f13.net

NEW YORK (April 20, 2005) - The Board of Governors met in New York for approximately four hours today, after which Commissioner Bettman conducted a brief news conference that included the following remarks regarding the Board's position going forward:

"What we have said consistently is, we're planning on having a season. That doesn't change. We're planning on opening on time. That doesn't change. What we're making clear, though, is the circumstances under which this will come about: We're still planning on going forward, we're still planning on opening a season on time, but we're making clear that we're not going to open on time if we don't have a new CBA with our players."

Gaggle of assgrabbing, tight-fisted, spoiled, myopic fucktards is the only way I can describe the entire hockey situation. all professional sports.

Baseball is the only thing worth a damn right now, and even that drags during the weekends.

So I watch golf.

Ugh.  Opera > Baseball > Golf.  And I loathe opera.

Golf is great on the weekends. It's something you can watch while playing WoW and not miss anything.

If I could figure out a way to level in WoW while hacking my way around a golf course, I would be a happy man.

Hockey is for pussies.  Watch boxing.

Hockey is for pussies.  Watch boxing.

I prefer to watch sports in which the outcome is not predetermined by a thug in a fright wig, kthx.

Gretzky reportedly to coach Coyotes (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7804338)
Hall of Famer would move from front office to bench
Updated: 12:43 p.m. ET May 10, 2005

MESA, Ariz. - Phoenix Coyotes managing partner Wayne Gretzky has agreed to become the next coach of the team, the East Valley Tribune reported Tuesday.

The Great One and the Coyotes have worked out a three-year contract extension that moves him from the front office to the bench, the newspaper reported, citing well-placed NHL sources. An announcement could come as early as next week.

Gretzky was first approached by Coyotes general manager Mike Barnett about coaching before the NHL Entry Draft in June. The rumors then began swirling regarding the possible move over the summer.

Last month Gretzky reiterated his interest in coaching Phoenix, but said that he would not do so should the NHL choose to employ replacement players if a new collective bargaining agreement wasn’t reached before the upcoming season.

Rumors also circulated in recent months regarding the possibility of Gretzky leaving Phoenix to join the New York Rangers’ front office.

Rick Bowness, who took over the bench on an interim basis when Bob Francis was fired during the 2003-04 season, is expected to remain on board as an assistant. Former NHL player Rick Tocchet probably will join as the second assistant once the lockout ends, the Tribune reported.

Gretzky, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999 after his dazzling 20-year career, owns 17 percent of the Coyotes and is in the last year of a five-year agreement with owners Steve Ellman and Jerry Moyes to be paid $2.5 million per year as managing partner.

In addition to his tenure as managing partner of the Coyotes, Gretzky has also served as executive director of the Canadian national team. Under his guidance, Team Canada ended 50 years of Olympic frustration with a gold medal in 2002, and also won golds at the 2004 World Championships and the recent World Cup of Hockey.

ESPN declines option on NHL TV rights (http://www.cbc.ca/story/sports/national/2005/05/27/Sports/espn_nhl050527.html)
WebPosted Fri, 27 May 2005 18:45:07 EDT
CBC Sports

ESPN has declined an option to hold onto NHL broadcasting rights for the 2005-06 season, according to a Canadian Press report.

Several news agencies are reporting that the American sports cable network declined to exercise its option on the broadcasting rights, which were worth $60 million US.

ESPN has not issued a statement on the matter, but it is expected they will make an official announcement next week.

On the surface this could be a massive blow for the NHL, as the league, having already lost a full season because of a labour dispute with the players' union, would lose major exposure in the U.S. without the ESPN deal.

However, ESPN may simply have declined its option in order to negotiate a more favourable deal for itself with the NHL whenever the labour situation is resolved.

This development also allows the NHL to negotiate the rights with another U.S. cable network.

The NHL's five-year, $600-million deal with ABC/ESPN expired at the end of the 2004 playoffs. The league then re-negotiated a one-year contract with ESPN, with options to extend the deal for the 2005-06 and the 2006-07 seasons.

The league also signed a two-year, revenue-sharing agreement last May with NBC. The American network has a two-year option for 2006-07 and 2007-08 should it choose to exercise it.

Beginning in January 2005, NBC will televise seven regular-season games and six Stanley Cup playoff games in regular Saturday afternoon time slots. In addition, NBC will broadcast Games 3-7 of the Stanley Cup final.

Under the agreement, the league will not receive the kind of upfront fees that are common in most network television contracts. Instead, the NHL and NBC will share revenue, with the network covering its production and distribution costs.

The league and the NHL Players' Association have failed to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement since commissioner Gary Bettman locked out the players last Sept. 15 and cancelled the 2004-05 season on Feb. 16.

The two sides wrapped up two days of labour talks on Thursday, with the union tempering any optimism fans may have about an imminent conclusion to the near nine-month lockout.

Topping the agenda during this week's meetings in Chicago were the financial and accounting issues of the NHL's 30-member clubs.

Neither NHL commissioner Bettman nor Goodenow, the NHLPA's executive director, attended the bargaining sessions.

Both sides have said they plan to meet every week until a new CBA is agreed upon.

If Don Cherry dies before hockey comes back, I will never forgive them. I need me some Grapes!

Someone needs to lock these douches into a room and hold them at gunpoint until they come up with a viable CBA.

9 fucking months, down the drain. What a joke...

The tradeoff is that my commute remains unmolested by Thrashers games.

BOOOO, I always took MARTA.

Now, to hammer out some of the rule changes we discussed last year.

Rollerball would be interesting if Barry Bonds got thrown into a wall of spikes at 40 mph.

Just sayin'.

Bowling isn't a popular spectator sport. It's something that comes on before people watch Baseball Tonight.

I find curling oddly fascinating and always watch it when I see it on TV (very, very rarely).

Don't get me started on the popularity of watching Baseball on tv...

It gets well covered by CBC. Our national men's and women's championship tournies are always fully covered. TSN likes televising Skins games as well.

Hell, I've got this game installed on my computer even: http://www.takeoutweight.com/
Based on that site, it may be a collector's item now :p

That might be her- her hair looks darker than I remember. As for MILF age group, unfortunately I am in the same boat  :cry:

EA NHL Exclusive?
EA Nabs NHL License on 1UP (thanks PiTiFUL) is a story based some brief happenings on the EA Sports Website that may have tipped off a future announcement. According to the story, several graphics appeared for a while on the site with the words "exclusive license," indicating the possibility that a deal has been signed for pro hockey rights, along the lines of the exclusive deal EA inked last year with the NFL (story). The article quotes both EA and NHL2K publisher 2K Sports as calling the apparent revelation a mistake, though attempts to contact the NHL about this (in spite of all the time on their hands) were unsuccessful.

[UPDATE] Since this story went live, EA has changed the artwork on its NHL 06 home page. The graphic now reads "official license" rather than "exclusive license" (check the above screenshot index for a comparison). Subsequent to the story going live, an EA spokesperson told GameSpot that the company does not have an exclusive licensing deal with the NHL. The NHL confirmed that an existing license with EA was in effect, but the NHL did not offer additional comments on the earlier use of the word "exclusive" by EA

It might never be coming back at all. Heh.

NHL, Players Reach Deal to End Lockout (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=531&e=1&u=/ap/20050713/ap_on_sp_ho_ne/hkn_nhl_lockout)

By IRA PODELL, AP Sports Writer 6 minutes ago

NEW YORK - The NHL and the players' association reached an agreement in principle Wednesday on a new labor deal, ending a lockout that wiped out last season.

The sides met for 24 hours from Tuesday into Wednesday to hammer out the collective bargaining agreement that will return the NHL to the ice.

Both sides still need to ratify the deal. That process is expected to be completed next week, the league and the union said in a joint news release.

NHL agrees to deal after all-night bargaining session (http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2106776)

ESPN.com news services

NEW YORK -- The NHL and the players' association reached an agreement in principle on a new labor deal, ending a lockout that wiped out last season, the sides announced in statements Wednesday.

The sides met for 24 hours from Tuesday into Wednesday to hammer out the collective bargaining agreement that will return the NHL to the ice.

Both sides still need to raitfy the deal. That process is expected to be completed next week, the league and the union said in a joint news release.

A prominent player agent told ESPN The Magazine's E.J. Hradek that the draft lottery will be held on July 21, with the entry draft being held in Ottawa on July 30.

The agreement comes after an all-night bargaining session stretched well into Wednesday morning -- the 301st day of the lockout that forced the cancellation of the 2004-05 season.

"We met all night," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said in an e-mail.

After meeting every day last week, the sides got together Sunday for a 14-hour session that lasted until early Monday morning. Just six hours later, they were back at the table.

Those talks broke up Monday night and set the stage for the latest marathon session that got under way Tuesday -- the ninth straight days of talks.

The sides have met for 10 consecutive weeks in an effort to get an agreement as quickly as possible so next season can begin on time.

The new agreement is expected to contain a salary cap with a ceiling in the upper $30 millions and a minimum in the low-to-mid $20 millions.

Player salaries will not exceed 54 percent of league-wide revenues.

Some players in recent days have voiced their displeasure over what will be included in the new deal.

Commissioner Gary Bettman warned in February when he canceled the season that the offers the union passed up were better than any it would see once a year of hockey was lost.

Just days before the NHL became the first North American sports league to wipe out a full season, the players' association said for the first time it would accept a salary cap if the NHL dropped its desire to link player costs to revenues.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Minor league hockey. Same game, 1/3 the price, and you get to see the guys before they are famous. Damned fun!

Growing up in Minnesota, watching High School hockey was an event.

With all the thuggery (sp?) injected into the current brand of NHL garbage, I'm not sure I even care.  I was a rabid hockey fan a couple decades ago, but the game has eroded to a point that most of the beauty that made the game interesting is now lost.  Growing up in Minnesota, watching High School hockey was an event.  I miss the intracacies that make hockey a fast and interesting team sport.

If they bring back skill to the game, I'll pay to watch.  Until then, it's just Mike Tyson on ice.

I would love to watch it if it was Mike Tyson on ice. Instead, it is a bunch of faggy Europeans who wouldn't drop their gloves if they were on fire grabbing, clutching, cheapshotting, slashing, crosschecking, and otherwise slowing the game down to a 2-1 final score crawl.

Differences in taste I guess. In baseball, I love watching a great pitcher's duel... the spirit of which is lost in today's homerun derby style of play.  I also love watching football (soccer in this country).  It's as much a chess match as it is a display of athletic prowess. When I played major college football, my favorite games were always the defensive stands rather than the 50-49 scoring fests.  The fact that I played defense could have tainted my opinion a bit.  I don't need big scores to be entertained.  I also don't need the the high-sticking, the cross checking, and the cat fights.  I pay to watch hockey, not a couple of boxing wanna-bees play ice capades with a puck.

Making the NHL more exciting isn't so much about creating higher scores as much as it is creating more scoring chances. That's what the league has been lacking, thanks to the clutch and grab bullshit, and the no icing on penalty kills shit. You start calling the game like it's supposed to be called, with less mugging of guys without the puck, take out the red line and put icing back on the PK, and you'll have a lot more scoring chances.

One of the potential rules changes being bandied about is removing the no icing for the penalized team on PK's.

Differences in taste I guess. In baseball, I love watching a great pitcher's duel... the spirit of which is lost in today's homerun derby style of play.  I also love watching football (soccer in this country).  It's as much a chess match as it is a display of athletic prowess. When I played major college football, my favorite games were always the defensive stands rather than the 50-49 scoring fests. 

I thought that was odd too, the 3-on-3.

But I do like the 1 point teams got for getting to OT. It opened things up more, because teams figured they already got one point, so lets go all out for the win. I thought this was better than teams turtling to try and eek out a tie.

Agreed. Regular season OTs before the 1 point OT loss were just exercises in "let's not lose." That's just dumb. With the current rules, some of the most exciting moments I've seen in regular season hockey have been in the OT. I don't want to take that away personally.

My favorite hockey game ever was a Flyers game. It was the playoffs in 99-2000 with the game dubbed "The Marathon on Ice." I watched that game for over six hours in my dorm room the first year I was in college. They ended up beating the Penguins with in like a 5th OT period or something equally ludicrous.

No regular season match can touch the playoffs.

Don Cherry, CBC's bombastic hockey analyst, on the resumption of NHL play: "After a year, I got so much to say I can hardly wait to hear myself."

The Pick That Saves Pittsburgh

The Penguins won the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes, landing the first pick in the NHL Draft shortly after owners voted 30-0 in favor of the new labor deal Friday. Pucks drop on Oct. 5, but new rules abound.

Passes from behind the defensive blue line to the attacking blue line will be considered legal. The center red line will be ignored for purposes of the "two line pass".

Still have the instigator rule, and now coaches will get fined if someone gets hit with it

SHOOTOUT

Following a scoreless five-minute overtime, three players from each team participate in the order the coach selects.

Each team takes three shots. The team with the most goals after those six shots is the winner.

If the score remains tied, the shootout will proceed to a "sudden death" format.

Regardless the number of goals scored during the shootout portion of overtime, the final score recorded for the game will give the winning team one more goal than the score at the end of regulation time.

Glendale, AZ loses its All-Star game next year and MAYBE will get one in '09.

God, I am cranky this afternoon. Just found out I have to jump through a bunch of bullshit timekeeping hoops to bill my time to different projects. On the fly. No editing afterward (because that would be too fucking easy)- no, I am expected to drop everything and punch a new time session when I switch to supporting a different product (I support about 5).

Fucking clown shoes. I have hated every change since they started awarding points for OT losses, like the NHL was the fucking Special Olympics and everyone who competed needed to feel good about trying. Fuck all that. If you can't win in regulation, you better find a way to hold on for a tie (and a point) or get a goal. Otherwise go fuck yourself and take your 0 points like a man.

Put to rest by whom? It has always been stupid, and I have always loudly proclaimed it as such.

Getting positive feedback for a loss is anti-competition.