[Alberta's Child]

This is a rough timeline of events leading up to the current labor dispute in the National Hockey League and the cancellation of the 2004-05 season. While there may not be a lot of hockey fans among us here on FreeRepublic, I'm posting this because I think it gives a good summary of what's transpired in the NHL over the last 35 years for those who may be curious. You may see some recurring themes here in other professional sports.

As you can see, the NHL has never really been a very stable professional sports league -- and has quite a colorful history as well. And yet hockey is an incredible sport to watch and play . . . it has a serious "cult following" among its fans that runs deeper than any other sport in North America. Very few people who take the time to see a game in person will come away unimpressed, and it's my hope that the game will emerge from the current NHL mess in better shape than it's been in recent years.

I look forward to any comments!

[Alberta's Child]

Can you send this to your hockey ping list? Thanks!

[Dan from Michigan]

Bump to read later.

[kevkrom]

I figured it was going to be a blank page... ;)

[reagandemo]

"Recent Events in NHL History" Nothing, Nada, Zippo. The Union thugs have assured that there is no recent history in the NHL.

[AmishDude]

Alan Eagleson, the head of the NHL Players' Association from 1967-1991, is indicted for fraud and embezzlement in 1994 for his dealings with the NHLPA and is later convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prision.

[ken5050]

Nice job..Much of what happened in this negotiation can be uderstood, IMHO, if one accepts the premise that the league wanted the season to be cancelled, and wants to break the union..by declaring an impasse, imposing a new contract, and opening next season with replacement players and those union members who chose to cross the picket lines..

1. Everything you said about the mistakes the league made is correct..However, once the expansion plan was begun, it had to be completed, otherwise the legal problems would have been monumetal. That's why the NHL twice extended a bad, money losing, CBA..they had no choice..

2. The current math is obvious..the owners lose LESS by NOT playing, than if they played...so it's a no-brainer..

3. And despite what Bettman says, the ONLY way the league can regain popularity AND a solid financial footing is through a restructuring..a contraction of maybe 4-7 teams...If they tried to do this while operating under a CBA, it would require huge negotiations with the union, because you'd be eliminating 100-200 players' jobs, and also the terms of any disperal draft..it would be a nightmare..The best, nay the only way to do this is AFTER an impasse had been declared, and new rules imposed by the league..

Bettman is out to break the union..Remember the counter-offer to the players' 25% roll-back? The league proposed a deal that would exempt ANY player making less than $800k..

4.So now, when the league next comes back with say a $32 million cap..they'll again exempt two-thirds of the players from any cut..and put the onus entirely on the high-paid players to give back their excessive salaries..Classic divide and conquer..

The union is dominated by the agents, and they are only concerned about the high paid superstars..Unlike the UAW, where everyone is paid about the same..in sports you have a HUGE disparity between league journeymen, and the superstars..the league is exploiting this disparity..The majority of players earning less than a million, having lost one year's pay, will NOT do so again..

5. The first rule of war, and politics..is KNOW they enemy. Bettman came from the NBA..he was Stern's right-hand -man for many years..and look what Stern did to the players. He broke the union with the lockout...imposed the salary cap...The NHLPA never read Lord Acton..

[Loyalist]

Excellent timeline!

There are some strange stories still to be told about the erratic fortunes of some teams--the St. Louis Blues' aborted move to Saskatoon, Harold Ballard's trashing of the Maple Leafs, the ownership woes of the Senators, Penguins and Islanders--but this is a great synopsis nonetheless!

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Nice list.

One of the greatest sports pictures of all time:

[Psalm 73]

.....the "Original Six" teams...

Which are:
Bruins
Blackhawks
Canadiens
Redwings
MapleLeafs
?????

I started losing interest in the late 80's - too many teams in cities that did not warrant pro-hockey - (Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles - come on !!!)

[wallcrawlr]

Nice post.

[Argh]

Thanks, AC! Ping to Miss Garden (Dan's already been here).

[Betis70]

[brightstar]

An excellent post.

I'm glad you cleared up the meaning of "Original Six". In fact, in the NHL's initial season (1917-1918), only 3 teams competed: Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Arenas (later the Maple Leafs). A fourth team, the Montreal Wanderers, withdrew after their arena burned down.

[NJ Freeper]

Brilliant post!

[NJ Freeper]

Brilliant post!

[sgtbono2002]

Didnt the NHL go out of business this year because of player greed?

[discostu]

big one you missed was the NHL's return to broadcast TV, which pretty much failed across the board and showed chaing the TV ratings probably wasn't such a good idea, and has left the NHL as the only major sport with a broadcast contract that involves no money down, only revenue sharing between NBC and the NHL.

And the punk-ass-goal-crease rule probably belongs in there somewher, just not sure what it's header would be, stupid tinkering with the rules I guess.

[TXBSAFH]

My wife and myself both love hockey. We try to get to at least 3 or 4 AHL Houston Aeros games a year. Several members of my wifes family have played professionally in Europe and in minor league teams. One is now a college coach int he Northeast. With that said I am deeply saddened by what has happened to the NHL. They need to cut teams (say about 24 to start) and reconnect to fans in the worst way. I just hope they can pull it through.

[JeffersonRepublic.com]

The sport is dead: arena’s too expensive, players salary’s, nobody watching, players acting like jerks, hitting each other with sticks, 2000 Olympics (destroyed hotel rooms and no metals), etc, etc, etc…

The list can go on and on, but I don’t think hockey will be back on any level close to other major league sports – well maybe trampoline basketball.

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

and one of his first orders of business as commissioner is to discard the traditional conference and division names and replace them with bland geographic names similar to every other major sport.

I didn't realize that this was one of Bettman's first moves.

But I knew that when the Blues went from the Norris Division to the who knows what division, hockey was moving in the wrong direction!