The NHL vs. MSG

Gary Bettman is a classic case of someone with Napoleon Syndrome. You know, a short little runt that has an insatiable taste for power to make up for his physical shortcomings.

Case in point is his personal vendetta (And it IS personal, believe you me) versus MSG for control over their ... website.

Yes, MSG dared not to become part of the NHL.com collective, and actually likes to do its own thing. While I think it is better for the Rangers to be part of the whole NHL.com thing, I respect the fact that they want to have their own voice.

The NHL, not liking anyone to step out of line, is threatening some serious legal action.

From the National Post:

The National Hockey League is threatening to strip Madison Square Garden of its ownership of the New York Rangers, WNBC reported Thursday.

According to the report, the NHL is seeking to punish MSG for accusing the league of violating anti-trust laws. On Wednesday, the NHL filed court papers that included a letter from commissioner Gary Bettman notifying MSG that it has begun disciplinary proceedings against the organization.

The league and the Rangers have feuded over control of the team's web site. In September, Madison Square Garden sued the NHL, saying it violated antitrust laws by monopolizing control of team promotions. However, a judge ruled in November that the league was within its right to take control of the web site.

In Wednesday's court filing, the league asked a judge to agree that MSG breached its contract by challenging NHL rules. The NHL further claimed that it can force MSG out of the league.

I am amazed that the judge sided with the league. Shouldn't the team be able to control its own frickin website? Geezus.

The Dolans are rich and powerful, and I am amazed Bettman is throwing such a hissy fit over a website. Do you really think he's going to kick MSG out of the league? I just can't see it happening.

Just call this what it is, rich men with small penises who can't stand to lose control. This is just a small example of why the human race is going to eventually wipe itself out ... people just cannot share.

Do Bloggers Dream of Richard Zednik?

by Jes

At last, I've uncovered the super secret formula that the NHL uses for handing out suspensions.

(Previous Suspension + Media Outcry - Player's "Star"* Power + Number of Bowel Movements Colin Campbell Has Had in Previous 48 Hours) X Random Number Picked Out of a Hat by a Monkey.

* As determined by Supreme Overlord, His Excellency, Commissioner Gary Bettman.

How else can we explain the fact that the NHL gave Chris Pronger a head-scratching EIGHT game suspension for his stomping of Ryan Kesler when Chris Simon got THIRTY games for the exact same thing.

Is Chris Pronger a repeat offender? Yes.
Has Chris Pronger proven himself to be a danger and threat to other players? Yes.

So, then, why the double standard? Was it because the media didn't cry for blood nearly as much? Is it because Pronger is a player that the NHL desparately wants to be in the NHL? Is it because Gary Bettman fears Brian Burke?

The sad thing is that there would have been NO suspension if the folks at TSN didn't call out the NHL out. We'll give a round of applause to the MSM for this one, as they utilized their assets and investigative wherewithall to show the public just what the NHL 'missed'.

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I rarely have dreams that I can remember, but I certainly had a strange one last night.

It involved Richard Zednik and I as roommates in some apartment. (Somehow, his wife wasn't anywhere to be found). I was taking care of Zednik after another awful injury, and trying to comfort him from his depression.

Zednik had also recovered from cancer, and was wondering when all the pain would end. He had a hard time getting to sleep because of the pain, so I gave him some 'illegal?' drugs to calm him down. For some reason, I didn't want to give him the pills, but he convinced me. Who can resist a sad Zednik face?

Then, after he went to sleep, I went into the living room and starting playing video games from a MASSIVE collection.

Yeah, WTF, eh?

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It has been years since I've done an Easter egg hunt, but I'm going to try my hand at one set up by Joe Pelletier over his his Legends of Hockey blog.

Today GreatestHockeyLegends.com has a photo of the largest easter egg in the world? Why? Because I'm announcing the first annual
GreatestHockeyLegends.com Easter Egg Hunt!

Amongst the approximate 700 legends profiled across my Legends of
Hockey Network I have planted pictures of easter eggs on 5 biographies.

If you can find all five, you will be entered into a draw to win a
$100 gift certificate to Amazon.

Perhaps I'll start by going to Steve Smith's profile (if he has one), since he certainly knew how to lay an egg ;)

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How would you like it if 12,000 people showed up at your birthday?

Well, the Giants/Bruins game last night had Gordie Howe celebrate his 80th birthday with the team he has a minority stake in. Yes, the guy is uber-popular and still draws a crowd.

OK, so his real birthday is not until March 31st, but it was a good excuse for a nice ceremony. With the Canucks sucking as much as they have, the Giants are giving us Vancouver hockey fans something better to watch :)

As for Howe, I saw him at the game on Friday (vs. the Cougars) and he's still looking good. About 1-2 years ago, he seemed to have aged ten years at once and looked rather fragile and weak. On Friday, he seemed to look good and still looked like he could bodycheck a few players through the boards.

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Today's Photo of the Day involves Ryan Getzlaf combining his other hobby, Tae Kwon Doe, with hockey into ... ummm ... 'Doekey'?

HIYAAAHHH!!!

Bettman Radio?

By Jes

This ... is ... funny

Want to quiz commissioner Gary Bettman about the state of the NHL?

XM Satellite Radio will give listeners the chance to do just that, announcing plans Monday for a new show called NHL Hour hosted by Bettman and a rotation of league executives.

The weekly program, debuting Nov. 27 and also broadcasting on NHL.com, will be co-hosted by Bill Clement and encourages fans to submit questions via phone and e-mail.

"I look forward to hearing from our fans directly and being a part of this one-of-a-kind radio show," Bettman said in a statement.

Will Bettman have all questions pre-screened to ensure that Bettman can spin his web of half-truths into answers most common fans can't fully comprehend?

Will Bettman get burned by constant questioning of his tenure and the holes in his arguments?

I don't get XM, nor would I be prone to listening to Bettman for more than 5 minutes, but I invite anyone who does listen to XM Radio to have a gander at the show and let us know how Bettman performed.

In any event, the fact that the commish is putting himself out there, screened or not, is commendable.

Jim Balsillie Tries Again

by Jes

Earlier this month, I had vented about how shallow the NHL was in trying to make us think that the Nashville Predators weren't in any danger of moving.

Yeah, it is pretty damn obvious that Bettman is playing games and the team won't be in Nashville for the long term.

So, Uncle Rico, one of like 7 people that actually reads this site, informs me that Jim Balsillie is making another attempt to buy the Predators.

But, but, but, BUT ... Balsillie is claiming that he wants to keep the Preds IN Nashville (for a whopping 2 years), and is willing not to ask the city of Nashville to bend over ass-backwards to make even more concessions.

The Blackberry Juggernaut is once again making a play to get the Predators, but this time he is maintaining that the will not be playing north of the border. He now says that the Nashville market has proven there commitment to the team and that he only cares about owning a NHL franchise and he is adamant that he will not move the moderately productive team.

Uh-huh. Well, the Globe and Mail has some more details about this 'friendlier' bid.

Without trying to repeat myself, this is what we do know.

1. The NHL owners are an old boys club and don't react kindly to mavericks. The owners have, obviously, determined that Balsillie doesn't fit their mould, and don't like the fact that he tried to quickly buy and ship the team away without their demonic consultation.

It's like asking to marry the rich girl without asking her stodgy father's permission. Don’t expect to be in the will, Archie.

2. Balsillie is lying out of his balsillies. Does anyone believe that he is committed to Nashville? For Pavol's sake, the guy tried to sell tickets in a market without a team for a team he didn't own! This DQ soft serve bullshit isn't going to fool anyone. He's as committed to Nashville as Kid Rock is to the blonde groupie he boned last night.

3. Bettman has already committed to "Boots", and will ensure that his booty call gets a team before anyone else does. If Balsillie wants a team, he'll have to wait in line, at the very least.

4. Bettman, the Maple Leafs, and many other team owners do NOT want another team in Canada. If Balsillie wanted to move the team to a friendly Amerikan market, I'm sure it would have happened.

Suffice it to say, Hamilton will have an NHL team when George W. Bush admits the 'War on Terror' is simply a quest to protect his rich friends' equity investments.

So, How Long Until the Predators Move?

by Jes

I got an email in my inbox today from our favourite southerner, Wayne, about the 'sale' of the Nashville Predators. It's a topic I've kinda ignored recently as I'm eagerly awaiting the start of the season.

So, it comes as no surprise that the deal to sell the club is on thin ice.

From the Toronto Star:

The deal to keep the Predators in Nashville appears to be nearly dead, with the local ownership and the city's council at loggerheads over monetary issues and potential changes to the team's arena lease.

The leader of a local group trying to buy the Predators told Nashville's The Tennessean he doubts the deal to work out after the city rejected the group's requests for new tax money and several improvements to the Sommet Center.

"No, I'm not hopeful," David Freeman, CEO of 36 Venture Capital, told the newspaper. "We put a ton of work into it, and we did our best."

Where that leaves the Predators is uncertain. BlackBerry billionaire Jim Balsillie of Waterloo, Ont., had a $238 million (all figures U.S.) offer on the table to buy the team from Craig Leipold, but he wanted to move it to Hamilton.

Of course, James "Canucks Hater" Mirtle has been all over this like a wet blanket, and notes that the Preds already have the sweetest arena deal in the league.

As I see it, this is all part of Gary Bettman's master plan.

Bettman didn't want an owner that he can't control, nor did he want a team to move to Canada, especially Hamilton.

Thus, Bettman did everything he could, including nudging Leopold, not to sell to Jim Balsillie, a 'renegade' in Bettman's eyes.

Out of the blue, the Predators suddenly had a white knight (Knocking Boots Del Biaggio and his crew) that wanted to keep the Preds in Nashville. Why would anyone want to keep a club in a town with weak corporate support and attendance? It was speculated that Bettman promised Boots the next open team, and Boots wanted to move the club.

Of course, Boots and crew put up the illusion that they wanted to keep the team in Nashville. Bettman couldn't surely have the team suddenly move after pulling out the rug from Balsillie's legs, could he?

So, the 'new' owners demand everything but the moon from the local government, continue gutting the roster, and jacking up ticket prices. Basically, the team is doing everything it can to make itself look like it is failing in Nashville. Who in the hell would want to attend a Preds game with a watered-down roster and high ticket prices?

Then, the initial deal will fall through, and Bettman/Boots will find a way to move the team out of Nashville, claiming that the NHL tried, but could not make hockey work in Country Music City.

Tom Benjamin sums it up pretty well in an older post of his:

I think we will see announced attendance in Nashville will be comfortably above the number necessary to sustain the lease while the fans are kept in the dark about the paid attendance. We will also see one snag after another in the sale of the Predators to the local group. Eventually the problems will all be resolved except Boots Del Biaggio will be the majority rather than a minority shareholder. Finally, late in the season, we'll learn the targetted paid attendance was not met.

In the meantime, Predator fans - and there are real fans in the area - have to pay a lot more to see a team that will be a lot less competitive. Many of them will pony up because they believe that if they do, they can save their team. They want to believe that, so they will. Some will say that its their own fault for choosing to buy into a fairy tale, but I don't think that's fair given the way Leipold and the league has scripted the relocation.

Blah Blah, Buttman, Blah!

by Jes

The Canadian Press recently had an interview with Der Kommissar, Count Gary Bettman.

Let's read in between the lines, shall we?

On crappy ratings in the USA:
"Our TV at the local level is strong - both in Canada and in the United States," said Bettman. "And the U.S. (national TV) is something that will continue to require our attention and work but we like our partnerships and our relationships with NBC and Versus. ... But that's only one metric. If you look at attendance, if you look at the digital space and people who are connecting to us on NHL.com and the club websites, if you look at what we're doing through technology and streaming - all the vital signs are good.

"The metric where we happen to get the most criticism happens to be the metric that is declining over time in importance."

Declining in time?

While it may not matter to the owner of the Nashville Predators that some schmuck in Eugene, Oregon, isn't watching the games, but it certainly is important.

The sport, overall, makes more money if its popular outside of the actual markets. The NFL? The MLB? They have fans all across the country, and they rake in big bucks because of it. While attendance may or may not be strong, the low national ratings are a great indicator that the game means very little outside of the markets, and the NHL isn't cashing in on a large portion of the American audience.

Bettman's flippant dismissal of national TV ratings is disturbing.

On the NHL playing games in Europe:

"This is a good opportunity to dip our toe in the water," Bettman said. "A third of our players come from outside of North America and the hockey fans in those countries like to follow their players."

Translation: Expect more of these games.

On NHL expansion to Europe:

" It's nothing we're planning on, but by the same token I'll never say never," Bettman said. "There are many, many, many things that we have to do and have to happen before we can consider it. And there are logistical issues.

"There are arena issues, there are travel issues, and also there is the existing infrastructure of hockey particularly in Europe and we need to be respectful of all of those considerations."

Translation: There is no way in hell it'll happen in my lifetime. The NHL owners won't allow it, and it's too much of a hassle.

On salaries:

"The average payroll with a $50.3-million cap is $42.3 million," said Bettman. "So that at the end of the year, on average, our teams will have spent $42.3 million - not $50 million."

Bettman continues by pointing back to the 2001-02 season, when the average team payroll was also $42.3 million.

"At the time our revenues were $1.875 billion," he said. "This year the average team payroll - with the $50.3-million cap - will be $42.3 million on revenues of about $2.4 billion. ...

OK, so we're back to square one, except the owners make more money?

Couldn't the owners have increased revenues without missing a whole year of hockey? If GM's and owners were prudent, they could have kept their costs at the same level and worked on improving revenues WITHOUT MISSING A SEASON.

Sorry, Buttman, but we see salaries escalating back to where they were before, and will only continue to get worse.