The Official NHL Thread

[Dave's PA Rental]

Originally posted by Va Beach VH Fan
The primary reason that Lemieux retired the first time, besides his back....

I know...

But his bad back was really caused by the two-handers he was taking from the defensemen in front of the net...

By the way, and this is coming from an neutral Bruins fan...and I saw them both live...Mario was better than Gretzky.

[Bob_R]

I saw them both live as well Dave and I think Gretz was better.

What a treat to have been a fan with both those guys playing in our lifetime huh?

[Dave's PA Rental]

When I saw Gretzky...the thing that stuck out in my mind was you could tell that he 'saw' the entire ice surface at once...

When I saw Lemieux, the thing that stuck in my mind was he was the perfect, most complete hockey player...

Mario had better skills, but Gretzky saw the game in slow motion...if you know what I mean...

[Bob_R]

When Gretzky was a child he would have a blank piece of paper and a pencil with him when he watched a game. And he would just follow the puck around and trace and the paper where the puck was going as the game was being played. Amazing.

[Dave's PA Rental]

I wonder if his dad saved any of those pieces of paper...

[VonHalen]

hockey will never be the same

[Nickdfresh]

SI Weighs in

What next?
Owners won, but what will they do with the victory?
Posted: Wednesday July 13, 2005 8:49PM; Updated: Thursday July 14, 2005 1:43AM


Ken Sawyer
Penguins president Ken Sawyer wore a big grin while discussing the settlement Wednesday, and no wonder. Under the new deal, the teams get to keep a bigger chunk of their revenues.
AP

RELATED
• NHL, players reach new labor deal


After 301 days -- roughly the length of the Franco-Prussian War, although with more entertaining news conferences -- the NHL officially wound up whipping the Players Association, which took a few systemic scraps from the owners that can they can use to line the woodshed where Gary Bettman had taken them.

For all the huzzahs about a new economic order, the whole exercise, couched in fancy philosophical terms, was nothing more than a redistribution of income. Even if it might take some time to rebound in a poisoned atmosphere, the NHL probably will be again, as it was before the lockout, a $2.1 billion business. At its core the most significant change in the CBA is that now the owners get a larger share of it.

After giving up 100 per cent of their salaries in the lost season, and agreeing to a 24 per cent rollback -- that's a minimum 124 per cent loss, if you are keeping score, and the NHLPA has to be -- the players are guaranteed no more (or less) than 54 per cent of the pot. The new lower age of free agency -- now available after seven years in the pros or age 27( before the end of the deal) -- certainly is a breakthrough, but a 20 per cent limit on any individual contract within a team's cap (a ceiling of $39 million) further limits the already reduced amount of money available for the players. Under the current cap, the most a player can earn is $7.4 million, far off Jaromir Jagr's previous league-best of $11 million. The new generation of free agents will be all dressed up with not too many places to go.

No matter how often you hear the word "healing" in the next week, the lockout will be remembered as the year Bettman held his breath until the players turned blue.

NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow, who was forced to backtrack on his no salary-cap vow, told his membership that it would take 18 to 24 months to settle the dispute, which called for a level of resolve the players simply did not have. Goodenow had a clear vision of the nature of the fight -- even if he misread the NHL's determination to hang on terrier-like to a cap -- but he was too far out in front of his membership, more committed than his membership to matters of principle. He should have seen it coming. When half of its membership began drifting to Europe for the winter, the glue of solidarity that held the union together began to dry.

When the season was canceled in late February, Goodenow said that everything was off the table and bargaining would start anew. But for players without the stomach to stick around or stick to their fundamental negotiating positions, the offer of a 24 per cent rollback obviously remained and was topped off with a cap. The concept of linkage the PA once derided -- as the game grows, the cap rises even as the 54 percent share remains the same -- suddenly became a lifeline. If the game returns to a semblance of health, the players will merely have been routed, not crushed, in this labor fight that reduced a proud league to near irrelevance.

But a return to a robust product is hardly assured. The wounds from the 1994 baseball strike lingered at least four years. While the hardy coterie of hockey fans, as blindingly loyal in their way as NASCAR fans are in theirs, might drag themselves back to the arenas more quickly, there is no guarantee. The thing that brought baseball fans back to the park was offense, specifically home runs in that synthetically muscular summer of 1998. The template has been established. The same kind of thing could kickstart the NHL, which is what makes the impending rule changes -- scheduled to be announced next Thursday after both sides ratify the agreement -- so critical.

NHL Senior Vice-President Colin Campbell has been working for months to reshape the game, and it is liable to come back with bells such as the removal of the red line and whistles such as a shootout to forever end the infamous NHL tie. The goalie pads certainly will shrink to 11 inches, which is hardly enough, and goalie gloves and sweaters will be smaller. But without a commitment to a calling the rules against obstruction and preventing the NHL from degenerating into rodeo -- goals per game have dipped to near historic lows but muggings are at all-time highs -- the trumpeting of change is premature. After at least five crackdowns on obstruction in the past decade, fans should view the NHL's coming pledge of A Whole New Game with circumspection.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/michael_farber/07/13/nhl.return/1.html

[guwapo_rocker]

Want to fix the NHL?

Put the rules back to 1972/
1975.

Playoffs, Leafs vs. Flyers, bloodbaths, that's hockey!!

Don't like it? Wipe your pussy and fuck off!!!

[UGS]

I saw Sidney Crosby play here in Halifax last year. . .he has mad skills and can definitely see the game in slo-mo. . .crazy impressive to watch him as a 16 year old and be so good

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Originally posted by UGS
I saw Sidney Crosby play here in Halifax last year. . .he has mad skills and can definitely see the game in slo-mo. . .crazy impressive to watch him as a 16 year old and be so good

Yeah, now watch him go to the Leafs or Red Wings...

Just watch....

[Full Bug]

Originally posted by Va Beach VH Fan
Yeah, now watch him go to the Leafs or Red Wings...

I think I could live with seeing him in a Leaf's jersey....

[UGS]

As long as he doesn't go to the fucking Rangers, I'm happy. As if they have three balls in the draft lottery. . .

[Matt White]

Was listening to SPORTS talk raio on my way to SARNIA yesturday....

STEVE YZERMAN said he's only coming back to the RED WINGS if it makes sense for the team.....

NO CHANCE of him playing anywhere else, he said.

A "FareWell Tour" for the longest serving Captain in NHL history.....

FUCKING RIGHT!!!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I can understand the feeling that an entire year was lost...

But the difference between the better teams and lesser teams, in terms of the percentage of getting Crosby, is not much at all...

The Penguins will be one of four clubs -- Columbus, Buffalo and the New York Rangers are the others -- that will have a 6.25 percent chance of landing Crosby...

Ten other clubs will have a 4.17 percent chance, while the remaining 16 will have a 2.08 percent chance....

You see, 6.25% compared to 2.08%, ain't too much, ya know ???

I'm telling ya, it's gonna be one of the heavyweights.....

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Matt White
Was listening to SPORTS talk raio on my way to SARNIA yesturday....

STEVE YZERMAN said he's only coming back to the RED WINGS if it makes sense for the team.....

NO CHANCE of him playing anywhere else, he said.

A "FareWell Tour" for the longest serving Captain in NHL history.....

FUCKING RIGHT!!!

Is HASEK coming back? that traitor!