Bobby Clarke always spoke his mind as a player and backed it up on the ice. So when he says that what he and his peers did for today's players and their sacrifices are being hurt, we, and more inportantly all members of the NHLPA should sit up and listen.

Two pieces this morning from the Buffalo News sort of encapsulate the whole situation for me. The first is about how hockey fans flock to the side of the owners and that's really one big reason why the NHLPA should realize it can't win this ridiculous battle about guaranteeing the "cost savings" they project.
The second article goes on to talk about how the NHLPA is making an example of Rob Ray and how he is fighting back as he sues the NHLPA over his exclusion from their stipend plan. He believes this is because he spoke out about his willingness to play and the NHLPA denies it since, as Ted Saskin keeps saying, they don't muzzle the players. Bull. This man has 900 games in the NHL under his belt - he's earned the right to speak his mind. Yet another case of NHLPA duplicity and yet another reason why soon more players will join the public and demand that the NHLPA quit protecting 30 guys while they punish 720.

"We want a free market!"
What a load of crap. The last thing the NHLPA wants is the market to work as it is doing in Philadelphia. SinceKeith Primeau's deal inadvertently sets a salary cap for the club, the NHLPA is all angry with him. They think he signed for too little - he did what he felt was right for himself and his family as well as for the long-term health of the club. Just as they don't let every player eligible go to arbitration, the NHLPA tries to control the market and set salaries. Oh sure, there's a market, and it's run by Santa and the Easter Bunny.

Out of the mouths of babes...Sydney Crosby, maybe the next Great One for real, is following his dream and not going to let the NHLPA get in his way. Good for him!

Nice to see we're back to personal attacks from the NHLPA player reps. This one from Bryan McCabe seems particularly useful as he rips the NHL Commissioner for scheduling a board meeting (which the NHL and most businesses do have on a regular basis - they haven't had one since September. I love how the fans respond to the "he's a basketball guy" quip.

Say it ain't so:January meeting could augur season's end: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The 100 things we miss about hockey. AMEN.

An ominous article from Buffalo about how NHL's tensions deepen. Scariest notion: that two seasons are lost.

In Canada, at least, thefans remain on the owners' side according to this poll from TSN.

Buccigross gets it about right inthis piece on ESPN.com: Don't stop believin'. I guess we're all trying hard to keep the faith but as we're now "Deep in December" (as the song goes), it's late in the third period and the fans are down 3 goals. Comebacks do happen though...

As the man says, With losing hand, Goodenow should cash in. You've got to know when to fold 'em....

It doesn't have to be this way, boys. As the Toronto Star writes, a number of NHL-ers are coming Home for the holidays because hockey in Europe isn't getting it done.

There is no depth to which Larry Brooks of the NY Post won't lower himself. I'm not linking to his column because it is so filled with vitriol and stupidity that doing so would be a disservice to those legitimate journalists to whom I do link. However, here is the conclusion of this morning's brilliant screed by the NHLPA's NY-based mouthpiece:

Finally, this just in. Slap Shots has learned that Bettman and O.J. Simpson are joining forces. Bettman will help Simpson look for the real killer while O.J. helps the commissioner look for the league source who leaked the memo that ridiculed the PA 24-Percent Solution.

Hey genius, legitimate journalists state their facts when they have them, not insinuate they know something they don't. For example, what if someone said "We've just heard that a certain NHLPA-loving sportswriter is up to do an endorsement of a certain mash-based product. The tie seems natural since the writer has been often seen at the bottom of this product's bottle." Does that mean anyone knows anything? Nah. Just means someone is being a duplicitous jerk.

A little bit of sanity from FOXSports.com in this piece: Proposals offer chance to compromise. This guy clearly should be running the NHLPA.

Here's the proof that the NHLPA either just doesn't get what's going on or is ignoring it. The fact that the NHLPA disputes league's projections of players' proposal and that they're spending time doing press to say that shows how they're continuing to deny the issue. It doesn't matter what the numbers are. Take the cap and fight for a bigger share of a bigger pool. That and only that will be the result that gets the most benefit for the most players and gets our game back on the ice.

Funny how once they get out from under the NHLPA's spell the players can recognize the truth, just as does Patrick Roy in this story.

AMEN!
Great column about how out of touch the NHLPA has become and how at least one player is lacking class...

The folks in Boston DO get it. The Boston Herald piece - Bruins: Impasse starts at top - is just spot on.

2%. That's not really a big difference and I'll bet that the NHLPA doesn't consider it a major impediment to settling this thing right now. That's how far apart the NHL and the union are are what percentage of revenues ought to be paid to the players. No, the big issue - the ONLY issue - is the NHLPA's refusal to guarantee that amount or any amount. When you look at the details of the two proposals, the vast majority of players are better off under the NHL's plan but the NHLPA isn't about doing the best for the most. It's about doing the best for those with the most, and there's no doubt the big name guys will get hurt.
Shame and it's not the NHL's fault that the season is on the brink.

Yeah, but you'll take their word that your overstuffed checks will cash, right you $*%&^! This is the sort of crap that never comes out of the mouths of real hockey players, just jerks like Holik....

"[Today] is going to be a very dark, bleak day for hockey," said an NHL source in this Newsday piece. In one sense, if the rumors are true and the NHL is going back to the NHLPA with a cap response to their bogus 24% PR ploy, it's going to be a long, cold, hockey-less winter. That is "dark and bleak" but in another sense, it's the darkness before the dawn. The NHLPA has to get it and get it soon: the NHL business model is broken. There are better models out there in professional sports and the NHL needs to adopt one. NOW. Or the NHLPA members had better get used to playing for less money in worse conditions in Europe because professional hockey in North Amercia is just not going to be available. And that really IS dark and bleak....

The Buffalo News has a piece this morning entitled Players' offer leaves much to be desired that I think is about right. Best line: " This was a bag of pucks, a Band-Aid for a heart attack." Exactly.

Maybe the most accurate piece written since the NHLPA's offer the other day. Selena Roberts this morning in The New York Times writes Hockey Fans Are Silent, and Union Is Listening. You may have to register to read it but here is the key part in my mind:

Goodenow's calculated offer preys on the quick-fix addictions of undisciplined owners who, with a little extra money in their wallets, will only toss it into a wishing well of roster stars.

The union's blueprint for a resolution does nothing to eliminate payroll disparity between the league's big spenders and its coupon clippers. Goodenow has proposed a luxury tax, but it is certain to be ignored by icon collectors like the yachtsman and Rangers overseer James L. Dolan, providing an uneven playing field when a romantic small-market team like Calgary tries to re-sign its beloved Jarome Iginla.

The PA's offer is serious, no doubt, but it didn't address the upward inflation built into a system with arbitration, qualifying offers, and rabid fans (and media). Hopefully there's a solution that can do both.

Maybe they're thinking even at 24% less it's better in the NHL than in Sweden?

This story in the Buffalo News got me thinking. It talks about Chris Taylor whom I gather is the lowest paid guy in the NHL. He has to take the same 24% hit that Jagr does which doesn't seem right. Sure Jagr pays a lot more into the pot, but why couldn't the NHLPA make the rich pay disproportionately more? Guys like Taylor should pay nothing - they're not the problem. Maybe under a million pays nothing, $1million to $3 million pay 10%, on up to the top guys paying 33% to get to the 24% average. Hell, if it's based on how they perform, Holik ought to give back 50% since he's about worth $4.5 million, not 9.
Just seems unfair that once again the NHLPA is favoring the stars over the little guys.

You never know where hockey is going to pop up as a part of the news. Take yesterday's shooting of Pantera's Dimebag. Who would have thought that there was a hockey connection? But there is since Panterawrote the Dallas Stars' theme and as the Stars say on their web site the club connection is pretty solid. Shame.

Yesterday provided a glimmer of hope but clearly there isn't the "cost certainty" the League has been asking for in the NHLPA proposal to end the lockout. I think McKenzie has it about right- this is a good first step by the PA in admitting there's a problem (always a first step to solving a problem) but this isn't going to go far enough towards assuring the overall health of the NHL. In my mind, all you need is one club that can afford to pay taxes on top of the salaries, say the Leafs, to make an outrageous offer to a player and, due to arbitration, the inflatioinary pressure is still there. Most clubs can't afford that, just as the PA rightly supposes most of the clubs can't afford to overpay under the threat of huge luxury taxes. But I guess if the PA is willing somehow to guarantee the long-term effects of the tax, just as the 24% rollback guarantees current savings, we might yet have a season. Maybe the cap kicks in if an independent audit doesn't confirm the effects. Maybe there's an escrow fund. The good news is that they're talking again. Hopefully to a happy ending....

Yikes!
Savard gets cut by Swiss team.

Don't know why the NHLPA keeps saying the owners don't know what's going on or are going to crumble. This piece on Bruins' ownership shows that Sinden and Co. believe the lockout necessary to save game for future. Where does the PA get this stuff?

Please! Please! Please!
Today may be the first day of the new season or the last day. Let's see how offer goes over but hopefully the response to it and the response to the response get us HOCKEY!

There is a great piece by Damien Cox in the Toronto Star. You may have to register to get to it but I'll start you off with the first bit:

"As long as the (luxury) tax plan is on the table, there won't be a season ... the tax plan is a non-negotiable thing."

—Jeremy Roenick

"There will be no season if there is a tax."

—Patrick Roy.

"If they insist on a tax, it'll kill the whole year."

—Larry Murphy.

Mike Gartner admits that it looks kind of funny now.

But those three quotes were actually uttered by Roenick, Roy and Murphy almost 10 years ago at a time when, like now, NHL players were locked out of their workplaces by the league's owners.

Then, avoiding the implementation of a mild, 20-cents-on-the-dollar luxury tax system was the top priority of the players' association under Bob Goodenow.

Today, a decade later, it is the players who are offering a tax system as they seek to connect with the league on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Then, it was the unthinkable, a theoretical line the players vowed never, ever to cross.

Today, it's their notion of a fair solution.

"I can see what you're saying," said Gartner, the union president back in 1994 and currently an executive with the players' association. "I guess the answer is you change simply because you have to.

Right, boys. You do need to change. Rethink the cap thing, OK? Yes, it's a change but it's needed and no one is starving in the NBA or NFL.

This is not good at all! Beer sales off big time in Canada. Yet another reason for the NHLPA to wise up!

Some interesting thinking out of Pittsburgh. They've done a little research and they think if new CBA is struck, the NHL season could start sooner than later. Let's not get our hopes up, but WOO HOO!!

This is something that affects a number of players and something that they may want to consider as they offer their support to the NHLPA. Just as the lockout could be end of Yzerman's career, so too could it be for others. Shame. Classy guy like Stevie Y should go out with a farewell tour.

According to multiple reports, here's who's in the room on Thursday (and hopefully Friday and beyond!):

NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow will be joined by senior director Ted Saskin, associate counsel Ian Pulver, outside counsel John McCambridge and the executive committee of active NHL players: president Trevor Linden, and vice presidents Bob Boughner, Vincent Damphousse, Daniel Alfredsson, Bill Guerin, Trent Klatt and Arturs Irbe.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and executive vice president Bill Daly will be joined on the NHL side by senior vice president and general counsel David Zimmerman, outside counsel Bob Batterman as well as members from the executive committee: Calgary Flames part-owner Harley Hotchkiss (chairman of the board), Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs (chairman of the finance committee), Nashville Predators owner Craig Leopold, Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos, and New Jersey Devils CEO and GM Lou Lamoriello.

It's the same group on both sides from the Sept. 9 meeting, missing only Minnesota Wild chairman Bob Naegele. That session ended when the NHL rejected the players' association's previous offer of a luxury tax-based system.

C'mon, boys!

Darby Hendrickson reports on how playing in Europe was an eye opener. You don't really have to wonder why the NHLPA is looking to get this thing settled now - I'm sure the boys are tired of eating tongue and going to the bathroom without toilets. Ah, the glamorous alternatives to the NHL!

Hey! A problem hockey doesn't have! Steroids aren't going to help with balance and I don't think anyone would look at Wayne or Mario and think our superstars are on the juice. If they were, their records should be deleted, just as should Bonds'.

An interesting perspective on yet another reason why the NHL, once it gets itself together, will resonate more broadly with fans than the NBA. This piece from Florida talks about how fans are off limits to NHL teams and they're not talking about during the lockout. Hard to get up into the stands in skates anyway!

Here's Chelios reminding us all that he's been hit in the head a few times. How else can you explain this sort of statement:

"It's too bad that, like I said before, you've got a guy who has no idea the past 10 years what he's done to our league, and then he goes and blames it on economics because he's a numbers guy," Chelios said. "The thing is to make it work, and obviously over the past 10 years he hasn't.
"If they're hell-bent on breaking the union, then that's OK. That's business. Like I said, we understand that part of it. The marketing part, the situation the league's gotten itself into, I mean, there's no one to point fingers at except the guys running the league. I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous for him to keep coming up with excuses and blame it on economics. It's marketing, that's all. ...
"The proof's in the ratings. The proof's the marketing. The TV deal we just signed, it's horrible."

Chris, buddy, come back to us. The problem isn't marketing or revenue - it's that too much of those revenues are being put in the salary line. Maybe if the Union decided that its members could do a bit more to help the game market itself...

As we look at the light at the end of the tunnel (WHICH COULD VERY WELL BE A TRAIN) we can also see what may be precipitating the NHLPA's new offer. From the Dallas Morning News is a report on one player's journey in the CHL and, more importantly, his reasons for leaving:

On the ice, Brad Lukowich loved everything about the Central Hockey League.
"It was a blast, really," said Lukowich, the Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman who was playing with the Fort Worth Brahmas. "The guys were great, the games were fun. I really, really loved it."
Off the ice, however, the league took its toll. Lukowich had an hour drive to practices in Fort Worth and rode buses to road games. He purchased insurance for about twice as much as he was scheduled to make.

That's it in a nutshell - they're realizing that other leagues and Europe aren't worth the lower pay, tougher conditions, and high insurance costs vs. entering into a partnership with the NHL that gets them back skating in a fiscally responsible manner.

DUH!

Light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe...(PLEASE!!!)...just maybe as Goodenow calls for meeting with NHL.

Oh good! We've degenerated into personal attacks! Nice move, Ted.

Everyone in the hockey world seems all atwitter about this evening's GM dinner in New York. Despite everyone saying there's no agenda, every article reports that the Menu for NHL brass includes labor news. Well, I guess we'd all be surprised if it didn't come up, but of equal importance to the long-range health of the game is the status of some of the rules changes such as shootouts to break ties and the goalie crease changes. The GM's are experts in the game on the ice - I'm not so sure that the CBA is their best foot forward. I don't think we'll hear a lot of news but since every Canadian media outlet seems to say they're sending someone to "cover" the dinner (hope it's a BIG restaurant - going to be crowded!), I'm sure there will be something tomorrow from each of them to justify their trips.

Love this quote from Ted Saskin of the NHLPA:

"I would once again suggest the NHL should be prepared to back up any claims of financial concern for teams by letting people see their actual numbers."

This was in response to Commissioner Bettman's remarks in Edmonton to fans and club partners. What a crock! It's been widely reported that the NHLPA has had access to the NHL's books for the duration of the last CBA but stopped looking five or so years ago when it became obvious where things were headed.

We in the blogsphere shouldn't let lies just...well..lie!

It all still sounds like more of the same and yet the tone keeps changing. I'm not sure why the NHLPA is talking to any General Managers but I suppose that's their right. Of course, if the league actually went and spoke to players...