Thursday, January 06, 2005
No Need to Meet About Nothing
The NHL has called off a board of governors meeting scheduled for next Friday in New York.
“The clubs were unanimously of the view that there is no need for a meeting at this point in time,” NHL vice-president and chief legal officer Bill Daly said.
So let’s think of reasons to cancel:
- Absolutely nothing is going on, why meet?
- PR angle: Too many were calling it a cancellation date already, and if none was announced at that point, the league may look “soft” on their stance.
- There’s a rift in ownership, at least more than there was before (remember, memos don’t get leaked by accident), and the league is looking to prevent the “we need to play now” owners from having an easy platform to get others to join them.
- Negotiating angle: Bob Goodenow is a serious deadline negotiator, it’s well-known, so they’re just screwing with him.
- Negotiating angle: more players are likely to hop over to Europe if the season’s cancelled. Setting up a hard date makes those players sit and wait.
- Hope angle: they’re actually negotiating and not using the press.
Monday, December 20, 2004
Top 10 Hockey Stories of 2004 and Equipment Issues
Jamie Fitzpatrick posts his Top 10 Hockey Stories of 2004 on About.com.
A quickie look at his list:
- Lockout Kills the NHL Season
- Todd Bertuzzi
- A new crop of players winning the Cup with the Lightning
- Canada dominating the World Cup
- Finland hockey doing well in the World Cup
- St. Louis winning MVP
- Possible new rules coming to the NHL (and being tested now in the AHL)
- Mike Danton and David Frost
- The US winning the Juniors Championship
- More players not wearing visors
I’m sure we all have our own order, but I’d say most lists would look pretty similar. My notable order change is that I might bump up the Danton case a bit; and probably wouldn’t separate WC stories.
One item I can’t say I’d focus on is the visor issue. I can’t stand visors, reason being - I’ve put one (well, a couple) on. I really don’t understand how anyone can see out of those things. Perhaps it’s that my eye sight isn’t too great in the first place (I wear glasses, not contacts, and nothing when I play) and that I had fog/sweat issues up the wazoo. I would rather wear a cage. Seriously. But the NHL won’t allow you to do that. You must have a medical condition to wear a full shield or cage. So while I don’t care for the half-shield personally, I think players should have all available options to them.
Flames’ Captain Jarome Iginla wears a visor and plays a rough kind of game that all fans seem to love. His only beef with it is the extra penalty you receive if you instigate a fight with a visor.
“I think the rule for the instigator, giving an extra two (minutes) because of the visor, is a dumb rule,” Iginla said. “You hear all the talk about trying to help the players’ safety then (the NHL has) a penalty that penalizes for having a visor.
He then went on to say how he shouldn’t have put his team down in the first place, like any Captain would.
Of course, some argue that mandatory visors in Juniors is one of the reasons sticks seem to be flying at all heights. That’s a possibility, coupled with the fact that sticks weigh nothing nowadays, but it’s virtually impossible to take something protective away from the players to simply try and instill some respect into players and just hope they’re careful enough to keep their sticks down and that no pucks go flying. Also, Yzerman’s situation, that Jamie cites, is puck-inflicted damage, so there’s no cure-all even if players somehow kept all sticks down.
This really should all be player’s choice - and they should have all options available, including a full shield or cage.
Visors and such aren’t the only pieces of equipment that need to be addressed. Sticks should have minimum weights IMO and possibly be made only from wood. Keep them down a bit more, they’re a hell of a lot cheaper to make and buy, and how often do player’s sticks seem to be snapping during play recently? It’s obvious these things have multiple issues and players were able to shoot and score just fine with wooden sticks in the past. Take a lesson from baseball and the wooden bats-only rule here, they’re actually doing this one right.
Other pieces of equipment that need toning down are shoulder pads and elbow pads. The plastics used to make these “pads” have turned some of them into weapons. There needs to be some sort of well-researched study done to find out what level of hardness can be used to protect a player best and minimize harm to another on impact.
Let’s start to be safe and smart at the same time. When building these pads and guards, think of protecting the player wearing it - and the other players around him, and let’s not fool ourselves over how some things may be used. After all, with all the differing opinions out there, none of us want to see any career-ending injuries that could have been prevented.
Lukowich Comes, Lukowich Goes
I was happy when Brad Lukowich signed with the Ft Worth Brahmas of the Central Hockey League. Sarah Green wrote a nice piece about Lukowich’s signing for hockeyfights.com. A good number of major media outlets covered the signing, and it was some nice press for the league.
What you might not have heard is that Lukowich left the team to go to Tampa to pick up his Stanley Cup Ring - and never came back. No sorrys, no phone calls, no letters; and no word from a formerly-accessible agent. Here’s Sarah’s piece about Lukowich’s impact and departure.
Monday, December 13, 2004
Start Your Own League and Fix the Rules ESPN Hockey Polls
Want to start the NHL from scratch? How would you organize it? - Start Your Own Hockey League
Let’s say they were actually playing this game - Fix the rules
Currently only three rules changes have over 50% approval, here are the top five:
69.9% Restrict size of goalie pads
63.4% Use tag-up offsides
57.1% Eliminate the instigator rule
49.5% Olympic size ice (100 x200)
45.8% Use automatic icing
The only one I didn’t vote for was the Olympic size ice, but I can’t say I’d have any major objection to it. Eliminating the instigator’s counterpart, ban fighting, only has 7.5% of the vote.
Here’s an interesting part of the vote:
7.0% Reduce roster size
4.5% Reduce the size of the roster
Are they the same? Is one supposed to be number dressed on-ice, the other the complete off-ice roster? Who knows, but I find it odd they’re that off from each other and I wonder how many voted for just one.
Thanks to Eric at Off Wing for the links.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Not Feeling Your Pain
From TSN’s Doan criticizes Bettman’s motives:
“(The owners) don’t want guaranteed contracts. What they want is, if they make a mistake, they want to be able to cut a guy and not have to worry about it.”
Bettman and the owners have said multiple times that they’re not looking to change guaranteed contracts; over and over; I don’t know why Doan feels any differently. The NHL even takes note of it on their propoganda NHL CBA News site.
But let’s say for a moment that the owners were trying to get rid of guaranteed contracts and he had more of a point - does he realize how ridiculous his quote still sounds to the press and the general public, most of whom can be fired at their jobs for a single mistake?
I liked watching Shane Doan play last year, but his comments aren’t helping his union or the public’s perception of the union or its players.
Friday, December 03, 2004
Here’s to Hope
Raise your glasses, say salut and drink away. That’s probably the cheeriest CBA-related thing you can do over the next week despite what you might be reading from some “maybe there will be a season” hopefuls.
The Winnipeg Sun lists some possible concessions made by the NHLPA in the new proposal, but there’s not a hint of linkage between revenues and salaries, and until there is one the NHL probably won’t flinch.
I’d love to see a season, it’s just not looking good. In fact, I’d be happy if I knew the NHL would start on time next season.
So what to do? Well, minor and college hockey is what we’ve got down here in the States. I plan on catching an AHL and a few ECHL games this year, and I may even be able to get in a UHL game or two. Many I know have always followed minor leagues, but there are obviously quite a few who have stepped up there efforts to attend live minor league games. Ben at the Net Files posted an excellent recap of his ECHL Adventure. Hopefully we’ll all have as good an experience as Ben did.
Eric Cairns Interview
I just posted: Q & A: Eric Cairns on hockeyfights.com.
As always, be sure to also check out the videos page for some clips.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Hockey Players Have Image Problem
In the aftermath of the Pacers-Pistons-Fans brawl espn.com has a “SportsNation” series of poll questions related to fans vs players.
At the time I took it #6 was the most interesting to me:
Which sport has the most confrontational athletes?
60.6% NBA
20.5% NHL
9.6% NFL
9.3% MLB
I have to admit I was shocked. Not only do most fans who like hockey love it because of the game, but because of the athletes themselves.
The NBA being on top of the list is no surprise. The current events guaranteed that placing and the overall street thug image of some players is frequently in the news.
So how does the NHL land second in this poll by a wide margin? Is it the current CBA situation? Is it the popularity of the game in the United States? Could it be fighting allowed in hockey being interpreted as the players being “confrontational”?
It’s probably a combination of the first two more than anything. The players are in a battle with the owners of the teams in their sport right now, and that is one very big confrontation. The sport itself isn’t exactly at the top of the ratings list and generally figures to do poorly in any general sports poll where people make sports comparisons.
What is obvious from this is that the NHLPA needs to do some serious PR, and not just attacks against the owners, but a huge “look, we’re nice people” campaign and not just up in Canada, but down here in the States too.
WHA Still Coming
The Hockey News has an article running on espn.com about how the WHA may drop the puck in January.
As there’s just a week left in November it’s hard to believe anything can happen by January, or this season at all.
The plan from the article:
- A significant role for Bobby Hull, commissioner for the previous group that failed to get the league off the ground
- A 42- to 46-game season in Year 1
- Eight to 12 teams in Year 1, most likely concentrated in Central and Eastern Canada and the Northeast United States
- One marquee player per team and two “sub-marquee” players, with the rest of the roster composed of journeyman NHLers and AHLers
- Rule changes that would open up the game and make it more entertaining
- Less expensive ticket prices than the NHL
- A European Conference to begin play in Year 2
There’s also some more Sidney Crosby talk.
Some of those are pretty hefty goals. The number of teams seems high compared to what they’ve been able to put together already, and any European play just sounds like high costs that a league like this may not be able to support.
I’ll take them seriously when the teams and ownership groups are set and they have some television contract talk (I don’t even need it signed, just a cable network admitting they’re considering it).
Friday, November 19, 2004
How to Pick a League
While more and more NHLers are heading over to Europe, it’s hard to say why some make their choices. “Highest bidder”, “closest to home”, “friend brought me here” are all common choices. After reading Who Smokes the Most Dope in Europe? I realize there may be other factors out there. After all, the Netherlands doesn’t really have a league anyone can try and convince us is competitive, do they?
Wonder how Joe Thornton and Rick Nash are doing. Mellow crowds over there guys?