Tag: NHL

The Black Plague: Day Twenty-One

It’s official.  The flu/cold/plague symptoms have now been with us for three full weeks.  Hoo-freakin’-Ray!

After visiting the emergency room last week, Jen was not seeing any improvement so she went to see her primary care.  He gave a better explanation of the situation and prescribed yet another new antibiotic (her fourth since this all started) and a steroid.  Nice.  My wife is going to smash the long ball, just like Barry Bonds!

I’m still congested.  I still have a cough.  Neither is as bad as it was three weeks ago, but they are all still sticking around.  I had a bit of a tough night sleeping last night.  The cough woke me up a couple of times.  Last week I thought I was 90% well.  Now I’ll put it at 70% well.  My health is currently getting a C-.

We are having a post-holiday, holiday party with Larry and Mike and families this weekend.  I am going to be well enough to go to that party, even if it kills me!  My health needs to be at least at a C+.  I can do it.  Hear that, immune system?  I have confidence that you can stop sucking just enough for me to spend an evening with my family and my friends all in the same place together.  You can do it, immune system.  You can do it!

Did you hear that hockey is coming back?  (yes, that was a sudden change of subject)  Baseball pitchers and catchers are less than two months away from reporting to spring training as well.  The days of no sports to watch but football (yawn) and basketball (zzz zzz zzz) are coming to an end.I am still furious with the NHL.  That is not going to go away.  When it comes to holding a grudge about pro sports labor disputes, I am the king.  I am still fuming over the 1981 baseball players strike.  Because of that stupid thing, the stats on my 1982 Topps baseball cards did not include 162 games for that season.  Dwight Evans only got to play something like 104 games.  That sucked and I’m still pissed.

Anyway, I think one of the reasons why I am so much more upset about this lockout than the last one (don’t get me wrong, I was steaming with rage last time too) is that last time I had an AHL team to distract me.  The Lowell Lock Monsters.  Eric Staal.  Chuck Kobasew (sp? sorry Chuck).  Damn, what a great team we had that year.  While everyone else was boiling over with rage about not having hockey, there were maybe one thousand or so people in the Greater Lowell area who had Monsters season tickets.  No, it was not the same as having the NHL, but it did keep our hockey minds occupied for that black hole of a season.

100_1851

I could have followed Worcester, or Providence this time, but I still have that old Lowell loyalty. Be it the Lock Monsters or the Devils that replaced them, I loved AHL hockey in Lowell. For the record, there was no way I would ever have followed Manchester. That would be like rooting for the Yankees in the Red Sox absence. It would never, ever happen. In fact, I talked to my gorgeous wife Jennifer about maybe going to a game in Manchester, but I made it clear I would be rooting for the visiting team.

Lock Monster hockey, it’s alive! (or at least it was back then when I needed it)

Drop the Puck

I have such mixed feelings about the end of the NHL lockout.  I love hockey so much.  I bleed black and gold.  I am a Boston Bruins fanatic.  I hang on every shift, every play, every pass, every check, every shot, every save, every goal.  Damn it, I love this friggin game!

But they hurt me again.  The hurt me eight years ago when they cancelled a whole season, yet this time hurts me even more.  I guess it’s knowing that I am partly to blame this time.  I came back last time and this year I paid for my lack of vision.

I believe in my heart that three lockouts under the current commissioner proves that the league is fundamentally broken and must be allowed to fail.  Then a new league, one that cares about its customers and does not take them for granted or use them as bargaining chips, can rise from the ashes of the old.

But damn it if I don’t love my Bruins and damn me for wanting to see them play this year.

020

001

075

2010-09-14 - Rush at TD Garden 001

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.