Tweet(s) of the day... Doom and gloom

Gary Bettman shut down his Twitter account today. That's not the biggest thing he'll shut down this week.
— Down Goes Avery (@DownGoesAvery) September 12, 2012

This is the tweet of the day in my opinion. It's also sad because I do believe that there is definitely going to be a lockout. This afternoon, the NHLPA turned down the owner's latest proposal.

It does sound like this time that the owners did give in a little bit in their latest proposal to the NHLPA - yet the owners are still asking for quite a bit give back by the players.

Under the owners' new six-year phase-in proposal, players would receive 49% next season, and end up with 47% in the sixth year. In immediate terms, players would receive a roughly 9% decrease in salary next season. In the league's previous proposal, the first year loss was pegged at 19%. According to the league's numbers, this proposal is asking for $275 million less in concessions than owners asked for in their last proposal. [Kevin Allen, USA Today]

So it's looks like there is going to be an unprecedented third work stoppage under Gary Bettman. I don't think that history is going to look very favorably on Gary Bettman... I believe that Gary Bettman is one of the more polarizing figures of our time when it comes to sports figures.

I think we can now start referring to Gary Bettman as the lockout commissioner. Also, the mood is starting to get even more toxic as people are beginning to realize there basically is no chance a lockout is going to be avoided it appears that the owners aren't moving very far from their two previous proposals makes me think that they're not going to move very far.

To sum up NHL-NHLPA, no progress was made today, and no progress has been made so far in 2012.
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) September 12, 2012

I am wondering what the split will finally end up being when the next CBA is agreed to by the NHL players and the NHL owners? Kind of looks like the owners are trying to get a 50/50 split with the players like the other professional leagues do.

#CBANHL's new deal takes less $ from players but Fehr said it's going from an "extraordinarily large amount" to a "really very big amount"
— Katie Strang (@KatieStrangESPN) September 12, 2012

Wonder if NHLPA understands how weak union looks when so many Euros bolt for home the second labour stoppage announced.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) September 12, 2012

Text from player pal: "NHL offer is a f***ing joke. Sets PA back 20 years. I appreciate what I got, but wake the f*** up buddy."
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) September 12, 2012

Bettman’s kick to the groin of hockey fans

Twitter has kind of blew up this afternoon with posts from NHL Hockey fans, agents and journalists about Gary Betman's announcement that there will be no NHL season without a new CBA - the NHL owners will lockout the NHL players if the two sides do not reach an agreement by the 15th of September.

I think it's kind of a kick to the groin because there is no reason the two sides can't come to an agreement before the season is to begin. It sounds like the two sides are far apart and might want to get talking if they are to reach a deal some time in the near future.

I think it would be a very bad idea for the owners to lock the players out. That being said there are some really good tweets and posts out there right now that kind of layout what is at stake here.

Damien Cox from the Toronto Star has a really good article that he wrote today.

Pay no attention. Ignore them.

That's about the best advice anyone can give a hockey fan these days as the NHL and NHL Players Association start the verbal sparring of yet another round of collective bargaining negotiations that almost certainly will result in another work stoppage.

For the "crime" of loving the game too passionately and supporting the 30 NHL clubs too enthusiastically in the wake of the last lockout, NHL fans and customers will now pay the price of watching the league and players demonstrate once more they care more about the business of the game than the sport or the fans.

They'll shut the game down, at least for a while, because the fans didn't punish them emphatically for shutting it down the last time. And it appears nothing will stop that from happening.

Mark Spector of Sportsnet.ca has a really good article on dispelling some CBA myths. Spector has five myths to dispel and I like this myth the best.

Myth No. 5: There's no reason for the owners to lock out the players. Let's just start the season under the terms of the old CBA.

So union head Don Fehr says there is no reason to delay the start of the season. That is within accepted labour practices for the NHL to start the season under the terms of the current CBA, and continue to negotiate.

That is a fine strategy by Fehr, but unless nine-tenths of a new CBA is agreed upon by Sept. 15, it is completely unrealistic.

The fact that the owners cut the checks is the NHL's biggest hammer. If they start signing checks, what impetus is there for the players to accept the owners' terms?

How about this: The games go on as scheduled, but the players play for free until a deal is reached? Can you see that happening?

I don't think the players would like this one unless the owners would agree not to be paid either. Without the players there is no NHL.

Bob McCown and Damien Cox discuss Winnipeg...

This is an video of Bob McCown and Damien Cox on 590 A.M. in Toronto about the prospects of an NHL club returning to Winnipeg, MB. Seems like a lot of gloom and doom stuff here. So are we to believe that some in the NHL would rather have the NHL losing money hand over fist than to have the NHL return to Winnipeg, Manitoba? Seems to be almost an elitist type attitude to me, we are to believe that somehow Arizona where no one goes to the games and is ranked 29th in the NHL for attendance is more worthy of having an NHL franchise than Winnipeg. Yeah! There is no logic what-so-ever to that line of thinking.

Is a lockout looming in the future for the NHL???

Image via WikipediaJust when things are going well and we have witnessed some very good hockey you start hearing and reading about the NHL and a possible lockout. Talk about a looming NHL lock out would be a buzz kill. First off; last night’s hockey game between the Sharks and the Redwing was probably the type of hockey that the NHL envisioned when they were trying to remake In the last couple of days, Damien Cox from the Toronto Star wrote an interesting article about a possible NHL lockout and all I can say is that I hope not. I hope the NHL doesn't kill what momentum and good will that they have built in the last few years since the 2004-2005 lockout.their soiled image after the 2004-2005 lockout.

Damien Cox; Sports Columnist --- You could have argued at one point that the new cap system was a big break for the richest teams, since instead of spending $80 million on players they could spend a lot less. But those teams are now contributing huge amounts to the league’s revenue sharing system and contributing funds to pay for the Phoenix Coyotes.

Maybe that’s why, so far, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan hasn’t been able to get anyone to meet its asking price for its chunk of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Business may be good, but not $1.5 billion-for-controlling-interest good.

So with Phoenix a punchline and propped up only by the inexplicable antics of local politicians, Columbus hemorrhaging upwards of $25 million a season, Atlanta bathing in red ink, the Islanders about to try and get Nassau County taxpayers to pay $350 million for a new rink on a flimsy I.O.U., Nashville looking for new equity partners and any number of other clubs looking to sell, hockey fans better get ready for what’s coming.

Another lockout. Oh yeah.

Unthinkable? They’d never do that again? Think again. Hockey fans surely swallowed their pride and came back after the 2004-05 season was erased from the record books, quickly forgetting their promises to never support the league that had betrayed them.

Don’t think the NHL didn’t notice.

The league didn’t get its “idiot-proof” CBA; therefore, it must try again.