Reports out of Canada on Friday night have the NHL and NHLPA reaching an agreement in principle on a 45 million dollar cap. See guys this wasn’t that hard all you had to do was meet in the middle and a deal was possible.
The reports stated that Mario Lemiuex and Wayne Gretzky were or may have been involved on the talks between the two sides. About time is wasn’t that hard to see from the beginning that these two should have been involved.
They are maybe the only two that can see both sides of the equation. Mario is an owner and a player and Wayne is not far removed from the player side and is now obviously on the ownership side with Phoenix. So it was logical for these guys to get involved at some point to save this sport.
These two helped carry this game through the eighties and now they may save the sport from going into a permanent freefall that would take decades to fix.
I think the frustrating thing for hockey fans has to be the fact that this should have been done months ago, not at the last minute, but as a hockey fan it doesn’t matter we may just have sport back.
One thing from Bettman’s press conference to cancel the season on Wednesday that keeps sticking in my mind was that he and owners have come up with rule changes that would go into effect in the shortened Season.
What are these rule changes? No red line, smaller goalie equipment, shootout in the regular season to break ties, no touch icing. Really I think this thing is the thing I can’t wait to hear at this point. I will have more on this next week when it is offically un-cancelled, but these are some things to ponder as we move forward to a season.
To me it is absolutley comical that hockey would be the sport to cancel the season one day and two days later come to an agreement that would allow the season to start in a couple of weeks.
It looks like we would be looking at a 28 game season and a full playoff. I think after the first few games this may be the best hockey that you could ever see. Think about it every game is going to have more meaning to it than these guys are used to, so you should see playoff intensity during every game.
This extra incentive to win should help take away from the expected sloppy play that will be sure to happen for the first few games. Then when the playoffs come guys should be hitting mid-season form that could bring some of the best playoff hockey in years.
It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t mention Bettman here. On Wednesday when he talked about the leagues final offer of 42.5 million dollars he said that this was as far as they could go. The hypocrite Bettman went on to say that they couldn’t go any further than the 42.5 million , but he then floated around that if the players would come down to the 45 million mark they would listen.
He also went onto say that they would pay the players exactly what they could no more or no less. He then said that 42.5 million was a stretch that they could lose money in the process. So let me get this straight you will only pay the players what you can, but then you will go to 42.5 to save the season. I thought you wouldn’t make a deal just to save the season.
There is no doubt in my mind that this should be the end of the road for Bettman and Goodenow. Starting with Gary he has been in charge for over ten years and has done nothing except to bring this great game on the verge of extinction.
He over expanded, which I believe was the main reason for all of the financial problems and decreased quality of play that has plagued this league for quite a while at this point. Bettman also was more worried about appealing to a fan base that did not exist and he ignored his loyal fan base driving many of those away from the game.
Then during this lockout he never negotiated in good faith with the players at anytime. At the end all of this he never got anything that he wanted except for a cap that is ten million higher than he would have wanted it.
This sport really needs someone to come and lead this sport who truly loves this game. Not some marketing wiz that couldn’t sell water in the desert. Hockey needs a Ken Dryden that understands the game inside and out. Someone that will have the knowledge to make the right decisions that will have this sport back in the big four again.
As far a Goodenow is concerned this is a guy that led his troops to believe that he could get them a luxury tax based deal that they wouldn’t have to deal with cost certanity. It wasn’t until a group of players snuck in the back door and started to get the ball rolling that this deal had a chance.
I believe that if it was up to him they would have rode this out through the summer. He had no choice he had to do this because if he didn’t he would have had a mutiny on his hands.
You can’t possibly go back to this guy at this point. This guy lost his union, if you are a union member how could you trust this guy at this point. There is no way you could it is time for new leadership on this side as well.
This is all great and good that it looks like hockey is coming back this year, but there is a lot of work to be done to get this sport back to where it needs to be so this doesn’t happen again. In order to get this done this sport needs capable leadership on both sides that are capable of working toghether on numerous issues that will be coming up in the future.
Some of these isses are going to be touchy subjects when it comes to certain rule changes. People on both sides are going to disagree, both sides need strong leadership that they can trust to make the right choices to lead this sport where it needs to go. Hopefully on Saturday when you meet one of you boneheads don’t continue your legacy of being a moron and sabotage this deal.