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Posted on 02/10/2005 6:01:55 AM PST by Hat-Trick
Toronto, Ontario (Sports Network) - The National Hockey League Players' Association rejected another proposal put forth by the NHL in the latest attempt at saving the season, and commissioner Gary Bettman finally looks ready to pull the plug.
The two sides met secretly on Wednesday in Toronto where the league presented a new proposal, only to have it rejected rather quickly.
According to TSN of Canada the NHL's latest proposal was to start play immediately using the NHLPA's proposal from December 9 until such time it became clear the proposal was not working, then the system would switch over to the NHL's proposal from February 2.
This was not well received by the NHLPA, which believed this compromise proposal from the league was just a way to get to the hard-cap economic system in place if not now, at some point in the near future.
The two sides were expected to meet again Wednesday night in Toronto, but Bettman said if they are not ironing out details of a new CBA by the end of the weekend the season will officially be cancelled.
All this comes on the same day as a report in the Los Angeles Times that stated the NHL is ready to put a drop-dead date into effect.
The NHL has compiled possible schedules of 28, 30 and 32 games, and would hope to begin play sometime around February 25 if a new deal can be reached.
On Wednesday the NHL lockout reached its 147th day .
Have a great day, hockey fans. I highly suggest NCAA D1 hockey. I'll be rinkside for Michigan vs. Nebraska-Omaha this weekend and caring even less about the Gary Bettmanized Owners vs. the Goodenow Gang of Greed drama.
Game On!
Freep mail or ping me if you want on or off the Hockey Ping List.
And we should care at this point becuzzzzzzzz................?
I heard a report on the news yesterday that everything, and I mean everything, that ESPN and ESPN2 have aired during the lockout has drawn higher ratings than hockey.
Thank God for the Beanpot!
What's hockey? Is it a sport or something?
The owners (most of them, anyway) can afford to wait out the players.
There will be some sort of salary cap imposed. The question now is whether the players will take a more favourable soft cap now, or a hard cap later, after six or eight teams fold.
Hockey is on strike?..........how can you tell?.........did someone watch?.......
NHL? What's that?
Has anyone really missed it?
I would expect the league to be even worse off in the future under a hard salary cap. The problem they face is that their talent pool will diminish considerably if many star players from Europe decide that the difference in salary levels between North America and Europe isn't enough to get them over here.
Fox Sports out of Pittsburgh is showing re-runs of past Penguins' games.
Hockey started to lose me one January night in 1996 as my then beloved Fly Boys traveled the planes of Canada to take on the Winnipeg Jets. Announcer Jim Jackson stated that this would be the last time the Flys would be in Winnipeg as the Jets would move to Phoenix. The parking lot full of cars surrounding the ShenkArena, but due to the disgusting socialism of "America's Big Fuzzy Hat" and several other reasons, few Canadian teams could economically compete anymore.
The league has become full of marginal players, skating on the soft ice of Tampa or the empty seats of Columbus or Memphis or whatever city has no Hockey interest and heritage.
Implode the league, restart it with 12-14 teams all in Northern Cities and realize that it's never going to be Football or Baseball. That's fine, it doesn't have to be. Let it appeal to those it appeals to and keep the league a reflective size.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
I heard a report on the news yesterday that everything, and I mean everything, that ESPN and ESPN2 have aired during the lockout has drawn higher ratings than hockey.
Well that's not because hockey isn't a great spectator sport because it is. The problem is that hockey doesn't translate well to television because the puck is small & the rink is large. A lot of the 'game' isn't where the puck is & the camera is usually on the puck. When the camera is drawn back enough to cover what's happening down or up rink from the puck, then you can't see the puck & what's happening with it. Or what's happening on the camera side of the boards. Another problem is with the ditzy people running the camera shots. A lot of the camera work during last years' playoffs was just horrible--esp. ESPN & ABC. The camera work I saw on games covered by CBC was far & away superior.
When I moved to Wisconisn & 'discovered' hockey, I lost interest in just about all other sports. Football, esp., is a yawner to me. Just too slow.
HDTV will make a difference in how hockey plays on TV--I'm anxious to see how 'big' a difference it makes. But the game will still need for people who understand the game & have the reflexes of hockey players to be selecting the camera shots.
I thought, from the headline, that some Freeper was posting a vanity about a "drop dead gorgeous" date he had coming up. LOL.
Another 'drop dead' date by the NHL crowd? Isn't this about the fourth or fifth so far?
I am with you in this. I am going to alot more AHL games and Boston Univer. games.
I like them alot more.
Ran into a Boston Bruins player not long ago at a stick and puck. He was getting some skates in before heading over to Europe to play for $80k. He said the whole thing is not about the money. So I asked him why he wouldn't play in Boston for $250K when he is going to Europe to play for $80K.
" He responded by blasting a couple slapshots past my head"
Peabody Super League is where the action is.
I am really down on the players in this standoff. It is pretty clear to see that something has to be done to overhaul this league.
Do you think that the NHLK will cease to exist and will come back under a new name and organization?
Hockey East is awesome.
Canadian socialism wasn't even one of the top five reasons why Canadian teams couldn't compete anymore -- that socialism never kept the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers from dominating the NHL in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively.
The primary reason why Canadian teams "couldn't compete" was that the NHL attempted to turn the league into a television-oriented sport based on the NBA model. And the economics of television dictated that a city like Winnipeg where the Jets drew 18,000 fans from a metro area of 700,000 people when it was -40 degrees outside in February was not a viable market, but a city like Phoenix where only 18,000 out of 3 million people know how to spell "NHL" was a strong market.
Good post. The current business model of the NHL is broke. Unfortunately, it's probably going to take missing one season and perhaps two? (although I believe the owners will declare an impasse and perhaps start a "new" NHL) for the NHL to heal. The current business model is broke.
But all is not lost. Opening day for the Rochester Red Wings is less than 2 months away!
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