So Many delicious ironies from the end of the Lockout
First and foremost: As I have said a bunch of times, the NHL players are dumber than a box of rocks. The CBA settlement proves that this is true. The players went to war with NHL Owners, hired a NWO-insider to lead their union, and -- Surprise! -- he fleeced them to the max. How could things have gone any worse? You lost a year of salary. You absorbed a 25% salary slash. You got "capped" which is the equivalent of a government or corporate "Pay Scale" arrangement, always hugely in management's favor. And you delivered Jeremy Roenick as your spokesman to tell the fans to Go To the Devil. Not a disaster, a catastrophe. No amount of shame would be sufficient, you puck-headed boobs. An indignant goaltender last week bitterly lamented that Goodenow "brainwashed" the players. Wrong. He merely evaluated you, correctly, as 700 idiots to be swindled. No need for a brainwashing, you had no brains to start with.
Second: The NHL owners were nearly as stupid to appoint Gary the Eel Bettman, another well-connected NeoCon shark, to run their show in the early 1990s. He fleeced the NHL owners big-time, gruesomely overexpanding the league, and allowing NHL general managers to slow the game to a crawl. A perfect recipe for a huge salary bidding war! And it came to pass exactly that way. No Tears for the owners, you maggots. You hired the Eel and he brought you to ruin. Where there were twenty-or-so prosperous teams in 1990 with a correctly-sized player talent pool, by 2002 there were thirty teams desparately scratching to break even, with a huge premium on talented players. The new CBA, which completely and utterly defeats the NHLPA, may be able to right your ship.
Third: But woe to you anyway, you greedy owners. Now you are saddled with the same Communist system of the NFL. The Cap!! Now all teams are infected with "parity", unable pull away from the pack with any sort of financial initiative. No more superstar-laden teams, but a grey mish-mash of pablum just like the NFL. The bidding wars now will be over coaches and television contracts
And fourth: The irony of ESPN. So .... ESPN doesn't think the NHL is worthy of their suzerainty. So be it. The NHL had its chance to get in good with ESPN and they blew it. In return ESPN has made the politically correct decision to diss the Lily White Soo-premacist National Hockey League and teach them a lesson, perhaps even dealing a death blow. I say -- not so fast, ESPN. The white hockey fan is more dedicated and fanatic than any other. At least as loyal as longtime baseball fans. The hockey fan base never left ... Believe it! It's you, ESPN, who has deserted the hockey fan. Other networks are lining up to replace you, and I say good riddance. Perhaps SPIKE TV or USA Network or another will win the NHL television contract, and they will be HAPPY to have it and broadcast the finest spectator sport in the world. Perhaps driving the NHL's viewing ratings to impressive new heights in a few years. Personally I'd like to see a new network take over the NHL contract and promote the NHL, not just Jarome Iginla (highly overrated, you bet)
Tuesday19 July should see the NHLPA membership ratify the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Then watch the sparks fly as the thirty teams launch into a frenzy of Free-agent signings. It will be exciting and refreshing. Bring on the NHL!
[Hey! Howdy JoeTheThrow and BearArms! hope to talk hockey with you some more as the new year pans out]
Next installment: I'll bash the NHL-bashers of the mainstream media. Their gloom-and-doom forecast will be shown to be folly
Yuri DmitriyevitchEdited by: Realgeorge