Nothing: (TSN)
Support Group: (Grantland)
Can Canada save the NHL? (Sportsnet)
Make whole with the fans:(CBC)
Barriers in the KHL:(Pro Hockey Talk)
Second NHL Team in Toronto can’t happen: (Puck Daddy)
Isn’t so much me as it is Roenick: (Fox Chicago)
This isn’t fair!!!!!!(NHL)
The Waiting Game Sucks: (TSN)
Now what?? (Sportsnet)
The Owners already won:(CBC)
Twinky Winky plead guilty: (Toronto Sun)
The Simple Things: (Styrofoam Playground)
We’ve been fooled before, and though I want to be optimistic and lead you through the darkness more than anyone, we have to preach caution at the top of our lungs. Though preaching caution loudly would seem to be a very odd tactic, but you’ve never required me to make sense.
(And before I go any farther, this was all an elaborate (kinda) excuse to post a picture of Bob Mould, and to tell you if you didn’t get his latest album then your life really isn’t all it could be right now).
After last night’s meeting without the two towers of obstinance, the words “progress,” “optimism”, and “substance” are actually being thrown around. There’s still far to go, and these people could fuck up a piss-up at a brewery. I bet when they get to figuring out “lockout reparations” is where things could get messy.
Constructive Day but could this be Entrapment? (Chicago Tribune) (Spector’s Hockey)
Saving the Hockey World like James Bond:(Sportsnet)
Merchants near NHL rinks are losing money like The Great Train Robbery: (TSN)
Will an angry owner speak out, Never say Never..again:(Toronto Sun)
Players are paying for mistakes like a team in the Valley of the Rising Sun:(Sportsnet)
Adventures in Team Travel like going to The Rock: (Backhand Shelf)
From Russia with Love?? An unlikely Gordie Howe Hattrick:(CJAD)
This meeting could signify an End of Days: (Sportsnet)
This stipend could let the players Jingle All the Way:(TSN)
Because of the Lockout you could call this Team Conan the Destroyers:(CBC)
These Canadian Ex-Pat’s Junior(s) are thriving:(Toronto Sun)
I’m sure this is what the mediators thought they saw when walking into either room. They probably would have been better off talking to this guy anyway.
It’s hard to splice out all the emotion and frustration I feel as yet another completely reasonable solution or mechanism on the path to an agreement was completely tossed upon the rocks and shoals of stupidity, stubborness, and obtuse-ness that the NHL and the NHLPA have become. It’s not surprise, it’s surprise at how predictable it all was. Because this level of idiocy simply shouldn’t be predictable. When something this truly devoid of any intelligence happens, we should be shocked that any part of the human race can get to that point.
But we’re not.
Maybe there is a Ransom:(Kukla’s Korner)
Maybe the Mediator can be a Lethal Weapon: (TSN)
Is Fehr missing the message of The Patriot of Pro Sports Unions: (Sportsnet)
Greg Jamison likes the Signs he got from the Glendale City Council: (CBC)
Payback could be a bitch: (Toronto Sun)
Apparently Mathieu Darche doesn’t stay at the Million Dollar Hotel: (Montreal Gazette)
Mission:Impossible: (TSN)
For a Few Good Men this is their third lockout: (Sportsnet.CA)
Some fans are Losing it on the players:(Reddit)
Interview with the Vampire or Criminal: (Sportsnet)
The new OHL fighting rules are Far and Away an improvement:(Backhand Shelf)
Some Outsider hacked Guy Serota’s Twitter: (SN)
A look at the Top Gun’s that retired after the last lockout: (Down Goes Brown)
The Union might be about to get a bit Psycho: (Globe and Mail)
Hopefully the season isn’t lost in the Rear Window: (Sportsnet)
Gary clearly doesn’t have Vertigo: (CBC)
One Owner is optimistic that this season hasnt gone to the Birds: (Montreal Gazette)
These jerseys may leave other teams Spellbound: (Puck Daddy)
Well, if you were hoping that the NHL and PA would provide a bounce to your holiday weekend, you can forget it.
While the initial buzz about only being $182 million apart after this latest offer made it seem like things could change, it was what was burning under that smoke that should have led us all to believe this wasn’t going anywhere.
Because the PA still is getting to 50-50 far too slowly, no matter how they dress it up. Asking the owners to bare all the risk for down-turning revenues after his mess is a non-starter. These two things may be totally fair when viewed through logic, but fair and logic were never part of this negotiation and are never going to be. The PA would do well to finally recognize that, no matter how well they’re organized or transparent this time.
No contract limits? We went over this yesterday. If you’re brethren in the NBA have ’em, and they’re by far the more popular league with far more marketable stars, then you better get on the train that you’re going to have contract limits. Again, it’s almost certainly not fair. But fair and reality are often not drinking buddies.
Quite simply, the union has to decide which one it really wants to hold onto. Does it want to fight over the revenue structure or contracting rights? Because now they’re doing both, and that’s just not going to fly.
On the other side, it’s dispiriting and disrespectful to everyone who has any interest in the game for the owners to not even begin to try and talk off this proposal. Yes, we’re quite aware that they’re beyond pissed the Fehr wouldn’t negotiate off theirs, even though they gave him no reason to do so. It’s clear it’s about winning, not getting a deal. But this is going to be a pyrric victory, and there has to be some moderates on that side who recognize that. But they’ve been marginalized.
There’s a deal here. People with a clue could find it. But not when everyone hasn’t got the necessary plate of glass over the belly-button so they can see while having their head up their ass. And that’s the end of it.
