Molson and mullets for everyone!

[Paelos]

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."

So you're planning on opening, but you are also planning on not opening on time if you don't have a CBA. IT'S BEEN A YEAR YOU MONEYSTUFFINGASSGROINGRABBINGMONKEYFUCKS! I WANT MY SPORT BACK! Shit I'll watch 50 year old men skate out there at this point. Just give me SOMETHING!

[WayAbvPar]

Sheer greed and incompetence on both sides. The good news is that if they keep the lockout going, eventually the highest paid players will be too old to play anymore, and they can fill their rosters with cheap young players. Hell, play with replacement players at this point.

[El Gallo]

Considering the quality of play the league has provided since all of Bettman's asinine overexpansion, I can't imagine the clutch-and-grab horror of replacement player hockey at this point.  He needs to die in a hockey stick fire.

[HaemishM]

Gaggle of assgrabbing, tight-fisted, spoiled, myopic fucktards is the only way I can describe the entire hockey situation. It's like they all took too many disco biscuits to the coconut to rationally see the damage they have done and are continuing to do to the sport. Someone should just lock them all up in a room and not let them come out until hey can decide how to equitably divide up BILLIONS OF FUCKING DOLLARS.

Players get no sympathy from me anymore. They are quibbling over thousands of dollars when the minimum salary is enough to get you living comfortably in the most expensive places in the U.S. They have relied on Goodenow, who is a grudge-bearing fuck of a useless human being. The owners are no better, because they can't even take responsibility for the problems of their own making.

[MaceVanHoffen]

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

Like hockey enjoys any unique status here.  The NBA strike a few years back was the last straw for me.  I don't follow any professional sports anymore.  About all I do is watch the NBA finals in May/June.

[Bunk]

NBA.. dude, come on now. We're talking about a real sport here.

Article in the local paper this morning (we still get hockey coverage on the front page, even without the NHL playing):

NHLPA applied for union certification in Quebec and BC, a move intended to block potential replacement players. The NHL is challenging the applications and is accusing the NHLPA of violating US and Canadian labour laws on collective bargaining by making the applications.


Well, at least the World Championships are about to start.

[Paelos]

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

So I watch golf.

Pity me.

[MaceVanHoffen]

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.

Watching baseball is like propping my eyelids open with toothpicks in order to make myself watch the grass grow.  I don't get the whole drama of pitcher vs. batter.  It just looks like "Hey my penis is bigger than yours!"  "No it's not, throw that ball and we'll find out!"

And golf, the famous quote applies:  "Golf is a beautiful walk spoiled by a little white ball."

I was never into hockey, but it does appeal to me.  I just can't get into any professional sport I'm not already sort've into, when those sports are populated by prima donnas who know more about being millionaires and managing PR and scandals than they do about playing the game well.

[WayAbvPar]

Foghorn disagrees with you. How can you argue with an icon like him?

[MaceVanHoffen]

Oh man, that brings back memories.  I heart Foghorn, even though is taste in sports is questionable.

[Bunk]

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

Ok, I now forgive you for bringing up the NBA in a hockey thread. (Though I do love to golf)

[Paelos]

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

[Fabricated]

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

It kind of works both ways.

[WayAbvPar]

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.

[Miguel]

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.

You're welcome.

[WayAbvPar]

That won't work...I need all my extra cash to buy golf balls. losing them at the tremendous rate that I do. I need some sort of laptop with WiFi that I can keep in the cart while someone drives me to my ball.

[Rodent]

*does the happy dance*

[Alkiera]

The AHL seems to be doing alright...  the local team swept their first series of the playoffs for the Calder Cup.  Apparently coming from behind during the 3rd period in all 4 games.

Alkiera

[Strazos]

I'm dissappointed that no one had the balls to give the AHL a limited, one-season TV contract. I got to watch all of 1 Phantoms game, and enjoyed it.

Oh yeah, and anyone who makes money from Playing a game like WoW should be dragged out into a street and flogged.

[WindupAtheist]

Hockey is for pussies.  Watch boxing.

[Strazos]

Hockey is for pussies.  Watch boxing.

It is boxing....on ice.

[WayAbvPar]

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.

[Paelos]

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.

I prefer to watch a sport that gives me the opportunity to have a beer before it's over, too.

[Shockeye]

Gretzky reportedly to coach Coyotes
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.

[Paelos]

Bring back the real players or the Great One won't coach a team I hate, in a market that sucks.

La-de-fucking-da. Put players on the ice now!

[HaemishM]

Weeeeee, Gretzky coaches the first season of hockey's return...








in 2008. Fuckers.

[naum]

Gretzky reportedly to coach Coyotes

Should make for an interesting last place finish. Everything Gretzky has touched in a management role has turned to shit. His experience in OHL + NHL now have established a trend…

…great player != great owner/GM/coach.

[Strazos]

This just makes me cry even more on the inside, over the current state of the game.

[Pococurante]

Greatest thing that could ever happen to it.  Sometimes you just have to burn the town down to get decent changes made...

The women's leagues have had great stick for a long time now.  Beats the hell out of the sissyfight the men's leagues hammered themselves into years ago.

[Shockeye]

ESPN declines option on NHL TV rights
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.

[Strazos]

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...

[WayAbvPar]

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

[Shockeye]

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

I don't care much for hockey, but I love me some Grapes.

[EDIT] I don't care much for golf, but I love me some David Feherty.

[Paelos]

David Feherty is a Prince among men.



Power corrupts!

[HaemishM]

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...

I don't blame ESPN. Whenever the NHL comes back, it's ratings will be even more shitty than they were before. Much better to renegotiate the options when the league unfucks itself. If they ever do that is.

Fucking douchebags.