The General Consensus

[dvaske]

Polls related to the lockout:
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=131547
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=130931
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=131555
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=131356

And the NHLPA's magic 8 ball reads:
"All signs point to.. you're screwed"

Click to read more...

 

[Scoogs]

Polls related to the lockout:
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=131547
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=130931
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=131555
http://www.hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=131356

And the NHLPA's magic 8 ball reads:
"All signs point to.. you're screwed"

One way or another.. Correct.

 

[deathbear]

it would be nice if at least ONE nhler saw these polls. we're the diehards. we're also some of the more obessed and knowledgable fans in the world...evident by our collective wasting of lives posting on message boards.

but at the same time, we're also some of the more intelligent. it would be nice if they'd acknowledge what nearly everyone says: they're in the wrong, and they need to accept it.

how is this process good for them? how will they EVER make up for what happened this year? are they truly as ignorant and oblivious to basic facts as they appear to be?

 

[BLONG7]

it would be nice if at least ONE nhler saw these polls. we're the diehards. we're also some of the more obessed and knowledgable fans in the world...evident by our collective wasting of lives posting on message boards.

but at the same time, we're also some of the more intelligent. it would be nice if they'd acknowledge what nearly everyone says: they're in the wrong, and they need to accept it.

how is this process good for them? how will they EVER make up for what happened this year? are they truly as ignorant and oblivious to basic facts as they appear to be?

These are some of the questions that I would think they are asking Bob Goodenow...he has no plan B...and the players are stuck in no man's land...

 

[Luc Labelle]

are they truly as ignorant and oblivious to basic facts as they appear to be?

The truth is they are very intelligent but are being swindled by Bob Goodenow. I credit Goodenow for having succeeded in getting the upper hand on the owners with the last CBA. He manipulated them enough with his deadline hunting back in 1995. At the time he had a naive group of owners who had the authority to ignore Bettman's advice and accept the bad deal. At the time, the owners were motivated by greed as they focused on the pot at the end of the rainbow.

The New York Rangers had just won the Stanley Cup. Sports Illustrated proclaimed the NHL was poised to usurp the NBA as the #3 sport in the USA. Additional expansion fee money was on the horizon and the virtual guarantee of the best TV money ever clouded their judgement.

The NHLPA milked the system for 10 years as the on-ice product deteriorated due to Bettman's refusal to address these problems. Over the last few years the majority of the NHL teams began to hemorrhage financially. The $600 million 5 year TV deal has turned into a $0 revenue share arrangment with NBC.

Here is where Goodenow has reversed the good he did for the players over the last ten years. He still believed he could pull a fast one on the NHL by deadline hunting. So much so, that even to the point of 3 days past the cancellation of the 2004-2005 NHL season he still played his game of non-negotiation convinced the owners would cave because they are all sitting on billions of dollars of undeclared revenues.

In conclusion, the players are not ignorant just blind to the facts due to their thirst, their thirst for free Koolaid. Hopefully on Tuesday the players who show up bring their own beverages and refuse to believe Bob Goodenow when he says the Koolaid is better for them. Their voices heard, news out of the meeting will be of forthcoming negotiations aimed at immediately forging a new CBA that will establish a partnership with the NHL that will benefit the players, owners and most importantly the fans.

 

[AlexandreDaigle]

The truth is they are very intelligent but are being swindled by Bob Goodenow. I credit Goodenow for having succeeded in getting the upper hand on the owners with the last CBA. He manipulated them enough with his deadline hunting back in 1995. At the time he had a naive group of owners who had the authority to ignore Bettman's advice and accept the bad deal. At the time, the owners were motivated by greed as they focused on the pot at the end of the rainbow.

The New York Rangers had just won the Stanley Cup. Sports Illustrated proclaimed the NHL was poised to usurp the NBA as the #3 sport in the USA. Additional expansion fee money was on the horizon and the virtual guarantee of the best TV money ever clouded their judgement.

The NHLPA milked the system for 10 years as the on-ice product deteriorated due to Bettman's refusal to address these problems. Over the last few years the majority of the NHL teams began to hemorrhage financially. The $600 million 5 year TV deal has turned into a $0 revenue share arrangment with NBC.

Here is where Goodenow has reversed the good he did for the players over the last ten years. He still believed he could pull a fast one on the NHL by deadline hunting. So much so, that even to the point of 3 days past the cancellation of the 2004-2005 NHL season he still played his game of non-negotiation convinced the owners would cave because they are all sitting on billions of dollars of undeclared revenues.

In conclusion, the players are not ignorant just blind to the facts due to their thirst, their thirst for free Koolaid. Hopefully on Tuesday the players who show up bring their own beverages and refuse to believe Bob Goodenow when he says the Koolaid is better for them. Their voices heard, news out of the meeting will be of forthcoming negotiations aimed at immediately forging a new CBA that will establish a partnership with the NHL that will benefit the players, owners and most importantly the fans.

Great post and right on.

What the owners were trying to establish with linked revenues and what the players just don't seem to ****** get is that the owners and the players are in the same boat, and while it's possible for the players to get a proportionally better or a proportionally worse deal, ultimately they can only get as much as the owners can and will give them.

I laugh when I see the suggestions that the players think they are in no rush for a deal because they don't get paid till October. More fools them. Every day that goes by there is more damage and less flexibility on the owners side.

A negotiated settlement off that original 55% revenue sharing with some concessions for the players would look pretty good right about now, in conjunction with actually having earned salaries in 2004 AND not having a rollback.

 

[ti-vite]

Yet people around here are still trowing around 40-50 M$ cap proposals.

I think that era is gone. And can't wait to see what the players will say when leaving the meeting. How stupid are thoser comments going to be.

1- 'No hurry, were not paid till october' (???)
2- 'Bob knows where he is going' (???)
3- 'Everything going accroding to plan' (???)
4- 'We want a partnership...with no linkage'
5- 'We are thinking of the next generation of players'
6- insert anything stupid here

GET IT DONE!!!

 

[Johnny On the Spot]

If the owners accepted any better than what has been put on the table, I would be livid. I would believe that Goodenow was right in holding out, and that the owners have been holding something back.

 

[CGG]

...their thirst for free Koolaid.
...when he says the Koolaid is better for them.

I agree with some of the things you are saying, but honestly, if one more poster uses the term "koolaid" I'm seriously going to lose it.

I can't argue that the players aren't being stupid by letting the season slip away. The owners are too, by the way, but back to the players.

We can't fully understand their reasoning or their motivation, but please, give them a little bit of credit. To compare the mental state of 700 elite athletes trying to get a fair deal to troubled followers of a suicidal cult thinking that a spaceship is going to carry them away posthumously is absolutely nuts.

Right or wrong, you have to think that maybe, just maybe, Goodenow is doing what the majority of players wants done. Because you don't agree with it doesn't mean all of a sudden he has magical brainwashing powers and a narcotic-laced beverage that forces all 700 players to proceed with his solitary agenda against their will. Sheesh. Enough. Give it a break already.

 

[Strangelove]

I can't argue that the players aren't being stupid by letting the season slip away. The owners are too, by the way, but back to the players.

If you seriously think any conglomeration of millionaires or billionaires can be "stupid", you've been drinking too much hockey fan koolaid!

honestly, if one more poster uses the term "koolaid" I'm seriously going to lose it.

Oops.....

 

[Luc Labelle]

I agree with some of the things you are saying, but honestly, if one more poster uses the term "koolaid" I'm seriously going to lose it.

My apologies, it would be extremely farfetched to even believe Goodenow could get any players to drink such a beverage.

a narcotic-laced beverage that forces all 700 players to proceed with his solitary agenda against their will.

There is little doubt the narcotic-laced beverage used in the NHLPA meetings is the beverage of choice for true hockey players: beer. Going forward I will only post rhetoric using the term Molson