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This is certainly the worst thing that can happen for the NHL. There are 2 things I can think of to salvage the NHL. First contract up to 6 teams and then remove the red line. Removing the red line will open the game up dramaticly. You don't have to worry about the "Trap" garbage anymore. A team will need to keep a Dman back to guard against a "Cherry picker". Anyway, a lockout or strike is not something the NHL can endure at all. These players and their agents need to open their eyes. The NHL does not have the same following as MLB or NFL do.

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Hockey suffers because it is not as TV friendly as the other sports. Hockey is 1000 times better in person. Some of the things that detract it as a tv sports also make it great in person and just a great sport

 

Bad for tv:

Too fast, hard for cameras to follow puck

No natural breaks to sell beer a.k.a. commercials

fights

action away from the puck is lost on tv

not enough scoring

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I know we've known this for a while, but if anyone had their hopes up, this should shatter them.

 

Friday, June 11, 2004

 

 

ESPN.com news services

TORONTO -- With the Stanley Cup Finals now securely in the rear-view mirror, the question still remains: will there be NHL hockey next season?

 

 

Players association head Bob Goodenow says the answer very easily could be no.

 

 

Goodenow, in Toronto for the NHLPA meetings, said the players remain firmly against a salary cap.

 

 

The two sides have been at odds for the past 18 months over the issue of a cap. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his negotiating team want a hard cap, while the union wants no part of it. Neither side is backing down as of yet.

 

 

Is a high-stakes game of "chicken" on the horizon?

 

 

"A salary cap is not going to be part of the plan going forward," Goodenow told Toronto newspapers on Thursday. "That means there won't be a start of the season and there may not be a season [at all] next year. We are not going to do a cap and we are not going to do a percentage of revenues. The owners set the scale of salaries for the players and that is the marketplace. It has always been that way for the past 75 years or so and that is the way we are going to go forward with it."

 

 

There are no meetings planned between the NHL and players.

 

 

"I'm optimistic we'll be able to get something done ... I'm an optimistic person," NHLPA president Trevor Linden told reporters. "I can't speak for the owners, but we're going to work hard as a union to try to avoid a lockout. We're going to try to get something done."

 

 

Avalanche star Joe Sakic doesn't expect to have to attend an Avs training camp at the end of the World Cup of Hockey in September.

 

 

"To me it just looks like Bettman doesn't want to start unless he gets everything he wants," Sakic told reporters. "So I don't expect hockey. We all hope [a new collective bargaining agreement] gets done, but to be realistic, I don't see it happening right now."

 

 

If the season does not start on time, players certainly have other options. They can go to Europe. Or they can play in the newly formed World Hockey Association. The WHA announced Wednesday that it will begin play on Oct. 29 in at least eight cities.

 

 

The Lightning's Martin St. Louis, who was awarded the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP on Thursday night, said it would be silly for him not to at least consider the WHA.

 

 

"Sitting at home or making $5 million, it would be very tempting," St. Louis told The Globe and Mail of Toronto. "Obviously, I have to know where we were at as far as the NHL situation. But to be honest, I really haven't thought about that."

 

 

WHA teams will have a $15 million salary cap, but a player such as St. Louis could make as much as $5 million as a team's top player.

 

 

Initially, the WHA said that if a player signs a contract, he would have to play the entire season with his WHA club. But on Wednesday, a WHA official said the league will likely change the bylaw to stipulate two players per team would have the option of returning to the NHL if labor problems are resolved during the season.

 

 

The new WHA will have franchises in Quebec City, Hamilton, Toronto, Halifax, Detroit, Dallas, Jacksonville and Orlando.

Who cares. Maybe if one of the pro sports implodes over money then that will serve as a wake up call to everyone else. Just so long as there is no baseball strike ever again.

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Who cares.  Maybe if one of the pro sports implodes over money then that will serve as a wake up call to everyone else.  Just so long as there is no baseball strike ever again.

Who cares? at least 5,800 people in Chicago

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