Despite the lockout, we have some good news here at BSB. Good friend Becky (follow her on Twitter here) will actually be on Boomer and Carton tomorrow as a part of the “Do You Know More Sports Than A Hot Chick” segment. Becky has done a few guest spots on the blog here and there, and we reached out to her to write a post about how she will be dealing with the NHL lockout.
Don’t forget to tune in to B&C tomorrow to check out Becky and see if you know more sports than her.
With the NHL cancelling the remainder of the preseason games, and the start date of regular season hockey quickly approaching with no signs of progress, it seems standard that all North American hockey fans are pretty bummed and/or on the ledge. Well, we can still keep our interest in hockey fresh and alive without regular season games. Consider this article your guide to living through yet another lockout.
In no particular order, here are things to do during the impending lockout:
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Although there’s a lockout, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all NHL players are without paychecks. In fact, it’s far from the truth. Any player that has a signing bonus will still receive that bonus. Also, any player that was injured before the lockout will still receive paychecks until he is cleared to play by the NHL doctors.
This means that injured players Marian Gaborik ($7.5 million) and Mike Sauer ($1.25 million) will still get paid until they are cleared to play by team doctors. For Gaborik, he will get paid for October and November at the minimum. As for Sauer, considering there was no timetable for his return, I’d expect that he will get paid for the entire duration of the lockout.
For Rangers with bonuses, those bonuses will still be paid out:
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The NHL and the NHLPA have already cancelled the entire preseason.
In case you’ve missed it, the NFL and the NFLRA settled their lockout yesterday, ending the debacle that had become the replacement referees influencing the outcome of games. The biggest issue came this past Monday night, when a botched call gave Seattle a win over Green Bay.
Why do I bring up football on a hockey blog?
Well, the NFL received over 70,000 emails in the first 24 hours following that botched call. The issue wasn’t so much the botched call as it was the replacement refs influencing games. Seventy thousand emails and two days later, the NFL settled with the NFLRA, and the regular refs are back in action.
See what I’m getting at yet?
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Per John Shannon of Sports Net, the NHL will announce the cancellation of the remainder of the preseason this afternoon:
The NHL will announce the cancellation of the remainder of the pre-season later today. No hockey thru October 8th.
For the Rangers, this will mean that their final two preseason games against the New York Islanders (10/4) and the Colorado Avalanche (10/6) will be canceled. The Rangers are set to open the season on 10/12 against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings.
This comes one week to the day that the league announced the cancellation of the September preseason games. Based on this timetable, if no progress is made this Friday when talks resume –or over the weekend– then the NHL will start canceling regular season games.
While many are quick to blame Gary Bettman for the third lockout under his regime, the blame lies equally with the owners as well. Over 50% of owners in the NHL barely break even or lose money, and they have no qualms with locking out the players. These owners lose less money with a lockout than they do while the season is in full swing.
James Dolan is not one of these owners.
While many may think that Dolan wanted this lockout to help line his own pockets, they couldn’t be further from the truth. There are several reasons why he did not want this lockout. In fact, I’m willing to bet that the vote for a lockout was only unanimous because Dolan was a reluctant participant to show his support for his fellow owners.
Note: This is speculation on my part. I have no proof whatsoever if this is the case.
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The next shoe in the lockout saga has fallen, and the NHL has canceled all preseason games through September 30. For the Rangers, this means the cancellation of three of their five preseason games, all away from MSG.
The games canceled are the 9/26 and 9/28 games at New Jersey, and the 9/29 game at Philadelphia. The two remaining preseason games –which will be the next games canceled if this isn’t resolved– are 10/4 at Los Angeles and 10/6 at Colorado.
While the cancellation of preseason games may not seem like much, it deprives us of a rare opportunity to see the Rangers prospects in game situations. The Connecticut Whale aren’t on TV in the New York area, and it is almost impossible to find any OHL, WHL, or QMJHL games that are televised.
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The lockout is now real and some New York Rangers have begun to make commitments to other teams for the 2012 season.
Already Rick Nash has inked a deal with HC Davos to reunite with Ranger hater Joe Thornton, where they both played in the last lockout.
The Fourth Period also reports that Carl Hagelin is in talks with Sodertalje SK of the Swedish Div II League.
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At 12:01am EST this morning, the owners officially locked out the players for the second time in a decade, and the third time in less than 20 years under Gary Bettman’s regime. For all our posts on the CBA, please refer to our Business of Hockey category.
Now we wait…again. While yesterday was the day the old CBA expired, it wasn’t the “deadline” before games start getting cancelled. Training camps and the preseason will be cancelled next week, but there is still about a 10-15 day buffer before regular season games start getting cancelled.
For those following the UnfollowNHLSept15 movement, now is the time to unfollow the NHL and NHLPA accounts on Twitter. There have also been peaceful fan protests outside the NHL corporate offices in New York.
Shame on the NHL and the NHLPA for not meeting yesterday. Shame on the NHL and NHLPA for allowing another lockout to happen. And shame on the NHL and NHLPA for once again showing their apparent greed over money we all wish we would make.
By now you are probably aware that the chance of the season starting on time remains pretty low. You’ve heard the rhetoric and you may have come across some attempts at number crunching. However, the fact of the matter is the media and the respective parties involved haven’t done a great job at communicating what both sides need in order for the sport to continue to grow and prosper. All you are getting are calculated opinions, half truths and secondary issues that are only meant to distract you from the core issue. How do we grow and split the pie?
What a fair CBA should look like
In my humble opinion, the pie (also known has hockey related revenue) should be split 50/50. This past year the split was 57/43 in favor of the players. Obviously a split of this nature is not sustainable. The way the business world operates in 2012 is far different than it did in 2005. Whether it is wages, travel costs, healthcare costs, lack of access to credit, etc., the price of doing business in this country has increased dramatically over the last several years and I think most people understand that.
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With the September 15th deadline just three days away, today is by far the biggest day of the negotiations to date. More than 300 players will be at today’s meetings, with the NHLPA hopefully making a new offer, per Renaud Lavoie:
https://twitter.com/RenLavoieRDS/statuses/245616796865028096
Although that tweet is from yesterday, it is still promising that a new offer may be made at some point. This new offer was also confirmed by Bruce Garrioch:
https://twitter.com/SunGarrioch/status/245862568281911296
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