NHL season cancelled...

[Bradford]

And my wifes best friend wanted to be a coyote when it opened in ATL, but I told her she did not need to work at Coyote Ugly to be one, she had that deal sealed.

I'm thinking we need a picture to adequately make that judgement

Bradford

 

[nightowl6261a]

She might break the camera....haven't got one.

 

[PeterMetro]

I've always been more of a college hockey fan than the pro game (with the exception of the playoffs).

It's easy being from Boston, as the Big East is the best conference in the country (take THAT Dakota Rube WCHA? Please). Now that I live in NYC, they don't play any college hockey games on TV. And even though I myself played at NYU, we were so bad that even I won't go see them.

What's a puck fan to do...

 

[Dakota rube]

PM: If I weren't such a gentleman I'd point out how many times the WCHA has kicked Hockey East's collective ass (notice I'm not berating you for thinking the Big East is a hockey conference), not only in the Frozen Four, but in regular season action as well. If I weren't such a gentleman, that is. Â

And college hockey is sooooo much better than the NHL. On that we certainly agree.

 

[matadorpoeta]

i don't know the first thing about hockey and i honestly couldn't care less about it, but i just wanted to comment because one of the early posters said a salary cap was inevitable.

why do you think that? baseball and professional soccer (at least in other countries) do not have salary caps. they work on a capitalist free-market system: the best players go to the highest bidder.

i would think that most people would be against a salary cap for that reason.

 

[PeterMetro]

PM: If I weren't such a gentleman I'd point out how many times the WCHA has kicked Hockey East's collective ass (notice I'm not berating you for thinking the Big East is a hockey conference), not only in the Frozen Four, but in regular season action as well. If I weren't such a gentleman, that is. Â

And college hockey is sooooo much better than the NHL. On that we certainly agree.

Hockey East - excuse me. I'd actually love to debate hockey, it's the only chance I'll have to do so this year. Of course, we'll keep it civil: I will admit that the WCHA is having a particularly good year - Denver, CC, Ohio State, Minnesota and Wisconsin are all ranked in the top 10, while only BC and UNH from Hockey East are represented. It's pretty amazing that 7 of the top 10 schools come from only 2 conferences. But I submit that BC is still the best team in the country. Funny, I don't hear much about the Fighting Sioux...

 

[Dakota rube]

Yes, BC is having a great year. A real good ranking system to keep an eye on, especially as NCAAs approach, is the PairWise, which pretty closely mimics the NCAA's seeding criteria. BC shows up in 2nd, as they do in the polls. http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pwr.php It is astounding to me how solid the WCHA is, really from top to bottom (well, except for St. Cloud, but they'll never be good). Anchorage smacked Minnesota; Tech smacked Minnesota. As to North Dakota, I'm an alum, and hold season tickets one row up from the ice. Sweet arena. Struggling team. They've finally solved the goalie situation, and now can't score a goal to save their souls. Their goals-against is the same this year as it was last year, but they're scoring about two fewer goals per game than 03-04. The Sioux lost two incredible scorers to the AHL, Parise and Bochenski. Their 3rd leading scorer from last season has missed nearly 20 games this year with knee and shoulder ills. Finally, this weekend, they'll play with a full bench, although they had to travel to Alaska-Anchorage. Playing Anchorage right now is very scary, especially if a team is having trouble scoring. It will be fun to see who gets seeded where into the NCAAs. If my Sioux can win a couple more games they'll make the tourney. I think the numbers favor a WCHA team winning it all again this year, but tourney time is funny. The Sioux were clearly the best team in the country last year and they lost in the regionals on a fluke goal to the eventual national champ. I'll cheer for BU until they meet the Sioux, which might be in Columbus, either semis or the final.

 

[Drew]

Hockey is a BIG deal up here, and I am a fan. I actually prefer college hockey over the pros, but I am disappointed in the NHL's cancellation.

I blame both sides, but place most on the shoulders of that puny little geek, Gary Bettman, the commissioner. He used to work for the NBA and thought he could bring what he learned there into the NHL. Several problems with that theory:

1. Hockey remains largely a regional sport. Outside the snowbelt I would wager most fans are transplants. When the Tampa Bay Lightning went to the Stanley Cup final a year ago they did so without selling out their home arena once all year. Hockey in Florida? That's like expecting haute fashion in North Dakota (oh....never mind.)

2. The owners put themselves in the position of losing money; they signed HUGE contracts with no possible way to raise revenues enough to cover the payroll. No big TV deal to bail themselves out.

3. Too damn many teams.

I think there is a real possibility that the NHL will not come back in its present form. I would not be surprised at all to see the players try to form their own league. I know they tried that last autumn, but I think there is a loyal audience (within a few hundred miles of the US/Canada border) that will support a small league staffed by big name players.

It is VERY sad that two different classes of people are being irreparably harmed here: the working stiffs employed by the teams (most of whom have been out of work since September) and at arenas; and the sort of so-so hockey players in the middle of the skill and pay continuum. These players won't be back if and when the NHL comes back because they have non-guranteed contracts, and will be replaced by young stars just out of college or juniors signed to lower contracts.

I hope Bettman gets run over by a NYC cab this afternoon on his way to the bar to gloat over his "accomplishment".

It doesn't help small-market Canadian teams that contracts are drafted in US dollars. Towns like Winnipeg should have NHL franchises. Phoenix, Miami, and Tampa don't need them. What it needs is a revenue-sharing system like the NFL, which year-in, year-out can sustain small-market franchises. Without revenue-sharing, teams like the Green Bay Packers would never survive (and as a Bear fan, this would not be such a bad thing, either.)

As a native Chicagoan and Blackhawk lifer, I blame Dollar Bill Wirtz as much as Bettman. We've had to deal with his hijinks of the Blackhawks owner for years, from dealing away Bobby Hull to not running players out of town all through the 90s like Jeremy Roenick, Ed Belfour, Chris Chelios, Joe Murphy, Bernie Nicholls, Steve Larmer, just to name a few. What smarts for the league is Dollar Bill's high-ranking position in the league.

Because of Wirtz, ESPN rated the Blackhawks as the worst franchise in professional sports, which is a crying shame because of the inherent benefits that such a franchise possesses by virtue of Chicago being the third-largest city in the US and an Original Six franchise.

It was said that more than two-thirds of the teams agreed to the terms offered by the players union. Two of the 8 holdouts, publicly speculated by ESPN, were Chicago and Boston.

The league would be a different and better picture if Wirtz were crossing the street with Bettman when that cab comes barreling through Times Square, and only Bettman could be revived.

 

[Dakota rube]

A friend of mine played for the Blackhawks for a number of years, never making very much money. He was left unsigned, went elsewhere and played a couple more years and made a big pile of money. He dearly missed Chicago (the city, not the team) and ended up back there when he retired. Still lives there.

You are absolutely correct in assessing at least equal blame to team owners, they hired Bozo.

I hope both sides will come to their senses and make something happen before summer. As it stands now there will be no draft, which will further complicate matters.

When and if the league plays again, I'd love to see them open up the game to bring back some of the excitement we used to enjoy: lose the red line, start calling obstruction and holding again, and maybe reduce the size of goalie equipment.

Hockey is a great game; it is too bad the NHL forgot that.

 

[nightowl6261a]

Hockey is a great game; it is too bad the NHL forgot that.

Didn't you mean the players, why do owners always get treated as the bad guys?

 

[Dakota rube]

Didn't you mean the players, why do owners always get treated as the bad guys?

The owners don't always get treated as the bad guys, but in this case the situation is of their own making.

They over-expanded the league beyond the game's financial ability to sustain itself (tiny television revenue, limited marketing potential, limited live audiences);

They signed what can only be called insane contracts with players over the last four or five years, further eroding their own financial situations;

They chose, months beforehand, to lock out the players;

They chose to hang their new collective bargaining agreement on one issue, and wouldn't even meet to negotiate as long as the players had a different take on the subject (although at the 11th hour both sides backed away from their "drop-dead" points); and

They said they'll lose less money not playing the season than they would if forced to run the league under the old CBA.

(To be fair, "they" is not all 30 club owners; if truth were told, I'm guessing this is six or seven owners driving the bus.)

The players are not without fault, certainly. But the owners deserve the lion's share of blame here.

 

[PeterMetro]

Well Dakota, looks like we'll have some trash talking material soon. The tourney is featuring 2 WCHA/Hockey East match ups this week.

BU v. North Dakota
Maine v. Minnesota

I like my Terriers over ND, but I gotta think MN will do away with Maine...

 

[Dakota rube]

Let the trash-talking begin. Should be a whale of a game Friday. North Dakota played a great three games at the WCHA Final Five. They are really banged up: Brady Murray, a real playmaker, who missed about half the season with knee and shoulder problems, re-dinged the shoulder Friday and didn't play Saturday in the 3rd place game. Robbie Bina, a small but very physical defenseman, is in the hospital with a broken neck after receiving a blatant cheap shot from a Denver U goon. Mike Prpich, the team agitator, dinged his shoulder Thursday and hasn't played since. The Sioux beat Minnesota Saturday for third place, and basically just wore down the Gophers. Huge win. Minnesota came out of the weekend short-benched as well: lost a defenseman with a broken wrist, and lost their leading scorer in a really strange incident; some mental or emotional melt down. (I will email you a movie of it if you want; PM me) I understand BU is a little dinged up as well, and didn't have a very good weekend. I'm predicting Minnesota will actually lose to Maine. The Sioux will win a squeaker against BU 3-1 (with an ENG). Then a tough, tough Regional Final against BC. That one will go into overtime, 3-2 with the Sioux winning an emotional upset. Â

 

[Dakota rube]

SHAMELESS BUMP ALERT............ Just have to let all SFers know the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux schooled the Puppies of Boston U this evening in the NCAA East Regional hockey semis...4-0.

(We know return to our regularly scheduled posting...)

 

[PeterMetro]

What can I say? An all WCHA Frozen Four? Hockey East goes 0-4 against WCHA teams? Just an ugly, ugly weekend. On the plus side, none of it was even mentioned on SportsCenter.