Today I was supposed to be starting the first real Committed Indian of the year, wrapping up work just in time to take in Flyers-Bruins before watching the Kings raise a banner instead of watching Joe Saunders try and wheeze and stumble his way through the Yankees lineup. Or the Steelers and Titans, which I don’t think anyone outside of Pennsyltucky really cares about, and that includes Tennessee.
But I’m not, obviously.
With ESPN airing hockey content for the first time in eight years and a number of high profile European stars showcasing this other league (KHL) during a tenuous time for the NHL. I find it a bit ironic that 40 years ago tonight the first blue puck was dropped at the Ottawa Civic Center as the WHA, an upstart hockey league, began their chaotic though exciting seven year journey as “The Rebel League”.
Most people in Chicago only remember the league signing for Bobby Hull away from the Blackhawks to the first million dollar contract. The infamous Peter Pan series, when the Chicago Cougars were forced out of the International Amphitheatre and had to play a series at the 2000 seat Randhurst Ice arena due to the double booking of a play. Yet, the WHA was so much more.
The League was both revolutionary and controversial. In the footsteps of Curt Flood in baseball, WHA investors challenged the reserve clause of the four major sports and offered many established NHL stars such as Hull, Gordie Howe and Frank Maholivich very large contracts. The most exorbitant contract was that given to Derek Sanderson worth 2.6 million dollars making him the highest paid athlete in the world surpassing Pele. Which he subsequently blew most of the money and was back in the NHL a year later.
For the first time on North American ice, numerous European players showed off their skills and different styles. This was no better personified than when Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg teamed with Hull to put up a ridiculous point total of 362 between them with the Winnipeg Jets in 1975. These two Europeans were able to showcase a new style few fans or players on this side of the globe had ever seen before. Moreover, they were the early catalysts for the European influence our game has today.
However, the league was not without its many faults., From bad owners who lied about finances to players having to be stuffed into equipment bags to get past police who had arrest warrants and even having your ice melted for Peter Pan, there were many things about the league that led to its demise. But to me, the lasting legacy of the WHA is that for a time there were a group of individuals that went against the mainstream and delivered a product as good as or better than the hockey of the day.
One day sooner or later, Jim Cornelison will sing the Anthem, some moron will yell “shoot the puck,” and Sam will be freezing his ass off in front of the United Center before a game. The KHL will go back to being decent hockey with overpriced 4th line NHL vets that like to bitch on Twitter about playing in Siberia, but just for a second imagine if something like the WHA came along again.
I recommend “Rebel League” by Ed Willes, an awesome book about the WHA. Full of great stories and information, that I literally read in two days and I don’t read much!
Happy 10-11-12.
The NHL and NHLPA met again: (ESPN)
Which allowed the game of; “you go first,” “no you go first,” to continue: (PHT)
Wysh thinks sides conceding things will help negotiations: (PD)
As someone who pays no attention to their health this is terrifying: (TSN)
Speaking of bad health: (TFP)
CSN takes a look at Eddie O before he goes into the USAH HOF, and when PHT picked up the story they attributed it: (CSN) (PHT)
Oh yeah, actual hockey: (Blackhawks.com)
Well, we come to it. Your other AHL option in the “area”, but the one that will probably interest you most. There are many benefits to the Hogs, and one crucial drawback. But we’ll focus on them here.
Venue: The Metro Center, or I guess now it’s called the BMO Harris Bank Center. Which only makes me want to call it the BM Center, and I think that’s pretty apt because it’s in Rockford. But anyway, people who have been there (namely Chris Block) say it’s a pretty cool place to see a game because it’s small. That makes the atmosphere a little more tense and the sightlines great. So there’s that. It’ll be a much more intimate setting than the airplane hangar the UC can feel like at times.
Always cite your sources before you get the hammer of the gods brought down on you by the hockey starved interwebs:(Twitter)
Apparently the AHL is fine, but the I-90 shuffle is better (Autoplay) (CSN)
Hockey is back with lots of ads and Russians on some fly-by-night tv station:(RT)
Can’t hold down a grinder:(GnM)
Hatred Growing: (SN)
Probably at the time the most hated team in Chicago:(TSUN)
Friends, we here and at many other blogs are accustomed to seeing our stuff borrowed, gleaned, stolen, whatever verb you want to use. I’ve grown a thick skin over it. But CSN Chicago has caught me when I’m bored, angry, and with not much else to do. So it’s time to cry havoc and let slip the hogs of War! (Dogs of wars)
A few minutes ago on twitter, CSN producers Katie Fowler, T.K. Gore, and John Ship not only are claiming the #ShawFacts as their own, but garnered a local Emmy nod for it. But as well all know, this was the creation of good friend Forklift at hockeenight.com.
This aggression will not stand, man. We have not bound together in a long time, we have not unleashed the unholy hell that can be you, dear reader when you have a cause. The time has come to draw swords together.
Oh, and in case you need proof: read the last paragraph of Fork’s entry here in January – http://hockeenight.com/2012/01/25/vacation-mode-predators-3-blackhawks-1.aspx
Katie Fowler’s twitter is @KatieFowlerCSN
TK Gore is @TKGore
John Shipp is @JohnShip99
Rain fire on the site’s contact page: csnchicagowebsite@comcastsportsnet.com
We will defend Fork’s honor, whatever the cost may be!
I guess it’s a regular thing now. I mean, we’ve got nothing else to talk about. So let’s get to what we can.
It’s even more infuriating that there’s no NHL with the first update. Because normally I would see what Phillip Danault is doing in the QMJHL and I would picture him on the ice down the road with what I was seeing on the UC sheet. But I don’t have that picture, and I can’t see Danault doing any of this without some weird internet feed, and I just want to kick a cat. Because he’s didn’t stop crushing skulls this weekend.
PHT brings you the latest from Harry and Lloyd: (Daly) (Fehr)
The Blackhawks, who are still working out, have enlisted help: (CSN) (autoplay)
Power rankings are stupid, if you don’t think so tell me how they can change week to week during a lockout: (ESPN)
This is why I don’t want the Blackhawks going overseas: (PD)
Icehogs getting help from locked out Blackhawks: (Icehogs.com)
Mac the knife? Carruth’s demotion means someone getting cut: (BTN)
Kaner is the best winger under age 25? Oh yeah and that Toews guy isn’t bad either: (ESPN Insider)
Now that we’re in what should have been opening week, we can’t try and find other things to fill what we crave. We have to face up to the fact that only hockey will do, and we can’t force-feed ourselves something as a substitute. Maybe some of you will only accept NHL-level. That’s understandable. I’m pretty much in that camp too. But some of you need live hockey. And luckily, in Chicago you’re relatively close (debatable) to the next best thing next to the NHL, the AHL. Today, we’ll look at the closer of the two options. The Chicago Wolves, aka mini-Canucks.
I think that picture perfectly sums up where we are now and what we’re all feeling. Confusion in a desolate place that we have no control of getting out of ourselves. We only need an army of crabs to guide us to the sea. Maybe we should start with Patrick Kane’s.
There are just some thoughts rattling around my head as we come up to the actual date that will mark the first time we really should have been at the UC and discussing other things. They’re all kind of infuriating.
-It’s been mentioned before, but the staring contest part of this is by far the most deplorable aspect of this. I know, negotiating tactics and all that. But this inhabits a different stratosphere than say, a bunch of machinists striking against the airlines or something. “Well we put our proposal out and now we’re waiting for their proposal but they said that they made their proposal and now they want our next proposal but we didn’t think it was a proposal and ours was a proposal and they’re bad men and stupid heads and we just need a proposal.”
