Observations XXVIII

[Adz]

Nah. Take a look at Anaheim and Calgary. Those are totally new designs, never seen before. Calgary could've gone with a flaming A like Carolina went with the HW tail logo...

What's weird to me is that for certain teams there was a lot of creativity and effort made, but others it looks like someone just checked a couple boxes and went back to binge watching Netflix.

Pretty sure Calgary's is the design that my son had on the one he got when we were there. I don't remember the background color but that was the logo.

Edit: Looked it up. It's called the Blasty Horse design. We were there in 2003. He got it in their pro shop in the summer so it would have been from sometime around then.

 

[Adz]

Getting in the top 4 in that division will be a chore...

True, but I'm pretty excited about the matchups. Those will be fun (or excruciating) but they won't be boring!

 

[BigFatCat999]

Greg Wyshynski says right now our division will probably have us, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Florida, St. Louis, and Tampa.

My Best Friend is a CBJ fan, my GF is a Pens fan.....at least I know I die in 2021!

But this screams Preds fans hate. Any expansion year fan would love to give Detroit swirlies, Pitt, yall took our cup, CBJ lots of North vs South hate, TB will suck, Floriduh......no clue. It would be like the 'I'm out!' scene in Half baked where the Preds point to everyone and yells 'BLEEP you!'

 

[Adz]

My Best Friend is a CBJ fan, my GF is a Pens fan.....at least I know I die in 2021!

But this screams Preds fans hate. Any expansion year fan would love to give Detroit swirlies, Pitt, yall took our cup, CBJ lots of North vs South hate, TB will suck, Floriduh......no clue. It would be like the 'I'm out!' scene in Half baked where the Preds point to everyone and yells 'BLEEP you!'

Hockey is better with a little hate.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Hockey is better with a little hate.

So sayeth the hockey sage PattyPred

 

[BigFatCat999]

If Wysh's story comes true...

 

[bdub24]

My Best Friend is a CBJ fan, my GF is a Pens fan.....at least I know I die in 2021!

But this screams Preds fans hate. Any expansion year fan would love to give Detroit swirlies, Pitt, yall took our cup, CBJ lots of North vs South hate, TB will suck, Floriduh......no clue. It would be like the 'I'm out!' scene in Half baked where the Preds point to everyone and yells 'BLEEP you!'

PIT instead of CAR in the Central makes no sense.

 

[BigFatCat999]

PIT instead of CAR in the Central makes no sense.

Does it honestly matter if they go to bubbles??

 

[Roman Yoshi]

I gotta be honest, I don't like our odds in that division. Tampa, Pitt, St. Louis and CBus are all better teams than us.

 

[BigFatCat999]

I gotta be honest, I don't like our odds in that division. Tampa, Pitt, St. Louis and CBus are all better teams than us.

if the team we saw last year plays this group, the Preds are an 80 pts team. If RV is healthy, MAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaybe, 90. If the team finds a way to be competative, the Preds will have a HUUUUUGE trade chip in cap space.

 

[Adz]

So sayeth the hockey sage PattyPred

Patty is a hockey sage but that was MY byline--and my avatar was Gaz Membrane from Invader Zim. I thought they worked well together. Ha!

 

[PredsV82]

I gotta be honest, I don't like our odds in that division. Tampa, Pitt, St. Louis and CBus are all better teams than us.

Yeah, and it sounds really weird to say this, but Detroit is the only team in the division that we are clearly better than.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

Yeah, and it sounds really weird to say this, but Detroit is the only team in the division that we are clearly better than.

It's what happens when the former GM put off for 4 years what the current GM is doing in less than 2, sadly. But, better late than never....

 

[Predsanddead24]

Appears to be a snag in the negotiations for getting the league going by January 1st and according to Kypreos no discussion between the league in the PA. Would have to think that something needs to happen by the end of the week at the latest if they are really going to start camps by mid December.

 

[PredsV82]

With the COVID numbers the way they are it would be suicidal to try to do anything other than bubbles/no fans and I'm guessing the owners cant tolerate that but the players want to be paid

 

[Legionnaire11]

From my understanding, the two sides already had a deal in place but the owners came back and asked for a larger deferment. The players are upset about being asked for more.

However, as usual I feel like their stance is shortsighted. They're not giving salary back, it's being deferred. The number on their contract doesn't mean that it's the number they will ultimately get, never has been. The players get 50% of HRR. So it's in their best interest to defer salary to a later date and get back on the ice ASAP to keep HRR as high as possible. If they hold out and play fewer games, or miss a full season, they are only damaging their future earnings beyond the 13% that the owners are asking for now.

And I don't believe the owners are doing this maliciously or out of greed. They want games again and revenue coming in again. The difference is that conditions with the virus has deteriorated since the initial agreement and it looks like there is no way to get fans in now, which is why they're coming back for extra relief.

As usual, seems like the majority of fans (outside of some teams like the Preds) are siding heavily with the players. And as usual, I'm taking the owners side. I just hope there's a last minute meeting of level heads and they get things going for Jan 1.

 

[OldFan]

From my understanding, the two sides already had a deal in place but the owners came back and asked for a larger deferment. The players are upset about being asked for more.

However, as usual I feel like their stance is shortsighted. They're not giving salary back, it's being deferred. The number on their contract doesn't mean that it's the number they will ultimately get, never has been. The players get 50% of HRR. So it's in their best interest to defer salary to a later date and get back on the ice ASAP to keep HRR as high as possible. If they hold out and play fewer games, or miss a full season, they are only damaging their future earnings beyond the 13% that the owners are asking for now.

And I don't believe the owners are doing this maliciously or out of greed. They want games again and revenue coming in again. The difference is that conditions with the virus has deteriorated since the initial agreement and it looks like there is no way to get fans in now, which is why they're coming back for extra relief.

As usual, seems like the majority of fans (outside of some teams like the Preds) are siding heavily with the players. And as usual, I'm taking the owners side. I just hope there's a last minute meeting of level heads and they get things going for Jan 1.

I’m curious what happens to player salaries if there is no season this year?

 

[Armourboy]

From my understanding, the two sides already had a deal in place but the owners came back and asked for a larger deferment. The players are upset about being asked for more.

However, as usual I feel like their stance is shortsighted. They're not giving salary back, it's being deferred. The number on their contract doesn't mean that it's the number they will ultimately get, never has been. The players get 50% of HRR. So it's in their best interest to defer salary to a later date and get back on the ice ASAP to keep HRR as high as possible. If they hold out and play fewer games, or miss a full season, they are only damaging their future earnings beyond the 13% that the owners are asking for now.

And I don't believe the owners are doing this maliciously or out of greed. They want games again and revenue coming in again. The difference is that conditions with the virus has deteriorated since the initial agreement and it looks like there is no way to get fans in now, which is why they're coming back for extra relief.

As usual, seems like the majority of fans (outside of some teams like the Preds) are siding heavily with the players. And as usual, I'm taking the owners side. I just hope there's a last minute meeting of level heads and they get things going for Jan 1.

Players don't have much leg to stand on if owners don't have any revenue coming in. If their agreement is for 50% and that number is zero the math says you are owed nothing. Get to silly and you end up in court getting nothing, so they better be careful.

 

[Predsanddead24]

More on the CBA fight from Wyshynski. I tend to be fairly neutral on who to blame in labor disputes, but I think the NHLPA has a pretty valid point that all this was agreed to after the pandemic was well under way so the NHL coming back to ask for my concessions is a bit ridiculous.

 

[Armourboy]

More on the CBA fight from Wyshynski. I tend to be fairly neutral on who to blame in labor disputes, but I think the NHLPA has a pretty valid point that all this was agreed to after the pandemic was well under way so the NHL coming back to ask for my concessions is a bit ridiculous.

Maybe but I'm guessing the owners weren't planning on zero revenue.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Maybe but I'm guessing the owners weren't planning on zero revenue.

That was foolish on there part then. It should have been obvious that at a minimum they aren't getting to play games with fans in Canada until a vaccine is widely distributed, which evewn with an optimistic timeline (which we are fortunately meeting) would be late spring/summer 2021. That's almost a quarter of the league without fans before you even consider the situations for any of the US teams.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I can see in the heady days of the return-to-play timeline, neither side was too wrapped up in envisioning the magnitude of the current 2nd wave. But it also seems like sufficient caveats to renegotiation were included in the MOU. So it will be... a negotiation. Both sides will have the opportunity to decide where to take a stand.

The players are already deferring 10%. So an additional 13% pushes it up to 23%. And they are limited to 50% HRR. So it's not going to add up to a pretty picture for them no matter what. Nor of course for the owners, especially if games are played in empty buildings or with reduced seating. Or if the schedule is shortened to 60 or 48 games.

No matter what, there are going to be impacts. Not small ones. So they'll have to figure this out between the two sides. I don't even think we should be at the point yet of taking sides... we still have absolutely no clue if or when this season will proceed, or what it might look like. 13% deferral might be the absolute least of the players' concerns once we see the final impact.

 

[ILikeItILoveIt]

With the exception of football, can any sport, especially hockey, operate and incur close-to-normal labor costs with very little revenue coming in? The NHL season was almost done when they shut it down in 2020. They dodged most of the financial bullet. If they have to play the majority of next season with no fans, all economic bets are off. I don't think they've accepted that reality yet. We will have empty arena's and ball fields until the Summer at the earliest. I hate it. I don't agree with it. But it's where the world has decided to be.

The risk of getting COVID trumps all. The fear of dying from COVID, regardless of the actual mathematical odds, and the regulations that have followed, have won. The chips will fall and we'll pick up the chips later.

 

[PredsV82]

I wonder what the timetable was for Seattle paying their expansion fee? If that money had already dropped, that probably made last seasons lost revenue a lot more palatable. If that money is still to be paid, and especially if the Seattle group balks at paying it until they are sure they can have a full season with fans in the stands, that will have a lot to do with what happens next as well.

 

[Scoresberg]

I gotta be honest I'm feeling less and less excited about next season.. right now the consensus is that not only teams will play intra-division games all season (48-60 games) they will also play the playoffs inside the division until the Conference Finals. It might be fun for the first couple of weeks when you see the rivalries growing but it will be lame as shit to watch the Preds play the same teams for 5-6 months straight.

Not to mention, the dignity of the season will be tarnished for sure. People were saying Tampa should've had an asterisk next to their championship title but hearing how next season will be played out, there definitely should be an asterisk attached to the eventual winner. Last season they at least played 70 games of normal hockey, and hard-fought playoffs (albeit a manufactured ones). If a team outside of the top-16 would've won, then there would've been more discussion about the asterisk.

I'll be happy as anyone when or if NHL hockey returns but I gotta say, I'm really disappointed of how they're going to handle the season. It will feel so forced and manufactured that it doesn't even feel like normal hockey, it just feels gimmicky.