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The NHL Thread, 2012/2013 season

Posted on my team's board but felt it was pertinent:

While both sides have managed these negotiations horribly (not to mention the PR side of things), I just cannot understand the players positioning. Yes, I know this is a labor negotiation and I know that they feel that, yet again, they are the ones being asked to sacrifice. Yet the lack of understanding of the cold hard factual reality is astonishing. They have allowed Donald Fehr to lead them down a path where a work stoppage is nearly unavoidable. With all the rhetoric (from both sides), compromise will make the compromiser look foolish at best and idiotic at worst.

The players have offered some very interesting options - creative revenue sharing plans, maintaining the concept of the cap, "buying cap space" periodically, etc. But in the end, this is all about what piece of the pie each party gets. In the real world of business (yes, boys and girls, the NHL is a business) risk = reward. In the business of sports, the business risk is shouldered almost entirely by the owners....and don't give me that crap about players risking their bodies, blah, blah, blah....they get to play a kids sport for incredible amounts of money. Who among us wouldn't take 4th liners' money to do the same if we could? And in the end, the deal to be had is somewhere near the mythical 50/50 split range.

Yup, there's a revenue sharing component, some player safety issues, and minor tweaking of RFA/UFA/ELC timeframes and rules. But when they get the revenue split right, this deal gets done over a weekend.

But here's the frustrating piece in all of this. We are going to lose hockey games because one of these parties can't figure out the single central issue. That issue is that the owners will always have the winning hand in these negotiations. Once a lockout starts the players lose any crumbs of leverage that they might have had. The owners have proven that they are more than willing to toss out a season to get the financial deal that they want. Somebody please tell me how the players come out on top in this deal. They lose a year of their hockey playing careers. They devalue their standing as advertising pitchmen. They are equal participants in what will most likely be a stalling or even a decline in the growth of the sport (the only real way that real salaries for all players continue to escalate).

It doesn't matter whose side you're on. Who is the bigger jerk, Fehr or Bettman. Who has the fans support. In the end the owners can always hold out and will ultimately get something much closer to what they have offered and what they want. It is just the way that it is. The other larger set of losers in this deal are you and me....the fans. I just don't know how to express how disappointed I am that these billionaires and millionaires play with my loyalties and emotions. I want to be able to say, "If you collude to create lost hockey games, then I won't ever watch again". But I know I'd be fooling myself....I'm sure the vast majority of you all feel the same. It is next to impossible of conceiving of giving up the sport I have come to love so much.

So please remember NHLPA, life and labor negotiations are never fair. Suck it up Sidney, Alex, Bobby, and Eric....you're going to come out on the short end of this deal eventually. So please learn from the last time and make the best deal that you can sooner rather than later. Because this fan knows that, in the end, a lost season must be placed at the feet of the players....no matter how big of a turd Gary Bettman is. It's all about the Golden Rule....he who has the gold, makes the rules.
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We should all grow lockout beards. :laughing
 
Massive truth from The Heckler (.com) today:

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Sadly, they're MLBing themselves and appear to either think that it's worth it, or that's not the case.
 
I hope the whole season gets cancelled at this point. I want all my Season ticket money refunded and I won't be renewing.

FK the NHL. I'll go support the Bulls or just continue to play recreational to get my fix.
 
Akira-R said:
I hope the whole season gets cancelled at this point. I want all my Season ticket money refunded and I won't be renewing.

FK the NHL. I'll go support the Bulls or just continue to play recreational to get my fix.
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Will be interesting how that is dealt with.
 
Akira-R said:
I hope the whole season gets cancelled at this point. I want all my Season ticket money refunded and I won't be renewing.
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One of the reasons I didn't renew this year was because I knew there was gonna be a lockout. Of course the Sharks rep didn't agree with me.

I think at least half the season will be lost and most likely the whole season. Donald Fehr has bamboozled the players into thinking that they have way more leverage than they really do. Unless they cave soon, the season will be lost and next summer the players will bend over, take up the keister and wonder why they ever trusted Mr. Fehr in the first place.
 
Meanwhile my Twitter account is blowing up with player updates making their ways to the KHL, primarily those of Russian ties; Malkin, Gonchar, and Kovalchuk to name a few.


It's fucking amazing.......the NHL has NEVER been as popular as it is right now, then this bullshit has happened. Lockout was completely avoidable to boot.
 
B-Cuz said:
Meanwhile my Twitter account is blowing up with player updates making their ways to the KHL, primarily those of Russian ties; Malkin, Gonchar, and Kovalchuk to name a few.


It's fucking amazing.......the NHL has NEVER been as popular as it is right now, then this bullshit has happened. Lockout was completely avoidable to boot.
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Actually the NHL picked up HUGE momentum in the 90s only to be killed off by the..............



04-05 lockout :rolleyes


some people never learn....:rolleyes
 
>>>>>>>>>>>
The National Hockey League announced today the cancellation of all September pre-season games.
 
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