Suffering Canadiens withdrawal? The Gazette has the answer with the ultimate fantasy experience as Canadiens beat writer Pat Hickey and Gazette techie Eric Tobon employ EA Sports NHL 13 to produce The Season That Isn’t. Here’s how things might have looked in Tuesday night’s game between the Canadiens and Wild in Minnesota.
PAT HICKEY
The Gazette
ST. PAUL – It didn’t take Carey Price long to know it was going to be a special night.
“I made two saves right off the bat and then we scored those two power-play goals and it took all the fight out of them,” Price said after he made 23 saves Tuesday night to lead the Canadiens to a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center.
It was the fourth consecutive win for the Canadiens, boosting their record to 4-2.
Actually, there was plenty of fight in the Wild, but much of it was misdirected as Minnesota found itself shorthanded 10 times and the Canadiens responded with two power-play goals in the first period.
Coach Michel Therrien gave Louis Leblanc some power-play time and the second-year pro found Brian Gionta on a backdoor play to open the scoring at 5:53.
Gionta picked up his second point of the night when he assisted on Tomas Plekanec’s goal at 13:16. Nicklas Backstrom made the save on Gionta’s shot, but he left a rebound for Plekanec.
The one disappointment on the night was an injury to defenceman Francis Bouillon midway through the first period. While Therrien said he would wait until the Canadiens’ doctors had a chance to examine the defenceman in Montreal, the preliminary diagnosis is a strained MCL, which could sideline the veteran for 5-7 weeks.
The injury to Bouillon and the plethora of power plays created a busy night for defenceman Andrei Markov and his surgically repaired knee. He played a season-high 29:28 and picked up an assist on Plekanec’s goal. .
“I feel good,” said Markov, who has grown tired of people asking about his health. “If I didn’t feel good, I wouldn’t be playing.”
The third period was enlivened by a scrap between Brandon Prust and the Wild’s Cal Clutterbuck. This was one of those fights designed to wake the team which is trailing, but Clutterbuck failed to give the Wild the boost because he’s not a fighter and was no match for Prust.
“I was surprised they gave us majors because it wasn’t much of a fight,” Prust said. “He challenged me, but that’s not really his thing.”
The Canadiens are back at the Bell Centre for games against Philadelphia Thursday and Anaheim on Saturday.
phickey@montrealgazette.com
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Ok, here is a simple solution. If the contract is less than 2 years old, the Owners honor the contracts or the player becomes a free agent. If the contract is 3 – 5 years, either side can cancel it and the player becomes a free agent. 6 years and more, automatic free agent. All players currently under contract are guaranteed NHL minimum salary until the end of present contract. (example DiPietro with NYI)
The owners can get out of what they consider bad contracts, Players on longer term contacts can try for more $$, no one goes without a paycheck, that in real world terms is well paid.
Remove the cap, any team that breaks the 50/50 split, pays substantial penalty to NHL to cover losses of other teams.
I’d love it if Kovulchuk, Ovechkin and Gonchar stayed in Russia. If you don’t want to be here than get the hell out. That’s my two cents.
.
I think the Devils, Caps and Sens are probably hoping they decide to stay home if it gives them a chance to drop their horrid contracts.
Horrible contracts or not, the first 2 at least are the face of their franchise to an extent, maybe more so for Ovie, but with Parise gone, it’s got to be Kovalchuk after Brodeur for the Devils.
Bah, Kovalchuk did squat in the later rounds of the playoffs and I’m pretty sure Lamoriello regrets picking up that contract. He’s gotten so much grief about it without the return he was hoping for.
Ovechkin put on a bunch of weight, his production has dropped and his attitude is annoying and a distraction to the team. He’s not living up to that monster deal. Guaranteed that McPhee, if given the opportunity to trade or dump that contract would highly consider pulling the trigger.
Both players are pouting to the media all the time and are bad team players.
They both have declined recently, that’s for sure, but Ovie is still captain and I doubt Caps would want to trade him, just look how difficult it is to move Luongo’s contract, they probably figure he can get back to his heyday with the right coach/system.
After the contract debacle of Kovalchuk, well the Devils have too much invested in him to just toss him away for scraps, and while he did not live up to his contract, but 8g/11a in 23 playoff games is not squat.
The squat part was wrong for sure
. When I went to check that out I was a bit surprised. I stand corrected on that point.
3rd leading scorer in the playoffs this past season and he did squat?
He got shut down in the Stanley Cup Finals, but Kovalchuk was in the running for the Conn Smythe Trophy through the first three rounds with 7 goals and 18 points in 17 games. It isn’t like he was the only one…Zach Parise, a good North American, also got shut down by the Kings with the same stats as Kovalchuk.
Kovalchuk is generally considered a good teammate by the players he’s played with. He’s generally been cited as a hard worker and a guy who desperately wants to win. If there is a criticism of Kovalchuk, it is that he tries to do too much by himself when his teams get down, which makes him easier to stop.
I guess we get our info from different news outlets. All the commentators I watched on TSN, Sportsnet and the CBC continuously regarded Kovalchuk as an underachieving , drama queen who makes way too much money.
Peoples’ opinions might have changed slightly when NJ somehow wandered into the finals but his overall performance the last couple years, combined with his so/so attitude and his massive contract don’t add up to a great team player or a good face for the organization.
It’s just my opinion but i have a feeling that if the Devils, who are used to real leaders and true professionals like Stevens, Neidermayer and Brodeur, could erase that contract and send him back to Atlanta, they’d do it in a second.
The sour-puss “I’m staying in Russia” stuff is really annoying and childish to me, so I agree with you on that.
His contract is horrible, but for a 6.66millions cap hit, he’s producing at a great pace, with one off season in 2010-11 in which he was not a ppg player.
Here’s a provision the PA should add to their agreement: If there is a rollback, any contracts signed in the recent free agency period, up to the lock-out may be terminated by the player. Or, give the owners the option – they can meet the contract as written, or permit the player to cancel it.
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Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
Also, all other contract-related items in the new CBA should apply retroactively. If there’s a 5 year maximum term for contracts then all existing contracts that are longer than 5 years should be cut back.
Luke,
Good reply to my post below (thoughts on the lock-out stalemate and the NHL). I do hold the players responsible as well, but I think it’s Bettman’s rhetoric that has made so difficult to find a middle ground. Look at the man’s record: he’s the little kid who will take his ball and go home if you don’t let him score more. He’s done it before – and more than any other major sports director.
Good point re. point 5 – the players want an 82-game season so they don’t lose a % of money. Maybe I’m naive but I think for the players it’s less big a deal to lose 10-20% of their pay for one year to a shortened season than it is to the principle of are we being screwed on our existing contracts or not. In that way I think as a tactic Bettman just failed to see what’s really going on in the player’s mind. Or what he did was all a PR play: see, we tried! Which is more of the same ridiculousness. Bettman will try and try and try – but it’s all posturing. Good thing he hired that PR team to tell him that he’s not popular and should put Daly up front. I’m sure it came as a shock to him… all that booing must’ve been just a few disgruntled fans eh?
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Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
Can the owners really expect players like Kovalchuk, Parise, Luongo, Weber and Suter to give back a portion of their hard earned money? Like Cmon how is Weber supposed to support his family with if this years salary gets cut back to 12.6 million. Sacasm
BUt really the owners should focus on these lame front loaded contracts and look to nibble off those deals and leave the lower end contracts alone. WE all know Luongo wont be playing his last couple years at 1 million. SO make him pay for that not players like Nokelainen and Yannick Weber.
The problem isn’t the cut back to 12.6mil.
It’s that the owners negotiated in bad faith a 14million dollar contract when they expected only to pay 12.6 of it.
Exactly. Especially for the players who JUST signed contracts, this is ridiculous. Like selling a house and then saying “sorry – I need to cut just a few feet of land off one side, no big deal”.
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Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
Re: Honoring existing contracts
Although this seems to be news to some fans, the players have known or at least should have known (either through their union or their agents) that with the expiration of the previous CBA it was a very real possibility that their contracts would be susceptible to roll backs. This, of course was something the players should have known the owners were going to push for. From an owners perspective I’d probably do the same.
Again, the old CBA which was agreed upon by the PA has expired and contract roll backs are fair game.
From the players perspective, I don’t blame them for acting in their own best interest; in the end however, I believe it’s inevitable they’ll lose.
It’s a screwy thing for sure, but they agreed to it on the last CBA negotiations, so it is fair game for the owners to try to pursue that avenue.
So the players have no rights to say…. Sorry we aren’t accepting a roll back, after you gave us these contracts.
Just because its possible, doesn’t mean the players have to accept it.
Its also possible to sign a CBA where all the players get 10% raises on the contracts they signed. I wonder what the owners reaction would be if that was their bargaining position? Everyone also knows that such a request is possible.
Just because it was a possibility, doesn’t mean that asking people to take a 12% paycut, when the business has grown 50% in the last 7 years is reasonable. Furthermore, you lock them out when they don’t agree to such a cut (but are willing to give you a 50/50 split in future years) ??
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
As my sentiment may have indicated I’m kind of on the fence. If I’m an owner I’m pushing for rollbacks because I want margin expansion.
If I’m Don Fehr, I’m making the argument that you just made, essentially, why are we agreeing to rollbacks when the leagues revenues have grown as much as they have.
However, one must be mindful of the difference between revenue and profit.
In my opinion, there are a whole lot of franchises that hemorrhage cash on a daily basis and therefore should not even exist and in any other business would have been shut down. As a player I’d say, why am I paying for the mistakes of the league?
If I’m Geoff Molson I’m saying to the Minnesota Wild owner, you make us look like idiots and hypocrites. All the while still knowing with the expiration of the CBA contract roll backs are fair game.
So the little Gunsel doesn”t want to negotiate anymore.Doesn”t surprise me at all. What does surprise me is why his putrid carcass is not yet rotting in the Lachine Canal.
Players attempt to book meetings to discuss the issues.
Owners: There will be no meetings unless you are agreeing to the framework of our last proposal. We are not negotiating.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HKN_NHL_LABOR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-10-24-01-19-35
Who are the stubborn ones?
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
Wasn’t it the league saying the door is open at any time for negotiations? Yeah, whatever happened to that? Hypocrites.
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Hold down Shift while clicking refresh.
WFAN in NY is reporting the Islanders will move to Brooklyn in 2015.
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Let’s hope they’re playing again by then.
Edit: I see GB is going to be there for the presser. Certainly more important than negotiating a new CBA. Sheesh!
Big Head McKenzie is reporting the same thing. That is two teams pretty close to each other
Does the move include Dipietro, or will he be staying in the Long Island area closer to the Medical Facility where he lives?
The movers are wrapping him in bubblepak as we speak
LOL!
Finally a smart move by the Isles.
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
One problem is the arena will only seat 14,000 for hockey. I see very expensive seats and maybe PSL’s (personal seat license).
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The Isles would love to see 14,000 for hockey. Of course 14,000 Isles fans haven’t seen hockey in a long long time. (ba-dump!)
The Nassau Coliseum only held a little over 16000 so the 14500 of the Barclay Center won’t be that much of a difference. The best average attendance for the Isles games was in the 2002-2003 season at 14900. At least they will look like their playing to a packed house if the hit 14000.
Gomez scored a goal at Nassau. ITs a sad day for him.
Players are just as much to blame as the NHL. Love the mentality of ‘give the players what they want so they will play..” Comes down to biz, and I have learned that if you give everything to everyone than they will just keep askin for more like spoiled kids (which is exactly what the union is made up of). I would LOVE to hear what the 2nd, 3rd and 4th liners would like to do as it’s hard to have someone determining your future when they have gobs of cash in the bank when the rest make decent money (in professional standards).
For the players going overseas, “screw you”. All they care about is making money for themselves rather than helping the cause. And for Sid for the “I am thinking of playing overseas”… girly ass kid.
If players want to stay overseas than go for it, there are plenty of other players coming up the ranks who care about the game more than their personal pocket.
I am for the owners on this one as they gave a perfect offer (which the rest of the pro leagues use). If they players dont want to accept than screw them all and I hope the season is canceled as the owners can afford to miss the season, but 75% of the players cannot. Well, the players who are NOT part of the PA..
ONCE A HAB, FOREVER A HAB!!!
I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what universe you’re living in.
Here’s what the players are currently asking for, that the owners aren’t willing to give: honoring existing contracts. If you call paying somebody the money you agreed to pay them “giving everything to everyone…” then I hope to never do business with you.
Second, the players playing overseas are coming out neutral or losing money (with a few exceptions). The salaries most of them are picking up are enough to pay for their insurance.
Third, the owners offer is not what the rest of the pro leagues use. Yes, it’s 50-50. But there are revenues streams missing from that dreaded Hockey Related Revenue that are included in other leagues.
Fourth: You hope the season is cancelled because the owners can afford it? I forgot, the wealthy are always correct. Even when they’re not.
Quite frankly, I can’t see how anyone could side with the owners on this. I’m with the players just because I find asking for a contract rollback ludicrous. You signed the contract, pay these guys what you owe them. Otherwise, the deal was not signed in good faith, and I should hope some player has the guts to sue his owner in that case (ESPECIALLY one of the $89 million twins in Minnesota.)
Contract rollbacks?? FYI, the CBA has expired so there are no “contracts”…. With this being the case the rest of your statements about “paying the players what they agreed upon” doesn’t hold water. (which the NHL agreed to honor current pay)
And yes, the owners can afford it and yes they can do what they want because they OWN the team. Like it or not, the money drives the business, so agree when you say “never to do business with me” because the facts are the facts. They get paid millions to play a game, the owners are in it for biz. Big diff there.
ONCE A HAB, FOREVER A HAB!!!
Are you trying to say we have a league full of free agents at the moment? Suter and Parise don’t have contracts with the Wild?
If that were the case, there would be a lot less for everyone to argue about.
No, meaning things need to change. I can’t count how many times I have read about how hopefully the new CBA will help correct the Gomez issue, but people also do not want anything to happen to the key players like Parise. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
ONCE A HAB, FOREVER A HAB!!!
Sure things need to change, but if you think all the owners will be able to be profitable simply by taking money away from the players, well, you got another think comin’.
As long as owners are competing against each other for the players services, player salaries will rise.
The contracts exist.
They would only be rolled back if that is a concession given to the owners.
Again, your analogy of the spoiled kid asking for more is incorrect.
It is the Owners here who are “asking for more” in a rollback and/or increased escrow…. the players merely would like that contracts already signed by honoured.
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
The players agreed to the CBA; meaning they understood ahead of time that their contracts could be rolled back, end of story.
Sure they did.
They gave once.
Why do they have to give again this time?
If you want to use the analogy of the spoiled kid who is given something and then asks, more more more all the time… here it is.
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
Bettman and the owners locked out the players, the players wanted to keep negotiating during the season instead of a lockout.
Which one is the bad guy again?
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Ka is a wheel.
Fans Theme: “You’re Breaking my heart, You’re tearin’ it apart” – Harry Nilsson
You’re breaking my heart
The NHL asked the PA to negotiate over a year ago to avoid this mess, the PA subsequently declined.
If the owners were going to negotiate a year ago the way they are now it wouldn’t have made a difference.
The same could just as easily be said of the players.
Well, sure, because if the league hears anything other than “Okay” they’re not interested.
If the owners were willing to really negotiate a year ago they would have had their financial disclosure in order.
The fact it wasn’t delivered til August 15th tells me that the owners also had no intention of negotiating.
It is yet another PR ploy… nothing more.
A side who is really willing to negotiate financial issues, has their books in order before saying, “hey lets negotiate on this”
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
Sorry Zep. That was the first pure PR move of the negotiaions.
They play with no CBA:
Fehr would start making noise around game game 40 that the negotiations aren’t going well.
Fehr would have said around game 60 that despite the Player’s best efforts, the Owner’s are not negotiating in good faith.
Fehr, at game 68 (or whenever the 3rd to last paycheque is issued) would say that, despite the Player’s love for hockey and the fans, the owner’s refusal to negotiate fairly and in good faith they are left with no other choice to to go on Strike until the owner’s commit to fair negotiations. Which he hopes is soon since the cancellation of the playoffs (when no players receive compensation) are of the utmost concern to his members and the fans. It would break his, and the player’s, hearts to see the cancellation of the Stanley Cup. Hopefully the Owner’s will see the error of their ways and come to their senses so they can get back to playing the game they love so much.
Fehr, while head of the MLB union in ’94, negotiated during the season. How’d that work out?
That maybe true. But… we would have had at least some hockey.
That for me, is the bottom line. I want to watch hockey, not negotiations.
Btw, everything you described is from the baseball strike that cost the Expos a shot at the World series.
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Ka is a wheel.
Fans Theme: “You’re Breaking my heart, You’re tearin’ it apart” – Harry Nilsson
You’re breaking my heart
The players are asking for the contracts they signed to be honoured.
The Owners are asking to pay less than full value on contracts they signed, and want concessions (after getting a 24% rollback on signed contracts 7 years ago).
Remind me again who the spoiled kid asking for more is?
As for players going overseas… these are players who are locked out, and not allowed to work or collect a paycheque at their job in North America. Whats wrong with looking for alternatives?
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
I think I’ll join the fun:
Bettman, nana nana nana nana
Bettman, nana nana nana nana
Bettman, nana nana nana nana
Bettman, nana nana nana nana
Bettman, Bettman, Bettman
nana nana nana nana nana na
Bettman!!!!
Hahahaha
E for effort. F for fail.
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Ka is a wheel.
Fans Theme: “You’re Breaking my heart, You’re tearin’ it apart” – Harry Nilsson
You’re breaking my heart
Question: When Lafleur says, “They have confidence that they’re going to solve the problems.”
The first “they” are the players making $1-2.5 million. Who’s the second “they”? The players’ reps?
Do you know how to annoy a poet? Recite poetry!!!!
Woe is me for I have tasted my own bitter medicine.
This is actually really really sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMTnLHDWRA
Dedicated to the ones who don’t like parodies.
If I could stick my keyboard in my heart
Spill it all over the HIO stage
Would it satisfy you? Would it slide on by you?
Would you think the fan is strange? Ain’t you strange?
If I could win you, if I could sing you
A parody song so divine
Would it be enough for your baby heart
If I broke down and cried? If I tried
I said, I know it’s only parody, but I like it
I know it’s only parody but I like it, like it, yes, I do
Oh well, I like it, ooh, I like it, I like it
I said, can’t you see that this old fan has been lonely?
If I could stick a knife in my heart
parody right on stage
Would it be enough for your middle-aged lust?
Would it help to ease the pain? Ease your brain?
If I could dig down deep in my heart
Feelings would flood on the page
Would it satisfy you? Would it slide on by you?
Would you think the fan’s insane? Lockout is insane
I said, I know it’s only parody but I like it
I said, I know it’s only parody but I like it, like it, yes, I do
Oh well, I like it, yeah, I like it, I like it
I said, can’t you see that this one fan has been lonely?
And do you think that you’re the only tanker around?
I bet you think that you’re the only tanker in town, oh yeah
I said, I know it’s only parody but I like it
I said, I know it’s only parody but I like it, ooh
I know it’s only parody but I like it, yeah
I know it’s only parody but I like it, like it, yes, I do
Oh well, I like it, I like it
I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it
chorus
**Claps and whistles**. Well done, L Elle.
The way this clusterf#ck is going, how about some “Flesh For Fantasy” by Billy Idol. Get Writing Amigos!
Another chart topper, way to go L!
Multiple shots!!!
Good job!
If the hat fits….
You’ll notice later on how creative the unthinking mind is… (look up)
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“I’m here to tell you: Gary Bettman hasn’t felt this alive since he killed Harry Potter’s parents.”
How about those Bulldogs. Tinordi with a team leading -4 and the goal tending sucks.
Tinordi has a large learning curve still. I’ve read that when upgrading to a more competitive league, it usually takes him at least half the season to adjust. Really look for him to explode in the second half.
I hope that by years end the best Bulldogs wont be the career AHLers but that their highly touted prospects will actually shine and stand out.
People tout Detroit as the model to follow. If I am not mistaken, their policy is to not rush their prospects. I tend to agree with this strategy. Two years (minimum) in the AHL should be the standard.
I think the Bulldogs are one of the youngest teams in the AHL. It’s going to take a bit of time HH. It’s Bournival’s, Tinordi’s , Bealulieau’s and Gallagher’s first season in the AHL. By the time they’ve adjusted we’ll be one of the best teams in the AHL.
Bulldogs average age is 22.68.
Marlies are 24.11
after checking a bunch of teams, the Bulldogs are indeed one of the youngest teams around, and they also lost some leadership from last season, as Captain Alex Henry packed his bags for Europe.
That said, the Bulldogs are playing .500 hockey 4 games in, there’s no reason for alarm unless you are stirring the pot.
Are you aware of the fact that the Habs best goalie is currently recovering from injury and expected back in the next few weeks? It was expected that the team would struggle with Delmas and Mayer having to carry the load.
As for Tinordi, look at his first half in London versus his second half of the season. Remarkable difference.
Or it may just be easier to complain.
A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE NHL:
1. The league turns DOWN an offer to meet? Gary, does this tactic EVER work? Answer: not with Fehr… but he keeps trying. What a jerk this guy is.
2. Notice that Daly is now the front man for the NHL. This came out of the expensive focus group – the respondents felt Daly was likeable. I guess this is the start of a new PR blitz for the NHL. Sigh. What a bunch of BS.
3. More discontent among fans, more players playing overseas getting injured, some saying they’ll stay in the KHL. Anyone who says the owners have nothing to lose by waiting this out is wrong.
4. Can’t wait to hear the long sad song from the NHL tomorrow when their ‘new, new’ deadline goes whooshing by. Of course it’s not their fault.
5. Oh no! A full 82-game schedule won’t happen! Know what Gary? Only the owners care if it’s a full 82-game schedule…. and of course you and the record number of games of hockey you’ve killed by being such a smug, pin-headed power-mongering world class ahole.
SD
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Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
Just figured out from your avatars that you and 24Cups are from the same litter.
“May you live in interesting times.”
Don’t beat around the bush, tell us how you really feel.
AARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!
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Listen to the Smart Dog. He knows his poop!
LOL
Posted in wrong area: DELETE
ONCE A HAB, FOREVER A HAB!!!
5) Is the most important point i think:
You say only the Owners care about a full 82. This is untrue. The Players care just as much about 82 games as the owners. Perhaps more. The players are only paid for the regular season. Every game that is cancelled (and unplayed) means a portion of their contract goes unpaid. 82 games = 100%, 74 games = 90% (roughly). That’s why the 82 was such a talking point for the owners. If they settled by Bettman’s date, he could guarantee the full 100% payment. If you are fighting to protect against a possible 12-20% paycut, then why throw away 20-30% (or 100%)pay by not settling. (I know it’s not quite that simple with escrow, HRR% and multi year deals, but for simplicity’s sake it works and the point is the same – most players have a short contract lengths remaining). Losing a portion of the pay by not settling really only protects the longest term contracts, the shorter 1-3 years deals are the guys that will lose out, and for them the promise of the full 82 held the most weight.
1) Yah, but it’s really both sides.
Players are “saying let’s get together and discuss our 3 proposals (only).”
Owners are saying “We only want to discuss our proposal, not the player’s.”
– So yah, It’s stupid (and petty and posturing and spin). What they should do since, as Commandent noted here, Player proposal#2 and the Owner’s most recent are pretty similar.
The two sides should sit down with the two proposals on the table beside each other and work off the similarites and negotiate a neutral 3rd agreement using these as the base. But that seems like a simple, mature solution.
2. Yup. Smart ploy to. Bettman is a PitBull and seems like a Pitbull. Daly is a PitBull, but seems likes a Poodle. Problem with Poodles is that they tend to bite more people then Pitbulls do.
And let’s be honest: The players are playing the exact same games. They cart out our poor, locked out heroes wearing golf shirts and shorts (Just like ME!) and they talk about how they love the game and just want to play (LIKE ME!). They sure do try to keep the poor locked out heroes pulling up to the meetings in the Lambos and SLRs out of the highlight reels.
3. Of Course the owners have something to lose. $$$. The Players have the same to lose. But they’ll make it back… because we’ll come back. And we will. The ones who won’t be back have already left. They aren’t on the hockey sites, posting about hockey and how they are done with hockey on hockey sites.
4. yep. “The Player’s unwillingness to discuss OUR latest proposal has hurt the blah blah blah.” Then the players get to say: “The owners unwillingness to discuss OUR latest proposals blahblahblah”
So yah. Spin and Rhetoric. Time to tune out both sides or play a game of “identify the rhetoric”. Wouldn’t that be a great way for TSN to start to cover the lock out?
Greg Nemisz is coming to town (Hamilton) with the Abbotsford Heat, Sunday, October 28th. He was chosen with the first round pick GM Gainey gave Calgary for Alex Tanguay.
“May you live in interesting times.”
That was a Gainey move I never understood. Why go after Tanguay and give up some picks keep him for one season which he was hurt and then let him walk for nothing.
Agreed, and he was playing very well just before he got hurt too.
He has played great for Calgary. I think BG panicked and just blew up the team but gave up a lot in that year
That year he gave away picks for tanguay and let him walk, gave away our best D prospect and higgins for Gomez….. I can’t complain about the signing of Cammy to high cash because we didn’t give up anything and Gio is slightly over paid but gives it his all every game. Also, let Saku walk which is a cheaper more consistent Gomez
If they would have stayed the course we would basically be in the same position we are today accept had more picks and another young Top 4 D man with more cap space
It would have been nice to keep Koivu. Much prefer him to Gomez, Saku should have stayed and retired a hab.
I agree 100%
I don’t think he panicked at all. The team was coming off a 1st place eastern conference finish. With the addition of Tanguay, and Robert Lang, we were looking like a serious Contender for the Stanley Cup.
Unfortunately with injuries (Tanguay, Lang, probably more) and the distraction that was the 100 Year Centennial Celebrations, we were barely able to beat the Bruins in the First round of the playoffs. Was a very disappointing year to be a Habs fan.
There was also probably tension in the Locker room when Carbo allowed Kovalev to wear the C when Koivu was injured. Also, do not forget that Kovalev went more than 20 games without scoring a single goal that year.
Many hockey people had Mtl tapped for the Stanley Cup that year. It was all-in for Gainey and Tanguay was viewed (I think) as the last piece. If it would have panned out, we would all forget; but here we are. Centennial year for the Habs and all, the future wasn’t really considered, in my view.
“man, I love winnin’; you know, it’s like better than losin’?”-
Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh
With personal tragedies understandably weighing him down, I just don’t think Gainey’s head was into the important small details of the team and the league’s business. An inexperienced GM wouldn’t have miscalculated as badly as BG did. (I’m thinking mostly about the McDonagh decision.)
Tanguay’s salary:
2008 $5.25mill Habs
2009 $1.7mill Lightning
2010 $2.5mill Flames
2011 $2.5mill Flames
2012 $3.2mill Flames
“May you live in interesting times.”
Gainey was just living by the mentality that fans in MTL won’t accept a rebuild and he tried to snap his fingers and take a shot at winning as quickly as possible.
It seems that finally, after 20 years of mediocre results, that Bergevin is going to build the team the correct way, so far anyways.
It was a mistake that actually now you can see set the team back. You can’t build a contender on July 1. You can tweak your team to put yourself over the top but that is about it.
Minny will find that out in a couple years with their two huge signings that will take up most of their cap space on two guys.
YA those contracts are brutal. That’s why I’m hoping the owners get stuck having to live up to their word a pay them. A deal is a deal.
It will give the Habs an advantage well.
. The only brutal contracts we have expires in a year and a half. The Gomez contract is brutal, kaberle’s isn’t pretty either but a tiny bit easier to swallow.
A few of us are considering going to that game, we havent decided if were going to the Bulldog game Sunday or going to watch Galchenyuk in Brampton.
Will await your collective decision.
YES! Way to go Cyber-Carey™ !
Even Nuna can’t complain about the play of Price or that Tiny-Tyke Prust!!
Big win for the Habs last night, and with that game I won the Mise-Au-Jeu lottery!
I got 6 games right, $1,200 !!!
So the beer is on me Saturday night boys and girls!!!!!!!!!!!
So it seems nothing will happen before Bettman’s “deadline” of 25 October. The PA is ready to talk, but Daly says there is nothing to talk about because the PA won’t accept the NHL’s proposal and won’t submit a counter-proposal. But every time they do submit a counter-proposal, the NHL rejects it out of hand and storms off in a huff.
Isn’t this exactly what happened at the last deadline? On 15 September, the players said they were ready to talk, the NHL claimed there was nothing to talk about, and the League slid quietly into lockout. It looks to me as though the next step will be the cancellation of a sizeable chunk of the season.
How can there be nothing to talk about this time? The two sides are agreed on 50/50. The question is how to get there while honouring existing contracts in their entirety. Why can the two sides not sit down at a table with the NHL’s proposal and the PA’s three counter-proposals in front of them and hammer out a way to make them mesh? Various ways have been suggested; why can they not consider these ways? As far as I can see, there has been so far no negotiation at all. The two sides have simply flung proposals and counter-proposals at each other and indulged in a lot of histrionics. I don’t call that negotiating.
Don’t let the PA off the hook. They are just as culpable. Fehr continues to try to tell owners how to run their business. That will never fly. If they really want to do it, it can be solved in 10 minutes. Right now, all the PA is interested in doing is talking about something the owners may or may not have done last week.
I don’t think I’m letting anyone off the hook. To me the owners are more culpable than the players. This mess is largely of their making, partly because the system they put in place after the last lockout did not contain adequate provisions for revenue-sharing, partly because they tried to out-do each other in finding ways to circumvent the cap. Now they are trying to make the players pay to fix this system; and at the same time they are trying to weasel out of honouring a bunch of ridiculous contracts they handed out in the summer. They have also gone out of their way to antagonize the players – first by rejecting their proposals without even considering them, now by allowing the GMs to talk to the players behind the PA’s back.
As for the players, I think they should just take what they can get and play hockey. No concessions they can win from the owners are worth losing even a single game for, let alone an entire season. Their hockey careers are short; they shouldn’t sacrifice a day of them.
When all is said and done the owners will spend the vast majority of their time trying to find ways to circumvent the rules they put in place to contain themselves.
The money losing teams will continue to find ways to lose money, regardless of what goes into the CBA. The only reasons their barns aren’t empty every game is because they give half the tickets away and sell the other half at a loss. This can’t be the basis of a successful business model.
Here’s a perfect illustration of the current state of negotiations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwLjopgPVBA&feature=watch_response
Patent pending I assume ?
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My only question is: who keeps pushing that button?
Good morning!
The only good news to report is that the tax department is very happy about the fantastic new baby boon of 2013.
Million’s of new lock out tax payers will be born next year!
That’s funny Ian. My family were farmers and nearly all my Aunts and Uncles were born in October and November. My Pop explained the farmers off season of January and February. Idle hands indeed.
Are you going to be able to make it to Hamilton?
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Not exactly on topic, but the great Georges Vezina had 22 kids meaning wife Marie unofficially was the winner of the first Vezina trophy (while never recording a shutout).
“May you live in interesting times.”
And in lockout news…nothin’.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=408009
Looks like it will be,at best, a shortened season. Not too optimistic about this at all anymore.
Good morning Blondie! And this from a Long Island paper. The news is not bright at all.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/nhl-rejects-players-attempt-to-restart-talks-1.4145066
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Good morning. These guys are driving me nuts.
” We see nothing to be gained at this point by meeting just to meet.”
And how else do you expect to negotiate an agreement? The current strategy of not meeting is working so well it must continue?
Okay….I have a car to sell
I want $10,000.00 for it, will not take a cent under $10.000.00 for it.
NOT ONE CENT!!!!!
I want to buy your car….
I am not paying ONE CENT over $5,000.00 !!!!
NOT ONE CENT. I am not interested in listening to anything other than my price……..$5,000.00.
You are not listening….I WANT $10,000.00…NOT A CENT UNDER.
Do you want to talk…..ha ha ha…..nothing to talk about.
wjc
Ok, add in the caveat that if the car *doesn’t* change hands then neither of us can get to work to make money and pay our bills. Is there still nothing to talk about?
Does the $5000 include taxes?
So John Davidson appears ready to take over the helm in Columbus. I wonder if one of his first moves will be to get Sergei Kostitsyn. Perhaps John can get some more streetlights put in the city so it doesn’t look so gloomy to poor Sergei.
http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/blogs/puck-rakers/2012/10/davidson-jackets-close-to-deal.html
Columbus’ owner isn’t Wang-like is he? It would be interesting to see what Davidson can do when he’s not being interfered with.
Edit: Totally forgot that he’s been running St. Louis. He could be really good for Columbus, and man can they ever use some good news.
Betcha poor Sergei hasn’t had a taste of Halloween festivities in Columbus. He might come to a different opinion. Other than the fact he insulted Columbus, baby Kostitsyn was just being candid, and didn’t cross the line like the B.C. Lion riff-raff Khalid Mitchell.
Recap: Sergei, 7th round pick in ’05; traded for Dustin Boyd and Dan Ellis. (may be the best 7th rounder les Canadiens ever chose, although Halak was a 9th rounder)
“May you live in interesting times.”
Given the new attention to player development with the new administration, I can’t help but wonder if the results with SK would have been a bit different.
Good morning BTW. See you on Friday! Will you be able to make the pregame festivities?
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Do my best! Hope you’re doing well! Jets may have been jobbed by the pass interference flag from 30 yards away!
“May you live in interesting times.”
Good morning! John Davidson gets a lot of credit for turning a floundering Blues franchise around and making them an entertaining and valued NHL franchise. If he does the same in Columbus he will become a superstar executive.
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A little old-fashioned rock:
http://calsnhllockout2012songparodies.weebly.com/
Perhaps you are JB’s aunt, I noticed you sung that song an octave higher than JB would have Cal.
I’ll just have to skip that comment.
well played Cal.
Good stuff. Nice little site to hold them all too.
Thanks.
Another good one Cal (Sorry HH
) The Stones for me were like scotch. The more you hear/drink them the more you like them.
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Love of Scotch or Snobbery?
Couldn’t link an article about a $94,000 bottle of Scotch, from the Globe and Mail.
Hah! It’s aliiiiive!
That’s a bit out of my price range. Might have to get a loan from JB to purchase that, huh?
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For an NHL player that is “chump change”!!!
wjc
BEST. THREAD. EVER!!!!
I’m glad ProHabs is happy, cause HH is gonna be pissed that we are ruining our draft pick.
Go Habs Go!
Check out Top Shelf Prospects, my Team by Team prospect reports
http://lastwordonsports.com/
Is that a real draft pick of a fantasy make believe draft pick?
and everybody wanted therrien fired after second game
About time. Halak would have gotten 3 by now.
No more debating Price or Halak. Price is the man. Great shutout tonight.
Isn’t it funny now that the Habs have won 4 in a row that we don’t here from any of those Terrien bashers on here.
Dammit, we need a highlight vid for each game!
Furthermore, it is my opinion that Carthage must be destroyed.
I am watching Sportcenter right now on TSN and am very surprised they have not showed hilights yet of this game.
I also can’t understand why L’Antichambre is not taking about the game either. Very puzzling.
Thinking of getting tickets for Saturdays game as well. Anyone else going to the game. Don’t often get the chance to see Saku play live.
My brother in law and I just bought tickets for the Thursday game against the Flyers at the Bell center. It will be the first time I see a game at the Bell center in about 8 years. Super excited. We will be right up against the glass. I will be booing Hartnell every chance I get. Just disappointed I won’t get to see Bouillion play live.
I got to say, I wasn’t sure about the hiring of Terrien but man he has this team playing some exciting hockey. It looks like the guys are buying into his system.
Is anyone interested in organzing a summit for one of these EA games. Perhaps we could all meet in Boone’s basement. I am really getting pumped about this season. We are 4-2 already and looks like we are on the way to a playoff spot.
Lol. This one actually made me laugh…..Boone’s basement….hahaha!
Chrisadiens and HabFan10912, one of the few father son tandems on HIO.
LOOOL
Boone has been featured @ http://www.coolopolis.blogspot.ca
What ever happened to this site. There used to be over 1000 comments a night on game night. Do people not know that the Habs played the Wild tonight and won. Am I the only one who cares about this season.
Bouillon’s injury can’t be too bad…he will be playing street hockey this saturday…http://tvasports.ca/tvasports/hockey/archives/2012/10/20121023-190204.html
The greatest Canadiens and NHL news-site: http://teliopost.com/
Twitter: @teliopost
I don’t know about that. That was a pretty cheap shot by CLutterbuck on him. You could tell by the way Boullion limped off the ice that it was bad. I was so glad to see Prust get him back later in the game.
Anyone know how much ice time Gomez got in the game. How much powerplay time he got. Who his linemates were. These are all very important questions that need answers.
Gomez can’t even score any points in imagination land…
The greatest Canadiens and NHL news-site: http://teliopost.com/
Twitter: @teliopost
It is only imagination land if you let it be. To me, this is the real season and I am putting all of my heart into this EA season. I will be cheering my EA Habs with all my might. Soo happy they won tonight.
Reallly feel bad for Boullion. Man I hope his injury is not that serious. This guy is one of my favourites. I will have a hard time sleeping tonight knowing he got hurt. Hopefully there is good news tomorrow on the injury. Will be waiting anxiously tomorrow for an update on this.
I really hate being first.