I’m not crying and whining the Lightning may lose a star player or two under the new system. Maybe you can pin this on the fact I’m in a market where an NFL team is and I’ve dealt with this before?

Maybe the knee jerk reaction to the “travesty”, “sacriledge” and “abomination” from those on the blogosphere just comes from the fact no one knows what the NHL as a whole will be like with caponomics in place? Nor do any of them want to take the time to actually follow the NHL with that system implemented, it’s much easier to follow the old rules after all… I mean, look at us nutty Americans — we’re still on the Imperial measurement system after all and resist going Metric at all costs.

Maybe it’s the fact I realize that you’re not supposed to keep all of your roster for life under the cap and realize the Lightning wouldn’t have kept their entire roster together for life even without the cap? Maybe it’s the idea that the Lightning can mix and match and still be a competative team while a solid young core is in place? Such is life under the cap, after all..

No, that’s not possible! The Lightning are done for! So Sayeth The Puck Stops Here…

That’s a travisshammockery! The Stanley Cup Champions are supposed to be a dynasty! So Sayeth Tom Benjamin. Of course, NHLPA Apologist Tom fails to make mention that the NHLPA’s stonewalling on a cap-free system and dragging their feet on the process is part of the reason the Lightning may lose anyone (thanks to 2004-05 contracts wiped out, Tom, Nikolai Khabibulin becomes a UFA… )…

“You fans can kiss my ass” — so sayeth Jeremy Roenick… But that’s a different story all together.

Maybe the New England Patriots winning the Super Bowl three out of four seasons shouldn’t be a factor? Or the idea that the LA Lakers kept a team together while mixing and matching pieces under the cap, and kept returning to the NBA final because it’s core remained in place?

None of those things should factor in. It’s Doomsday! The Lightning’s world is falling apart and I am not repenting! I’m not crying out the sky is falling and I’m supposed to! I’m insane for not seeing the logic of the ultra-traditionalists! The Horror, the horror!

It’s a forgotten issue of the game that came up time and again while players were on the ice. A volatile subject that routinely gets dismissed by the “macho” group that don’t mind the risks.

…or think of the fact they could be maimed for life.

Facemasks / face shields are an issue that had been debated by fans and officials alike over the past several years after we saw horrific accidents on ice involving pucks and high-sticks to the face on several NHL players. The risk of permanent injury was given a name when we saw Bryan Berard’s up-and-coming career come crashing down.

The NHLFA fan report in 1999 showed an overwhelming Machismo support of non-facemask play for NHL players, but after Berards injury, that tune changed as the 2000 fan report showed a much more narrow divide between face-shield proponents and opponents.

While the risk of facial injury is real, some players refuse to believe that facemasks or faceshields will prevent injuries. Witness this comment from Bill Gadsby taken from the Detroit News:

“I think it’s the helmets and facemasks,” said Gadsby, who was a hard-rock defenseman in his 20 NHL seasons. “The players look like they want to hurt each other. They don’t have respect for the other player.”

Though I have to admit, an out-of-context quote that was compiled for an article on slashing does look a little iffy, suggesting Gadsby might not approve of protective gear, I do still find it absurd that protective gear can be targeted as a cause for escalating physical play on ice.

With all the other changes to the game that are ongoing during CBA talks, should face protection be on of the stipulations by ownership? Or tossed aside as a concession to the players? Ownership has an obligation to protect it’s investments from injuries, and if facial gear can be grandfathered in - it shouldn’t be looked as a bad thing.

Unfortunately the facial-protection issue will likely be forgotten or unaddressed in the new CBA, much like the Designated Hitter position has remained an unaddressed issue in Collective Bargaining talks between baseball and it’s own Players Union for years, but that is a very different story.

The NHL season being locked out was a huge loss this past year…

Not having The Instigator to laugh at is almost as bad…

The sites will formally be revealed later today. The St. Petersburg Times Forum is one of the candidate sites. Stay tuned for news updates.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting Ford Field has won one of the 3 games.

USCHO.com reports that the NCAA will name the next FOUR sites, not three, and the St. Petersburg Times Forum is one of the site winners!

The Tampa Tribune is now reporting that the Tampa Bay region has been awarded the 2012 Frozen Four and a press conference is to be held at the St. Petersburg Times Forum at 3 PM.

One of the hockey blogosphere’s own has fallen.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

W.H. Auden, Funeral Blues

The thing that I remember most about Charlie was a comment on James Mirtle’s hockey blog whent he season was cancelled… It was just clearly and painfully evident all he wanted was to see Smashville lace their skates up again and take to the ice…. And what he got instead was the pissing match between Robert Goodenow and Gary Bettman.

How do you like that on your concious, Bob and Gary? You crapped on a dying man’s wish, on a dying man’s passion — all in the name of greed and the mighty buck. To hell with the both of you and those in the hockey world who won’t even comprehend a fans plight… Be they the players or the executives who won’t even recognize what’s happened.

Rest in peace, Charlie. We’ll see you again at the end of the path.

TSN has a piece regarding just what life will be like this summer if and when the CBA deal is ironed out and clubs and players can go on with their lives.

Because once free agency kicks off sometime this summer, it’s going be mass mayhem in the NHL.

Some teams hardly have any players under contract for next season. Others will cut their rosters by buying out big contracts. And some clubs will approach star players to re-structure their contracts in order to create cap room.

Agents, meanwhile, will need to quickly get a feel for the landscape and find a home for their clients before all the cap room is gone around the league.

The Lightning were sitting with a projected payroll somewhere in the 40 million dollar range (without Martin St. Louis signed) for the 2004-05 season. If the payroll was to be 46 million, two factors need to be penciled in with the rumored stipulations of the CBA deal:

1) 24 percent rollback on salaries.
2) 2004-05 contracts wiped out.

This means guys like Nolan Pratt, Dmitri Afanasenkov, Nikita Alexeev, Shane Willis, Martin Cibak and Brian Eklund are now FA’s from one degree to another (depending on stipulations of the new CBA). These are hardly all-star names and only Affy, Pratt and Cibak were contributing to the Lightning roster last year (and for argument sake, Eric Perrin was supposed to compete for Cibak’s job in 2004-05 training camp).

If the Lightning were supposed to have a payroll of just over 42 million for 2004-05 (without St. Louis re-signing), the 24% rollback gets them under the cap at 32.06 Million dollars. That’s not a bad position. axe Khabby’s contract and there is more room to manuever to re-sign St. Louis, Pratt, Andreychuk and others and possibly a netminder.

I’m thinking the picture I am painting leaves out a lot of possiblities - and it does. There is so much unknown on hwo the new CBA will work that it’s impossible to do better speculating.

I won’t even begin to comment on yesterday’s debacle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway…. I’ll let Eric at Off Wing do all the talking on the subject… Because from tires to comments about Danica Patrick, F1 had the biggest public relations blunder possible yesterday.

The Lightning’s Stanley Cup win now stands appears in effigy in Downtown Tampa….

The Bolts commissioned a mural, and that mural was put up over the last few days on teh Colonial Bank building in Downtown. The image i sentitled “Fire on Ice.”

I’m in need of updating my install of Wordpress on Boltsmag and I plan to do it at some point in the near future. This might result in a few cosmetic changes on the site.

In a change that also is only cosmetic - I changed the favicon that displays on some browsers URL bar (and yoru favorites menu). If you’ve noticed the little bolt before, it now is set against a blue background and much less sloppy looking.

I’ve also just pondered changing the site name. When I originally launched the site, I chose a dormant domain that had previously hosted Lightning news and banter by deciding to use “Boltsmag.” I’d appreciate input if I should change the site name or not.

The St. Louis Blues are up for sale…

And before anyone starts making snide remarks — just rmemeber this could be your team’s ownership that is giving up dispite the impending CBA changes.