Just a reminder about some other blogs:

Looking for some insight about recent political events? Check out Justin's Flash Point Canada.

If music is more your thing, and you're looking for some succinct reviews, head to Dane's page, "You Could Sing, I Swear."

The profile links don't look like much right now, as Blogger is apparently still trying to work out the kinks. But they'll be up-and-running someday soon, I'm sure. Enjoy!


...also, as long as I'm plugging others' opinion pieces, check out James Duthie and Jay Onrait's rants at TSN.ca...these guys just slay me.

Man, the UHL just can't buy a break.

Those three letters were in the news again last week when Chad Wagner of the Danbury Trashers was banned for life, after attacking Adirondack Frostbite coach Marc Potvin. Wagner was being escorted to the penalty box at the time, when he shrugged off the referees and lunged over the bench at the opposing coach. Three other players, as well as the Danbury coach, have been suspended. Earlier in the year, the team's owner was also charged by police after punching a linesman after a game.

Before this season, I'd never even heard of the United Hockey League, and I'm sure that many other hockey fans were in the same boat. They didn't start making major headlines until NHLers began migrating in that direction, and now you hear something negative about that league at least once a week, it seems. The UHL's top brass must be wondering at this point whether a few big names were even worth the bother.

All this negative press is making the organization into something of an anathema in hockey circles. The game itself has taken such a beating in the North American market over the past year, starting with the whole Bertuzzi incident and culminating with the lockout; the last thing needed right now is a league that generates nothing but bad publicity, where people only pay attention long enough to cluck their tongues and shake their heads. Although not such a big deal here in Canada, it's terrible for the NHL's business in the United States, where attempts to sell hockey in non-traditional markets are going less-than-swimmingly. American interest is supposed to skyrocket in a few years when the first generation of southern expansion-inspired players arrives at the Entry Draft, but how many of those players are we going to see when American parents forbid their children to play a sport that is seen as vicious and dangerous?

Chris Cuthbert: the Lockout's latest casualty

As if things weren't hard enough without hockey, CBC Sports commentator and Hockey Night in Canada play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert has been fired by the CBC. The station's executive director for sports programming, Nancy Lee, has been quoted as saying "It's a regrettable decision...Chris has an extremely good reputation and he's a consummate professional. But it's important to remember that 30 people have been affected by hockey." Cuthbert has apparently been let go because there wasn't enough work for him to do, but I'm sure that a rival network will happily take him in. Read CBC's explanation of the situation here.

Chris Cuthbert appeared to be Bob Cole's successor, and indeed should probably have taken over the #1 play-by-play job on HNIC some years ago, as Cole seems to be getting rustier with age. Cuthbert gave the game an excited, enthusiastic voice that I would have loved to hear during Leafs broadcasts (the network's main event every Saturday night during hockey seasons), but he was often paired with Greg Millen or Glenn Healy, whose irritatingly rambling and bumbling colour commentary really brought down the quality of the show. (That being said, if TSN picks up Cuthbert, I hope they don't stick him with Pierre McGuire.) CBC's judgement has been getting progressively poorer over recent years; first they almost didn't renew the contracts of HNIC's lifeblood in the persons of Ron MacLean and Don Cherry, and now this. Make no mistake, any other sports network would be lucky to have him. If TSN decided to offer him a contract for the 2005-06 NHL season, they would have a dynamite pair of play-by-play men in Cuthbert and Gord Miller, which would give Hockey Night in Canada a serious run for its money as the nation's favourite hockey broadcast. At any rate, Chris Cuthbert will surely land on his feet. Best of luck to him.

As a welcome change of pace, there has been a rash of stupidity in hockey that has surfaced in the news over the last few days, and it didn't have anything to do with the lockout. To answer Justin's prayers, I'll tackle Markus Naslund's comments on Steve Moore's lawsuit first.

Long story short, Naslund has been ripping into Moore because he's launching a lawsuit in the first place. "This isn't about the hit," Naslund said about the suit. Of course it is, Markus. If there was NHL hockey to be played right now, Steve Moore wouldn't be able to participate in it because he was hit with a vicious sucker-punch, and at some time during the scrum that followed - likely when Todd Bertuzzi fell on top of him - his neck was broken. "Hockey players take hits and give hits," Naslund continued. Well, sure they do. I bet that's the first thing that Donald Brashear thought of when amateur lumberjack Marty McSorley took a swing at his head during a Canucks/Bruins game a few years ago: "Gee, that sure did hurt, and it was cheap (I should know); but getting my head taken off in a particularly brutal manner is just part of the game." Moore has lost his ability to partake in his livelihood - at least for the moment - and both Canadian and American law give him the right to seek financial restitution, whether or not his teammates indicate to Mr. Naslund that Moore "doesn't have a lot of support in hockey." This just reminds me of when Naslund whined that the seven-second delay on Coach's Corner should have been longer, because Don Cherry's comments offended him so deeply (when fellow Swede Daniel Alfredsson was asked his opinion about Grapes, he responded that he really didn't care, and that he found Cherry's quotes humourous and entertaining, if memory serves).

Meanwhile, the coach of the UHL's Motor City Mechanics has been suspended for putting a $200 bounty on the head of Flint General Kevin Kerr. Kerr expressed his displeasure with NHL "hypocrites" who came to play in the United Hockey League just a day before the incident allegedly took place, and it isn't a long leap in logic to speculate that Mechanics coach Steve Shannon wanted to get back at Kerr for badmouthing the team's new acquisitions. Shannon reportedly offered the money to his players in the hopes that one of them would take Kerr out. I find this absolutely disgusting, not just as a hockey fan or a sports fan, but as a human being. It's not the first time a coach has told his players to go headhunting, and it certainly won't be the last, but that doesn't make it any less despicable of a manoeuvre. At any rate, Shannon has been suspended for the remainder of the regular season as well as the playoffs, with assistant coach John Blum being suspended for the next 10 games. It's good to see that the league's brass are taking a no-nonsense approach, but they have to be disappointed that after the Mechanics first announced the signings of Chris Chelios and Derian Hatcher, sending a ripple of interest throughout the North American hockey community, Motor City's team has lately become a magnet for bad press (also see Feb.12 post, "Hi, I'm Sean Avery, and I can't shut my yap"). On top of all this, the team currently occupies last place in the league. I'll bet that's a fun dressing room to sit in!

Now where are we?

"Where are you?
And where am I?
We've been slipping slowly south..."--Saves The Day

Indeed.

The on-again, off-again talks between the league and the union are off again. Saturday's talks produced, in a word, nothing. At this juncture, even if they scheduled more talks for early next week, they would not be intended to save this season; stick a fork in 2004-05, folks.

The lines of communication, however, remain relatively open. There has been a lot of progress made in the last few weeks; I think both parties realize that, and hopefully don't want it to go for naught. If they can keep talking before they find themselves galvanized again, there's a chance that we'll see a full sked next season.

There is no concrete deadline for an agreement now, but you'll know it has passed when GB and BG start tossing around the rhetoric-laden barbs again. Language is a fragile thing - William Shakespeare knew it, Emily Dickinson knew it, and these guys know it. They can drone on for fifteen, twenty minutes, and by the time they're done you know they've been talking the whole time, but all you heard was "the other guy is a jerk." Whereas the two aforementioned authors managed to say a lot with a little, Gary and Bob have turned it around completely; they must have teams working on speechwriting, with other teams memorizing thesauri, and are basically just saying "write me a ten-page essay that says nothing."

Personally, as such an employee I think I'd find it hard not to write out the word "blah" as many times as it took to fill those ten pages. In as small a font as I could, so they thought I had actually worked harder. I'd get fired or get a raise, but you have to figure that working for those guys it's a wash either way, because no amount of money would be enough to put up with this kind of ridiculousness. (But I'd be willing to find out what my price was if they offered it to me, I suppose.)

Regardless, despite all their bravado and posturing, it won't be one of these two who Saves The Day <ahem>...Bill Daly and Ted Saskin are the ones whose elbow grease is covering everything that's been done to this point. Also count on outside sources like Wayne Gretzky and former NHLPA head Mike Gartner to do everything they can to help.


And just a brief beef: NBA Commissioner David Stern ripped into the NHLPA on Friday, which certainly didn't help anything. While the league and union are getting ready to conduct last-ditch talks, Stern waltzes in at the second-most inopportune time to tell the players and their executive director that they're all incompetent. Thank you, sir! Rather than tick them off and get them to stand firmer, I'm sure that comment had the desired effect of making all NHLers stare sheepishly at their toes, and Bob Goodenow hang his head and say "Gee whiz...I guess I'm just a big weiner." Gary Bettman used to work for the NBA as a deputy, and he doubtlessly has some ties to Stern, so this just looked like Daddy scolding little Bobby for being such a bully to little Gary...this is just conjecture, but I'm guessing that nobody in the NHLPA appreciated the scolding at all. Please, Mr. Stern, unless you've got something helpful to say, don't say anything at all. Tend to your own CBA, because I've gotta tell you, nobody likes it when those things expire.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the tickers at the bottom of the screen on most sports stations....the ones that show you a few words at a time instead of scrolling them across, and drive you insane waiting for the next part of the sentence? Well, I'm out at the bar last night, and one of said stations are showing on the big-screen TV. So I look up and see:

The Hockey News reports that...

Which keeps me paying attention. Then, I start to get excited when it says:

...the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to a deal...

At this point I've thrown up my arms and am staring triumphantly at the television.

...that would see hockey played in the 2004-05 season.

By now, my friends - and several other people who think I'm either drunk or insane - are looking at the TV as well, to try and figure out what I'm so ecstatic about. Then up pops:

The NHLPA denies the report.

I know, I know; I'm a sucker for repeatedly getting my hopes up. But the fact remains that at this moment, the NHL and NHLPA are at a meeting in New York City to try and hammer out a deal. That's worth raising my hopes just a little bit, I think, and I've crossed every appendage I can in a bid for a little more luck. You should too!


Also, on the "Talk About Timing!" front, it looks like that quote from The Tragically Hip (see Feb.16 post) was a lot more topical than I intended. Frontman Gord Downie is auditioning to play goalie Ken Dryden in a television miniseries about the 1972 Summit Series, where Dryden of course played for Team Canada, sharing the goaltending duties with fellow future Hall-of-Famer Tony Esposito. Tryouts are being conducted in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and whether Downie makes the cut or not, looks like it should be an interesting production.

"How to Torment Yourself by Not Letting It Go," a comprehensive guide.

Apparently the fat lady hasn't hit that high C yet, because there are reports that the NHL season might not be kaput after all. TSN is reporting that several of hockey's most notable men are doing their best to uncancel the season, a problem that NHL VP Bill Daly says he'd "love to have". The list thus far includes Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux (relatively uninvolved so far, but I'm sure wild horses couldn't keep him away), and - ta-dah! - Wayne Gretzky...however, keep in mind that this story was taken in turn from The Hockey News, and neither Lemieux or Gretzky have said that they are involved in these kinds of talks. (Just in case you were getting your hopes up...I know I was.)

I've also heard rumblings that a small group of players, including Brendan Shanahan, is calling for Bob Goodenow to get the axe; there's no way he keeps his job after this, if the players know what's good for them. Last time the players lost this much faith in the Executive Director of the players' union, I think his name was Alan Eagleson...

"The more money we come across..."

About to pour myself some hot apple cider before I sat down to write this, I reached for my Maple Leafs mug out of habit. Then I thought twice, put it back, and grabbed the one that reads, "If today was a fish, I'd throw it back."

Oh, buddy. It's over.

To address Justin's comment on the economic viability of the National Hockey League...well, it wasn't very financially strong to begin with, and has been on a steady downward spiral ever since Gary Bettman became commissioner. You could search forever and have a hard time finding one person - besides his mother, I'm sure - who thinks he's done a good job. This is why I've joined the masses in screaming for the occupational heads of both GB and BG, because their constant squabbling has cost all of hockey's fans an entire season, and has put a huge scar on the face of the game.

That being said, the NHL will be back, and probably in 2005-06. They might not play a full schedule, but there will be hockey played. The league will likely have a very different look, however:

• The expansion class of 1993 (Florida Panthers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) is in big trouble. The only reason these teams - along with the Hurricanes and the Predators - are still here is because Gary Bettman seems to have an obsession with the number 30, no matter what it does to the league's talent level. These two teams were in danger of folding before, and the longer we go without a CBA, the worse it gets; the Ducks don't even own their arena, so they have absolutely no revenue coming in, and they're up for sale right now. Would you invest in an airplane that's currently airborne, but has lost all its engines?
• Rule changes will abound. Goalie pads will shrink, no-touch icing and tag-up offsides (bring them back!) might finally be accepted...and just to suck up to the fans, the owners will push the shootout idea like it's going out of style. Gross.
• Look for a new NHL logo. It's an idea they toyed with several months ago, but when you change your appearance, you risk alienating your fans. Guess what? Those fans have been alienated, so change away! But don't think that it'll make anyone forget about 2004-05.

As for the fans, they'll be back, it'll just take a while. Places like Toronto and Detroit won't even notice there was a lockout in terms of ticket sales; Nashville and Carolina, however, will be in big trouble (if they're even still around when play resumes). I'd be surprised if Tampa Bay can fill their building for the raising of the Stanley Cup banner; expect a full house in Calgary, though. Make no mistake, it will take years for the NHL to rebuild to the level they were at before - as paltry as it was - but it shouldn't suffer like baseball, which is still recuperating from 1994. Let's face it, in the right markets, the NHL is still a big-time sport, and it's easier to find 16 000 fans than it is to find the 45 000-ish it takes to fill a Major League Baseball stadium, especially since hockey ticket prices should drop substantially if the "N" knows what's good for 'em.

But should time prove me wrong, well, I hear they're trying to start up the WHA again for next year...

"Fireworks exploding in the distance..."

Well, that's it. Just a few minutes ago, Gary Bettman announced the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season. Nothing fancy, just a prepared statement with the obligatory "it is my sad duty to announce" stuff, and then a question period that spiraled into the same old rhetoric. That's when I turned off the TV.

The saddest part is how much progress was made in the last couple days...the NHLPA accepted a salary cap, and the NHL dropped linkage from the agreement. Expect those concessions to disappear when negotiations start back up. I could start in with the "if only" business, but I think you'll agree that there's no point, because who hasn't heard it already? In the next few days, I imagine there's going to be a fair bit of mudslinging, but hopefully they get past that quickly enough to start negotiations in time to have a deal done for 2005-06.

I'd also be surprised if this whole debacle doesn't cost Bettman, Goodenow, or both of them their jobs; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of their lives. (What I mean to say is, it might take a few years, but they're both going to lose a lot of credibility over this, and personally I'd rather see Bill Daly and Ted Saskin at the heads of their respective organizations...but the Casablanca quote was just too hard to resist.)

To conclude, I'd like to leave you with a quote from a song I've listened to a lot today:

"You said you didn't give a f*** about hockey,
And I never saw someone say that before."--The Tragically Hip, 'Fireworks'

Well, there are certainly going to be a lot more people saying that very same thing about hockey after this, that's for sure.

Well, the NHLPA finally caved on the salary cap issue, and the NHL gave ground on the linkage between revenues and player costs, so now it's purely a numbers game. The Players' Association made an offer of a $52 million cap on player salaries, which the league has countered with a $42.5 M offer. GB also gave BG (confused? See Jan.19 post) until 11 AM Eastern Time Wednesday morning to agree, in a letter which was also leaked to the media. The league insists that there will be no more bargaining at this point; we're looking at a take-it-or-leave-it offer here, so let's hope that the players can swallow their collective pride.

Maybe in a few years, if someone wants to make a movie about the CBA meetings presided over by league VP Bill Daly and Senior NHLPA director Ted Saskin, they can call it Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, or perhaps Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey...you know, depending on how this whole thing plays out.

"Hi, I'm Sean Avery, and I can't shut my yap."

In the last couple weeks, a lot of NHL players have been joining teams in the United Hockey League, a North American minor league that employs a salary cap. How hypocritical is this? Those NHLers claim that they just want to get some ice time playing some actual competitive hockey, but they're playing under the same system that they won't accept from the NHL. Besides this, UHLers make a few hundred dollars a week, so the ones who are losing ice time are understandably ticked off. No matter what your opinion is about players joining so-called "elite leagues" in Europe and bumping other professional players off the roster, I think everyone can see how these guys, who are playing minor hockey and making just enough money to get through the season so they can go home and work regular jobs in the summer, would be angry that professionals are climbing way down the rungs of the competition ladder because they were bored of playing shinny with each other.

One of the NHLers who has joined the UHL's Motor City Mechanics, Sean Avery, also recently revealed himself as a callous hypocrite for his comments regarding the UHL and the state of the NHL. Any angry UHLer should "work harder until he's good enough to make the NHL then I won't be able to take his job," Avery stated. Funny thing is, he must have figured out that this is the highest level of hockey most of these guys will ever attain, and they have families to support off their $500-per-week paycheques. If you're going to play with these guys, fine, but don't say stupid things like that to justify your decision. Instead, follow their example and find the most competitive hockey you can play; we know the money doesn't matter at this point (why else would you play under a salary cap?), so step aside for the people to whom the money does matter. Avery went on to say that the NHL "can eliminate a lot of Europeans who are mediocre and are taking a lot of jobs." Huh? Seems to me that if they're good enough to make the NHL - like these UHLers should apparently be trying to do - then they've earned the right to stay, haven't they? Whose jobs are they taking? Maybe the players who aren't quite good enough to make the cut? I mean, at this point I'm just blogging about this for the sheer joy of it; this guy writes articles all by himself. I wonder who does his material?

Moving on, a sports writer by the name of Jim Kernaghan stated in a recent column that UHL players should be more than happy to play alongside NHLers. Well, that's the impression you get from the headline, anyway; he mostly goes on about how neat-o it is that these big-leaguers came down to play with the little people, and this one goalie is glad because his team has NHL defensemen, so obviously it's a great idea! "The UHL has never seen as much media attention and full houses for a last place visiting team is a clear bonus. It's players ought to enjoy it while it lasts," Kernaghan writes. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure that a big crowd isn't going to make sitting on the bench feel any better. As for the home team when the Mechanics come to town, well, they're no longer going to think they're the home team when everyone's cheering for Chris Chelios and pals, are they? Now, you could understand why the owners might appreciate the business the Motor City Mechanics bring with them. But Mr.Kernaghan, when you inform a player that he should be glad to either sit on the bench if he's a teammate, or to be made to look like a fool when one of the world's top hockey players stickhandles effortlessly past him, you're kind of reaching. And I'm pretty sure there are a lot of players in the United Hockey League who would agree with me.

The countdown is on...

...and it started yesterday afternoon, when Gary Bettman informed the NHLPA that if there were no meaningful discussions going on by the weekend, the season would be cancelled. This came on the heels of a new proposal by the NHL, one that was almost immediately rejected by the Players' Association (which I might as well refer to simply as "Bob Goodenow," since there is a lot of evidence that he speaks for a very small - but rich - minority of players).

The gist of the newest proposal is that the league would start out with a luxury tax-style system, modeled after a plan that came from the players. This new proposal would turn into a salary cap system if one of four triggers was met, with those triggers being:

• 55% of league revenue is paid out as player salaries
• three or more teams have payrolls above $42 M (USD)
• the average of three highest payrolls is 33% higher than the average of the three lowest
• average team compensation exceeds $36.5 M

You can read TSN's full outline of the NHL's latest proposal here.

Now, Bob might have been a little hasty in flat-out rejecting this. And by "might have been a little hasty," I mean "good Lord, what was he thinking?" They could easily have spent the next few days negotiating on the finer points of the triggers, instead of scrapping the proposal and starting again at ground level. Goodenow had trouble with the fact that three teams already have payrolls above $42 mil. Well geez, Bob, negotiate it higher! What kind of a lawyer are you? The reality is - and Gary Bettman laid this out for the union, too - that when they start negotiating again in September, the deals aren't going to look anywhere near this good. Plus, by that point all the players have lost a year's salary. When it takes another four months to get a deal, some of them are going to be in rough shape financially; maybe not the Jagrs or the Forsbergs, but definitely the Dagenaises and the Bouchards.

At any rate, the union's unwillingness to even look for a compromise on this latest deal is disheartening at best. But on the upside, they only have to pretend to care for a couple more days...

Well, I realized today that I haven't posted here in some time...I really was hoping that my next post would read, "Well, they've got a CBA agreement, so let's play some hockey and give me something to write about!" Alas, the NHL keeps on getting my hopes up by holding talks and making proposals, but then you hear that the 'PA stormed out of those talks because the proposals were nowhere near acceptable. Unfortunately for me, I'm one of a dwindling number of fans who actually seem to miss the NHL-level game, and not one of the people who say "just cancel it, already." I don't care if they play a period and a half of hockey before the playoffs start, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GIVE ME SOME HOCKEY.

...Okay, a period and a half might not be enough to have what one might call a "meaningful season," which leads me to ask: exactly how many games do they need to make it meaningful? Some consider that number to be around 40; however, after the last lockout, they had a 48-game season, and I've heard people call that pointless/unmeaningful/tasty. (Okay, the "tasty" thing never came up.)

---NOTE---As I'm writing this, TSN is reporting that the NHL came up with a new proposal to the Union, and it's already been rejected. Quel surprise! Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging...

At the moment, the NHL is rumoured to have scenarios planned out for seasons that could see between 25 and 35 games played, in the event that the lockout ended today. Some players see this as pointless; according to TSN, Brett Hull has already called it "ridiculous." Then again, Brett Hull likes to complain about things to get his name in the paper, so let's not pay him too much attention. Personally, I wouldn't mind if the season saw as few as 18-22 games: each team plays every other team in its conference once, except for teams in its division, which it would play twice or thrice. Of course, then the playoffs seem ridiculously long by comparison, so you run into a problem there. That could be solved by including only the top 4 teams in each conference - which once again creates another problem for those people who would like to see the hockey playoffs interfere with the baseball playoffs (or at least the baseball All-Star Game).

Another possible scenario is to hold a tournament for the Stanley Cup (I know, tournaments are all we've seen over the past year, but Lord help me, I like 'em). One game against each team in the conference, and the best eight records on each side advance to a single-game (or best-of-three, to make it a little less drastic) elimination round. Sure, there's lots of room for upsets in a format that's not as forgiving as the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs, but what's wrong with an upset? All it does is show us the fallibility of those teams that thought they were such hot stuff to begin with (see: 2002 Detroit Red Wings).


Readers, got any suggestions for what a possible season should look like if it started today? Either of you? That's what the Comments box is for, so go to town!