NHL 2012-2013 season & News Thread

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

This is a thread that could renamed to it's a regular hockey season discussion later lol if there is a season. Normally Trainning camps would be starting now for the 2012-'13 season. Instead on Saturday Sept. 15, Gary Bettman and the NHL Owners will lockout the NHL players. The lockout is now almost certain to cause the loss of games including the Oct. 5 season opener. Our NHL Analysts VG8 and Tokemon will have alot to say here.

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,576]

Well I was looking forward to the new season, but I can understand the players trying to keep what they have and I'm not surprised at what they're doing. Last year they flexed their muscles at the re-alignment plan and some said that that could be a precursor to what would happen with these meetings...

 

The good news is that I may re-coup some of the monies I lost last year. I had to pay TWICE for NHL Center Ice because I had FiOS and then moved and had to get Direct TV and may move again....

[B35 via Church 9,403]

Yeah, I heard about this earlier on in the week.... after one of the better playoff seasons as of late, now fans gotta sit up here & worry about if there'll even be a regular season this upcoming season.... I don't know what the numbers/figures are, but currently the players get more of the revenue than the owners, and the owners want it to where they end up w/ more of the revenue.... As usual, a dispute over money..... Greedy owners, ehh, what are you gonna do.....

[Grand Concourse 2,690]

Jeez, hockey is at best #4. I fear that if they do have another strike, they'll be lucky to be behind tennis or golf, lol. Perhaps they could contract a few teams? If they piss off enough people with another lockout, they'll be lucky if the smaller market teams gets just '50%' capacity.

[B35 via Church 9,403]

Jeez, hockey is at best #4. I fear that if they do have another strike, they'll be lucky to be behind tennis or golf, lol. Perhaps they could contract a few teams? If they piss off enough people with another lockout, they'll be lucky if the smaller market teams gets just '50%' capacity.

 

In lot of ppl's eyes, hockey is already a '4'...... lol....

(for me, NHL is slowly creeping up to a '3'... Organized streetball (you know it as the NBA) is getting to the point where it's barely even watchable for me anymore... but that's just me)

 

Even with another lockout, No way would hockey drop below tennis, and especially not golf.....

 

- Golf is on a decline right now (thanks to the decline of tiger woods),

- Tennis is, and will remain stagnant for a LONG time

{just talked to my lil sis about this last week (she's who got me into tennis) - the problem w/ tennis is that they limit marketing the sport to rich folks.... This works better for golf b/c golf is more of a recreation (esp. for rich older folks).... I don't know what it's gonna take for tennis to increase in popularity, but for it to reach the levels of popularity that hockey already has throughout the world (even in america) would be one hell of a jump for the sport of tennis}.....

Edited September 15, 2012 by B35 via Church

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

Sadly it's on! The Great Lockout Part II of the NHL has begun. And I am sure the start of the regular season and the first few weeks of games there after certain to be wiped out. Again while i dont follow the NHL as much as the NBA/NFL and of course MLB, the only hope to prevent another season from being cancelled is the power of Comcast/NBC recent 10-year contract extension with the league. Meaning how IMO NBC/Comcast may pressure Bettman and company(Owners and Players) on a getting a new deal towards Christmas unlike in 2004-'05. Donald Fehr scares me as the NHL Players Boss. Here link.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/sp...ttman-fehr.html

[Q43LTD 741]

Does hockey have any fans left? This is it's second lockout in 8 years

[Grand Concourse 2,690]

This comes at the worst time for the Rangers, they finally improved themselves on paper and to lose a year would be devastating. Hockey needs a strong NY team in the playoffs. I hate Dolan, but I would have to think he'd try to fight to get an agreement made to have his team play in that renovated Garden. No one wins if no one pays to see them play, strikes are so f'ing stupid.

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

Does hockey have any fans left? This is it's second lockout in 8 years

 

 

Q43 if you been to Canada it's the #1 sport up there by a mile. More than soccer, baseball, basketball or even football. Plus in pockets of US such as Boston/New England area, Michigan and Minnesota. Plus it's growing internationally mainly in Eastern European such as Russia. So yes hockey is not the most popular sport in US but its does get it fans.

[Tokkemon 448]

Probably the most interesting comment I heard about the lockout is how it looks for Bettman. The players are stonewalling the owners because they players want Bettman out. So do the fans. The only reason Bettman is still Commissioner is..... actually I can't think of a good reason. He has driven several teams into financial ruin by forcing them to operate when it would be far easier for them to just relocate to somewhere where actual fans will buy tickets (like in Canada).

 

When the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg this last year it was a great triumph for Canadian hockey, not only because we got back a team we so rightly deserved, but we also showed that Canadian hockey fans are far more dedicated than any fans south of the Ohio River; every single Winnipeg game was sold out. Only a few teams enjoy that luxury. Meanwhile Bettman is holding on to Phoenix for dear life trying to prove that hockey can work in the desert. Honestly, can anything more absurd be contemplated? That's like playing baseball in the tundra. It made Bettman look bad when Winnipeg moved because the franchise was leaps and bounds better off in Canada than in his precious southern belt of teams. It's ridiculous.

 

Hockey is a Canadian game, no matter how much the Americans want to try and hijack it for their own purposes.

 

And here's the funny part. This lockout is because of a 5% difference in the proposals. An entire sport essentially put on hold, $3 billion worth, because of five percentage points.... can you imagine in any other industry or situation where this would be acceptable to anyone?!

Edited September 17, 2012 by Tokkemon

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,576]

Probably the most interesting comment I heard about the lockout is how it looks for Bettman. The players are stonewalling the owners because they players want Bettman out. So do the fans. The only reason Bettman is still Commissioner is..... actually I can't think of a good reason. He has driven several teams into financial ruin by forcing them to operate when it would be far easier for them to just relocate to somewhere where actual fans will buy tickets (like in Canada).

 

When the Atlanta Predators Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg this last year it was a great triumph for Canadian hockey, not only because we got back a team we so rightly deserved, but we also showed that Canadian hockey fans are far more dedicated than any fans south of the Ohio River; every single Winnipeg game was sold out. Only a few teams enjoy that luxury. Meanwhile Bettman is holding on to Phoenix for dear life trying to prove that hockey can work in the desert. Honestly, can anything more absurd be contemplated? That's like playing baseball in the tundra. It made Bettman look bad when Winnipeg moved because the franchise was leaps and bounds better off in Canada than in his precious southern belt of teams. It's ridiculous.

 

Hockey is a Canadian game, no matter how much the Americans want to try and hijack it for their own purposes.

 

And here's the funny part. This lockout is because of a 5% difference in the proposals. An entire sport essentially put on hold, $3 billion worth, because of five percentage points.... can you imagine in any other industry or situation where this would be acceptable to anyone?!

 

 

Well the thing with Bettman is that he is trying to grow the sport and get new people into it, hence his staunch stance on trying to keep hockey in the Southern part of the U.S. There is no question that hockey is a Canadian sport, but in order to grow the sport you have to look at new markets and the two main markets to try to grow the sport in would be the U.S. (below the belt) and parts of Europe. The problem is that the hardcore fans don't want things to change much. For example, I HATE the proposed realignment set up and I'm glad the players rejected it. The other thing I hated was that crap a few years ago with trying to create more "rivalries" amongst teams in the same division. OMG!! Friggin' Flames like three times in a week playing the Avalanche... It got sickening...

 

He does have a point though... The game won't grow if it just stays mainly a Canadian sport because what is needed is airtime and many Canadian cities are too small to really grow the sport on a large scale.

 

On the same hand though I think a lot of it is cultural. I mean living up by Montréal, Saturday night was always hockey night during the cold months. I'd go up to our local rink and watch the college games (made sure I got a security job in the rink so I could get paid while watching the games ) and then I'd come back from the rink to my dorm room and turn on CBC for the double header... When it's 70 - 80 degrees outside, the last thing anyone is thinking about is hockey, so I'm not sure how much growth can be had in Southern markets in the U.S.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Via Garibaldi 8

[mediccjh 458]

Bettman needs to drop dead from commotio cordis after taking a puck in the chest from Zdeno Chara.

[Q43LTD 741]

Yeah, I heard about this earlier on in the week.... after one of the better playoff seasons as of late, now fans gotta sit up here & worry about if there'll even be a regular season this upcoming season.... I don't know what the numbers/figures are, but currently the players get more of the revenue than the owners, and the owners want it to where they end up w/ more of the revenue.... As usual, a dispute over money..... Greedy owners, ehh, what are you gonna do.....

 

The CBA that expired had the players getting 57% of hockey related revenue. The owners want it reduced to 47%

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,576]

Ha! I don't see that happening...

[Grand Concourse 2,690]

The CBA that expired had the players getting 57% of hockey related revenue. The owners want it reduced to 47%

 

Was it going to kill the players to take a 5% cut to be at 52%? Yeah, losing a whole year is going to be worth it where no one gets any money.

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,576]

Was it going to kill the players to take a 5% cut to be at 52%? Yeah, losing a whole year is going to be worth it where no one gets any money.

 

Oh please... Hockey players don't earn nearly as much as guys in other sports do... The big time contracts are still only about $7.5 million or $8 million a year. When you compare that to other sports that is chump change.

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

Very true VG8. A top player in NBA(Lebron) MLB(Pujols) or a top striker in international soccer makes $15-$20 Million a year. Plus those other sports leagues get as much as $2-$3 Billion a year from TV rights. While on the other hand the NHL only gets around $500 Million combined a year from TSN/CBC and NBC under their current TV contract. It seems that the owners are trying to bust the NHL Players Union w/ this latest work stoppage.

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,576]

Very true VG8. A top player in NBA(Lebron) MLB(Pujols) or a top striker in international soccer makes $15-$20 Million a year. Plus those other sports get as much as $2-$3 Billion a year from TV rights. The NHL only gets around $500 Million combined a year from TSN/CBC and NBC under their current TV contract. It seems that the owners are trying to bust the NHL Players Union w/ this latest work stoppage.

 

 

Even if you go back to when there wasn't a real salary cap and the big market clubs were raking in the big players like the Avalanche did, that big time Joe Sakic deal for 3 years was only for $21 million, so $7 million a year for a hall-a-famer...

[Grand Concourse 2,690]

So who was it that agreed to the salary caps in the first place? You either deal with it or end the caps and allow 'limits'. Obviously baseball is a bad example of the extremes, but if the team salary cap could be raised to allow for players to earn more, wouldn't that help? I never liked the idea of the hard caps. I prefer soft caps with luxury tax penalties.

Also do they have a minimum salary cap limit? For baseball everyone is always on the Yankees case for spending too much while you had the Pirates few years ago penny pinching and not even spending money to keep their best players.

[Q43LTD 741]

And once again, Donald Fehr is in the mix

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

And once again, Donald Fehr is in the mix

 

 

Yup! Everytime Mr. Fehr just like his time in baseball, gets involved in contract talks and later a huge role in steriods era in MLB, this is what happens.

 

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,576]

This may be a long mess... Erhoff just signed with a team from his home country of Germany as did Kolvachuk signing with a Russian team...

[Shortline Bus 1,121]

In a shock to no one the NHL pretty much cancelled almost the entire pre season. All warm up games until 9/30/12 have been canned. As i said before the only thing preventing the NHL from cancelling a season for 2nd time in 10 years is the pressure from Comcast/NBC their US TV partner.

[Q43LTD 741]

Alex Ovechkin signed with a team from Moscow

[Via Garibaldi 8 8,576]

With most of the contracts, my understanding is that they don't have to sign for a full year because some of the leagues like the idea of having stars play and getting more exposure if you will. There is talk that with the amount of money that these guys can earn in the other leagues, some of them may very well stay with those teams even after the lockout is over.