Is it just me or does anyone else greatly miss The Instigator?

I posted a thread a few days ago with an article on a deeply conservative web site that bashed Hockey and it’s liberal traits….

Calgary Puck was probably the first site to pick up on the story (and it was passed on to me by Boltsmag contributor Keith) and they’re currently waging war with the articles writer… Who is replying in a very non-journalistic way to their comments.

I post this not to incite a US vs. Canada war or Liberal vs. Conservative war or anything like that. It’s just a roll-my-eyes article and the writer is further humiliating himself by trying to fight against those who have a problem with his opinion and who have a problem with extremism.

David at The Ice Block reports that several NHL team message forums have been hacked!

Several of the forums are currently down….

No hockey news in the local media this morning besides a WHA fluff piece in the Trib.

That being said, I can’t turn a blind eye towards congressional hearings and the world of Major League Baseball and what the media has been throwing out this morning.

MSNBC reports on John McCain’s bitch slapping of baseball. ‘They can’t be trusted.”

There’s a great piece by Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times entitled “Antitrust: That sums up how I feel about MLB” which also lays a very clear, literary smackdown towards last Thursday’s congressional hearings.

Meanwhile, I continue to lose respect for Pro-MLB-Till-I-Die Curt Schilling as he continues to attack Jose Canseco and avoid the problem that faces baseball. I make reference to the above Rick Telander column when I tell Curt Schilling that Baseball is not an island, Curt. Cut the pompous bullshit and admit there is a problem and there are guys - Canseco and others that you are too high-and-mighty to name - that are benefiting from steroid use and abuse.

And of course you can view thousands of more stories and varying opinions related to this on Google News.

Hmmmm…

A month ago, the players could have had 55% of ~$1.5 billion, or a $42.5 million cap.

Now, they can have 54% of $? or a $37.5 million cap.

Makes sense. The longer this goes, the smaller revenues get, the less the players deserve, and should expect.

Goodenow’s comments at the end suggest he still doesnt have a plan B, and is still waiting for the NHL to come up and say “ok, ok. we give up. We agree that you should be treated as a charity, and we should be willing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars paying you!”

That plan has already cost the players $1.2 billion. I wonder how much more they have to lose before they cut their losses?

(Posted 9-22-05 by John F, this post was written by Mike Chen on March 17th, 2005 and appeared on his site. Due to software crash, it’s been reposted here in it’s entirety)

If you’ve been hunting for rumors during this whole CBA mess, you undoubtedly know of the mysterious Eklund. For those who don’t know him, he’s someone who claims to be an ‘insider’ who worked in the business, made a bunch of money writing, and is leaking info from both sides under his pseudonym on his blog.

His accuracy level is spotty, though he has had some amazing leads. And he’s aware of the controversy surrounding his identity - heck, he even sells t-shirts about them (with proceeds going to youth hockey).

My theory? I think Eklund is a self-made genius. I’ll tell you one thing, that bit about him being a former Hockey News writer is complete BS - no self-respecting professional writer would ever make the consistent grammar errors he makes. Yes, blogging is a fluid art form, but there are certain standards you naturally adhere to…and he never does. Is he really an insider? Well… I believe Mr. Eklund (taking his name after the former Flyer) originally started his blog just to spread conjecture as rumor. By having a ’secret identity’, he was able to play off that he was actually an insider. I believe he gets his scoops from listening to Canadian sports radio and reading a whole heck of a lot, at least in the beginning. I think, sometime around December, people on both the league and PA side started realizing that a ton of people actually read this guy’s blog. So they began strategic leaks to him - some honest, some not. He made contacts, kept in touch with some people, and ta-da! One day, Mr. Joe Blow’s fun blog suddenly becomes
pseudo-legit - and very, very popular.

Eklund smartly put ads on his site - with the sheer volume of traffic he claims to receive, he probably can’t quit his day job, but I bet he can go on a very nice vacation every few months.

It’s not a bad strategy, it gets people talking, and hey, some of his scoops have been right. And right now, he’s probably living a self-fulfilled prophecy, sitting at home thinking, “I can’t believe Bill Daly and Keith Primeau actually bothered to email me! How did it get to this?”

Heck, maybe I should have started doing that when the lockout started. So, when does the NBA lockout start?

Hockey is dying because of it’s European Values. Europe is evil, don’t you know?

Thanks to Keith for giving me word of this story…

Wow, you learn something new every day….

For instance, I learned (because either I totally forgot to post this story or I totally missed it) that Andy Rogers, the Lightning’s top pick last season, was traded by the Calgary Hitmen back in January.

I also learned, while searching for news about the trade, that there is a Tampa Bay Lightning fan site being run by some diehard Russian fans (in both English and Russian). I came across it while looking for news on the Rogers story.

Tampabaylightning.ru is now in the Links section of the site…

Are you a young hockey player (younger than 20 years old) with some skill in the Tampa Bay area and looking for a chance to show your stuff? Would you like to compete on a junior hockey team that calls Tampa Bay home?

Well, wouldn’t you know it? The Oldsmar Sandsharks of the SEJHL are taking applications for tryouts for next season). All you have to do is print out their form, complete it and ave it faxed to them (the number is at the bottom of the form).

Former team enforcer Rudy Poeschek had an interesting day yesterday…. Driving around, hitting things, fleeing Hillsborough County Sherrif’s officers… and now sitting in a jail cell.