I’ll let Tommy at Sticks of Fire do the talking on this post…

Tampa is Paris in relation to Jax….

I’ve added another two desktop backgrounds to Boltsmag’s list — one with Nolan Pratt and another with the St. Petersburg Times Forum. Just click on the “Wallpaper” button at right and you’ll be mystifically transported to the wallpaper graphics entry to the site…..

Now, there isn’t a feature story on the fact talks broke down in today’s St. Petersburg Times, but there is a piece on talks breaking down of course. Short and sweet…

Well, no… Short and sour.

Brad Richards is quoted in this article and I must tell everyone that Brad has been the most consistant and resolute player on the Lightning since he broke into the league… While he’s been a strength on ice, clearly business is not his strong point —

“We made a serious proposal (Dec. 9) and they didn’t even want to look at it,” Lightning center Brad Richards told the Canadian Press. “It’s disappointing and it made everybody angry. I haven’t seen any reason to be optimistic since.”

Um, Excuse me Mr. Richards?

Brad, you’re my favorite player but how can you play into the NHLPA propoganda like this? Ever fan should be able to recall the NHL took a full weekend to review and go over the last proposal by the NHLPA and sent back a counter offer the following Tuesday which was considered equally as strong.

And every fan and executive should know that the NHLPA flat out rejected the offer, as they have with every-single-stinking-offer that the NHL has made to them.

Of course, Richards was preparing to depart for Ak Barz Kazan at the time the player smade there offer, so i have to give him the benefit of the doubt for being uninformed about this… But at the same time, I’m aggrivated the players keep calling it in on the party-line and speaking falsehoods and half truths.

I don’t usually take shots at other bloggers – even when there’s a debatable topic on their blog. I usually let Keith handle it because he’s more articulate and better at channeling his disagreement than I am.

Yet I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t stand it anymore and I can’t stand the ignorance of those who report what this guy says as fact.

Hockey Rumors has been pulling crap out of their ass for the extent of the lockout…. I had reported one rumor they posted a couple of weeks ago on Boltsmag and I regret it just because I fell for the ploy – wishful thinking. Yet I’ve seen an influx of traffic to Boltsmag the last few days specifically for the search terms “Hockey Rumors” and “Eklund”.

Folks, he doesn’t have legit sources.

If you want to be entertained by it (the silliness of it all), I can’t stop that. If you want to believe what he writes, then you are just another part of his Flock Of Seagulls.

My aggrivation stems from someone who is indeed eating this guys word up and reporting it on the Sun Sports TV Lightning message board… Reporting stuff over and over again that is false, ficticious, wild speculation and just flat out lies.

A “Deal in principle” was rumored a few days ago and a desperate Lightning fan had to go out and announce it to everyone on the board, reporting it as fact (and this fan has repeated the act several times with several different reports from Hockey Rumors). Yet this is probably happening all across the Internet – someone believes uninformed speculation is better than no speculation at all and reports it as gospel. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Rumors are supposed to have at least some factual leads and I can’t say that Hockey Rumors has any factual leads besides knowing labor negotiations are going on.

I’m not saying don’t hope, people. I’m not saying don’t have optimism or try to find a brief and shimmering instance of positive energy from talks that have gone on the last two weeks.. I am saying don’t follow false wise men. Don’t believe a fool’s words.

“Even a broken clock is right twice a day” doesn’t apply to Eklund and Hockey Rumors. If his site was a clock, it has no arms and the numbers are actually shards of his ego.

EDIT: Eric at Off Wing Opinion gets an interview with Eklund. Though a story is weaved by Eklund, that’s all it looks like – a story. A very ficicious story.

EDIT 2: Teal Sunglasses, in a post last month, points out an anomaly in Eklund’s posting – where rules about the CBA vote were changed by Senor Eklund… Or just plain unknown by the guy who is making it up as he goes?

EDIT 3:Dubi of Ordinary Least Square broke down almost every damn thing that Eklund has ever written and points out the flaws and falancies of the posts. This was back in February… (Thanks to Jes Golbez post on the matter that led me to Dubi’s commentary)

It’s not often that I read pieces by John Romano at the St. Petersburg Times that leaves me conflicted – agreeing or at least seeing his point but also disagreeing on the gorunds that… well, it just doesn’t feel right.

In this case, John stands up for Tampa Bay’s championship and the right to defend Lord Stanley’s Cup after a full season of games – not after a mini-season that may be played if a CBA deal can be reached.

In some ways, he’s right. Whoever wins a season – if there IS a season – right now is not a true champion. They are Microleague champions and they temporarily sully the reputation and the heritage of the Cup.

But then again, the NHL is responsible for also sullying the Cup — as are the players — because their personal greed outweighed the most prestigious championship in pro sports. It’s happened before where a team played a shorter season and won the Cup — and there is no reason to take away from the accomplishments of the 1994-1995 New Jersey Devils. ANd in the long run, it won’t really take away from the prestige of hoisting the challice…

I’m not sure about the other work stoppage, and as this guy says, unless you are a fantatic – you probably don’t either.

Back to the point of this blog entry the article by Romano comes off… Possesive? Any Canadian might take offense to the title of the article to begin with… But the fact is this championship — the 2003-04 Championship — is ours. And to have a short season, a season where the time to defend it runs very short, does put a damper on having the awe last.

But then again, for this fan? The awe has lasted durign the lockout. The disappointment of not seeing the Lightning defending the Cup doesn’t hurt so much as the fact people have forgotten we achieved what was thought to be impossible. Tampa Bay won the Cup when we were laughingstocks 5 years ago.

Well, I had hope last week and Trevor Linden squashed it late in the week.

We’ll go through the motions again tomorrow. There’s BS being spewed by certain parties on certain web logs that I have linked to all of once… And there’s other rumors flying around.

I’ll skip the rumors and definatley skip the Sportsnet.ca news until AFTER meetings have adjourned tomorrow.

Well, this is blesphamy coming from a Tampa Bay fan but congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles, the National Football Conference champions, who will be advancing to Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville….

….To get spanked by the winner of the AFC Championship game

Long time Bolts season ticket holder and Internet Lightning icon Sharon Loe has been putting up some of her personal pictures of the Lightning working out and playing on the Hockey Photo Project. Register and give her soem props…

Be it from the Times of the Tribune, the story stays the same: Brad Richards is slated for abdominal surgery thanks to an injury sustained with Ak Bars Kazan.

Sportsnet reports that players for at least one NHL team have been told to be on standby to return to practice within a weeks time.

You might look elsewhere to see different rumors and ramblings what is supposed to be in play with negotiations right now but lets just take oen thing at a time right now. There may be enough headway being made right now for the National Hockey League to resume operations within the next few weeks.

EDIT: Thanks to Jack for giving me this link to the denial from the Coyotes over this report. Guess that’s why you don’t jump over rumors and try to do factual reporting.

TSN reports that talks will continue on Thursday in Toronto…

And while I am not big on Trevor Linden who played the yes-man to Bob Goodenow so far during the lockout, I do have to give him credit for at least getting the ball rolling (or achieving what he set out to) between owners and players. Maybe the season isn’t going to happen, but talking is better than nothing at all.

….like the last couple of months since the lockout began.

The View Form Canada” columnist (and recovering Gall Bladder removal patient) Keith passed on to me that Sportsnet was reporting — and has since removed those reports — that the two sides are in fact making headway. How much headway? Terms for an 8 year CBA deal were being finalized.

But rumors from Canada are running mad right now. What’s fact and what’s ficiton will only be realized at a later point.

Considering the source, I’m a tad more skeptical. Not because of the journalist reporting this but the organization he reports for. I’m a fan of Erik Erlendsson but him working for the Tampa Tribune dampens that.

But Erik’s got a list that suggests the NHL is ready to re-awaken at optimum speed and has a new proposal almost hammered out.

Now, I have no clue about Erik’s sources…. I have no clue if he’s got someone inside the NHL or NHLPA (or perhaps Eklund at Hockey Rumors :p ) whispering these things in his ear….

But it’s a slight light of optimism and hope in a rather dark and dank experience for all.

EDIT: Did Uncle Erik just scoop Canada?!?!?!? NHL and PA meeting Wednesday… No guarantee something will work out but it’s impressive (in a media sense) seeing I heard nothing from the Canadian press over this (or the American press until I saw this article).

Want a great example why America — and the south — are poo-pooed by Hockey Fans in general?

Look no further than the St. Petersburg Times and there weekly face-off argument.

Arguing what we should do with the NHL – one guy doesn’t care and the other wants an ESPNHL type league… Which in itseslf is a joke but it’s more positive than the vastly negative “Pro” argument by Mr. Cotey.

Well, for all of you floating out there who want to voice disgust or frustration or what not — it’s time your voice gets heard. Speaketh your mind here.

Tom Jones chimes in with a little report on what Lightning Head Coach John Tortorella is up to during the lock out…

It ain’t much.

Though I do have to bring up a point in this article that Tortorella makes as I had been thinking along the lines of the same thing yesterday:

But these days, Tortorella has no team to defend a Cup. Many are scattered throughout Europe playing what Tortorella calls “Ice Capades,” leagues absent of contact but full of bad habits. He has no idea when the lockout will end, but he is worried that the team that won the Cup will not be the same team that shows up for the Lightning’s next training camp.

“I’m scared,” Tortorella said. “I think we’re going to have to reteach our players. I think it’s going to be an awful brand of hockey when (the NHL returns) because (the lockout) has gone on for so long.

“My guys are going to be retaught. They’re going to be come at hard because I know the bad habits are going to be there.”

The “Bad Habits” are the part of this quote that scares me the most becuase I believe it. There is no one monitoring player performance in Europe and, while I have faith in players like Fredrik Modin (who is playing in Sweden) and Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Pavel Kubina have been known to lapse when not held to Tortorella’s rigorous standards.

Things will remain in doubt until the lockout ends… then we’ll be able to start picking up the pieces and see where the Lightning stand.

You hear stories in the paper from the player reps or those who are close to the team player reps… You hear things like the Union will never bend. It will never break. It will not allow for there to be a cap and it will let the Free Market live on in the NHL (someone give me an “Halleluja”! Somebody give me an “Amen”!).

And then there are stories like these that come along every so often that make you wonder just how tight the players union actually happens to be?

For every annonymous player that questions the NHL, there are the over-the-top macho players that vow the Union will never allow a cap and Gary Bettman is at fault… For every player that ran to Europe to keep paying the bills through the strike, there are other players still here in North America who are face the labor war daily and give the patented annonymous quote that shows dissent in the ranks.

And the saddest thing: for ever Mike Commodore who has come forward and express how bad this work stoppage is, there are 10 players that come out and say they are open to the owners plans, only to retract their statement and damn the source where there comments were published (with great thanks to the pressure ffrom the NHLPA).

So what’s the truth? Are owners dissenting like Larry Brooks would have you believe? Is there a good number of players truly ready to cave as Stan Fischler tells us? It’s most likely somewhere in the middle and neither side is willing to even consider dealing with common ground — even if that common ground is a unified desire to end the work stoppage.

Well, I’m just real, real happy that neither of the local papers decided to pick up on the ESPNHL garbage….

Not that anyone would care right now… The NHL is DOA with locals right now besides BOltsmag and the internet message boards…. A shame. The articles have been really indifferent and uninformed at best form the likes of Tom Jones and just not often enough Erik Erlendsson. No offense to either of these writers because you both are a lot better than this blogger.

The Trib has a Lockout Diary with occassional player updates from the players themselves but besides taht… Mum is the word

I bitched and I bitched and I bitched and I bitched about the porrous coverage form ESPN during the playoffs this past year. Not just porrous coverage but limp, uninformed coverage that boosted the bigger markets while they were clueless about how to handle the smaller ones….

Especially the smaller one that was a hell of a lot better than the teams they were playing against (The Isles and Habs were media darlings, and outplayed… And Keith Primeau got public oral gratification from ESPN’s commetnators).

Now ESPN has gone about their egocentric ways and further showed their ineptitude with ESPNHL. There version of the NHL with all of the evidence of their idiocy being worn on their sleeve along with their anti-Tampa bias.

Anti Tampa? Why do I say this? Yeah, they contracted a few teams including the Islanders and the Capitals to go along with the Bolts… I shouldn’t feel TOO bad right?

They kept a team in Miami though… A team in Miami where the arena is in the middle of the sawgrass, where the fans are far more fickle than there northwestern brethren, where the franchise was rumored to be in financial dire straights and talking to Winnipeg about relocating there.

Yeah, lets keep Miami and the fickle market of Atlanta. Lets give Las Vegas a team, contract Ottawa and bring back the Hartford Whalers!

You’re full of shit, ESPN.. No wonder I don’t visit your site, watch your programming or find you a credible source anymore.

Please give credit to Off Wing Opinion where the first blog reference to ESPNHL was made.

Maybe John Romano at the St. Petersburg Times read a piece I published last year regarding Alex Rodriguez deal to New York….

Whatever the case, Romano writes another great piece criticizing the New York Mets for the Carlos Beltran deal.

The reason why I bring up that piece I wrote is because of a point Romano makes:

You want to know why the hockey season is about to be canceled? This is it. This is the reason NHL owners are insisting on a salary cap.

Of allt he 100 million dollar babies the last few years, only one has a ring, only one has an MVP. Kevin Brown has not won more than 11 games in a season since inking his deal. The Rangers had so little leberage they paid the Yankees to take A-Rod off there hands, etc…

Now the Mets have hurt all of baseball by giving a marginal-player-with-strong-contract-year-performance a lump sum of dough he isn’t worthy of. Nice job, Metsies….

Something I really don’t care for is going on with a part of Boltsmag — not an official part of Boltsmag but something I had deemed an official part of Boltsmag. The forum that I was linking to is out of my control and the fact I link to that forum from both this Blog and from Baseball Boards.

I hate not having control of the forum so I have linked directly to a forum I DO control. It’s not on a hockey site but personally I am tired of the antics on HockeyBoards and would like to have things more Boltsmag orientated in the future. I might very well install a message board on Boltsmag but until I see enough people interested in having one, there will be no real need.

For a long while, the worst team in pro sports was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where heartless and ambitionless owner Hugh Culverhouse reeped the financial benefits of a team in the NFL and cared not for the team’s performance.

For a few years, it was the Tampa Bay Lightning. Don’t give me that crap about the Lightning not having fans — they were there but the product was nothing that would draw fans in any market in the North America (four 50 loss seasons in a row will do that to you). The mystery Japanese owners and “Uncle” Art Williams — football fan come hockey owner — were some of what made the Lightning so laughable.

But today, Tampa Bay hosts another of the most incompetant, misrun franchises in professional sports history and there has never been a day of delight for fans of the team (unlike the Bucs who had reached the playoffs several times before they imploded in the early 1980’s, or the Lightning who went into the playoffs and electrified the region in 1996 before they fell apart). There has been no reason for fans to do anything besides grow apathetic towards the franchise.

I’m talking about the Devil Rays.

Of course someone can point out the Los Angeles Clippers and their futility and I will not argue that. Someone can point to the Arizona Cardinals and I can’t argue with that (as the Cards are owned by Culverhouse-clone Bill Bidwell). Someone can point to the Chicago Blackhawks, and I can argue that the ‘Hawks are facing ill right now but they have a history and loyal fans stick with the team regardless of the ineptitude of the last few decades.

The Rays have had nothing since their inception and — this is hilarious — they have raised ticket prices this season while giving fans absolutely no justification for doing so. No off season moves, no big changes, no signs of progress and no signs of hope.

Please read John Romano’s take on this and basically understand how bad, how sad, how terribly ridiculous this team is run. If there is a franchise that is the poster child for contraction – it’s the Rays. Not because they perform so poorly or they can’t draw fans… but because ownership doesn’t understand what it takes to draw fans in the first place. This is the weak link of a corporation (MLB). Relocate them or close the store and reep the benefits from other locations. It’s a joke what this region has to accept this franchise as “Major League Baseball” and an utter monstrosity that we’re looked at as bad fans for not supporting a team that has given us no reason to care.

I made the post – first off-topic, substantial post – about the Buccaneer season a couple of days ago… Its from my passion for the Bucs that I voice my displeasure where the tema is heading.

What about the Devil Rays though? What is the Tampa Bay perception of that team in St. Petersburg? Do we care about baseball at all?

That last quesiton is almost a joke to think about – fans are shelling out 18 dollars in some cases for Spring Training tickets right now — practice games that won’t feature all the stars of any franchise. Of course these games are at inimate ballparks when the weather is good… There is passion for Baseball here in Tampa Bay but…

Well, lets get to those Deviled Eggs… The crock of a franchise in St. Petersburg which has been grossly mis-managed, mis-advertised and has just been one constant joke for the duration of its existence. Do people in Tampa Bay care about the Rays? Well, some do but even those who do have this sort of opinion on the Rays.

I don’t know who’s misery needs to be ended first – the fans or the Devil Ray franchis’s… In either case, baseball is not working in this region with a gracious thanks to Vincent J. Naimoli, Charles M. LaMar and Tropicana Field. It’s nto that the fans or the sports passion aren’t there, or the love of baseball — it’s how this team is built, how the team is run, and how the team invests that cause one to realize that things are grim for the Rays and that they would be better put out of our misery than with a continued existence.

“Hockey Rumors” — a blog run by the mysterious Eklund is reporting that an ultimatium form the NHL is coming on Monday…. One has to wonder how credible this source is with all the negative backlash towards him on his blog. We’ll see on Monday now won’t we?

Meanwhile Hockey Journalist extrodinaire and Hockey Blogger surpreme, James Mirtle has a story up about some fo the NHLPA having a change of heart with regards to the labor situation. I have to be skeptical, but I’m sitting in 80 degrees in Tampa. What do I know?

Came across one jim-dandy of a post on HockeyForums regarding NHLPA supporters (are you listening, Larry Brooks?) and common questions that they ask.

There are several arguments you hear over and over again and most are chronicled on said post. I would simply copy and paste them here but for the sake of not plagerizing the work of the original poster, I’ll skip that.