The Ditch

He signed with HC Ambri-Piotta (a bottom of the league team).  Should get plenty of pucks headed his way.

For his career's sake, I was just hoping he's not with Kaner and Seguin.   Of course Kaner's mom is there.    

you should never have told him about your kinik fathead.

I always bring all my fatheads with me in the hopes of autographs, I was hoping Gary wouldn't have seen it.     My lulz fathead fell in the ditch water otherwise I would ask for an autograph.   How about you kinik, autograph?

MOAR FATHEADS

Lulz wants chocolate chip cookies, ungummed rolling papers and a camo indoor decorator for x-mas.  I intercepted his Santa letter by accident.

indeed i do. funny u should mention it. i thought i had found an alternative to the papers i like. it's a lightweight hemp paper - it's gummed, but i was willing to overlook that. unfortunately, they taste terrible. back to the drawing board, aka having them sent over from the netherlands. the internet is a wonderful thing.

and i saw yet another camo shaver on ebay. my facial hair grows fast (take that, crosby), but not so fast i'd need to shave in the blind. but that point is academic anyway - sif a true outdoorsman shaves.

Hockey?  Who needs hockey?  We had a bench clearing brawl in the Canadian House of Commons today.

Hmmmm. I don't know, but there sure is alot of chatter about these current "meetings". 

This is most likely make it or break it. I'm hoping they can make it, but won't be fooled until it's official.

It's going to be hard to sleep tonight...

 

Hockey?  Who needs hockey?  We had a bench clearing brawl in the Canadian House of Commons today.

lol, the koreans have started something. we could use that in the US. inject a little life into the process :)

Sad but not forgotten fact, the Americans used to have great political debates...See Aaron Burr.

Good story from the House of commons.   

Steve Fehr passes out pizza tonight:
https://twitter.com/Real_ESPNLeBrun
/status/276541102373339136/photo/1

Doesn't look like real pizza or NY style pizza...can't help negotiations

I can't wait to read all the b.s. that will be speculated tomorrow, should be fun.   

Sad but not forgotten fact, the Americans used to have great political debates...See Aaron Burr.

We had Blago, he filled all our needs until he went to the can.    I think he does Elvis in prison. 

Gary having afterhours toga party in his suite.

They'll be meeting Thursday.   

9 hours today, more to follow.

21 days until the World Juniors.  Great hockey coming.

'Bettman wants a deal by Friday' - what a joke, where was this urgency months ago. maybe the little weasal is finally ready to bend a little. lot of talking going on and you know what they say where theres smoke theres fire and now that Uncle Dbag seems to finally have a fire under her arse maybe something will actually happen


Illitch I hope your alive to see this new stadium built and follow through on all these ideas of a new arena. from everything Ive heard itll be top notch. many many great memories at the Joe and I will miss it, but its time for a new arena

Illitch I hope your alive to see this new stadium built and follow through on all these ideas of a new arena. from everything Ive heard itll be top notch.

What he wants to do sounds very cool. Hope he gets it done without any set-backs. The tax issues passed the Michigan senate the other day, so thats one hurdle cleared. He sure does a lot for the city of Detroit. I would sure love to see a Red Wings game in person soon. Ive never been able to do that. Been to tons of Tigers games, just not a Wings game.


Hope after today we hear there is going to be a season, not that Bettman is slashing more games. I believe one or the other has to happen by weeks end.

hope they settle soon!

Tyler Hansbrough tries to read a year ago, I put his reading on in the background for inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JieHmC9DH8

He reads like I type.   They play a part of that clip all the time up here and it gets funnier every time I hear it.   

Speaking of Whoopsies, Uncle Gary may have made a major mistake a few years ago that might have caught up to the league.    A judge is allowing an antitrust suit to go through against the NHL and MLB.

Part of the suits involving hockey fans in a class action has to do with how the NHL makes some cable subscribers buy a whole package of games and are still subject to blackouts or issues with regional broadcast restrictions.    This takes place in a number of markets.      Looks like Selig and Gary may have gone "Goodell" trying to make a few extra bucks without seeing a pitfall.    We'll find out in a few years what comes out of this.    If the league has to pay, this is a terrible mistake by Bettman unless individual owners wouldn't budge on guidance.     I'm assuming Gary is at fault if the suit succeeds. 

 

3 minutes ago

[@TSNBobMcKenzie]: PA doesn't like 5 yr term limits on contracts or 10 yr term of CBA or fact that Make Whole bump to $300M is tied to accepting 10 yr CBA.

F U C K ing Players Association!!! W T F?!?!?!?

If this ishtstorm isn't settled by tomorrow, I officially put 100% blame on the NHLPA. Greedy foolish bastards!!!
 

The companies and franchises involved in the suit can be found here, but you have to dig through a little bit.    Most are the usual suspects.   
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ne
w-york/nysdce/1:2012cv01817/393220/

I have to read through this thing to get a better idea of the actual violations and how they relate to broadcasts.    Only MLB and NHL are mentioned so I have to compare the NBA and NFL structures too, should be an interesting way to pull my own teeth and avoid doing productive things. 

At one point the owners threatened to take the offer off the table, indicating they were frustrated with the lack of flexibility on the players side, who have been waiting for the owners to make the kind of move they did last night.

According to sources close to the negotiation it was Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller who lost his temper briefly, which seemed to encourage further dialogue, although at another point Boston Bruins hard line owner Jeremy Jacobs threatened to leave the negotiation. At that point a more moderate group of owners including the Pittsburgh Penguins' Ron Burkle and the Tampa Bay Lightning's Jeff Vinik agreed to keep the negotiation going.

People making a big deal about Don and Gary being there when there are just as big or bigger problems are the Miller, Toews, Jacobs, types.

Miller is a whiny, emotional bi### and I have no clue why the players let him go to the meeting.     I think in the interest of rational thought, goalies should be forbidden outright from negotiations. 

Big boy media types in Canada not sounding as encouraged as yesterday.   

General thought is that things are very fragile.    Open floor negotiation today.   More bodies means an exponential increase in the amount of stoopid in the room.    I think we might be in trouble unless players really want to just play at this point.  

I'm all for a long CBA. Sign a 50 year CBA I'll probably never have to go through another lockout. But if the owners want to limit UFA's signing with a new team to a max of 5 years because of the risk should the PA sign a 10 year CBA deal?