Posted on 06/14/2005 1:22:01 PM PDT by airborne
This is not going to be a hatchet job.
Many of the denunciations of Gary Bettman's tenure as National Hockey League commissioner rely on tired, clichéd and unreasonable assumptions from those who can't reconcile the sport's roots and traditions with modern reality. I often have been a Bettman defender over the years, and in many ways will continue to be.
Yet this also is inescapable: For the good of the NHL, the game and even of Bettman himself, the commissioner should step down once a new collective bargaining agreement is signed.
That would allow the relaunch and the healing to take place without his lightning-rod presence as a distraction. The same goes for NHL Players Association head Bob Goodenow, whose dogmatic and principled inflexibility on the salary cap issue was admirable yet ultimately unproductive given the likely terms of the upcoming settlement.
Bettman brought the NHL into the 21st century, literally and figuratively, which was quite a leap considering that on many fronts the league was operating in the 19th century when he took over.
Primarily because his lockout strategy "worked" – the league brought the NHLPA to its knees, forcing the union to accept the unacceptable – Bettman can leave with the reputation of having obtained what the hard-liners demanded and having "won" this battle.
He can retire on top, so to speak.
All along, he said the system needed to be fixed, and only a blinkered fool wouldn't admit that a hybrid salary cap/luxury tax system with a ceiling in the neighborhood of $36 million is a victory for Bettman and the owners. Of course, that raises the question of whether franchises whose payroll costs will be drastically cut will roll back ticket prices – and roll them back significantly, not just with slight and mostly cosmetic markdowns
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
You are on the list!
Apparently you know nothing about hockey. If you did you'd realize that playing goalie is probably the toughest position on the ice. Not only must they be able to skate and use a stick, they must have great reflexes and be quick. Not to mention the hand eye coordination. One cannot be a big sack of crap and expect to play the game. It's obvious you don't like the game, why waste your time on the thread knocking the game? Go find a ball to play with.
Leave the net alone. Leave overtime alone. Just leave!
Please don't feed the hucks! Ignore them!
I hope when the NHL resumes play, they'll get rid of all that fru-fru pansy skating and just keep the fights! They can flail away at each other with those sticks and establish a Japanese kendo atomoshere. Then, the survivors can drop their sticks and masks and go at it with fists only, they should have brass knuckles so they can do some damage. There are so many things they can do to make this a bearable game!! But, what's this about a strike? Haven't they been on TV these past 5 or 10 years?
Tacis - meet Huck.
Huck - meet Tacis.
Maybe you two can find something to do while the grown ups talk.
I'll remember that in the future, having played goalie on Dek for a few years as well as street, I took offense. Granted Dek and street aren't the same as ice, the principle is still the same.
I agree.
You want the game to "open" up again and get back the "time honored traditions," then take the helmets off, including the goaltender.
The game was played many more years without helmets than with helmets.
I remember the mandatory helmet opponents predicting that it would change the game in a negative way.
Damn if it didn't.
I predict fans will flock to the rinks to watch the game again.
Can you add me to the hockey ping?
Funny thing is we have not had an NHL franchise in Chicago for nearly 7 years, and will continue to do so until Bill Wirtz becomes Purina worm chow, and his sidekick Pully departs.
They wouldn't need the quickness or reflexes if they could obscure 85% of the goal mouth with impenetrable blubber. What's the matter with you hockey fans? No sense of humor? Must be all that time spent with Canadians.
Bettman also guided the NHL to the craziness by twice renewing a CBA he said was flawed. And cause the NHL to be the first major league to cancel an entire season due to labor dispute. Good reasons to retire, he's got nothing to gloat about.
I think I fell off the ping list, or maybe this is a new one. Any way, definitely want on.
TIA
Of course most of those years without a helmet were before the invention of the curved stick (according to legend accidentally invented by an irate Stan Mikita trying to break a stick but failing). Since the curved stick pucks move a lot faster and a lot higher and thus made the unprotected head a lot more risky.
I think your sense of humor musta done blowed away somewhere.
No offense meant to Bob and Doug Mackenzie, Red Green, or John Candy. (Was Phil Hartman Canadian?)
You know, that's not a bad idea. But I doubt if it will fly.
I put you right next to SpottedBeaver! ;^)
ping
I'm going to try to post something hockey related every day or so. Just to keep it fresh.
Please add mrs zip and zip to your ping list.
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