Monthly Archive for February, 2005

More on Steve Shannon

Published
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Matt Saler
on February 28, 2005
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The New York Times had more in yesterday’s edition on Steve Shanno, the former coach of the Motor City Mechanics who placed a $200 bounty on Flint Generals player Kevin Kerr. The most interesting part is that Derian Hatcher spoke up after Shannon had made the offer and left the room. He t, “No. This will not be done.” Derian has downplayed it since, but if he did in fact say that, I think he deserves a lot of credit.

Apparently, Shannon was not popular with the players and they are not sorry to see him go. 14 of them testified to the UHL about what happened. Shannon still adamantly denies that he offered a bounty and holds that the players conspired against him with their former coach, Gary Unger. That may be but, if so, the players really have the UHL sold on it. UHL President and chief executive Richarch Brosal had some more harsh words about Shannon:

“This man is a menace. He is deplorable. He made a mockery of all coaches. He deserved what he got and then some. This gentleman is a disgrace to hockey.”

The Mechanics fans do not agree, if their actions are any indication (from the NY Times article):

Moments before the opening face-off Friday night, some Motor City Mechanics fans threw a dozen rolls of Bounty paper towels on the ice in the Flint Generals’ zone.

Those were thrown in support of Shannon, apparently. So, Motor City fans have a good sense of humor and are grossly misguided in their lending of support. More classiness. Ugh.

Update (Brian)

In other bounty-related news, the NCAA college basketball world was shaken with news that Temple coach John Chaney sent in a “goon” player to rough up Saint Joseph’s squad during their game last Tuesday. The resulting rough play left Saint Joseph’s senior John Bryant with a broken arm off of a more-than-flagrant foul by Nehemiah Ingram, Chaney’s self-described goon. The play occurred with just under 8 minutes to go in the second half, Saint Joseph holding a commanding 50-34 lead. Ingram did not shake hands with any SJU players following the game. Chaney has been suspended by Temple for the final three games of the regular season, and he has also decided not to coach during the Atlantic 10 tournament in respect to Bryant’s inability to participate. Chaney has apologized to Bryant and his family, and offered to pay the medical bills.

Bob Wojnowski gives us the next 11 months

Published
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Matt Saler
on February 27, 2005
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The Detroit News columnist has a very humorous roadmap of the NHL’s lockout (extending all the way to January 20th, 2006) in today’s edition.

Highlights include:

• March 1: NHL Board of Governors meet in New York; NHL Players Association meets in Toronto. The Hockey News and ESPN, citing sources close to someone who knows Mario Lemieux, report a deal is done and the season will start March 2.

• March 2: It’s revealed the Board of Governors actually spent most of the meeting in the hotel game room, smoking cigars and playing video golf.

• March 4: Union executive director Bob Goodenow, in a letter addressed to commissioner Gary Bettman, lowers salary-cap demand from $49 million to $48.95 million. Bettman responds by dropping owners’ offer from $42.5 million to $12.3 million, Canadian.

….

• March 20: The Hockey News and ESPN report a deal is done and a nine-game season will start March 21.
….

• March 27: Carolina owner Peter Karmanos denies small-market hard-liners are out to get big-market spenders.

Karmanos makes a multimillion-dollar, front-loaded offer to a key Mike Ilitch pizza executive. Ilitch matches it, promptly raises pizza prices.
….

Jan. 11: NHL commissioner Wayne Gretzky and union executive director Brett Hull meet for beers, hammer out agreement in 35 minutes.

• Jan. 20, 2006: Season starts. Red Wings fans complain about their goaltender.

Really, the whole thing is funny. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of it actually happens. This whole thing is frankly that unbelievable. It’ll make a great book someday, if anyone decides to write one.

The resolution Wojnowski proposes may not be that far off. I think this has become a personal war between Goodenow and Bettman and everyone would be a lot better off if both of them were handed the pink slip. I wouldn’t be shocked if someone else has the reigns of both organizations before the end of this thing.

I’m not sure how I feel about Brett Hull as the top guy at the NHLPA, though. That would be interesting, to say the least. The Great One leading the League is something I can see (and hope for).

2/26 Lockout Stats Update

Published
by
Brian List
on February 26, 2005
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Recommended Listening for all readers

Published
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Matt Saler
on February 22, 2005
in Uncategorized
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On Sunday, CBC Radio’s show “Cross Country Checkup,” asked Canada this question: “What’s your reaction to the cancellation of the NHL season?” The responses they got were very interesting, to be sure. I highly recommend listening to the show, despite the fact it is almost two hours long. A lot of good stuff was said and I definitely enjoyed listening to it today.

I would like to remind our friends north of the border that, although hockey may be your game, there are some serious fans here in the US too, as I think this site and others have shown. I love hockey as much as anyone and it hurts when Canadians make a blanket statement like “No one in the US cares about hockey at all.” It sucks enough being a hockey-starved passionate fan here in the US without being told you’re not a real fan just because you’re not Canadian.

I thank the show’s main guest, Tom Harrington, for pointing out early on that there are serious fans in the US. Mr. Harrington was probably the best part of the whole show and was very informative throughout.

It was good to see the variety of perspectives from average Canadians from all over the country as well. It was said often that the NHL is not the only hockey available to them and that it would not be missed as much as you’d think. That’s great for them but here in the States, the NHL is just about all we get, if you want any level of quality. If I could watch the WHL or QMJHL or CHL, I definitely would. I’d give an awful lot right now to have TSN or Sportsnet here. I do have four tickets to the Grand Rapids Griffins I can use next month, though (thanks SoBe NoFear and CU vending machines!).

Another thing I noticed was that there is a lot of optimism among Canadian fans. That’s not what I’ve been feeling but that probably has something to do with the fact that there is a significant hockey presence in Canada that is able to act as a quality replacement for the NHL. Not so here. To me, the prospect of a dead NHL is real and scary. I have sort of the snobbish attitude Jes Golbez wrote about today but that’s because the NHL is the only hockey I’ve ever known. I don’t want to have to watch the AHL! The NHL is hockey to me, as long as we don’t have such a great major junior system here in the US.

Anyway, be sure to check the show out. Click here for the MP3 version and here for the RealPlayer version. It’s a big download (25.8 MB) but well worth it, in my opinion.

Thanks to HockeyNation for the link.

Totally unrelated update:

I didn’t want to do a separate post but this is worth mentioning.

As already pointed out by Christy on her blog, the Wings’ official site has been redone. It looks a lot better than before and might actually be useful now. Perhaps the best part is a written history of the team. Check it out.

Motor City Mechanics coach suspended

Published
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Matt Saler
on February 22, 2005
in Uncategorized
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The head coach of the Motor City Mechanics has been suspended for the rest of the season by the UHL after placing a bounty on Flint Generals player Kevin Kerr. Steve Shannon offered his players $200 to take out the veteran UHL player, and all-time minor league goal leader, in the course of the Mechanics’ February 2nd game in Flint. Apparently, it was a reaction to Kerr’s comments protesting the signing of NHL players by the Mechanics.

Thankfully, none of Shannon’s players took him up on the offer, though Kerr did fracture his elbow in what he called a clean hit during the game.

Nonetheless, the UHL understandably took action against Shannon. Commissioner Richard Brosal said Shannon has not yet admitted to having offered the bounty but confirmed that it was for $200. “I don’t care if it was $5. You do not put a bounty on another player’s head.” Brosal also said that Shannon will not automatically be reinstated for next season: “I would review that again if it came up. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Shannon will miss the last 24 games of the season. Taking over the last place Mechanics (17-33-6) will be Garry Unger, who has coached the Mechanics in the past.

The Mechanics and Generals have another game on Friday.

I think the UHL handled this very well and I hope they deny Shannon re-entry into the league for next season. That sort of thing is absolutely disgusting. Obviously the man has not been paying attention to major hockey event sin the past year. Maybe then he would have remembered what happened with the Canucks. Great job, Mr. Shannon. Way to run your team with integrity. Classless.

Quote of the Day

Published
by
Brian List
on February 20, 2005
in Uncategorized
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Reflecting the urgency to get a deal done in the next few weeks, or the gloves may come off and each side will then wait for the other to cannibalize itself first:

“The issue here is not whether we can solve this in time to play a meaningful season. The issue is, if we don’t solve it now, we’re not going to solve it because it’s like dividing a wheat harvest after a hail storm. There’s not going to be enough left to make a deal. This is the window. If we don’t do this now, it is not going to happen. Not gonna happen. With catastrophic consequences for both sides. They have got to solve this now, or we’re not playing until Christmas-time.”

–Brian Burke, “TSN NHL Insiders”

It’s a very good point. While the fans want closure and a break from this drama, this might be the time to get a deal done. We have the momentum of both sides giving up major philosophical foundations of their stance (linkage and salary cap). The longer we wait, the more the NHL’s economic prospects crumble, and then the NHL will be offering a cap at $20-30 million based on loss of revenue due to the lockout. So I wouldn’t discourage both sides from meeting now, just to not flaunt their negotiations in public and make the fans think a miracle is going to happen until you know it’s going to happen.

Pissed off at small-market owners & the media

Published
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Christy Hammond
on February 20, 2005
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WARNING: This entry is a pure venting and ranting session for me. If you don’t want to hear me get mad over small-market team owners and the media, please skip this entry or come back later.

After Wednesday’s announcement of the cancellation of the season, I was sad and frustrated that they could not come to an agreement to save the season. After hearing the result of yesterday’s session, I am angry, pissed off, and really frustrated that an agreement was not made. As you could probably tell from previous entries, I always placed more blame with the owners, specifically Bettman for the mess we’re in. After today’s fiasco, my “belief” in who to blame has increased at least tenfold.

But first, I want to vent my frustrations over the media. I realize that many used sources who believed that this deal was going to happen, but then things changed at the last minute. When usually credible media like The Hockey News, TSN, and ESPN said the deal was imminent, I was excited but remained cautious. EJ Hradek kept guaranteeing a deal and said that in principle they had agreed and it was going to be done Saturday or Sunday. Same with Eklund. I wish they had reported them as rumors and to remain cautious instead of “the deal is going to happen this weekend, we’re just waiting for them to announce the un-cancellation of the season.” I got really excited around 3:45 about the prospect that in a couple hours they would be un-cancelling the season. In 30 minutes when the meeting ended, fans were in for a big surprise. The talks ended with sides further apart before and pissed off and angry players.

Talk about a roller coaster ride and I’m totally sick of it. If I didn’t love hockey so much and my Red Wings, I’d be gone from the sport forever. I’m truly worried about the state of this league whenever it returns (which who knows if we’ll even have it by this fall).

I feel that Bettman is pushing for a cap to “save” the teams in the non-traditional hockey-loving regions (ie. Miami, Nashville, etc.). Well after this lockout (and all that the fans have been put through in the past 4 days), the casual fan will probably be gone. That wipes out a majority of fans in those ‘problem’ regions putting us right back at square one even after an agreement is reached.

On top of that, these problem areas actually veto the only deal/chance we had to truly save the season! According to Fan 590, the owners of the Preds and Panthers totally opposed increasing the cap by $2.5 million to $45. They then whined to 6 other teams and convinced them to veto the deal. Now no further talks are scheduled and they are further then ever. Fellow Wings fans in the LetsGoWings.com forum voiced some opinions following that report:

- Further reason to contract the Preds and Panthers.
- How can two owners who don’t even deserve teams call the shots of the entire league?
- “It upsets me that hockey is canceled because owners who have no right to have a team are ruining it for fans who go out and support their teams. It’s not fair that owners like Carolina and Nashville, even Chicago can’t draw fans because of fan apathy have ruined hockey, possibly forever, for fans who can and strongly support their teams. So I apologize for my outburst, but I do hope you understand the anger directed at owners like Nashville’s who have ruined it for every hockey fan…over $2.5MM dollars no less.” (Barnes52)

I couldn’t agree more. I’m sorry that you two owners were stupid enough to agree to a franchise in an area that most likely wasn’t going to work- it’s not my fault. I’m sorry that you aren’t getting enough attendance and can’t afford the expensive payrolls. But hello- a salary cap of $45 million does NOT mean you have to spend that much. Seriously, that’s the MAXIMUM and not the minimum.

And I also have problems with some of the teams who were rumored to have also taken part in the “veto 8.” (1) Boston. Stop being cheap and deal with it. You are in a region that loves hockey and you can afford $2.5 more in a salary cap. Once again, you don’t HAVE to spend up to that limit. (2) Chicago. We all know Wirtz is not making the most of a great sports city, much less a hockey-loving one. If you actually made wise business investments, you’re franchise could be doing amazing. (3) Edmonton. I don’t mind as much that they opposed this. They do have many small business owners owning the team and are not rich like the single person owner who has millions or billions of dollars. But Canada loves hockey, why would you want do axe this season because of $2.5!? (4) Carolina. Even after they reached the Stanley Cup finals in 2002, attendance was still poor. I’m not denying there are some passionate fans there, but the region just doesn’t support hockey.

The result of today’s meeting only reaffirmed my beliefs for a need of contraction and my blame for the owners. I don’t really blame the Wings’ owner, Ilitch. Yes, he certainly most helped play a role in the quick increase of player salaries. However, he could afford to pay these contracts. Even if he faced a loss after the end of the season, he was willing to continue to cough up money for the star players. Owners who can’t afford to cover or aren’t willing to cover those expensive contracts (whether it be b/c of a bad region or poor attendance or whatever) should not get those players. It’s a matter of simple business, really.

“At this stage of the lockout, the fans are licking their wounds and trying to find some closure in knowing the season is cancelled. So all talks should’ve been via email, phone, and totally secret from us. There is no reason for them to be publically meeting right now…You don’t make your loyal fans believe something is going to get done when that is as far from the truth as we’ve learned. It is totally irresponsible and shows a lack of respect to the fans and everyone that cares. The damage they did by holding this public meeting this morning is huge. By waking up the fans and giving us hope again, we expected a result other than what we’ve seen for the past 9 months.” - Brian at On The Wings

After today’s bizarre roller coaster ride, I’m disgusted with how they (NHL/NHLPA/Media) did things. This only worsened the image of the league and crushed the (at the time) realistic hopes of thousands of fans. You ruined your chance at ESPN picking up the option to the TV deal or keeping some of your big advertisers. You’ve cost restaurants/bars/businesses based on hockey or surrounding arenas money and lost jobs. You’ve turned dedicated fans away from the sport and you even have players pissed off at the owners, not just frustrated anymore.

Why would you have a meeting only 3 days after cancelling it if it wasn’t to save the season (and be fairly confident to do so)? You know the fans needed time for closure and let the wounds heal. It’s like they put salt on an already open wound. Thanks a lot.

Thanks, advertisement and admin note

Published
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Matt Saler
on February 20, 2005
in Uncategorized
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If you’ve been to the site any time in the last couple weeks, you’ve likely noticed that the banner at the top changed from the lame rush job I had up there before. The new one is from fellow blogger and veritable Photoshop Master Lisa H. of ObliviousMind.net. It is way above my PS skills and it’s to my shame that I haven’t publicly thanked her yet. She’s been a great help to me from the beginning of this little project and I am very thankful for that.

Anyways, Lisa has recently re-opened allHEART!, the manifestation of her dream to unite hockey fan sites together. The site had been down for a few months (which she explains on the front page) but now it’s back in business and she’s trying to rebuild the list of sites. Go check it out and if you have a hockey site of your own, be sure to submit it for listing. I think it’s a great idea.

As you have perhaps noticed, we recently made the switch from HaloScan comments to Blogger comments. This is because Blogger finally made some much-needed updates to their comment system and I decided it wasn’t necessary to use a third party for our commenting. It’s a little different than HaloScan but not complicated at all. If you have a Blogger account and are signed in, you won’t have to do anything but type your comment and submit it. If you’re not a Blogger member, you can just type your comment and then click the “Other” radio button and type in your information before submitting. Or, if you prefer, you can comment anonymously. We don’t get a ton of comments here (except Brian, Christy, Dan and I — hint, hint, people) so I thought I’d make mention of their existence in case you’ve never availed yourself of the feature.

Also, if you ever feel so inclined, you can e-mail our posts to a friend by clicking the envelope-and-arrow icon in the byline. Doing so will take you to a page where you fill out a form with your information and the e-mail address of the person whose Inbox you want to fill with our expositions, as well as a box to explain to that person why you sent it. Just another nifty feature Blogger provides (and another one very few people, if any, will use, but hey, it’s cool to have just in case).

Report: NHL to Un-Cancel Season

Published
by
Brian List
on February 19, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

According to ESPN and The Hockey News, the NHL and NHLPA have agreed in principle to a $45 million dollar salary cap. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are in New York and have gotten the sides together. A press conference can be expected tomorrow, where ESPN believes the season will be un-cancelled.

And if this doesn’t come to pass, and the roller coaster continues, I just don’t know what to think. There’s only so much toying you can do with fans…

UPDATE 2/19 4:24 pm

THN and ESPN are full of crap, and EJ Hradek should lose his job

According to Bob McKenzie, “it was the most bizarre day in NHL history.”

Here’s the timeline of events as I remember it: I get IMed by Dan of detroitsports.blogspot.com at 10:45 pm. He says “breaking news, the NHL is expected to uncancel the season” and gives me the link to the ESPN article. I go to read it and turn on ESPN News. EJ Hradek came on and said the sides agreed to a $45 million dollar salary cap and would be holding a press conference this afternoon. Barry Melrose and Darren Pang also came on and had similar comments, with Pang referring to a veteran player friend (possibly Yzerman) as his source. ESPN News had the breaking news segment titled “Report: NHL to Un-Cancel Season.” At this point the hockey world is turned into a frenzy. I try calling Matt’s cell phone and later IM him.

I go online and check my favorite hockey sites. THN.com, a previously credible hockey site, says:

The Hockey News, quoting an anonymous player close to the negotiations, reported
Friday evening that the sides have already reached an agreement in principle on
a collective bargaining agreement that includes a salary cap of $45 million.

When asked by The Hockey News if it was possible a deal would not get done, the
source responded, “not that I can see. I couldn’t possibly imagine the idea that
somebody is going to try to make a name for themselves in the last minute here.”

TSN.ca reported the news, but qualified it as saying an NHLPA source had strongly denied the rumor. And, of course, ESPN.com said it. The hockey blogging world started buzzing and posting the “news,” including myself, and it seemed like it was a sure thing. I went to bed thinking the season really was going to be saved or at least we were 90% there.

When I woke up this morning, the tone had changed. ESPN took back their report and said “a deal was imminent” rather than that it had already been agreed on in principle. TSN said a deal was still a long shot despite all the rumors, the THN had nothing to say other than that the meeting was scheduled and ongoing.

The meeting in New York started at 9 am this morning and went 6 1/2 hours, with no progress or deal yet agreed on. Daly and Saskin attended, along with Gretzky, Lemieux, and Gartner. Bettman and Goodenow did not attend. Talks did not go well. No future talks are planned. Daly tells reporters that it’s too late to save this season, and that the NHL is now focusing on 2005-2006.

And we are all left wondering, why? Why did they meet today, just three days after the season was officially cancelled? Why did Gary Bettman leave the door open for the season to be un-cancelled in his Wednesday press conference? And why did we fall for this all?

The media was irresponsible in, based on mysterious sources, reporting it as a fact that a deal was done and the season would be un-cancelled. That was in true Eklund-style. But the NHL and NHLPA were irresponsible in holding this meeting anyways. The NHL most so in inviting the players back to the table. At this stage of the lockout, the fans are licking their wounds and trying to find some closure in knowing the season is cancelled. So all talks should’ve been via email, phone, and totally secret from us. There is no reason for them to be publicly meeting right now. I count seven months between now through September. So the only reason for them to be pushing talks now is to save the season that was already dead. And Daly says it’s too late to save this season. So what were they doing this morning? Getting an early start on getting a deal done for the 2005-2006 season? It’s hard to believe that they’re being that proactive after they waited until the 11th hour of this season to put real deals on the table. I just don’t get it.

You don’t pull off a stunt like today without being certain of the outcome. At this point, you don’t prance around in front of the cameras with Wayne and Mario at your side on your way to a meeting in New York unless you are absolutely certain that a deal will be reached. You don’t make your loyal fans believe something is going to get done when that is as far from the truth as we’ve learned. It is totally irresponsible and shows a lack of respect to the fans and everyone that cares. The damage they did by holding the public meeting this morning is huge. By waking up the fans who had already put this season to bed and giving us hope again, we expected a result other than what we’ve seen for the past 9 months. A meeting with no progress.

This type of debacle just shows the lack of organization and uncertainty on both sides. What were they thinking? According to Daly, “‘Our discussions revealed that we remain as far apart as we believed we were last week. ‘The rumours that the parties were close or had in fact reached a deal were greatly exaggerated. There is still a long way to go.” And a phone call couldn’t have confirmed that? Stop toying with the fans. You hold today’s meeting after back-channel talks confirm that the sides are close enough to even warrant a meeting. It sounds like they just showed up and expected the presence of Wayne and Mario to magically bridge the rift. Or maybe the NHL visited Eklund’s rumor blog and read that the players were willing to accept a cap of $45 million so they invite them to today’s meeting. Totally unprofessional either way.

So please don’t have another meeting tomorrow and have the fans waiting on that to only announce no progress. Leave us alone. Leave the season cancelled. And go find some common sense that you’ve seemed to lack through this whole process.

Finally, we’ve learned that THN is not credible at all when it comes to breaking news, to never visit ESPN.com again, and that EJ Hradek is as good as Eklund now, if he isn’t the same person…

Benefits to a 28 game season (vs. no season)

Published
by
Christy Hammond
on February 19, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Update: Things aren’t looking good anymore at 4:20. Fan 590 reported that talks broke off at a bad point with players pretty angry. I’m getting really frustrated with this insane rollercoaster. If they keep this kind of stuff up, more and more fans are just going to give up and leave. This isn’t good…

- - - - - -

As of 3:50pm (eastern), I’m hearing too many positive media comments about a deal being reached. Fan 590 reportedly found the place of the bargaining and there were wires and everything going out to prepare for a press conference. Eklund (if you choose to agree or disagree) says that rumor has a press conference at 6pm today. I’m getting too excited to deny this.

I’ve also heard many people complaining about having a 28 game season. I think it’s better then no hockey until this fall. Here are my reasons why:

1) TV Deal and advertisers. The New York Post brought up a couple of good points:

“Bettman, meanwhile, has his own issues with which to contend. Not only has ESPN made it clear that it may exercise its freedom of choice not to televise the league next year, not only have a significant number of mid- and large-market teams urged the commissioner to get on with the victory lap, but The Post has learned of warnings from a major advertiser that it will move its money elsewhere if a deal is not completed in timely fashion.”

2) Players are going to be rusty whether it’s now or this fall. For some, they’re not playing league hockey. Another 7 months isn’t going to help their conditioning, probably worsen it. Plus, if the players over in Europe leave to come back for NHL hockey- some players get their jobs back on the team. Same with UHL/AHL players.

3) If the rumors are correct, the NHL can test out new rules on the shortened season. Referees will probably be more likely to consistently make calls in a shortened season. If the rules don’t seem to be working or making the changes wanted, it’s only a 28 game season plus playoffs. Better that then an 82 game season plus playoffs to see how new rules would work.

4) There would be a draft, which is in jeapordy as long as they can’t come to an agreement. We could see the likes of Sidney Crosby and others fulfilling their childhood dreams of making it to the NHL.

5) Like someone mentioned on the LetsGoWings.com forum, this is the most publicity hockey has received since the Bertuzzi incident. I mean the news about the lockout has actually been everywhere in the US, the likelihood of drawing curious onlookers is heightened. On the flip side, with this emotional roller coaster some previous fans may leave the sport.

Here’s to hoping for a hockey season! :)