Everything Else

The owners and players were up late working on a Deal: PHT

60 games is an important number and may explain the recent Hustle: PD

Reasons for the movement include more than dropping Smokey and the Bandit: SI

Of course on somethings they’re still at an Impasse: ESPN

Good starts are big in a short season, Spector looks at who will be able bring the Heat: SN

I hear this and the empty chair Clint spoke to are Best Friends: Twitter

Everything Else

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.

Everything Else

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)

Everything Else

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.

Everything Else

Not only did that picture fit with the title, but this is the level of intelligence I think the leaders that be are at.

Maybe it wasn’t the worst, but this was one of the worst weekends to go through as an NHL fan. Not only was the gaping hole where our Black Friday game impossible to ignore as I attempted to watch LSU-Arkansas or something just as non-sensical, but the amount of noise, bullshit, and downright stupidity ramped up even more in the past few days. Add to that the frustration we are feeling has piled up to the point where we are fighting with each other at a moment’s notice, and frankly I’m exasperated as to where to go from here.

Everything Else

Not only did that picture fit with the title, but this is the level of intelligence I think the leaders that be are at.

Maybe it wasn’t the worst, but this was one of the worst weekends to go through as an NHL fan. Not only was the gaping hole where our Black Friday game impossible to ignore as I attempted to watch LSU-Arkansas or something just as non-sensical, but the amount of noise, bullshit, and downright stupidity ramped up even more in the past few days. Add to that the frustration we are feeling has piled up to the point where we are fighting with each other at a moment’s notice, and frankly I’m exasperated as to where to go from here.