From the main page of the site, you will find the poll on the right hand menu…

I know it’s rather redundant because about a million web pages out there are asking the same thing – be they on message boards or on media sites… but I want to know the Boltsmag readers opinion — who do you side with and why? I’d appreciate any comments as well toward the logic behind your choice… Commenting on this post with your opinion.

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

On another note — Freddie Modin still leaders all World Cup players in scoring. Who is #2? Ile Bizzard’s native son…

Canada vs. the Czech Republic… One of the most exciting games of the World Cup of Hockey tournament is all tied up and going to sudden death overtime! Fans are on the edge of their seat, they’ve forgotten about the labor war and the proposed rule changes, they’re not focusing on anything but the game and and….

….We interrupt this broadcast to give you FOOTBALL!!! SEC Football from the deep south! YEE-FUCKIN-HAW!!!

:rolleyes

EPSN — Where hockey can go screw itself.

He’s mad as hell and mis-associating quotes:

TSN.ca – NHL – Canada’s Sports Leader

McKenzie: What would you say to the fans?

Orr: I’m one of those fans. Both sides have their spin doctors out there. They’re telling us in a lot of cases what they want us to hear. You probably know more than I, I’m not sure what’s going on. Of course, everyone is picking a side. I would like to see Mr. Goodenow and Mr. Bettman together in a public forum, let’s see what’s going on here.

Honestly, I really don’t know what’s going on. The league wants cost certainty and not long ago a GM in the National Hockey League said ‘well I do have a cap, I do have cost certainty, I have a budget’. That’s in my mind what it’s all about.

Actually, that was Robert Goodenow, Bobby. Last time I checked hwas the most powerful GM int eh league though — seeing he dictates the Players Association.

Disney has been trying to sell the Mighty Ducks for years now, with absolutely no success. Afterall, who wants a mediocre franchise with a lukewarm fanbase and revenues comparable to the smallest Canadian markets, according to Forbes?

According to TSN.ca, A former owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Hartford Whalers, Howard Baldwin, has made an offer on the franchise.

It was slightly less than Disney is looking for.

Baldwin has offered $50 million. That is what Disney paid in expansion fees to get into the NHL. While Disney has been desperate to get out of the sports ownership buisness for years now, it is debatable if Disney would sell the franchise at that price.

However, it offers those of us who hate the Mickey Mouse image (pardon the pun) that a franchise named “Mighty Ducks” projects as Baldwin would likely move the team to Kansas City in 2007 when that city’s new arena is completed.

Of course, it should not come down to this. Metropolitan Los Angeles has a population base of over 20 million people. How can someone come into the NHL’s second largest market with what would usually be considered a lowball offer and be taken seriously – by major media outlets at least?

I would suggest the NHLPA watch this situation closely. That offers like this can be made for teams in a market like Los Angeles shows that the owners are not bluffing. Franchise values are mostly stagnant or declining because NHL hockey is not a good investment right now. Baldwin is trying to take advantage of the situation. What concessions the union ultimately agrees to will determine if it is a reasonable risk.

The new CBA and what it will bring is helping to slow down talks with Martin St. Louis’ agent on a multi-year deal. Feaster also spoke with Dave Andreychuk and a deal there is “not imminent.” Or so says the Tampa Tribune.

Also in the article, news that Eric Perrin signed a minor league deal with the Hershey Bears is evidence that the work-stoppage is looming. Perrin had a stellar season in the AHL last year and will play for Hershey only if the NHL season is a no-go.

Sure to start a chorus from the “hockey can’t survive int eh south” band , the Tampa Bay Lightning opened their books and the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune both have stories on this today.

The Lightning made 14.1 Million dollars during the two-month playoff run to Lord Stanley’s Cup alone. The team posted a 3.6 million dollar profit for the physical year thanks to this. Palace Sports and Entertainment’s first profit with the Lightning (and possibly the first profit every posted by the franchise).

Part of the reason he Lightning have opened their books is their continuing plea for help to Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa. The Lightning happen to be one of the most taxed teams in the United States — which usually hands out sweetheart deals to it’s professional sports franchises.

The Lightning need all the financial help they can get as their player-payroll is supposed to balloon (without a work stoppage) from $33 Million Dollars to $49 Million or more this season.

only 2 days to vote… I am trying this out and may do more polling in the future.

Just keepign up with the Jones’ here, Timothy Bennett of Hockey’s Future has an overview and look at the Lightning’s Rookie Camp roster… While the local media plays limp due to the oncoming work stoppage.

Thouogh it’s clear this camp and round-robin tournament won’t have much effect on the Lightning roster, it will be interesting to see whom impresses management and gets a shot with the Springfield Falcons and Johnstown Chiefs this year.

Lightning Sign Defenseman (bottom of article)

The Lightning signed defenseman Marc Busenburg, who is expected to play for the club’s minor-league affiliate in Springfield of the American Hockey League.

Busenburg, 26, spent last season with Hershey of the AHL, where he was fourth in the league with a plus-24. He had two goals and seven assists in 64 games.

While everyone’s attention in Flroida is on a certain meteorlogical event (including mine), the Lightning decided to have their own event signing this guy…

Hitmen Hockey

Friday, July 30, 2004

Hitmen Defenceman Mike Egener, has signed a multiyear contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, GM Jay Feaster announced today.

Egener, from Calgary, spent the last four years with the Hitmen playing 224 games and recording 37 points and 700 penalty minutes.

Apologies to the Boltsmag faithful — it woudl seem I either didn’t read this news in the local paper or they just didn’t make a big deal about it. The Lightning’s #1 pick from a year ago is signed and sealed. It is said now he is preparing to join the Springfield Falcons for htis season. The question that is on my mind is — will he be invited to camp? Or does 4 days of camp before the work stoppage really cancel the plan to invite him along?

I apologize to anyone who has trouble accessing Boltsmag or cannot read content the next few days. I am currently trying to convert from a Database on my personal web site to a new database here on Boltsmag itself, along with the fact that I am trying to change the blog software I use.

Apologies once again for any inconvenience

Would you ever think to compared the Ottawa Senators to the Montreal Expos?

Do you honestly think that the Senators coudl fall as hard and as fast for Ottawa as the Expos have for Montreal?

I see the concept as ridiculous but it would seem someone else believes, unless the Sens win the cup, it’s inevitable.

PJ over at Sharkspage had an interesting tool mentioned on the blog a few weeks ago — a Blog Pulse trend tool that shows how often certain terms are being used by Internet Bloggers. These can be topics (baseball, hockey, politics), these can be people (Gary Bettman, Robert Goodenow, Vaclav Prospal) or these can be words (use your imagination but keep it clean ya sickos! ).

So I took it upon myself to start charting three exact terms to represent the Players, the League and the Fans. In this case, the fans are represented by the search term NHLFA, the League is represented by the search phrase “NHL Owners” and the Players, of course, are represented by the search term NHLPA.

You can get a look at the exact page of results, but here is the graphic directly generated by this search:

As we have gotten closer to the deadline, there have been more and more references to the players and the owners – but of coruse the fans are further neglected without a plan of attack besides disorganized boycotting ideas.