What You Need to Know August 31

This will be the second installment of " What You Need to Know" this week. For those that know this is my summer series where I run down a whole bunch of news/stories/rumours that have taken place in the NHL or will impact the NHL over the last week. Here we go:

• Players un-happy with NHL's second offer

It (the NHL proposal) was a pig with lipstick on, instead of a pig.'' ~Red Wings Dan Cleary

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had stated after that "Substantial differences" had been implemented in the leagues second proposal to the players. The second proposal would see the players percent of the pie rise to 46 but add that a percentage of players salaries would go towards escrow. The tone from the players after looking over the proposal was pretty negative, some even went on to say "Bettman is adamant on his third lockout".

The two sides met again today and the NHLPA was expected to present their changes to the league second proposal.

• Oilers lock up another young stall in Eberle

Shortly after his best friend both on and off the ice Taylor Hall signed his deal with the Oilers, Jordan Eberle signed on the dotted line. The Oilers and Eberle agreed to a 6 year deal worth $36 million.

"Obviously I'm pretty excited, with Taylor getting his done last week, I was pretty anxious. I'm happy to be an Oiler ... and I think with the direction the team's going it's pretty obvious that there's a lot of excitement level around Edmonton and throughout our locker room."

Heck for $36 million, I'd be happy to be an Oiler too! This is a great signing both for Eberle and the Oilers as they help lock up another key member of their core going forward. Eberle has 52 goals and 67 assists in 147 games with the Oilers.

• Bogosian on the shelf 4-6 months

The Winnipeg Jets will be without the services of defenceman Zach Bogosian for the next 4-6 months after he underwent a successful surgery on his right wrist. The surgery was to repair a torn ligament in his wrist.

• Top prospect for Wild goes wild and breaks his leg

Mario Lucia one of the top prospects for the Minnesota Wild broke his right fibula and tore ligaments in his ankle when a teammate fell on him at practice. The injury will likely result in Lucia missing the first three months of his freshman year at Notre Dame. The Wild took Lucia in the second round in the 2011 draft and is thought of to be in the top 10 of up and coming Wild prospects.

"Hopefully I'll get back quicker than three months, but I'm in a cast for seven weeks, so there's not much I can do about that."

• Roy recovering well from shoulder surgery

Sticking with the injury news, Derek Roy is eyeing a return to the Dallas Stars in November. After being traded from the Buffalo Sabres to the Dallas Stars this offseason Roy underwent shoulder surgery to fix an ailing injury. Roy will soon be getting back on the ice and is looking forward to joining his new teammates;

"I haven’t skated in a while, I am going to start skating in three weeks or a month, and get that back up to speed, keep rehabbing the shoulder and move forward."

Roy managed 44 points in 80 games which resulted in a disappointing season with the Sabres. The Stars are hoping that he will be able to up that production now that he fixed his shoulder.

• More  star players heading overseas

While nothing yet is official (and wont be until after September 15th) players are starting to look for other places to play next season. In Monday's edition I mentioned the Ovechkin has been in contact with the KHL and this past week his lawyer flew over to talk about a possible contract. Even worse news for fans if the lockout goes past December fans can expect to see the golden boy Sidney Crosby head overseas. Crosby's agent said if the NHL remains on strike into late December Crosby will indeed look for other options overseas. Crosby's teammate Evgeni Malkin will also be heading overseas if a lockout is imminent. On top of that the KHL president has said he is "Prepared to welcome all locked out NHLers, the gate is wide open". Speaking as a NHL fan *gulp*

• Turris resigns after a fresh start in Ottawa

After being labelled as a player who didn't try hard and would quit on a team when he wanted out, Kyle Turris was traded to the Ottawa Senators and found a new home at the end of last season. Now it appears he'll be making Ottawa his home for the foreseeable future. The Senators and Turris agreed to a 5 year contract extension that will see him stay in the nation's capital through the 2017-2018 season.

"I'm really excited, I love it here in Ottawa. I love being part of the organization and the people in it and the hockey team we have here. I'm really looking forward to being here the next six years, and hopefully past that. I knew at the end of the year that this was the place I wanted to be, and I wanted to be for a long time. I love the city. I love everything about it."

 

• Rene Bourque to miss 8-12 weeks

More injury news to report, the Montreal Canadiens Rene Bourque will be out for the next 8-12 weeks after surgery to repair a wall in his abdomin that collapsed during training.

That will do it for the stories from the past week.

NHL Presents 2nd Offer

 

The CBA negotiating saga is still ongoing and with roughly 19 days left till the September 15th deadline the NHL has finally submitted to the NHLPA their 2nd offer. Only hitch, there really isn't anything new in the offer.

As much as people don't like Gary Bettman you have to give credit where credit is do. He's not stupid, he's a lawyer and he doesn't like to lose. Instead of catering to the NHLPA's demands with his second offer he decided to "re-arrange" the league initial offer. His plan seems to have worked, Donald Fehr head of the NHLPA said on Tuesday he was pleasantly surprised with the leagues second offer.

The only good news about the leagues proposal is the players would make $460 million more than the owners suggested in the original deal, everything else is just "re-worded".

• The NHL has come up with a 6 year deal, 3 of those years will result in a fixed salary cap and the final 3 will return to the cap being based on the league revenue. players would earn 51.6% in 2012-13, 50.5% in 2013-14 and 49.6% in 2014-15. In the final three years, the players and owners would split revenue 50-50.


• This offer does not include rollbacks on current contracts. Meaning players like Sidney Crosby will still get all the money the were promised.


• The league is asking the players to give back 11 percent which would set the salary cap at $58 million, $12 million less than it would have been under the current CBA. Not mention 16 current teams are already over $58 million.


• The players revenue share is 46% up from the original 43%


• The NHL would also like the players salaries to go towards escrow, this point here pretty much rules out any real significant changes between the first deal and the second deal.

The Fehr accompanied by 11 players met with the NHL today to present their alternatives and further debate the second proposal. It appears the players didn't have the same feelings of optimism about the "improved" deal;

"We’re ready to play. We want to play. But Gary'’s pretty adamant about his third lockout of his tenure.” ~ Zach Parise

Very powerful statement by Parise, gives fans a little insight on what the players are thinking about the CBA negotiations. Unfortunately for the players, right now the NHL has the power.

Fehr says the players will work on a second counterproposal which may be ready as early as tomorrow. But he still claims both sides are far apart on revenue sharing. The biggest thing separating to the two sides is the revenue sharing or the "pie" as the two sides refer to it.

"Before you divide up the pie,need to remove some of what is included in the pie" ~ Donald Fehr

The good news for fans, is both sides seem to have found some common ground, pie. Both sides are hung up of the revenue share and how much of the pie their side will get. With the latest deal the NHLPA would get 46% of the pie while the NHL would get 54%. Here's a remarkable idea why not share the pie 50/50?

The players still feel like the league is trying to take "money out of their pockets" and are concerned about a new 6 year deal. But good news for fans is both sides seem to have found some common ground and are starting to focus their negotiations on getting a deal done. While the clock is still ticking both sides still refuse to accept a straight deal without compromise. But as long as they're talking it has to be good news right?

My prediction

• The Players will be the ones to backdown and accept a deal


• We will not see a full season lockout but will see a work stoppage, resulting in a shortened season.

 

Jim Joyce Changes His Reputation

 

It's been a rough two years for MLB umpire Jim Joyce. You may remember him as the umpire who took away Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga's perfect game, when he called a runner who was clearly out safe. After that he received threats, even death threats, heck the man even cried and admitted he had made a mistake, but to his credit he kept umpiring games. After an incident this past weekend, I for one am very glad Joyce is still around.

While Joyce was walking to the field for an upcoming game, a stadium employee collapsed and began having what co-workers called "seizures". When Joyce arrived on the scene he noticed something more than just a seizure was taking place and began to give the employee CPR. Joyce was able to keep the woman alive until paramedics made it to the scene.

"I knew something was wrong, and I knew if something wasn't done, this lady could actually die in front of me. It was more instinct than anything else." ~ Jim Joyce

Thanks to Joyce's quick thinking he saved the woman's life, and on top of that he even went to visit her and her family in the hospital on Tuesday. The woman said she remembered hearing Joyce's voice yelling at her to "stay alive" and "keep fighting". To me Mr. Joyce proved himself to be a classy guy, he could have easily ignored the woman and claimed "he never saw her" but instead he stepped up to the plate. Hopefully he's changed a few people's feelings about him. Heck after saving the employee's life he went out and umpired a game at home-plate!

Joyce's fellow umpiring crew gave him the option to switch to third base after the emotional incident but he declined as he needed a distraction;

"It was very emotional, I'll be honest with you but I didn't want to go to third base because just standing there, literally, [the incident] is all I would have thought about all night. I wouldn't have been able to think about anything else. ~ Joyce

I watch SportsCentre just about everyday but I didn't hear one mention of Joyce's heroics after the incident, where as his mistake was paisted all over for everyone to see. The media wanted people to know he messed up, that seems to be all they care about and Joyce appears to have been painted in the wrong picture. Sure he messed up and as a result forfeited a perfect game for a picture but "to err is human" The important thing is he admitted his mistake and moved on, fans should too!

Next time you want to heckle, chirp or criticize an umpire after a call, just remember one day you could need the help of an umpire. Jim Joyce just made the most important call of his 24 year career. Well done Mr. Joyce, well done!

What You Need to Know August 27

It's been a while since I've written an instalment of my summer series "What you need to know". Normally they come out of Fridays, but since I'm sick of talking about an impending lockout I decided it was time to give you all a breakdown on whats going on around the league. Here we go;

• Nail Yakupov battling leg infection

The first overall pick from the 2012 entry draft and top prospect of the Edmonton Oilers had an accident while training which resulted in a leg infection. While taking part in a 3 on 3 training session in Edmonton, Yakupov took a tumble off a treadmill. It was reported he suffered a leg infection from the fall/cut and had to stay off the ice. He is now back to training. Yakupov insists he is now fine;

"Nobody worry about my leg!" ~Nail Yakupov

• Neuvirth blames translation for harsh comments about teammates

The Washington Capitals goaltender is trying to cover his tracks in a big way. Neuvirth had an interview with a Czech media outlet who were kind enough to translate the interview into English, many were surprised by the goaltenders comments. In the interview he claimed that Brayden Holtby was his "weakest competition ever and he would have no problem winning the starting job" and that teammate Alexander Ovechkin "wasn't the same player he used to be".

Last week Neuvirth said his comments were not translated correctly and he didn't say those things in that context. Only Neurvirth knows what he really meant in his interview and hopefully it wasn't anything serious. Here's a link to the interview.

• Oilers lock up Taylor Hall

The Edmonton Oilers locked up their "face of the franchise" and possibly their next captain Taylor Hall to a 7 year deal worth $42 million.
The Oilers drafted Hall first overall in the 2010 draft and he helps lead a young group of talented Oilers.

"I'm only 20 years old. I think this just shows the commitment that I have here. When they said seven years I didn't blink, I'm comfortable being here for that long, and I think by that time, hopefully we're a perennial threat. That's my main goal, and that's my mindset when I signed the deal, is that that's going to happen." ~ Taylor Hall

•  19 days to make a deal

There are roughly 19 days left for the NHL and NHLPA to agree on a new CBA. The impending deadline of September 15th is coming quickly, leaving little time for negotiating. One side must cave if there is to be hockey and look for it to be the players.

• Predators lock up Fisher

The Nashville Predators and Mike Fisher agreed on a two-year contract extension worth $8.4 million. The deal assures that Fisher who would have become a free agent during the 2013-2014 campaign will be staying Nashville.

• Flyers lock up Hartnell

The Eastern Conference wont be getting any easier to play in next season. The "broad street bullies' have resigned their agitator Scott Hartnell to a six-year extension worth $28.5 million. Last season he proved to the Flyers and fans that he can do more than just annoy opponents physically, he can also annoy them on the score board; He had a career year last season which saw him score 37 goals and rack up 67 points, a feat the Flyers are hoping he can repeat.

• Canada on top once again

Team Canada won their fifth straight Ivan Hlinka championship with a 4-0 victory over finland. The tournament helps feature some of the best prospects available for the 2013 draft and Nathan MacKinnon made sure he made a lasting impression netting a hat-trick to help solidify the win for Canada.

• Traverse City Prospects tournament cancelled

Sad news for Sabres fans or any fan who likes to watch prospects get together and battle it out. The tournament the Buffalo Sabres rookies won last season has been cancelled. The Detroit Red Wings organization which hosts the tournament decided to cancel the even due to the uncertainty surrounding the CBA.

• KHL after Ovechkin

Remember how I've said many NHL stars would head over to Russia to play in the KHL? It's already happening, the Moscow Dynamo club out of the KHL has told the media they will attempt to sign Washington Capitals captain and Russian Alexander Ovechkin to a contract if there is indeed an NHL lockout.

Has Gary Bettman Pushed the Best Fans Too Far?

With the deadline of September 15th inching closer every day things are getting more and more hostile in the hockey world. If people weren't upset at Gary Bettman enough already, he decided it would be a great idea to pour salt on the open wounds of hockey fans. Whether we like it or not a lockout is the main topic on everyone's mind. After the meetings on Thursday Bettman was asked "If he thought the league could survive another lockout?" and this was his response;

“We recovered last time because we have the world’s greatest fans." ~ Gary Bettman

Really Bettman, you think we're the greatest fans? How about you start treating us like the greatest fans instead of doormats! Instead of fighting till the bitter end with Donald Fehr maybe you could find some common ground and give the greatest fans what they want, hockey! At first sight his comment about the lockout may seem like a playful/nice compliment about the fans, but if you really look at what he's saying it's fairly easy to draw other conclusions.

"Maybe if the fans weren't so desperate for hockey, then I'd actually be worried"

Right now Bettman believes that the fans (the ones who help buy tickets and pay his salary) are mindless sheep, who will keep coming back to the slaughter house if it means we are provided with what we want. He's not worried about a lockout because he thinks the fans will be right back in the arena's the moment he "allows" there to be hockey. Sure maybe the die hard hockey fans will, but the majority of fans will be gone.

When billionaires and millionaires the only ones that lose are the fans, and it's true. We lose the ability to watch the game we love, to see our favourite players compete night in and night out and most importantly we will miss seeing a team fulfill a life-long dream. The 2004-2005 lockout was tough. I was just a mere child who didn't fully understand what the two sides were fighting over, I just wanted to watch hockey. Now that I'm older I understand that the two sides are fighting over money. They say "money is the root of all evil" and I'm really starting to understand what they mean. The owners and Between are really going to war against the players over money. It's not like someones human rights have been violated or a crime has been committed, the owners are trying to figure out another way to make more money.

Whether Bettman wants to admit it or not, the NHL didn't recover as well as he described above. It took a long time for people to come back to the game. Last season was a major positive for the league; they worked out a new deal with NBC and more fans tuned into games. The NHL started to gain momentum to bring the game we love to the next level. Now the league feels comfortable enough to call another lockout and ruin the momentum the NHL has been building. But has Between pushed the fans too far? Here's three reasons why fans wont be as quick to jump back on the NHL bandwagon.

•  This will be the league third lockout in the last 17 years and second in less than a decade! People can only be let down by something they love so many times, eventually they'll move. Maybe the NHL needs to adopt a rule from baseball; three strikes and you're out.


• While Canadians are crazy about their hockey and wouldn't miss it for the world, the Americans don't feel the same. Hockey is probably around the fifth post popular sport in the states. They have the NFL, NBA, MLB and the NCAA, non of which have had as many lockout issues as hockey. The NBA and NFL both had a to make a new CBA like the NHL is doing now. But they sucked back their ego's and got a deal done, as a result they didn't lose many fans. If there is indeed a lockout Between will have his opened when he realized how many fans he's lost for good!


• Lastly Bettman and the owners have a complete lack of respect for the fans. For them it's all about how much money they can make. But when Between comes out and makes comments like the one above, it makes people upset. He's taking advantage of fans and pretty soon those fans are not going to waste money on tickets and jerseys if thats how they're treated/viewed.

To end I'll leave you with a tweet I sent out on Thursday;

If Between thinks us fans are the best, maybe he should give us what we want...... hockey #NHL #NoLockout

— Caitlin Campbell (@Hockeylife30) August 23, 2012

CBA Update

I really wish I had good news to pass on to you all, but Gary Bettman doesn't want me to. The majority of fans agree that the CBA talks are moving too slowly, the two sides met last Wednesday and were supposed to meet all day Wednesday. Notice I said supposed to meet Wednesday. While Donald Fehr and Bettman did meet to discuss their feelings over the negotiations Wednesday morning, they decided to call off the NHL/ NHLPA meetings that were supposed to take place Wednesday afternoon.The negotiations are expected to continue Thursday morning.

The two sides met for two hours on Wednesday morning. The purpose of the meeting? To get everyones thoughts on the negotiations;

"I think more than anything else it was to review where we are in the process, where we've come from, where we are with the various proposals and to determine how to move the process forward in the best way possible" ~ Bill Daly

With just under a month until the deadline, there doesn't appear to be much urgency from either side. Cancelling meetings is no way to work out a new deal. It was rumoured that during the two hour meeting, which included the top executives from both sides, that revenue sharing was once again the major topic. Bettman and the league have upped the players share of revenue to 6 percent slightly raised from their initial 4.5 percent.

Key point to be addressed today in #CBA negotiations,REVENUE SHARING.Reported NHL proposal moves it from $150M (4.5%) to $190 (6%).NHLPA

— Aaron Ward (@aaronward_nhl) August 22, 2012

CBA talks will hopefully resume Thursday morning and continue for the majority of the day. Fans should have a better idea on where the two sides stand by the end of the week. Right now it's a game of who will blink first: the millionaires or the billionaires.