Faxes from Uncle Dale

Tag: nhl lockout

  • Once Again, Fall On Your Sword, Ajax

    Once Again, Fall On Your Sword, Ajax

    It’s the same call I made in October. I return to you, players, to do so once again.

    I ask this of you not because I’m not sympathetic to your cause. From the word go I have found what the owners are doing to you disgusting, obstinate, and absurd. The thought of Gary Bettman smiling, having a cigar and a brandy while slapping the back of Jeremy Jacobs and Murray Edwards over a job well done makes me want to vomit up lunch from two days ago, then eat it up just so I can vomit it up again. I know it makes you feel that way.

    But sometimes doing the honorable thing is one that is odorous to every sense. And this is starting to feel like one of those times.

    (more…)

  • Morning Links 12/13

    Morning Links 12/13

    A recap of what took place between the NHL and NHLPA today: TSN

    Jamal Mayers isn’t so optimistic: NYT

    Spector says its on the owners: SN

    Euro teams think its over: PD

    Kaner hopes their right: CSN (autoplay)

    According to Hawks doctors Hossa is good to go: PHT

  • Morning Links 12/12/12

    Gary at 20: (TSN)

    Actually he isn’t doing a bad job: (The Province)

    Call the NBA for help: (CBC)

    But talks will resume: (Winnipeg Free Press)

    Young Man’s Game: (Edmonton Journal)

  • Replaceable

    Boy, am I getting sick of writing posts out of some haze of depression. I’m sure you’re sick of reading them. Wish there was another way right now.

    I’ve been trying to figure out what’s so infuriating about the obtuseness and tone-deafness of both sides in this. And maybe it’s just the feeling deep down that no matter how much screaming you do or promises you make, you know that the people in charge won’t hear you (I could speak at one constant volume, at one constant pitch, at one constant rhythm, and you still won’t hear….). Maybe it’s just having to witness the aching stupidity of it all. But what is that born out of?

    I think it’s the perception from them, and the feeling for us, of being replaceable.

    (more…)

  • See A Little Light?

    See A Little Light?

    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.

    (more…)

  • Morning Links 12/5

    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)

  • Oh, I Bet You Thought You Were Talking To Adults

    Oh, I Bet You Thought You Were Talking To Adults

    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.

    (more…)

  • Morning Links 11/29

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    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)

  • Morning Links 11/28

    Morning Links 11/28

    Forgive me for laughing at a DUI but this one is Funny People: PD

    Maybe having Grown Ups in the room will help things Click: ESPN

    If you’re a Blackhawks ticket holder they continue to ask you to Just Go With It: BH

    Glendale City Council says That’s My Boy: PHT

    Kaner doesn’t exactly fit with these Airheads: Deadspin

  • I Hope It’s Worth All The Noise

    I Hope It’s Worth All The Noise

    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.

    (more…)