For those that missed yesterday’s circus, essentially a sports reporter in Boston, from a station “plugged in” to the Bruins organization, suggested that there had been significant progress towards a new CBA and a deal could be announced as soon as today or tomorrow. It was a development that blindsided the entire hockey world, particularly with the much talked about Players vs. Owners meetings set for this afternoon in New York.
Unfortunately, Bob McKenzie and all the rest were quick to pour water on the reports this morning. And for what it’s worth, the two people I spoke with yesterday evening said they had heard nothing close to what was coming out of Boston and like everyone else, would be surprised if it were true.
Obviously this is just another frustrating turn in this process for loyal NHL fans (assuming there are any left) that have been left out in the cold during this process.
While the hint of optimism was denied by many, you have to assume Burton had a quality source feeding him this information. He has been pretty quiet on the NHL lockout and for him to run with this story (and on multiple fronts) tells me that he was confident in the scoop and that it was coming from a trusted source.
Look forward to hearing more from Burton on what he thinks happened here.
Meanwhile, the NHL and NHLPA are busy preparing for the next stage in negotiations which comes today in New York when six owners (Burkle- Penguins, Chipman-Winnipeg, Edwards-Calgary, Tanenbaum-Toronto, Vinik-Tampa Bay) and Jacobs-Boston) meet with an unspecified number of players. The group of players is likely to include Jonathan Toews and Sidney Crosby.
That meeting will get underway around 2:00 PM.
I had heard all those reports and just shook my head, I know it's too good to be true. And when something sounds to good to be true, it usually is. I had said it before, as much as I'm pissed that NHL Hockey isn't in full swing, I'll be back watching that first game when it returns. I'm too big of a fan of the game in general, to let it get me down.
This whole Zibanejad thing is really getting a lot of press. Makes me wonder if BM will reconsider at all. I mean, Zib is doing good this year, he's not tops but he's not at the bottom of the production level either. When you consider 16 players have between 5 - 9 points and only 3 players have broke double digits, it shows a complete team effort is in affect. They are scoring from every line, every night.
That being said, would Bingo miss him if he's gone for a month? He's already missed the last few games and they haven't looked out of place filling his position. I guess that's a decision we can't make, but it makes for interesting news!!
Looking forward to see Bingo go for 9 this weekend!!
When the server crashed, we also lost all comments and user accounts temporarily. Had to restore those so that people could against log in and post comments.
Apologies for the downtime but everything should be good now.
Thanks!
Guess T Charger was not holding his breath on this Burton
rumour !
Hope the players and owners show some respect, and not walk away like Bettman and Fehr !
That's something I heard a few times on the radio as an argument to the decision. If you break it all down, there could be good or bad outcomes from both options, it's really hard to say who is right or wrong.
Now we can all understand some of the hard situations and pressure you must face as a GM. A simple plan put in place to keep your prospect in your system, may have a positive outcome to your team, but that same plan has a completely adverse affect on his entire country. Crazy!!
With all due respects to both posts #6 and #7, I still feel
that it is best for Zibanejad, to stay in the AHL versus take part in WJC in Russia.
He will no doubt benefit more in Binghamton than WJC, in which he already has a Gold Medal !
I hate getting my hopes up to have them dashed again.
As for Zibby -- it's Bryan Murray's call. He is in favour of his players representing their country in international play... but since this tournament is in UFA, Russia may be one of the reasons for him not releasing Zibby to play.
The argument is RNH is going so why not Zibby? Well RNH has never played in a WJC while Zibby has and ended with the gold medal.
The last I looked Murray runs the Sens not the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation.
This may sour the relationship between the two for a while...
The other side of it is maybe Murray knows something we don't??
I mostly agree with Murray's assessment. Zibanejad hasn't hit the ground running in the AHL, needs to adjust to the NA game.
Every game that Zibby plays in the AHL these days he will be facing another NHL team's top prospects and feisty career AHL-ers trying to hold onto their jobs.
Sounds like great pre-NHL training to me.
Wake me up when they get their shit together so at least we have next season.
Maybe Steve Burton was on to something?
Promising!
"So 6 highly educated owners that know the in's/out's of business get to meet with a couple of high school graduates to decide how to share billions of dollars. Yeah, okay."
Players will get screwed over if they leave it to just themselves and the owners to negotiate. At least throw in some one like Greening, who has an Applied Economics and Management degree from Cornell University!
No one is forcing the players to be there
The players might get hosed, but not because some of them are supposedly 'unintelligent' . Fehr is in the room with them, right?
Let's keep our fingers crossed, and let this group get a deal done, while Bettman and the Govenors meet in New York today.
Let's not forget that Steve Fehr and Bill Daly are the Reps
for the 2 sides.
No not this time. Ask yourself this: Would you let Dion Phaneuf or Matt Cooke negotiate YOUR rights? And you guys have to remember, a lot of the reps are stars, stars that were drafted in the first round, who came straight from high school. I'll give Crosby and Toews the benefit of the doubt, as captains, they're used to being vocal and taking leadership in the rooms... But taking leadership on the ice is much much different than negotiating ones rights/contract s... Hence why these players have agents to begin with.
I really thought I read that Steve Fehr was in there with them. His quotes from last night seem to imply he was anyway.
Either way, it's not like they are going to sign off without the union guys reading it over.
I have been saying since the summer that it will not be Bettman and Fehr who resolve this, it will be a group of players with a group of owners.
This is where they will discuss and meet in the middle for resolutions.
And no the players will not sign off on any agreement, they will take their negotiations to Fehr and the rest of the PA and go from there.
And yah the players will get hosed, if you think over 2 million for a 3rd and 4th line player is getting hosed... please let me get hosed with them!!!
This is the last ditch effort, and what should be concerning to NHL and the PA, is the lack of give a shit that is coming from most of the population.
The last time there was huge reaction, this time only us diehards really give a rats ass... I really think this time the NHL and the PA have cried wolf too many times, and it now falls on deaf ears.
For myself, other than Alfie, I really have lost interest for a shortened season. Kind of like taking a half hour to prepare a gourmet meal, will it really be worth it?
This lockout will take years to recover from, and that so called pie is now a cupcake
I hear you but my point is that if it is Kraft dinner, then I am not paying $150 a person for dinner.
Whether we like it or not, it will be a watered down version of the season, and it will only be done for business reasons, and not for love of the game.
Not sure if I can watch an NHL game the same way I used to.
But to your point, lets get er done!!! and go from there
LOVE the optimism!
doubt we see Silfver here for a shortened season... my bet is we see Greening back on the top 6 for another year.
And an awesome view from within the madness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Yv7eTZKw8&feature=related