talks have been scheduled, and the possibility of a full hockey regular season is quickly shrinking.

The union offered multiple options in response to the NHL’s offer on Tuesday that called for an 82-game season and a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenues between owners and players.

Bettman said that proposal was the “best that we could do” and added that the two sides are still far apart.

“None of the three variations of player share that they gave us even began to approach 50-50, either at all or for some long period of time,” Bettman said. “It’s clear we’re not speaking the same language.”

After today's revelations, I think we're right back where we were before the lastest round of proposals and counter proposals. This tweet by the Breaking News Twitter feed give me pause to think that we're not going to have an NHL season this year.

NHL owners reject 3 counter-offers from players; commissioner says sides 'nowhere close' to deal - @globeandmail bit.ly/RbCL0W
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) October 18, 2012

Sidney Crosby: when you make 3 proposals and get shut down in 10 minutes it's hard to think the other side really wants to negotiate.
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) October 18, 2012

Crosby says he will look a little harder at playing in Europe.
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) October 18, 2012

Easton Synergy EQ50 Sr. Hockey Equipment Combo (Google Affiliate Ad)

Spector on NHL: Bettman, you're fired

This blog post is for my good buddy Redwing77 – being a self-professed Gary Bettman hater I am sure that he will like this article by Mark Spector from Sportsnet.CA. I do agree that it’s time for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to go and tomorrow wouldn’t be soon enough.

When it comes to the National Hockey League and its incessant lockouts, there are still a couple of questions we've never found the answers to:

Like, how is it that the average NHL salary of $2.4 million sits between Major League Baseball's ($3.4 million) and the National Football League ($1.9 million), when hockey's revenues are nowhere close to those other leagues?

And we're still seeking an answer to why one side of this hockey debate gets 57 per cent of the revenues and doesn't pay any of the bills, while the other side gets the 43 per cent, all of the expenses, and carries the financial risk.

But, there is one thing we are absolutely certain of today, as hockey winds through its third lockout in the past 18 years:

It is time for Gary Bettman to go.

Get this thing squared up, Gary, then call it a day. See Human Resources, sign the papers, and move on with your life.

The only thing that would make it better would be to have Donald Trump to send Bettman his walking papers in the form of a video telling him that he’s fired.

You are not effective anymore, Gary, and the time has come to go in a different direction.

Pack up your things. We'll be in contact.

You're fired.

Like I have said in the past, any counter proposal that the NHLPA puts forward to the NHL Owners should include a proposal to have Bettman removed from his position as Commissioner of the NHL. Nothing good can come from Bettman remaining in the Commissioner's position. I also think that by Bettman being removed as Commissioner of the NHL would go a long way in healing the hurt feeling between both sides. It would also be interesting to know how many of the owners feel this way about Bettman who has become a very polerizing figure in the NHL.

Is there an end to the lockout in sight?

Yesterday, I was at home reading through twitter and this story piqued my attention and it got me thinking is one side starting to cave? Take it even further – are both side finally softening and coming to the realization that they can’t get an agreement if there isn’t any negotiating?

The Canadian Press --- The NHL and NHL Players’ Association quietly resumed contract talks Friday, one day after cancelling the first two weeks of the regular season.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly travelled to Toronto on Friday and sat down with Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, and union special counsel Steve Fehr. Daly confirmed the meeting was held, but offered no further comment.

The sides are expected to touch base by phone over the weekend and set up another negotiating session next week.

The NHL lockout is heading into its fourth week and the first 82 regular-season games have been scratched from the schedule. In announcing those cancellations on Thursday, the league offered a conciliatory note to fans frustrated by the sport’s fourth work stoppage in 20 years

I know it takes two sides in a negotiation but having Gary Bettman represent the NHL owners doesn’t nothing for either side – I find him to be a very polarizing figure and If I was an Influential  NHL owner I would consider giving him his walking papers as a piece offering to the NHL fans and players.

When it’s all said and done – Bettman legacy is going to go down in history as being the Lockout commissioner.

College Hockey takes center stage

Originally posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine

Obviously, the NHL Lockout has been a major buzz kill for NHL hockey fans so far this fall and there doesn’t seem to be a solution coming anytime soon – nor does either side seem like they have any incentive to reach a deal.

For most, the NHL has become the no hockey league where both sides don’t appear to be doing what any of us would consider serious negotiating.

This afternoon, I read a tweet on twitter from a ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun that the NHL owners are strongly suggesting that the NHLPA put forth some kind of a counter proposal to the NHL Owners –  not to be outdone of course  – the NHLPA asked the owners to come up with sometime as well. I just don’t think we’re going to get any kind of an agreement in the near future.

Pierre LeBrun

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@Real_ESPNLeBrun

Told that NHL strongly urged NHLPA in meeting today to come up with new offer. In turn, NHLPA also asked league to come up with new offer...

5 Oct 12

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While the NHL owners and the NHLPA continue with their childish shenanigans  – the NCAA Division I college hockey season is upon us and starting this weekend there will be quite a few NCAA teams that will be playing their exhibition games against Canadian Interuniversity Sport.

While none of these games count in the standings, it’s a good way for  head coachs to evaluate their teams. Also, these game can serve as a measuring stick for the CIS teams that want to see how their teams compare against the NCAA Division I teams. The CIS teams also have many ex-CHL’s on their rosters that play in the CIS after they are done with their junior hockey eligibility.

Bonus Hockey

Starting tomorrow night, there is also going to be three official Division I hockey games. All three games are out east,  the Maine Black Bears of Hockey East take on the Quinnipiac Bobcats of Atlantic Hockey Association at Alfond Arena, Orno Maine.

Moving down the coast and west, the Falcons of  Bowling Green plays the Niagara Purple Eagles of the Atlantic Hockey Association in Dwyer Arena in Niagara New York and finally, Merrimack College of Hockey East plays against last season’s Frozen Four team Union College of the ECAC at the Achilles Center in Schenectady, N.Y. unfortunately, none of these games are on TV this weekend.

The only game that will be on this weekend is the University of North Dakota takes on the Manitoba Bison of CIS at the Ralph Englestad Arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota – that game is on FCS you can check your local listings for the channel,  the game is also on DirecTV 626  at  7:07  PM Central Standard Time – unfortunately Fox College Sports isn’t on Dish Network.

Related articles

• Sunday Evening Humor and CBA discussions. (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• NHL, union meet Friday, plan for more talks (espn.go.com)