Did I forget to mention that Brad Lukowich has left the Central Hockey League?

I did? Aw shucks….

Well, i’m not much for reporting on what is going on in Europe or you would have already heard about Freddie Modin, Pavel Kubina and others who jumped ship and have been playing for teams in Europe for a while now…

But TSN.ca decided to make a headline talking about Bradmaster and Vinny being held scoreless in their debut. Nik Khbibulin gets the win as AK Kazan — AKA NHLPA All Stars — win 2-1.

Sports Illustrated is having a vote for Sportsman of the year…

And personally I am in agreement with Eric over at Off Wing Opinion about who it should be.

Seeing I don’t know what to report here — I might as well report what others are saying on the Hockey blogosphere:

Fist off, you gotta go to the Off Wing Opinion and read the news that Brett Hull hath speaketh his mind once again. Of course, one can’t forget Tom Benjamin and his NHL commentary – nor the fact he also has a report on Brett opening his mouth once more.

Meanwhile, Jes wants to know if Kevin Lowe is just teasing with his “thnreat” to quit if the NHL economics stay the same. I know many Edmonton fans will suddenly wish that the Players win this bout

And just a request — does ANYONE know of a email address (tangible email address) I can send email to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization? I have something up my sleeve for all Hockey fans but I cannot go forward with this without an email address for the Penguins (and perhaps higher up in the orgainzation… Super high up — hint hint).

Well, no NHL… No Lightning matchups… No planned labor talks…

Seeing we don’t have the game. Lets play a game about the game. Worth 1000 has a contest of Photoshopped images under the theme “Hockey Hockey Hockey”….

Good for a couple of laughs.

Can site visitiors please do me a favor?

I’ve been getting a lot of “Failed refferer” reports from certain parts of the site and I was wondering if anyone ewas having trouble navigating the page? Could you please post a comment to this post if that is the case? Thanks.

Tuesday the Lightning had an unglamorous ceremony in the bowels of the St. Petersburg Times Forum in downtown Tampa where some — certainly not all — players were handed over

Of course, the Lightning’s player rep – Tim Taylor – took this as an opportunity to launch into another pro-Union triade:

“It was a joke. For this community not to share in this? I think it’s a slap in the face the NHL has given our fans because they should’ve been involved.

“This should have been at the Forum in front of 22,000 people as we walk up and get the rings and open it up and show the fans. I personally feel the NHL has taken some of that away from us.”

(of course, for a pro-Union triade, acknowledgement of the fans is something new)

You can read the full article and more of Taylor’s comments here.

I heard this before I left on my trip — I’ll be back in Florida tomorrow…

Springfield to play Philadelphia Phantoms at the St. Pete Times Forum on December 15th

AHL hockey is better than NO hockey….

Heading north for a week. Will check in if something earth shattering happens — if I can.

Jason over at Predators Den begs the question, just what does Gary Bettman have to do to lose his job?

Here is the answer: Just like DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, the more Bettman fails at his job, the more certain it is that he keeps his job! His string of failure after abject failure hasn’t been enough for the owners in the NHL to can Bettman. There’s little reason to believe they’ll do the right thing anytime soon.

Sadly, this is more true than I can state.

I won’t get into politics (I do that enough on der Stonegauge ) but what Jason asks and what he says is too true to overlook. Gary has been vital in negotiating porrous TV deals that hurt the NHL more than help (I’m not talking about financial deals – I’m talking about exposure, etc). He’s failed to bring the NHL owners the riches he promised through expansion (won’t go further into that one because you Neo-Traditionalists like Chris Chelios out there can go stuff it). He absolutely sucks at marketing and is out of touch with not only the common player but the common fan as well.

Oh, Martin St. Louis and Robert Esche aren’t correct with their villifying of Bettman… But they do have a point about Bettman being malignant to the game. It goes beyond collective bargaining and buying the party line, however.

Taken from a St. Petersburg Times article: Lightning: Lightning players being drawn by Europe’s allure

Martin St. Louis doesn’t have kind words for Gary Bettman…

“Well, he’s trying to be a dictator,” St. Louis said. “He won’t negotiate anything else but a salary cap and that to me is a dictator. I mean, if somebody doesn’t want to do anything else but what he thinks is right, that’s like negotiating with a dictator.”

The NHL players and owners haven’t had formal negotiations since Sept. 9 and the owners locked out the players when the collective-bargaining agreement expired Sept. 15. The players made the most recent proposal, but the owners rejected the offer, saying it was similar to a deal that was rejected by the owners 18 months earlier.

The main sticking point is a salary cap. The owners want one and the players don’t.

“We made the last offer,” St. Louis said. “I feel we’ve given up something, given up a lot. The bottom line is (Bettman) doesn’t want to sit at the table until we come up with a salary cap. How do you negotiate with that?”

OK, here I go again…

Marty, listen — I love you as a player and you have done wonders for this this team… but what the hell are you talking about, “given up alot”? The players concession (note the singular use of the word, Maritn… note it very well) was a 5 percent roll back in salaries — five percent isn’t even inflation for one off season in the NHL. The Entry-level rule changes don’t conceed jack shit to the owners besides a temporary restraint of costs on new talent…

And revenue sharing? That’s a players concession? Is the NHLPA that ass-backwards?

Have fun in the Swiss Elite League, Marty (as the rest of the article goes on to state)… Tuck tail and run like the rest of the players instead of actually forcing talks between players and owners. All the while stealing jobs from Europeans.

You know, a lot of people are complaining that there is nothing — No ECHL, no AHL, etc — teams around in the Tampa Bay area to fill the void while the NHL and NHLPA continue to cry and fight with each other…

That’s not exactly the case.

USA Junior Hockey has 4 teams in the state of Florida — one in Tampa Bay — making up the Southeast Junior Hockey League. I personally have not experienced the SEJHL, so I can’t say that these are the best leagues out there — but they are out there none the less.

Tampa Bay hosts the Oldsmar / Tampa Bay Sandsharks playing out of the Tampa Bay Skating Academy in Oldsmar, Florida. The Sandsharks boast a former member of the Lightning — Pat “Jabber” Jablonski — as assistant Head Coach.

Tickets are cheap, folks… Season tickets cost about as much as a single Lightning game ticket (but then again, a portion of the SEJHL season is already gone). The next game is Saturday night at TBSA in Oldsmar at 7 PM.

If someone checks out the game — please email me with a game report about the quality of play and such. I’d love to hear about it. Heck, I might even check out it out myself if I can.

Taken from Lightning: Lightning’s union rep is pessimistic — A St. Petersburg Times article by Tom Jones which features and interview with one of the lightning’s player reps — Tim Taylor.

“If the owners are still talking a $31-million salary cap, yeah, the season is going to go down the drain,” said Taylor, the Lightning’s player representative. “We want to negotiate a fair deal for both sides. I’m discouraged there haven’t been more talks. I feel bad for the fans. I hope this is temporary, but I don’t know.”

Riddle me this, Tim: How can you negotiate when neither side is willing to sit down and talk? How can you negotiate when the Union, that you are a member of, has only extended 2 offers to the owners in over a year and neither of them granted concessions from the players as-so-much the owners? Do you mind explaining that to me and the fans you and your Union are alienating?

You talk about the 31 million dollar cap — you don’t even seem to think that the number can be negotiated higher by the NHLPA if they were to try to collectively bargain?

“I felt good after the meeting,” Taylor said. “The guys who spoke out (recently) are minor leaguers, guys who have played 50 games in the NHL. They don’t speak for the majority. But you know what? The NHLPA is fighting for those guys, too.”

And yet the reason these players are speaking out is becuase the NHLPA doesn’t seem to be “fighting” for those guys. The bit-men will remain bit-men in this league when the dust clears and the stars will remain the stars… The issue isn’t how little players will make in the end, but how much players should be allowed to make and how much of the league revenues they should be allowed to make…

The Mike Commodore’s aren’t the problem – it’s the Chris Chelios’, the Tim Taylor’s and the Chris “Ten Million a Year and loving it!” Pronger’s of the NHL that are screwing up the works.

“We’re not trying to make more money. That’s not what this is about. We just want a fair deal.”

I’m still waiting for anyone in the NHLPA to define what is “fair”? 75 percent of revenues coming into the league is fair? Fair is alienating the people who pay your salaries (the fans)?

Stop acting above this, Tim Taylor, and other members of the NHLPA… Goodenow’s pomposity is only good enough for so long – and with either side not trying to resume talks, that pomposity has run it’s course and now it’s time to swallow your pride and start to try to deal.

TSN.ca – NHL – Canada’s Sports Leader

“Yes, it’s done,” Lecavalier’s agent Kent Hughes said Thursday from Westwood, Mass. “The situation is great for Vinny, being able to join a lineup with such elite NHL players.”

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but previous reports have said the offer is for as much as $300,000 US net for every month Lecavalier stays in Russia.

This is actually a long time coming for Vinny. He vowed in April that he would play in Europe if there was a lockout.

It’s also another sign that high level players are trying to avoid the situation instead of speaking out or trying to get things moving in the NHL which is a joke in itself.

The NHL regrets to inform you, the fan, that the 2004-05 All-Star weekend has been cancelled.

…Not that they care. The pissing match is just getting interesting for them.

Well, this certainly feels a lot cleaner. I have to wonder fi the RDF/RSS/Atom feeds are working correctly though…