FlyerFan
Registered User
- Jun 4, 2005
- 221
- 0
Timmy said:It was not the LEAGUE, it was certain club members, an extremely well-organized NHLPA and agent network, an inflationary arbitration system that limpet-mined to every stupid signing by a few owners, and loaded teams like NYR that created this mess.
Left to their own devices, five or six owners would have continued to escalate salaries, even if it meant operating at a loss in order to do so, placing many if not most of the good players out of reach of teams who wanted or needed to operate at a break-even point.
Goodenow isn't the scapegoat for the last ten years - they exploited a system that the owners crammed down Bettman's throat. It is simply unfortunate that Goodenow didn't realize that times were changing, and he was unwilling to come to the table until his bluff was called by Bettman's cancelling the season.
Look at the other threads, look at Pittsburgh, and the excitement of fans of small to mid markets who actually have a shot at building a contender with good management, rather than just having a parent corporation acting as an ATM machine, willing to lose money year after year in order to win the cup.
The bottom line is that there were MANY participants in this mess, and yet all you pro-owners can blame the loudest is Bob Goodenow