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The NHL 2012 off-season thread. Lockout over!
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well i guess we won't have a hockey season...
Probably not. I'm with the players on this one all the way. The owners need to realize that automatically locking them out every time a contract is up is not a good way to go about business. The players completely caved before. They should not again. Here's to hoping that some players decide to leave the NHL and stay in Europe if the season is cancelled. Who could blame them? Maybe the owners will learn something.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...that-may-not-return-if-nhl-season-is-canceled
I was on the players side up until the past couple of days but it's all on them now. The owners presented a more than fair offer and have made concessions a half dozen times in the past couple of months while the PA basically rehashed the same offer over and over again while Fehr lied through his teeth to the media that they were "close".
This is all on Don Fehr and the players now. They expect the owners to keep on giving but it's not going to happen. The offer on Wednesday night was the best the players were going to see and in the long run they will regret not taking that deal.
The players are just clueless and don't realize how good they already have it. When you have ass clowns like Scottie Upshall tweeting "There's no pressure yet on the owners to lose this year, that's why they still treat us like Cattle. They'll need a partner come January." Then the next morning, he instagram's a picture of waking up at a beach-front hotel "Good Mornin Y'all! #lockoutproblems #3dayweekend" you know they just don't get it.
Yeah, their bottom line will suffer seriously.
I feel sorry for the ancillary jobs around the arenas.
I have less concern for the Networks.
If the season comes back, they should just offer it for free like the NBA did after its lockout this year. That is if they know what's good for them.
Anyone with any entrepreneurial sense should start getting leagues like the KHL televised. I'll watch. I've been watching the local AHL games all season and you know what? The stands are sold out- not an empty seat in the house. And the playing has been stellar. If I can watch guys like the Canucks Eddie Lack play with the Chicago Wolves, cool.
It's time for options, folks. And if the NHL won't give us what we want, time to find it elsewhere. And I have to say, watching the AHL this season has been pure joy. Those guys play like it's the last night on Earth. If you have not seen the AHL this year, you're missing out.
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Grand Rapids is a little bit of a drive (1.5-2 hours), plus an unfortunate amount of games are on Friday at 7-7:30, so I haven't made it out to a Griffins game yet, but I have been watching more CCHA and OHL (Plymouth Whalers are 5 mins away), as well as one trip down to see the ECHL Toledo Walleye.
There's definitely plenty of good hockey to see - just have to make more of an effort to see it. With the exception of MSU v. ND being on NBCSN on Friday night! That made my night. Great college hockey on TV? Sold.
Yep- it's time to stop complaining and go have some fun. I truly think the NHL has screwed itself big time with this last lockout.
Hearing rumors on the Twitterverse that the lockout may end today, and they'll start playing on the 15th...
...Although I'm not buying these rumors because they were the same rumors on Wednesday, and last month.
...Although I'm not buying these rumors because they were the same rumors on Wednesday, and last month.
15th is too soon. While some players have returned from Europe hoping for an end of the lockout, most have not. You need a mini training camp and players to return. If they start the 15th, training camp would start sometime between the 7-9th.
I'm still buying if a deal is made next week that training camp will start by end of next week and then games start on the 19th for a full slate of games between rivals that was mentioned earlier in the week.
The only issue is do I believe there will be a deal Still 50/50 at best in my mind.
I'm still buying if a deal is made next week that training camp will start by end of next week and then games start on the 19th for a full slate of games between rivals that was mentioned earlier in the week.
The only issue is do I believe there will be a deal
Still 50/50 at best in my mind.
Looks like it. Now let's see who comes back from overseas. I predict we lose some players, not to mention lots of fans.
Who is going to stay overseas? A handful of 3rd line people who probably don't even have NHL job security? Maybe BizNasty if he enjoys playing consistently and scoring on fools in England vs. being a part time NHLer?
The Russians aren't actually going to stay over in Russia. The only one I took half seriously was Ovi, but with make whole he has no excu$e to stay over.
I would love to see no fans show up for the first month of the season, just to show the owners that we care. Of course it wouldnt happen, but it would be the best way for our voices to be heard.
Ovechkin could certainly stay overseas. Personally, I'd like to see this happen. Maybe the owners would quit acting like such jerks. Here's some more:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...stay-overseas-even-if-the-nhl-comes-back-soon
Mostly scrubs making less than a mil or old, washed up, and getting pushed out of the NHL already. The only ones that matter:
- Jagr is coming back. Can't say no to that $4.5M on the table.
- Gonchar had a decent year last year. He should be back, but even if he isn't, he wasn't going to be resigned for much or at all.
- Kostitsyn is coming back, but if things don't go well, he can always return like Radulov
- Ovi is not staying overseas. With the make whole, he'll get the money he agreed to, so he has no other complaints. He wants to play with the best hockey players in the world at the end of the day. He should also be excited to play for a new coach that will focus on improving the power play and ultimately improving Ovi's offensive output.
As an outsider looking in on the NHL, what was the tipping point in getting a deal done now that could not have happened 4 months ago. And why even bother with a season after alienating most of the fan base. Would it of been better to just scrap the season and let the owners lay in it. The best thing the league should of done is fire Bettman.
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the fans are going to show up, I would love it if at every game on opening night, at a certain time (like 10 mins left in the 1st) The whole arena started a fire Bettman Chant
The deadline. Nothing was going to happen until they set the hard "get it done by this date or the season is cancelled" deadline. We shouldn't have expected anything less.
Hell no. A 48 game season means every game is going to mean way more than it does in a normal season. It's going to be like 3 months of playoffs before the playoffs start. Probably will be the best hockey we have seen in a while.
Besides, it's obvious. 48 games of revenue > 0 games of revenue.
Bettman only works for the owners. He's basically their spokesman. There's a lot of blame to go around but it doesn't fall solely on him. Don Fehr gets just as much of the blame, along with some of the owners (**** you Jeremy Jacobs).
When Fehr worked for the MLBPA it was the players on strike. At the NHL the owners locked them out. I don't think you can blame Fehr in this instance. He is good at what he does. We may all think he is evil but he is good at it.
Why would you give the league satisfaction by watching, I would let them all rot. This is not a league that can afford a work stoppage, they are barely hanging on as it is. They are not the NFL where the fans will forget. The season should have been lost so the owners really feel the pain. The second you start to root for them and give them money the owners will thing the whole thing was worth it. The only way to tell then you don't approve is to boycott the game.
The players should have called the owners bluff and walked for the season.
This statement just shows you didn't follow the negotiation soap opera over the past couple of months. Fehr is most definitely to blame. If he didn't pull his shady tactics and piss off the owners back during the Dec negotiation week, we would have been playing hockey a month ago.
The owners locked them out because the old CBA led to a league that was unsustainable. You can't run a league where the players are getting 57% (all other leagues are split 50-50) and only 8 of 30 teams are making a profit.
You just don't know or understand hardcore hockey fans very well then. They are the most loyal fans of all the major sports here and at this point the majority are just glad they'll be able to watch hockey again. Some of the casual fans may be turned off, but whatever. That just means tickets will be cheaper for me, though here in Boston, it won't be much. You can guarantee the Garden will be sold out for every one of the 24 (or 25) home games.
The owners wouldn't be the ones feeling the pain. 14 of 30 teams LOST money last season (in a year of record revenues for the league). Missing the season would have saved these 14 owners money, so saying they would have "felt the pain" if they missed the whole season isn't very accurate IMO.
These owners are multi-billionaires in many cases. While they obviously want to make money, not making money won't exactly "hurt" them. Boycotting the game at this point is only going to hurt the arena staff, concession workers, parking lot attendants, servers and bartenders in the bars by the arenas, etc who have already suffered enough and been hurting more than anyone else as a result of this lockout.
Why the hell would the players willingly want to give up a year of salary and a year of their career? They aren't getting any younger. There are tons of guys in the league who might only have a year or two left in their career. The deal they agreed to is more than fair. It just shouldn't have taken this long.