Pull Up Your Skirt and Start Acting Like a Man!
If I met NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA president Bob Goodenow, this is what I would say to them. The lockout is now 133 days old and honestly the whole thing is getting...well...old. A group is meeting this week, sans Bettman and Goodenow thankfully, to try to salvage the season and I hope they do. It is so sad to see people take something as enjoyable as hockey and find a way to turn it into such a nightmare.
At the beginning I wasn't happy with either side. I had no sympathy for the owners because they're the ones who caused the whole inflation of salaries to begin with--come on...I mean Bobby Holik is NOT worth $9 million a year--but at the same time I couldn't understand why the players refused to even discuss a salary cap. Is your $2.5 million a year average salary not enough? Get real.
Last month though the players met with the owners and said listen...we'll give you a 24% rollback on our salaries but we still won't go with a salary cap. Think about it. What would your salary be if you cut it by 24%? That's a hell of a lot of money. The players are saying "hey, we know we're overpaid, but we're willing to take a HUGE paycut to keep the game going." That impressed the hell out of me. Do you think that the MLB players would even think about doing something like this even for a second? I think not. This is proof that the players may actually care more about the game than being multi-millionaires.
Of course, the owners said no. No salary cap, no negotiations. Now I'm a bit miffed. The players were offering to negotiate but the owners were not. I blame Bettman for this. I'm really starting to believe he is the NHL's equivalent of the anti-Christ. This is the man who first instilled a salary cap in the NBA and now he's keen on doing it to the NHL. Yes, some owners would actually lose LESS money this year if the season was cancelled since they don't have to pay the players, but is this whole charade worth losing an entire season and worse the respect of the sport? Hockey was finally starting to be taken seriously as a contender to the top three American sports (NBA, NHL, and MLB) and now the owners are just throwing it away.
Yesterday, there was no news from the meeting which could be a good or bad thing. They did say they were meeting again later this week, which to me is a very good thing. This is progress...unlike what we saw last month. I just hope and pray that the owners will finally throw humility to the wind and accept the fact that they won't get a salary cap and bring my hockey back.
At the beginning I wasn't happy with either side. I had no sympathy for the owners because they're the ones who caused the whole inflation of salaries to begin with--come on...I mean Bobby Holik is NOT worth $9 million a year--but at the same time I couldn't understand why the players refused to even discuss a salary cap. Is your $2.5 million a year average salary not enough? Get real.
Last month though the players met with the owners and said listen...we'll give you a 24% rollback on our salaries but we still won't go with a salary cap. Think about it. What would your salary be if you cut it by 24%? That's a hell of a lot of money. The players are saying "hey, we know we're overpaid, but we're willing to take a HUGE paycut to keep the game going." That impressed the hell out of me. Do you think that the MLB players would even think about doing something like this even for a second? I think not. This is proof that the players may actually care more about the game than being multi-millionaires.
Of course, the owners said no. No salary cap, no negotiations. Now I'm a bit miffed. The players were offering to negotiate but the owners were not. I blame Bettman for this. I'm really starting to believe he is the NHL's equivalent of the anti-Christ. This is the man who first instilled a salary cap in the NBA and now he's keen on doing it to the NHL. Yes, some owners would actually lose LESS money this year if the season was cancelled since they don't have to pay the players, but is this whole charade worth losing an entire season and worse the respect of the sport? Hockey was finally starting to be taken seriously as a contender to the top three American sports (NBA, NHL, and MLB) and now the owners are just throwing it away.
Yesterday, there was no news from the meeting which could be a good or bad thing. They did say they were meeting again later this week, which to me is a very good thing. This is progress...unlike what we saw last month. I just hope and pray that the owners will finally throw humility to the wind and accept the fact that they won't get a salary cap and bring my hockey back.
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