trim a round off the playoffs and a) you've got more time to sort things out and b) more drama in the "reg season" games as competition hots up for the 8 playoff spots. just fire gary and bob. this thing would be over now if it weren't for them.
This is like when you've got a good friend who's in a relationship, and then they're on the rocks, and you listen and say "uh huh" while he/she moans about it, and then they break up, and you listen and say "uh huh" while he/she moans about it, and then they get back together, and you say, "...great...", and then they've got Issues, and and you listen and say "uh huh" while he/she moans about it, and then they break up, that's it, forever, and you listen and say "uh huh" while he/she moans about it, and then they're back together for good this time, and...
TSN, the Score, The Hockey News, and Eklund are all saying it's a done deal in principle. Nothing confirmed. Holding my breath, now.
No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to stop removing this f*cking band-aid... [slow ripping sound] Argh! Come off already! [slow ripping sound] Arrrrgh!
Also: if this does come to pass and Wayne Gretzky is instrumental in getting it done, then you can just about call him "Saint Gretzky". Seriously...being the greatest hockey player of all time, a nice guy, leading the Olympic team to its first gold medal in over 50 years (while taking all the heat from the press himself) and then pulling this miracle off? I'd expect him to walk on water, but as a hockey player he pretty much did that already (albeit frozen).
Also: if this does come to pass and Wayne Gretzky is instrumental in getting it done, then you can just about call him "Saint Gretzky". No matter who does it, is it not somewhat likely that any "agreement" that is made will, really, honestly be a case of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear? Or, to continue with my relationship analogy, a patched-up marriage where the only sensible thing is to get a divorce and everybody start all over again (or not) with a different partner?
Weak. WEAK!
lbb, that's a brilliant analogy. However, let me ruin it by saying I would snipe in and have breakup sex with the NHL assuming season tickets dropped to like $49.95.
I am all so Whatever about this. Except, if this deal happens, I will puke on any fans who start getting all "Oh, this short season will really bring out the best in everybody! It will be so exciting! I am just so happy to see the puck drop!" And I mean I will fly to Toronto, New York or Tampa Bay and eat some nasty, nasty food before puking like a broken water main on these imbeciles.
If this is all true, then great! This short season will really bring out the best in everybody! It will be so exciting! I will be so happy to see the puck drop!
If there's no meaningful revenue sharing with this cap, then hockey will die in its struggling markets. I am not optimistic.
Please.
Kill me now.
Montreal, here I come. gspm, get your biggest bar of soap ready!
bill, I heard Gary Bettman saying it too. I've emailed you his home address.
Please let this be true. Please let there be a season. (Samsonov and others are overseas, and can't get back, due to their signing something something or whatever) Also, whatever. I've never been happier for being wrong. I'm punching myself in the face in happiness. Man, that hurt so good. Ouch, my face!
Ow, my face! I can't believe that was for nothing.
yerfatma: lbb, that's a brilliant analogy. However, let me ruin it by saying I would snipe in and have breakup sex with the NHL assuming season tickets dropped to like $49.95. Well. I would too. And that's exactly what it'd feel like. Yeeech, I feel so tainted now, just thinking about it. I'm gonna go boil myself in Lysol.
Wayne Gretzky did play a part in getting both sides talking again, however Mario Lemieux was the catalyst. Super Mario initiated talks Friday night and now Saturday we're awaiting an announcement declaring the season is un-canceled. Much like he saved the Penguins franchise in Pittsburgh, Mario helped save the NHL's 2004-2005 season.
Wayne's a good company man - always has been. Mario is the real iconoclast. He's been pissed at the League a thousand times - I see more of his fingerprints on this than Wayners.
According to The Score's ticker, talks have broken off for the day. No word on any agreements or whether any more talks are scheduled.
ESPN puts it as 6.5 hours "and got nowhere". sigh.
"Saint Gretzky"? Puh-leeze. He was the jackass that got this whole fiasco started...
Puh-leeze. He was the jackass that got this whole fiasco started... What? Are you suggesting it was his salaries that were the cause of the escalation?
I believe he might be referring to Gretzky being the reason the NHL ever got even a minor toehold in the U.S., thus leading to rampant and foolish expansion and the state of the league today.
Closure.
What wfrazerjr said. Oh, and the idea that "progress" for the NHL meant becoming a pan-North American league with more teams and a big US telly contract. Gretzky was supposed to be the standard bearer of the campaign into the sunshine states. It is no surprise that Bettman's "group of eight" -- the owners who are allegedly keeping a hard line, scuttling the last-minute talks and yesterday's post-last-minute talks -- are small-market owners from the south.
It's Gretzky's fault he got traded? I think your vitriol is better aimed at one Bruce McNall, docgonzo.
Those southern small-market owners will all be running Pontiac dealerships or Wal-Marts in 5 years. Bet your Tacks on it.
so, Eklund - no hope left and now there is a redesign, the archives are gone, and we get fan stories?
