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.