Well Bruins fans and other fans of the NHL, I decided to take some time away from work and studies on my graduate degree to start posting in my "Bruins Bits" blog again. I had to step away earlier because life just required more from me, which didn't allow me time to blog. On top of that, the Bruins performance in this year's playoffs was disappointing and this lockout has really got me down. I decided to start posting today because frankly, I'm more disappointed in the fans and their view of the lockout than I am in the players or owners.
I went to TSN earlier (great place to catch up on the latest going on in the lockout) and I was really surprised to see that most fans are blaming the players and Donald Fehr for the ongoing lockout. Personally, I was more upset with Gary Bettman and Jeremy Jacobs and some others than I was with Fehr and the players. Here are the things that really burn my britches about this lockout:
1) The players offered to continue to play under the old CBA until a new CBA could be worked out. What exactly is wrong with that? The league claims it's losing $20 million each day and the players are losing $8-$10 million a day. If I'm Gary Bettman and the owners, I'd rather have 100% of something than 100% of nothing. I know it's hindsight, but this is what I would have done. If I'm Gary Bettman, I go to the owners and Donald Fehr and the players back on September 15th and say "OK, that sounds good. Here's what we'll do. We'll keep playing under the old CBA until the end of the 2012-2013 regular season. If we don't have an agreement by the last day of the season, the owners will lockout the players, no questions asked. That means no playoffs, no Stanley Cup, no free agency, nothing of the sort. Now, if there are no further questions, executvies of the NHL and NHLPA will meet here again a week from today with proposals in hand."
2) My understanding is that the owners didn't want mediators involved until very recently. Why not? If you have offers of help from outside, and it's clear you are getting nowhere on your own, why not take the help? It's been too clear that things were going downhill way before mediation was welcomed in.
3) My understanding is that the owners wanted to open talks much earlier this year. Why didn't the players want to? If talks had opened up around the All-Star game period, we might be seeing hockey right now.
4) What has happened to "doing the right thing?" This is really directed towards Jeremy Jacobs and Craig Leopold. From my understanding, you are the two biggest obstacles to a deal, yet you blessed off on some of the more outlandish contracts right before the lockout. The way my father raised me, you honored a contract whether it was a signed piece of paper or a handshake. Shame on you both. No one twisted your arms when you signed Seguin, Parise and Suter. Now you want to outlaw the types of contracts you approved right before the CBA expired. Convince the rest of the owners to come up with the extra $182 million needed for the "make whole" provision. YOU approved the contracts, don't sleaze your way out of them.
5) The NHL refused 3 proposals from the NHLPA in 10 minutes and their latest proposal in about an hour. What, are Gary Bettman and the owners graduates of the "Evelyn Wood Speed Reading School?" How can you effectively evalute 4 proposals and blow them off in 70 minutes?
6) Free agency at 28, entry level contracts for 2 years, what gives NHL? Why screw with something that's not broken?
In my humble opinion, the players and Donald Fehr are doing the right thing, I have not read one thing that makes me believe the owners want to have a hockey season this year. The owners have failed at almost every step in this process, from refusing to continue playing under the old CBA, up to their unbelievably idiotic first offer of 43%, through Bettman's "let's take 2 weeks off and see where we stand", right on up to throwing out 4 proposals without really examining them. I wrote in a Puck Daddy blog a few weeks ago that the thing that sells the NHL IS the players. Who cares who the owners are? Whenever I watch my Bruins, I cheer for Bergeron, Chara, Seguin, Looch and all the others. I could care less about Jeremy Jacobs. Sure, it costs the owners alot to run an NHL franchise. Without the players, there IS NO NHL. I also wrote in my address to the Puck Daddy blog that soon the NHL would be 5th in the U.S. behind the NBA, NFL, MLB, and the English Premier League. I was wrong. It will be 6th; MMA and UFC are getting a lot more attention nowadays. Keep up the "good" work Gary, Jeremy, and Craig, and soon the NHL will be fighting to get on the Travel Channel.
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