Allow me to waste more of your time with The Piggies Weekly edition of The Committed Indian! If you haven’t gotten it, just hit the button on the top right there to do so.
Last night was about as close as I’ve come to putting a hole in the wall in my apartment. Of course, like most of you I’ve been angry during this entire “negotiation” that’s really been a dick-measuring contest from the word go. And as well all know, a dick-measuring contest between old, white men not named “Milton” is just about the dumbest thing on Earth.
But the refusal to even meet, when this supposed deadline is…y’know, tomorrow cause some serious physical reaction. The NHL rejected the PA’s request to get together because the PA wouldn’t negotiate off of an offer they’ve already rejected. That’s just rich. If you’re negotiating off of an offer, that probably means it’s not entirely to your liking and you’d like things changed. It’s silly from the players’ side — though not nearly as much as the owners’ — who could have just said that they were going to go from that point, walked in the room and tried to talk to the things they want. Of course, the owners would probably walk out and call everyone liars to get you to feel sorry for them, and I would have set myself on fire.
None of the lockout news coming out today, and what little of it there is, will encourage you. And the dearth of it simply makes me sick. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Locally, Patrick Kane is the first big-name Hawk to jump the pond and head overseas (sorry Bicks and Stals and Fro). He has signed with EHC Biel of the Swiss League, probably so he once again pants a team that either Rick Nash or Joe Thornton is on. Oh my god, do you have to check out the Team Page for them, as they’re all done up to look like extras in 300 in hockey pads.
Biel is already sporting Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Tyler Seguin (see how he sticks out on that roster page). I’m sure Seguin and Kane will in no way lay to waste whatever they find in front of them in the Swiss League. It’ll probably feel like London all over again for Kaner.
What does it mean?
That time again. Let’s go around the continent to see which Hawks prospect got up to what. Because it’s basically all we have to talk about that isn’t a bunch of finger-pointers and name-callers and I swear to god when I feel like I’m significantly more mature than two groups of people, you know you’re in fucking trouble. Sorry, bit of a rant there. Let’s move on.
Or something. As we are about to close out the first day of what everyone’s making out to be the biggest week of the lockout, I thought it might be a good idea to separate what’s real and what’s fluff for public consumption. Which is to say, all of it.
First off, if you haven’t read our godfather James Mirtle’s piece from Friday, you probably should. It’s an excellent breakdown of real numbers that I couldn’t possibly calculate and wouldn’t want to. The big takeout of it is that they are arguing over 3% of their total revenue. That’s it. You can’t be that far from an agreement over 3%.
Now, 3% is still a lot of money on the ground. It’s about $100 million. That’s a lot of money to you and me and a lot of people. But is it a lot of money in this? Hard to say, but probably not. To the owners that only $3 million per team (not that it works that way, but let’s go with it). That amount isn’t going to be the difference between the teams losing money to being profitable. Because even the players admit some teams are in more trouble than that.
It’s even got an “Ask The Ice Crew”! Yep, the lockout’s gone long enough that we’re starting to cycle in our old stand-bys!
Figure we should keep the Hogs’ exploits separate from the rest of the kiddies. And that’s partly because they’re probably not going to be as uplifting as reading about Phillip Danault or Broadhurst or the others. It’s been a stuttering start for the Hogs, and that’s being a bit kind.
One habit they’ve gotten into, which is detrimental to anything you want to accomplish, is blowing leads. They scored first in all three games they played this week, and yet only managed to win one. That’s not very good. They also love to take penalties, and dumb ones at times. But the combination of a pretty ferocious kill and some gymnastics by Carter Hutton have kept them from getting lacerated so far. The biggest injustice of the season is that the IceHogs’ only win came without Hutton in net, because he’s deserved it the most.
It’s our second NHL-less weekend, and before we get to what you can do to fill the time — though not with anything wholesome or actually useful because who the fuck wants to do that? — let’s try and clear up some of the gloom and doom.
You have to look past the publicity stunts that abound in this negotiation right now. And it’s all publicity stunts. As evil it was, you kind of have to marvel at how the NHL was able to turn the PR war on it’s head in the span of what felt like seven minutes. But walking out of a meeting after less than an hour isn’t going to help anything, and nor is having your barely literate union members take to twitter to try and nail themselves to the cross.
In the end, both sides have gotten to a 50-50 split, and both have offered to get there next year. They may argue how to and what comes along with it, and maybe those obstacles are bigger than they seem. But the NHLPA’s “3rd” proposal and the NHL’s last really aren’t all that far apart, considering where both sides started from. And while there won’t be any news this weekend most likely, just like there’s been every time they’re not actually meeting there will be back-channel phone calls and conversations, and that’s kind of where the real work gets done.
Anyway, the viewing:
I’m sure after I post this some detail will come out that completely flips it on it’s head. Such is the way. I’m also going to try and keep emotion out of this, as hard as it may be, to try and clearly see what the problems are.
Both McClure and myself have not called on the players to somewhat acquiesce to what the owners want because we think they are wrong. Anyone would be pissed off if your boss came to you and told you they wanted to take back part of your salary simply because they wanted to. It’s certainly not fair or what you’d expect any decent person to do.
We call on them to do that because of what reality says will happen. A lockout is not enacted by people who have any intention of breaking. It’s not a suggestion. You don’t put someone on the rack and then stop when they tell you it hurts and apologize. You have a result in mind, and you squeeze and inflict pain until you get it. And they’re going to get most of what they want. That’s how this works. The players seem to think they can win this. They can’t. And they’re still chasing a win, not a deal. Until they do the latter, we’re going to be in this Winter of Our Discontent.
While we wait for what increasingly feels like we’ll be messages of doom after this meeting is over, let’s talk about what’s going on with the kids in the system these days.
As he cements his status as the Hawks leading prospect, at least the one outside of Illinois, Phillip Danault had a ho-hum weak with only five assists. That saw him drop to the seventh-leading scorer in the Q, so he’s gone back to being a total bum, obviously. As we say every week, keep in mind that the scoring rate in the Q can get a little silly. But still, 20 points in 12 games (9 goals) is worth noting.
However, his teammate in goal Brandon Whitney was having some issues with whiplash, as he conceded nine goals in two starts. Whitney’s save-percentage has dipped below .900 and his GAA is at 3.35. Elsewhere in the Q, Dillon Fournier got his season fully underway with four points in four games. He’s also a +8 in just six games overall.
