All aboard on the sinking ship….

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers successful got Brian Griese back under a long term contract - even though they have Chris Simms waiting in the wings. And much like last year during the off season, Jon Gruden is looking for an arms race in Tampa.

Gruden has asked his sychophant in the front office, General Manager Bruce Allen, to chase after any and all free agent Quarterbacks. The Buccaneers Salary Cap situation is attrocious, and yet they are chasing Jef Garcia and possibly Jay Fiedler? Aliki Smith has been signed? And at what cost ultimately? Derrick Brooks? Simeon Rice? Greg Spiers? Mike Alstott? Alstott has stated he will restructure in order to remain a Buccaneer but I have seen his release forthcomign since last offseason…. just because Gruden loves Dynamics - not slam-mouth football.

So the Bucs have locked up a QB and have yet to release Brad Johnson, they are over the salary cap and have yet to make moves to get themselves under…. The team has a standard draft of picks this year - instead of having traded them all off…. Yet with Gruden’s desire for geritol talent, the draft means nothing to this team.

Davy Jones, prepare to have company once again… The Bucs are on the fast track to get back to the mockery they once were.

Super Dave confirmed at the Outback Pro-Am yesterday that he will indeed be back for another season if and when the NHL returns to playing.

HIs guestimate was September 2005….

We’ll hold you to that, David. And glad to know you are still in the fold.

I missed this one —

Martin St. Louis has left his Swiss team because his wife has a complicaiton with her pregnancy.

Jon Gruden helped start demolition of the Tampa Bay Center Mall yesterday in Tampa. The Mall, adjacent to Raymond James Stadium, will be the site fo a new Tampa Bay Buccaneers training facility.

Wrecking and Jon Gruden are one and the same in minds of many Tampa Bay fans. The Ring is nice but the destruction of the franchise that Gruden was given control over is just too painful for some to watch.

It seems that while many sites — including Boltsmag - are going into hibernation, there are others that are popping up out there, filling the void.

For example, the NHL Gong Show and the Puck Stops Here.

While this site lacks content, check out these new fellows and what they have to contribute.

Holy

Shit?

The graphic on top of Boltsmag has gone dead without me saying anything… And why? Because backdoor dealing seem to have all but resurrected the NHL this season. Stay tuned….

Much has been made of the $6.5 million bridge that could not be gapped yesterday, leading to the cancellation of the NHL season. People on all sides are angry that such a small difference could not be made up.

Was it really a small difference, however?

Bob Goodenow’s angry reply to Gary Bettman’s ultimatum on Monday suggested that the commissioner’s comments about the difference actually totaling $200 million ($6.5 million x 30 teams) was out of line. Bob stated that only nine teams even spent up to $42.5 million, so it was ridiculous to argue that all teams would spend up to that limit.

Bob is correct when he suggests only a handful of teams would be able to spend up to that cap. However, Bob ignores the trickle down effect that this would cause. The NHL would be facing the exact same situation that killed the league in the last CBA, albeit on a smaller scale.

Toronto (as an example) will be spending up to the cap, no matter what the cap. They will be spending it on just 23 players. The end result is that those 23 players would be worth $6.5 million more in the NHLPA’s proposal than it would the NHL’s. Actually, they would be worth as much as $11.9 million more if you count the provision allowing teams to surpass the cap by 10%.

While the Hurricanes (as an example) will never spend up to the cap, they will be adversely affected by any extra spending the top teams are allowed. For as player x on the Maple Leafs gets paid more in a higher cap, the union will argue that player y on the Hurricanes with similar stats should make more as well. The continued presence of arbitration will work to cement this belief, and the Hurricanes are stuck with a contract that would make sense in Toronto, but not Carolina.

Bob Goodenow knows this, and this is why he has spent the entire lockout trying to play to the rich team’s abilities. The rollback benefits the rich teams more than any other group. The luxury tax benefits the rich teams more than any other group. The higher cap benefits the rich teams more than any other group. The provision to go 10% above the cap benefits the rich teams only.

Bob Goodenow does this because he knows that the rich teams will set the market for all teams. So while only the likes of the Maple Leafs will spend that extra $6.5 million up to the salary cap, it will force the likes of the Hurricanes to spend up from $30 to $36.5 million.

Bettman was dead on when he called the cap a magnet. It is magnet that pulls everybody higher.

Bettman was also correct when he characterized the difference between the two offers as being $195 million.

Except that it is worse than you think. Over the course of a six year deal, that difference works out to nearly $1.2 billion.

And that is without touching all of the loopholes the union wrote into it’s cap offer designed to inflate the salary cap itself as fast as possible - including, ironically, linking the cap’s upward movement to league revenues - while offering no possibility of lowering the cap for any reason.

While one might think they were close to a deal, the reality is that well over $1 billion stood between us and a hockey season.

Thanks to my friend Matthew –

Not that I know many readers who happen upon Boltsmag - besides a few bloggers out there — but I haven’t been up with the bad news lately, which should seem glaringly evident in my last post…. It would have been better written 3 months ago than it was being done earlier this week.

But now things are over and… well, not much. No need to apologize about not being redundant sharing a view on the cancelation of the season right? I do apologize for spending much mroe time offline instead of writing (which has been a passion of mine). I’ll find equillibrium soon and get back to things.

You know, there’s been rambling from some in the blog community about who is to blame for the lockout. HockeyBird is firmly pro-player and Tom Benjamin has been steadfastly anti-Bettman/ownership… I know there has been a strong Anti-union sentiment out there but I’m going to skip naming names and just get to my point.

You realize it’s not the Players Association that is the villian of this thing?

It’s the actual players.

As much as there is dirt on Gary Bettman’s tenure as Commish, as much as you might want to slide blame to Owners carelessness and as much as you (and I) revile Robert Goodenow, it’s not the Union or the Owners that are really to blame… Much like in politics, the sheep just follow the shepard and trust in the shepard to get the flock to the best pasture possible.

Thing is, these guys aren’t sheep. Or they shouldn’t be.

I’ve posted a few times when I get upset that players seem to be making comments out there ass about the lockout or about Ownerships tactics. Sometimes, it’s Tim Taylor with the Bolts and seeing he is a player rep, I don’t expect much from him but propoganda and the party line. It’s when the actual players are buying this and what they are told instead of actually looking at the news (see also: Richards, Brad), actually seeing the proposals out there and judging for themselves… That’s when I have a problem.

What makes it worse is how many players have run to Europe to play and hide from things and avoid the problem all together instead of getting involved in negotiations and what not. The NHLPA encourages the exodus so they (actual players) don’t screw up the works and say something that could damage the PA’s public facade of unity. It’d be painful if Vincent Lecavalier, Jarome Ignilia or Jaromir Jagr came out and said “That last deal was a good one and Bob Goodenow/the PA doesn’t speak for me.”

US politics and the last election are what this reminds me of - some people chose to remain ignorant and blindly back there party - vote Republican because lower taxes and they are moral! Vote Democrat because they care more about the commoner and the environment! That’s not exploring the issues, that’s not exploring the candidates, that’s buying the party line and that’s detrimental to the election process and the country as a whole.

And in this case it’s detrimental to the NHL, the little people who work in the arenas, the cities, and the fans…

I doubt any NHL player reads this blog (but I have an inking someone may), but if you’d like to correct me — please email me… This would remain completely off the record (as long as it remains civil discussion and / or unless you would like to be recorded on the record). I’d love to hear more from the players side isntead of what I am being fed from the propoganda perspective.

Who I fault for thing slagging are the players. Not hte PA, not ownership — it’s the players and the fact they will not get involved…