It's official. There will be no hockey.

"DeeEss57" wrote:
> Gary Bettman is blaming the players' union for not coming to
> an agreement. He blames them for their unwillingness to
> negotiate a salary cap to fix the economic problems of the game.

And he's right. Can't believe I'm agreeing with him, but I'm with the
League/Owners on this one. The NHL should be all about THE GAME, not
millionaires on skates. Cost-certainty is important for the future, which
makes some kind of Salary Cap necessary. What burns me up even more is that
the League made 8 proposals in the last six-months. The NHLPA made a
whopping total of one (1) proposal, and that was two days before the
expiration-date!

So technically, it's a "lockout" rather than a "strike". But I think it's
the right thing to do. If the NHLPA isn't prepared to do what's necessary
to keep the teams from losing money, then the hell with it. After a certain
amount of missed-games, the NHL can legally disband the NHLPA and then
proceed to hire their own players without group-representation. Then we'll
have teams comprised of players who are there because they WANT TO PLAY.

The NHLPA could have avoided the Lockout, if they weren't so inanely
stubborn about their definition of a Salary Cap. The League was offering
that 50% of all Revenues would go to player salaries. I find it hard to
feel sorry for average salaries dropping to $1,300,000 per year. So when
the NHLPA is dissolved, it won't bother me when players lose their
representation. Let them go into the workforce and find jobs for
five-figures like most people.

p.s. Despite my stance on this issue, I still think that Bettman is a clown
and should be replaced. True leadership would have taken much more decisive
action to prevent this situation from ever happening...
 >> Stay informed about: It's official. There will be no hockey. 

"Jason" <voronore.RemoveThis@no.spam> writes:

>Texans seem pretty proud of their hockey-teams over the last ten years or
>so. But we'll see what it's like in another ten years. The Stars added a
>lot of exposure and currently the sport is riding the wave of those
>feelings -- but will it prove to be just a trend? This is the kind of thing
>that the NHL was hoping for when it started moving/expanding teams in the
>south. More exposure = more fans = more future players/fans. Hopefully
>it'll work out, and I admit that it's cool to hear from new fans.

We're on the same page on that one, even if I'm not exactly a new fan. (I got
to see the original CHL Houston Apollos, back when the CHL was arguably the
second-best league in the world.)

>In any case, whomever started this thread was wrong -- though it's a common
>mistake and one that the NHLPA/NHL loves to see. I don't know about the
>rest of the country, but not having an NHL season hardly mean "no hockey" in
>Minnesota. It just means "less hockey on television so get your fix on
>weekends, and go see high school games during the week".

That's one thing I like about Minnesota -- the wife and I came up to see the
Aeros and Moose in St. Paul (which dates this pretty well), and the day before
the Sunday night game, we were at the MoA on the last day of the
tournament...and every establishment in the mall had at least one TV carrying
the game. Talk about having those priorities in *order*. ;-) (That season
was the first in a while, I heard, that neither of the finalists in the
top-division championship were from the Cities. It was Duluth East against
Moorhead, even if I don't remember who won.)

>Go Huskies!

If club-level college hockey grows a bit in Houston, we might have a team
answering to that -- HBU (Houston Baptist University), believe it or not. It
wouldn't be that much of a stretch -- Baylor's had a club team for at least a
couple of seasons.

--
Patrick "The Chief Instigator" Humphrey (patrick@io.com) Houston, Texas
www.chiefinstigator.us.tt/aeros.php (TCI's 2004-05 Houston Aeros)
 >> Stay informed about: It's official. There will be no hockey. 

"Jason" <voronore DeleteThis @no.spam> wrote in message
news:rNs5d.119730$D%.29461@attbi_s51...
>
> p.s. Despite my stance on this issue, I still think that Bettman is a
> clown and should be replaced. True leadership would have taken much more
> decisive action to prevent this situation from ever happening...
>
>

Jason
It is not about leadership with the NHL this time, It would not matter who
was the commissioner of the NHL.
The lock out would have happened anyway, The NHLPA wanted the NHL to lay
down and give them everything and has no plans on giving in to the
NHL.(right now)...but after one season lost and the next facing another lock
out I think the players will start to think that a cap is not so bad idea
and the NHLPA will have to give in on it.

You have 10 team right now that are looking at going under and with the lock
out at least five may not make it through this. Disney has the Ducks for
sale and the only buyer right now wants to move them to KC and maybe has
plans on bringing back the Blades.
 >> Stay informed about: It's official. There will be no hockey. 

I think he meant no NHL hockey

--
~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~
Al
www.WildHockeyFan.Com
www.HockeyMinnesota.com
www.MinnesotaBeagles.com
~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~
"Jason" <voronore.RemoveThis@no.spam> wrote in message
news:LZm5d.260129$mD.35307@attbi_s02...
> "Patrick Lee Humphrey" <patrick.RemoveThis@io.com> wrote:
> > It might be the best chance you get at seeing hockey this
> > season, unless the lockout continues and ESPN picks up
> > the occasional AHL game as a filler...
>
> PLENTY of hockey to be seen around here. The WCHA will start up in a few
> weeks, and that's just as much fun as watching the NHL. The only problem
> is that they play Fri/Sat and nothing the rest of the week. So I figure
> that I'll find a local High School team and start following their season.
> Girls or Boys doesn't matter -- what the NHLPA hasn't figured out is it's
> all about the GAME, not the names.
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: It's official. There will be no hockey.