NHL 2012/13 Discussion Thread

With the first half of the training camp schedule cancelled - this season looks bleak. there's still a chance that the regular season and the winter classic between Detroit and Toronto can be saved. My thoughts are that the American public would prefer a stump NHL schedule that starts roughly when the NFL completes theirs. less of a conflict in attention.

Let's see where the discussion takes us this year! Game On!


NHL lockout: Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr mingle, no talks scheduled - thestar.com


NHL lockout: Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr mingle, no talks scheduled


Kevin McGran
Sports Reporter

Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr sat at the same table at the same time — finally — on Monday night, and hockey’s power brokers admitted it might be time to get back to the bargaining table.
“We are hopeful,” NHL commissioner Bettman said when asked if there will be contract talks this week. “The fact is, we’re committed to making a deal and doing it as quickly as possible. If we can get talks on track, that would be great.”
Asked the same question, Fehr, the NHLPA’s executive director, said: “We’ll see what happens. It would be nice. Hope so.”
Still, no talks were scheduled.
Their Monday meeting had nothing to do with collective bargaining or the NHL lockout. Both were on hand to fete hall of famer Brad Park as the NHL Alumni Association’s man of the year.
But the subtext was all lockout, with master of ceremonies Dennis Hull joking that his wife, seated at the Bettman-Fehr table, might be able to resolve things.
If body language means anything, things look bleak. Bettman and Fehr hadn’t met face-to-face since Sept. 12. On Monday, they didn’t shake hands at their table. Ted Lindsay, a hall of famer and union founder, and Bill Daly, Bettman’s deputy, sat between them.
There are a few impediments to meaningful talks in the next two days. Tuesday evening marks the beginning of Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday that forbids work until Wednesday evening. Bettman and Fehr are Jewish.
Their non-Jewish lieutenants can, of course, work, but the bigger impediment is the starting point for talks. The NHL has made it clear it wants major rollbacks in the first year of any new deal. The players are willing to surrender future earnings, but have held the line on keeping what they have in year one.
“We’ve got to talk before you can get a deal,” said Daly. “It’s important to get the talks going again, but you also have to have something to say. We feel we need to hear from the players association in a meaningful way. I don’t think they’ve really moved off their initial proposal, which was made more than a month ago.”
The sides did meet earlier Monday. Daly huddled with Steve Fehr, the association’s chief legal counsel, to finalize 2011-12 hockey-related revenue numbers.
Players put 8.5 per cent of their salary into escrow in 2011-12. Because the NHL met its financial targets, players will get 99 per cent back. Those cheques — averaging $200,000 per player — will be mailed in October. If the players remain locked out, it will cushion the blow of missing their first cheques on Oct. 15.
Daly emerged from that meeting offering hope that talks would resume, no regular-season games would be lost and the plug is far from pulled on the Winter Classic. At least not yet.
“We don’t want an extended work stoppage. We don’t want to miss any regular season games,” Daly said outside the NHL’s Toronto offices. “No bargaining sessions scheduled, but we have kept in close contact.”
The Star reported Saturday that, according to sources, they league could cancel the New Year’s Day Winter Classic — between the Maple Leafs and Red Wings — as early as November. The game is a ratings winner on NBC and is expected to draw more than 100,000 fans at Michigan Stadium.
“Internally we’re not focused on the Winter Classic,” said Daly. “We’re not focused on a cancellation date on the Winter Classic.”
The league has already cancelled the first half of training camps and the rest is increasingly in jeopardy.
MORE:
Red Wings fined for exec’s unauthorized comments
Leafs-Wings Winter Classic could die in November

 

First block of regular season games shit canned, they best get their shit together by March, I want to go see the Leafs/Yotes game in Glendale, oh the joy of living in a city where no one gives a shit about hockey, finally cheap tickets and now no damn games to watch.

 

I'm currently in Richmond VA, and nobody knows or cares. Tried to pick up some Under Armor compression wear with the non slip sleeves (for under the shoulder pads) at the outlet mall store. not an item that is stocked. So maybe the football agenda gets all the attention down here. So with the first set of games cancelled I think we are in for a long wait.

 

Greed on both sides, hopefully the KHL will steal some of the players away for better paycheques. I think its total BS and I was going to the Winter Classic, because of this crap, I no longer want a part of the NHL, it took me 3-4 years to get back into hockey again after the last lockout. I'm almost to the point that I will not be going back for a very long time...

 

The KHL is supposed to be broadcasting some games on one of the ESPN today. Other than that it'll be streaming OHL, WHL, and AHL games for me.
What We Learned: When ESPN meets the KHL, it’s Alex Ovechkin that wins - The Hockey News

 

Yep, sign a bunch of ridiculous free agent contracts, then lock the players out.