Tag: NHL

The Framework of the NHL CBA is in Place

This morning at around 6:00am Eastern time, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Director Donald Fehr appeared together at a press conference and announced to the few of us left who still care, that a framework for a new collective bargaining agreement has been reached.

There area a few things left to do. The legal document has to be written up. It then has to be presented to the league and union memberships. Then it needs to be ratified by both sides. This crap has gone on long enough that we can assume both sides will rubber stamp it, just so they can get back to work.

After that, a schedule will be announced. Players and coaches will gather together, and an abbreviated training camp will take place for about a week. Dougie Hamilton will show up to Bruins camp, and nut job Tim Thomas will not. After about a week the butchered, insultingly shortened season will commence and history will fill up a great big bucket with asterisks to place next to everything that happens.

The single most important thing left to do needs to happen before the games start. The fans need to keep their money.

I said it before, I’ll say it again. This disaster is the fans’ fault. If we had punished the league for its lack of loyalty last time, then this lockout would never have happened. We did not punish them though. We came back to the game with our wallets open, ready to blow our dough on tickets, merch, concessions, anything. I’m as guilty as the next sheep.

We, the fans, cannot… Must not… Make the same mistake again. Keep your money, hockey fans. Teach the NHL that our loyalty, and our money are not to be taken for granted. Show the league and the players union who the real bosses are. Teach them a lesson that they will never forget, and stop this bullshit from happening again.

Do not buy tickets. Do not buy merchandise. I’d like to say that we should boycott TV broadcasts, but I don’t think many of us will be able to go that far. I will say that we should continue to avoid doing business with companies that sponsor the league and the individual teams. That one is particularly important for me, being a Bruins fan, as word has it that Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs is due for a much larger share of blame pie than most owners.

I can’t expect fans to not watch the games. I can encourage all fans to not spend their money. Let all 30 teams play in empty buildings for their ridiculous shortened season. Let them know who was affected by this idiocy the most. Let them know who they really work for.

Another NHL Lockout Post

tick tock, tick tock.

The clock is ticking.  One week to go until the league’s deadline to cancel the season.  One week to go until the unthinkable happens… again… and the league cancels the whole entire season.  One week.

And the two sides didn’t meet face to face yesterday.  Are you kidding?

So here are two of the remaining sticking points.

Ready?

The league wants next season’s salary cap to be 60 million dollars.  The players want next season’s salary cap to be 65 million dollars.

Both sides have agreed that term length of the new collective bargaining agreement (assuming they ever actually agree to one) should be ten years.  The players want an option to back out after seven years.  The league wants an option to back out after eight years.

There’s also an issue dealing with player pensions that seems like it might be a legitimate problem, but is still something that a little give and take should be able to resolve in a short time.  Still though… they are hung up on seven years vs eight years, and 60 million vs 65 million.  Really.  Both sides are saying that publicly.  Honestly, they are.  Both sides are so incredibly stupid that they are risking the cancellation of ANOTHER NHL season over these issues.

My god people, how much of a collective group of assholes can you be?  For the salary cap?  How about 62.5 million.  Problem solved!  As for the term length, I have a more complicated solution.  Take a coin, right?  Flip it.  Heads means the opt out is seven years.  Tails means the opt out is eight years.  Problem solved!

They have had a Federal mediator at all of the recent talks.  I swear that poor son of a bitch must be ready to just start punching these idiots.  Meet with the players and punch Donald Fehr in his World Series canceling head.  Meet with the players and punch Gary Bettman in his season canceling head.  BOOM!  Problems solved!  Drop the damn puck!

Obligatory Pissed Off at the NHL Post

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while.  Maybe because after more than three months of lockout, I just don’t give a shit anymore.  Maybe.

The NHL made a proposal to the NHLPA today.  The national hockey media is all abuzz over it.  It seems to include serious movement by the league toward the demands set by the players association.  Good.

Of course it comes as we approach the league’s mid-January deadline for cancelling the entire season.  That would be two labor cancelled seasons in eight years.  That would also be suicide.  The offer also comes as the players union is trying to decide whether or not to decertify and throw the whole labor negotiation into the US courts.  That move would probably cancel this year and next year and maybe the year after that.  But hey, at least they wouldn’t be saddled with a 10 year CBA, right?

None of this is what specifically triggered my need to write a pissy NHL post this afternoon.  As has happened each time one side or the other generated excitement, I fully expect the other side to ruin the optimism.  That will most likely happen after a 3:00pm Eastern time conference call with the players union leadership.

No, what pissed me off this time was something that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.  Allow me to quote Mr Daly via this Pierre LeBrun ESPN article:

“We are hopeful that once the union’s staff and negotiating committee have had an opportunity to thoroughly review and consider our new proposal, they will share it with the players. We want to be back on the ice as soon as possible.”

I added the italics, because that’s what pissed me off so much.  As soon as possible, Bill?  Really?  It’s DECEMBER 28th, and you want to get back on the ice as soon as possible?  What an asshole.  Hey Bill, as soon as possible went out the window when the first day of training camp was missed back in September.  You missed as soon as possible more than three effing months ago.  Thank you Deputy Commissioner Daly, for once again blatantly insulting your millions of fans.  Those millions of fans who allowed your league to post the highest earnings in its history last year.  That’s over 3 billion dollars worth of insulted fans.

I hate them all so much.

I HATE THEM ALL SO MUCH!

Thoughts from the Sick Bed

On Tuesday I got up at about 6:00am.  I took the trash out to the street, and I moved my car out of the driveway so Jen could get her car out.  I then went back to bed.  I woke up again at a few minutes to 9:00 and called into work.  I then went back to bed.  At just about noon I heard a really loud bang that seemed like it came from out front of the house.  It sounded like a washing machine being dropped into a dumpster (exactly like that).  I got up and did a walk around the house to make sure everything was okay.  I then went back to bed.  When my wife came home, also sick as a dog, at 3:30ish I got up to let her in.  I then went back to bed.  At about 7:00 I got up and sat on the couch to visit with my beloved.  That lasted about 10 minutes and then we nyquilled it up and went to bed for the night.  I was probably out of bed for maybe 30 minutes in the entire day.

Today I did a little better.  I got up and sat on the couch long enough to watch an episode of Bob’s Burgers.  Later I actually drove to the store to get my dearest some orange juice, and then I cooked us both a can of chicken noodle soup.  We ate together, sitting on the couch watching a movie.  After that we went back to bed.  The kids are on their way over right now.  I got up to open the door for them.  My heart’s desire is still in bed.  I’m going to have to get them dinner, and to cook some more chicken noodle soup for me and my beautiful wife.  I think I can handle all of that.

I don’t know about tomorrow though.  There are a couple of things in the office tomorrow that I have to be there for.  I cannot call in sick, but I don’t know how I am going to pull myself together by then.

To make matters worse, the NHL didn’t even have the common decency to end its lock out while I was stuck in bed.  I figured two full days of not watching the kettle would be enough for the talks to boil over to an agreement.  Nope.  Assholes.

Wouldn’t it be Nice?

I’ve been sitting at my computer tonight more or less since I got home.  My beautiful, wonderful, gorgeous, brilliant, amazing wife is next to me.  She built a PC today and is jumping through hoops trying to get all of her software installed and all of her settings the way she wants them.  I’m helping with the heavy lifting here and there.

I’ve also being a bootleg music nerd.  My goal to get a copy of every show on the Rush Clockwork Angels tour is more than likely never going to be achieved, but I’m now up to 17 shows (18 if you count the DVD of the first set of the Brooklyn show, which I don’t).  I’m fighting with the new iTunes and with iTunes match.  Apparently we no longer have the ability to open a playlist in a separate window?  Gee… thanks iTunes.  I never made use of that function ever (and by never I mean I used it constantly).  Now when I drag a new folder full of music into a playlist and have it upload to iTunes Match, it does not add the music to the playlist.  You know, the playlist that I just added it to?  I then have to go into albums and right click and select add to playlist.  It gives me a drop down of all my playlists.  I have about a hundred and eighty thousand of them.  Yeah, that’s easier than having two windows.

Anyway, the real inspiration for this particular waste of server memory is Monday Night Football.  I don’t have the television on, but I keep seeing Facebook and Twitter notifications popping up with posts about the Patriots game.  I live in New England.  I suppose I identify myself as a Patriots fan.  I just don’t live and die by football the way 95% of my fellow New Englanders do.  I want my home team to win, but I am not going to get upset if they don’t.

However, all of this football buzz is making me think…

I could really go for some NHL hockey right now.  A Bruins game would sure be a lot more interesting than a Patriots game.  Hell, a Columbus vs Florida game would be more interesting to me.  I’d park my largess down on the coach and watch the shit out of a game like that tonight.

Thanks a ton, NHL.

Hypocritical Sucker

I am such a bloody hypocrite. Months ago I said that if the NHL lock out cancels a single game then I am done with hockey.

The lock out started and I called for the league to be replaced with a new league that won’t piss on its fans’ loyalty. Then the league offered its 50/50 split of hockey related revenue and hope flashed for a second before I realized we were talking about Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr and they’d find a way to screw it up. Of course they did.

Later the NHLPA came up with an offer that reportedly moved significantly toward the league’s demands and again hope reared its ugly head. Only for a second though as I knew the NHL would screw it all,up. Of course they did.

Next it was the Federal Mediators that caused the hypocritical instant of hope, but that wasn’t much. The two sides are too stubborn to work together, why would they work with someone else.

When the Bettman/Fehr free meetings were announced I thought it was a joke. It was all for show. Like either one of those ego maniacal assholes would let a deal be done without them. Then earlier tonight I let some optimistic Twitter goofiness suck me back in again. The two sides are meeting in a hotel and members of the press are sitting in a meeting room twiddling their thumbs.

Until… Some one came in and set up a podium with the NHL logo on it. That must mean an announcement is imminent, right? Maybe this is it!

There is that optimism again. I want hockey, even if it means being a hypocrite. I loath what these greedy bastards have done to us. After the last lockout they should have killed themselves rather than go through this garbage again, but they didn’t. To hell with the fans who pay the league’s bills. Why should they care about us, right? And still, even with this frigging evil I want my damn game back. I’ll line up with the suckers who came back AGAIN and be all forgiving. What a Putz.

Fortunately it was a false alarm. Hours later there are reports that the two sides, while still bargaining in the wee hours of the morning, are still far apart.

Welcome back, my integrity.

Death to the NHL.

Tomorrow Night

Well it all ends at 11:59pm tomorrow night.  That’s when the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement expires and the third lockout in Gary Bettman’s reign as commissioner begins.  Let’s be real though, Bettman announced that the lockout would happen a month ago.  Everything that’s happened from then until now is just public relations crap.  The lockout began when that announcement was made.  Their first proposal to the players union was so insulting as to guarantee no middle ground would be reached by the deadline.  The lockout was already underway.

Three lockouts.  He’s already erased about half of one season, and 100% of another.  Now we’re going to go through it again.  Can you imagine trying to work with some one like that?  It’s almost as if his only means of negotiating is cancelling games.  It’s insulting. 

And where are the fans in all of this?  Ignored.  Forgotten.  Insulted.  The millionaires and the billionaires once again fight over our money like the spoiled brats that they are, and once again we are the ones suffering for it.  Do you think Jeremy Jacobs gives a rat’s ass that his Bruins miss a few games when he is bringing in revenue from every other event that happens at the TD Garden?  I’m going to see Rush there next month, and that asshole gets a piece of my admission.  Do you think the players give a rat’s ass about missing a few games when they can all barrel off to Europe and steal jobs from other, less talented hockey players?

For the third time we have to sit here and watch as a deadline approaches while both sides make pointless proposals that they each know the other side will instantly reject and then blame the other side for not being good negotiators.  It’s as if they are following a script.  Part of that script is when the lockout eventually ends, the fans will come rushing back into the arenas buying tickets and $100 jerseys and all the hot dogs Jacobs can sell so that everyone can start rebuilding their war chests so that they can be ready for the next lockout when it comes.

Not this time.  We fans need to stand up to this.  We need to stay away in droves.  We cannot come rushing back again.  When the lockout ends the entire league needs to play the entire season in empty buildings.  We can’t give them our money anymore.  We can’t watch them on television so that they can live off of that revenue stream.  We need their sponsorships to dry up and die.  We need their broadcast contracts to never, ever be renewed.

We need to let the NHL die.  Personally, I hope the next lock out never ends.  I hope they just wither and die.

To hell with them.

Collective Bargaining Bullshit

As another day draws to a close without any real progress on the NHL collective bargaining front (both sides offered proposals today, but it’s all just PR at this point) I can’t help but reiterate what I’ve been saying for the last couple of weeks.

This is all our (the fans’) fault.  All of it.

After the 2004-05 season was cancelled due to collective bargaining bullshit, we fans should have stayed away from the game in droves.  We should have punished both sides for not taking our wishes into account.  We should have made them suffer.  They cancelled the ’04-05 season.  We should have cancelled the ’05-06 season.

But we did not.  We came back in droves.  We missed our game… OUR game… so much that we came running back to the rinks and welcomed the league back as if nothing happened.  We welcomed them back with open arms, as if they hadn’t just collectively pissed all over us for an entire year.  We opened our wallets to them as if they hadn’t just taken a giant shit on us.

And this is the thanks we get.

Had we stayed away after the last lockout the league would commit suicide rather than consider another work stoppage.  They would be so terrified of losing the fans who did come back that they would never dream of closing the doors and locking us out of our game again.

But that did not happen, and now we are three days away from another lock out.

We cannot let this happen again.

There Will be No NHL Lockout for Me

I read two NHL articles on espn.com today during my lunch break.

The first, written by Katie Strang was titled No new CBA will mean lockout.  In this article NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is quoted as saying that the league will not play another season under the old labor agreement.  It says that after six weeks of negotiations there are still huge differences between what the league and players union want to do financially.  The players union has yet to enter a counter proposal to the initial league proposal which i find completely retarded.  You’ve had Six Weeks and you still haven’t responded?  I almost always side with labor in these negotiations, but in this case the waiting seems completely idiotic.  Anyway, the players have said that if no new agreement is in place when the current agreement expires on September 15th, they are willing to let the new season start while negotiations continue.

Not Bettman.  In a statement that proves without a doubt that the NHL owners and their lap dog of a puppet commissioner have zero interest in maintaining the NHL and are in fact actively trying to remove it from the face of the Earth, Gary Bettman said that if there is no new agreement in place by 9/15, the owners will lock out the players.

Now lets look at the wayback machine.  Eight years ago the NHL owners locked out the players for an entire season.  AN ENTIRE SEASON!  They cancelled a whole year while they squabbled over money.  It was disgusting.  It was vile.  It was evil.  And they didn’t give a flying leap.

The fans came back.  Much to everyone’s surprise, they came back rather quickly.  They were so happy to have their league back that they refused to punish them for their greed and lack of respect for those who actually pay for their crummy league:  The fans.

I’m just as guilty as the next idiot fan.  I came right back even though my team, the Bruins, handled the whole situation so poorly that they imploded before our very eyes and eventually traded the guy who would win the league MVP award for a bag of pucks and a broken stick blade.  It was horrible, and I came back anyway.  I did not do anything to make the league suffer for the way it insulted me the previous season.  I came back.

I will not make the same mistake twice.

The second article I read was written by Scott Burnside and it was titled, Fans should bolt if CBA halts season.  Never has a sports column resonated so deeply with me.  I agree completely.  If a single game is lost this year due to a lockout or a strike I am done with the NHL.  Not just the NHL, I will be done with hockey.  My wallet and I will carry out our sentence on all organized hockey.  No more NHL, not more AHL, no more NCAA, no Juniors, no anything.  I’m done.

I will not allow myself to be insulted again.

I have been a hockey fanatic for 20 years.  I had season tickets to an NHL team.  For years I had season tickets to an AHL team.  I used to host an NCAA hockey radio show…

And if the NHL has a work stoppage this year I will write it all off and be done.

I will not allow myself to be insulted again.