The Recovery

[Realgeorge]

The demise of the NHL is predicted by many, hoped for by many more, and propagandized primarily by the Liberal TV sports media. For sure. Dan Daly of the Washington Times (an odious Neocon rag) declares the NHL "Dead, dead, dead. Hockey is dead." Maybe yes, maybe no. A few dynamics come to mind.


First the fans. Sport fans get ticked when their favorite sport goes into strike mode. Baseball's most recent strike made fans slightly -- slightly, folks -- less in love with the national pastime. The two or three seasons after the 1990s strike were less lucrative than normal MLB seasons, but not much. After five or so years the baseball fan was back into a good mood, and the League carries on. Even with Bonzo Bud Selig in charge! I reject the many claims that the jilted hockey fan will desert the NHL. Even the major Canadian papers and Canada.com's "Faceoff!" column crow about fans deserting the sport. Ken Dryden himself had a column last week about hockey fans finding that their "love affairs" with the NHL were superficial and that the fan can live without it. Well I'm a hockey fan, I know many hockey fans. The answer is Merde Merde Merde!! it just isn't true. Pull the plug on the NHL season, but as soon as it starts up again, the fans will return. Only a psychopathic Caucasoid maniac could be a hockey fan in the first place. I predict a 20% fan loss from the current melee, and if the NHL gets its poo into one sock, it can recover fans with interest in five years.


Second the teams. Owners, managers, coaches, players. [Yuck, even agents] They all want to get back to work. Surely much richer than in decades past, but they want to get it going again. They're about to be disappointed that the gravy train will return a paltry sum ... but return to work they will. Many NHLers are overseas plying their trade, but they'll be back in a heartbeat once the real league starts up again. And let me tell you about replacement players: There is a THRIVING minor league hockey system in the US of A, filled with talent. Not just the AHL and East Coast Hockey League, but even Southern states have successful minor league franchises. Good Gosh, places like New Orleans, Biloxi MS, and Jacksonville FL have well established hockey clubs with passionate fan base. Just like with baseball players, the US of A is oozing with hockey players, talented ones too, and hungry for attention and cash. The 700 NHL players have a reason to fear for their slots once the league starts up again.


Now the real deal: Television. The veiled threat by the ESPN doomsayers is "Death to the NHL, we will pull them from programming if they go on strike." Ah, we will GET you, you pristine white soo-premicist hockey stick weilding people, just TRY and go on strike, we'll pluck you off the airwaves. It's all about the television contract you see. Well -- I will remind the reader that the NHL has not always had a TV contract. And very recently. Look back the past thirty years, and the NHL played many of the past 30 seasons without a national TV contract. I bought my first cable TV subscription in 1985 precisely to watch NHL games on the USA Network (remember them? Their lead color analyst was the venerable Bill Clement, now with ESPN).


There were a bunch of years between 1980 and now where the NHL was not on TV (I invite the readership to dig up the exact years. USA gave up after one season. ESPN was in, out, in, out and in again. So was ABC) During the 1960s and 70s, Peter Puck was nary to be seen except for a few years on NBC. Boring you once again, I watched the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals in a dingy bar in Melbourne FL, courtesy of NESN, the New England Sports Network (who was sooo pissed that the Bruins didn't make it that year). Pittsburgh and Minnesota played a fine six-game series of firewagon hockey. The league did just fine without ESPN, although they would have preferred a national presence.


So the NHL has played without ESPN in the past, and the local city networks (DonWas has pointed out) carry fine ratings when airing the local NHL team. Many teams televise their entire 82 game schedules through big cable. Comcast in Philadelphia and Washington will put their NHL games on TV again. Ga-ron-tee.


Much of the gloom and doom, in my right-wing opinion, is emotion from real fans, and pure hatred from the NWO, white-loathing maggots of the TV sports biz. Maybe the worst will happen and the NHL will tank. Methinks its more likely to carry on where it left off. It will recover to sprightliness in a few short years. And I sure hope MY stinky team gets some players on its roster and kicks the living schidte out of the Flyers, Rangers and the Devils during the 2005-06 season.Edited by: Realgeorge

 

[jaxvid]

Good post! great reading!

 

[Realgeorge]

Hi Jaxvid. Thanks so much for the kind words. Would that we were joying over the new-rules NHL with lightning-quick rushes with the expanded Blue Line, touch-up offside rules, pushed-back goals, and no-grasp officiating.


But it's not to be. We'll have many months of more hand-wringing and character-gouging from the main players in the work stoppage struggle. And Jaromir Jagr laughs all the way to the bank

Edited by: Realgeorge

 

[Realgeorge]

A tiny bit of movement in the NHL stalemate? Naaaah


Gary the Salamander Bettman floats a new mantra, "We will cease threatening the NHL with replacement players." Instead, he threatens the Fans with "We will not start again until we reach agreement with the NHL union." Oh boy, I can't wait! Please Mr. Bettman, let me smooch your ring ... Pleeeease don't delay the season again, and again and again.


This guy really does want to destroy the NHL


[url]http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpdDcyMnNwBF9TAz k1ODYxODgzBHNlYwN0bQ--?slug=ap-nhllockout-owners&prov=ap &type=lgns[/url]

 

[Guest]

Bring on the replacement players,I don't care! I just want to watch some nhl hockey again.With some new rules like no red line, shootouts in reg season overtime and absloute rigid enforcement of obstruction rules. more offence= more fans= more money= survival!

 

[Bear-Arms]

I want offense, but I don't want to see scores like 10-15, thats just too much. I'm not a big fan of the shootout because a team that played really hard deserves a point. Shootouts can stay away from the NHL for all I'm concerned. A team plays it's heart out and loses a point because of a shootout thats shameful to me. They don't need to change the rules all that drastic. The thing with the obstruction rule was that the refs didn't call it consistent enough. The redline just judges icing, so do you want to get rid of icing? So, many teams were playing the neutral zone trap, and that greatly lowers scoring. It's the big killer to scoring to me. Anyone think these goaltender's look like Randy from "A Christmas Story"? Rule changes don't alway count in more scoring. Remember they made the crease smaller. Team's just play better defenses now.

Figure 1.


Figure 2.


Notice the size of the glove in Figure 1. then look at the size of Figure 2's glove. Notice the difference?

Notice the leg pads are also a bit larger in Figure 2's

 

[Realgeorge]

Howdy Bear-Arms! Great post with the vintage Blackhawks goalie, in contrast to the Michelin Man on steroids playing for the Oilers. He looks like Neil Armstrong on the moon in his spacesuit.


The stinking lockout goes on, with maggot Bettman and weenie Saskin getting a junket to Austria and piss away more weeks of futile "negotiating". The fix is in. The NHL is toastEdited by: Realgeorge

 

[foreverfree]

Bear-Arms, that looks like Tony Esposito in the top photo. Man, I miss those waffle-board gloves.

In the bottom pic, is that Grant Fuhr or Bill Ranford (or maybe Pokey Reddick) when they manned the pipes for the Oilers?

John

 

[Bear-Arms]

The bottom pic is Tommy Salo, and that is Tony Esposito on top. They wear far bulkier equipment now. The room between the legs is minimal, but it might be do to positioning. Goalies often use oversized jerseys to slow the puck down between the body and arm.

This is Martin Brodeur

Imagine being a foward tring to find a hole through his legs. When he is in that position a shot is almost possible to make.

 

[Realgeorge]

The Bloody Lockout is Over! Let the games begin!


Spirits are high as the NHL sharpens its skates once again. October will see America's finest white athletes return to the ice, hopefully bringing with them Firewagon Hockey in the tradition of the great Edmonton and Montreal teams of the 1970s and 1980s.


The new rule changes will be very helpful. Shootouts are In! [Check out Bear-Arms's post under "Possible Rule Changes"]. The Red Line is out, and goal lines are back where they belong -- at the end of the ice, not halfway into the attacking zone! All the Team Sites under NHL.com are abuzz with activity. Wishful Thinking, all you media hockey-haters what think that the NHL is dead. Think again.


So Here's to the Recovery! May the NHL prosper and overtake the NFL as North America's premier men's sport.


YuriEdited by: Realgeorge

 

[Realgeorge]

It Has Started!


Salary dumping! First the Philadephia Flyers released John Leclair and Tony Amonte. Then the Red Wings dumped McCarty, Hatcher and Whitney. Colorado may dump Peter Forsberg. It's a communist system, this Hard Cap ... but it sure humbles the haughty. Many more big names will go away in the next few weeks. Some will be rehired for less money. Oh well those are the breaks! Now there's all sorts of hope for former bottom-dwellers. The NHL will realize parity with great speed. There's a success-scenario in here somewhere: Maybe now the teams that WANT it the most will be the most successful. In any event I won't miss the Jaromir Jagr's of the league: All hat and no cattle! Bring on the minimalist Cap, which really ought to be called "The Range" between 21 and 39 millions of dollars.


Yuri

 

[Realgeorge]

He's Gone!


Bob Goodenow the union boss of the NHLPA is gone, resigning a mere week after the historic agreement ending a 300-plus day old lockout. His was a simple, well-worn modus operandi, leading to a familiar legacy. Tempt your constituents into massive greed, grab all the cash while you can, and slink away when the payback begins. This man took a sport with excellent labor relations and turned the players into greedy savages, thinking the were worth multi-millions. Bob is a true NewWorldOrder snake extraordinaire.


The players have found out that indeed they are not worth what they thought, in fact they are worth about 45 cents on the dollar [$39 million upper cap compared to $90 million payroll of NY Rangers and several other high spenders]. Bob was a huge godsend to agents and a hero to union bosses everywhere. He cajoled a bunch of naive, buffoonish white guys with good jobs into becoming big-headed and greedy,demanding exorbitant instead of plenty. [Don W ina previous post describes it as players rejecting Rich in favor of Filthy Rich].


Astonishingly, many players still shake their heads and think they should have "won" the struggle with the owners, keeping their outrageous salaries and Piece of the Pie. The players continue to be, indeed, Dumb as a box of rocks.


Congratulations to you, Bob Goodenow! You squoze immense amounts of dollars from NHL paying customers and funneled it so neatly into the pockets of agents, a handful of vain star players, and yourself. I'm green with envy! It only took you fifteen years, but you brought the NHL to its knees with a little conniving help from the in-cahoots-with-the-union NHL "commissioner" Bettman. A carefully executed plan to deliberately cause labor strife in an otherwise placid men's sport, such that the system could be economically destabilized to your benefit.


Stand by while yet another snake slithers to the helm of the Hockey Players' Union, so to repeat the process again six years from now. Count on it!


YuriEdited by: Realgeorge

 

[Realgeorge]

Calling Bear-Arms! Calling Bear-Arms!


You posted neat .jpg's of Martin Brodeur and several other goalies. How did you do that? I'm trying to post a shot of the three top NHL draft choices .... and am defeated by the "Add Image" function of this discussion forum. It seems to only accept images in an HTML web document


Request Advise! P.S. Your posts are excellent


Yuri

 

[Bear-Arms]

What I usually do is go to http://www.imageshack.us to host the picture. It's pretty simple you browse where you had the pic saved and then hit host. Then you'll see a bunch of links. Just copy "Hotlink for forums" then paste it in this window and the image will appear! There is several different ways you can do this. You could also hit the add image option and paste the "Direct link to image" in the space it provides for you.

 

[Realgeorge]

COWABUNGA!


Thanks much, Bear-Arms! So here's an image of three guys I'm willing to pay NHL admission to see:





Bear-Arms, you're a good man. I hope to cross your path someday, years from now, when we elect our first ANU Senator to the U.S. Congress and kick the lousy NWO weenies out of town.


YuriEdited by: Realgeorge

 

[Bear-Arms]

Your welcome