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Sorry, I meant the team, the hard working people of the surrounding businesses, arena employees, and others affected by this have my sympathy.

I don't live in the Detroit area, but I have been donating my time to the Griffins Youth Foundation and reffing more youth hockey. My time is just as valuable as money, and as a referee, I can give a Saturday afternoon to ref for free for the Youth Foundation. I am also doing a fundraiser that should bring in $5000 to the Youth Foundation as well this weekend. It has been planned for about a month now. I am tipping a bit more too. I figure an extra little bit to people for what I am not spending on the NHL is fair. Besides, by now I would have attended about 3-4 games anyway.

It doesn't have to be NHL really. Minor league, beer league, college...it doesn't matter all that much in my opinion. Watch even a few games live at any level and you'll be hooked for life. I mean even Columbus has dozens of fans now.

I find myself with the teeniest bit of extra cash, so I thought I'd go downtown around the Joe and hand a few bucks to those who are working, or trying to work, during the lockout. If anyone wants to contribute to the effort, you can PayPal me at wingsdiva@gmail.com. I figure bartenders, waitresses and busboys depend almost solely on tips to get by and with no games, there aren't a lot of customers. I haven't figured out a way to help out the Joe workers, but I'm sure Cobo Joe's could use a little leg up. And what could be cooler than having a non-customer slip you a 20 for no reason? I'm going to try to do this every week until the lockout ends.

https://twitter.com/...262874149498880 Looks like the season is toast. Also, LeBrun says that no mediators will be used in the negotiations. Apparently, they didn't work. They just need to deep six the season now. Both sides can go jump off a cliff.

thanks for that. I have updated it.

I'm sorry, but that's an incredibly crass thing to say. While it's true the Penguins would receive the majority of that money that's lost, there are other local businesses that are suffering because of the lockout. Ordinary, hardworking people that are losing money through no fault of their own. THEY are the true victims of this lockout.

REPORT: GOOD! I don't like pittsburgh anyways

This is just a reason to pity him, not hate him.

I know that reading the dictionary is probably more exciting than this, but, it really is a must read for most fans. Unfortunately, it gets about as much attention as a cars owners manual. http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=27011 Edit: And BTW, welcome to the greatest sport around, and welcome to our big disfunctional family.

Watch more of Pavel Datsuyk highlights and you'll get how the hockey must be played

Like many others have said, watch.... That's the best way to learn.. I can sit here and explain offsides and it would seem some what foreign... Watch what offsides looks like a couple times on TV and it starts to become more clear... The best part is once you start learning the game and how it's played, you will slowly learn the little things players do that make them that much better then the rest of the guys on the ice. Just watch hockey, and watch it as much as possible...

If its available in your area you should get the NHL Network. They are showing a lot of playoff games from the last few years as well as the Winter Classics durring the lockout. That should give you lots of examples for the rules and general flows of games and get you ready for live action when the league comes back

Listen to this guy. Hockey is the worst announced/televised sport, and the intricacies are never explained, much less the rules and their implications. The best thing to do is pony up for seats at the red line 10 to 20 rows back so you can see the whole ice and hear the whistles and players/refs chatter. Do that for an NHL game and you will be hooked for life.

Just take in a lot of games with other knowledgeable fans. You'll pick it up as you watch more of it. And ask a lot of questions. If I can teach hockey to my girlfriend then I think anyone can learn.

That's just society my man. Someone could donate and save some childs life, but still leading on the news will be either, "some drunk dude ran around on pcp and blew off a couples face." It really is the angle that sells and projects an image upon society, unfortunately all that media wants to cover is violence and bad stuff, rarely the good in society.

Wow, weird timing on how this thing blew up all of the sudden, ESPN.com has it as one of their 11 "headline" stories on the front page (right below the breaking news that Hope Solo is happy in her marriage). Guess it's all about an "angle". NHL news rarely makes it on that page for actual game events, but if some unknown prospect gets arrested wearing a Tellytubby costume during a lockout - now that's news!

He may be 40, but he sure doesn't look it. Oh well, age is just a number anyway.

Not to mention that the last time the league locked the players out, the players were forced to accept the current terms and conditions of their employment or risk losing another season. Unfortunately for the League, profits grew and so did the cap, which means that the players are getting more money. I am baffled that the League would insist on a rollback and a salary cap then, and now blame the players for being greedy because they're making more money now than they did then. Last time I sympathized with the owners for the reasons that many have cited here: They take the financial risks and take the losses if they fail, so they should reap the profits if they succeed. The players are employees. However, now that the employees have agreed to what the owners wanted, they should be paid that which the owners set forth as allowable in the last CBA for contracts that were signed under that CBA. I got to thinking last night about this. The League wants the players to take a smaller share of the smaller pie. The players want contracts honoured. This won't work out for some teams as this means that the cap will go down. Would this be possible? Agree that each team may spend up to the cap on 23 players (at a time, IR is another kettle of fish). However, current contracts must be honoured first. If the team reaches the cap without filling the 23-man roster, that team may extend above the cap by filling its roster only with league-minimum players until they either trade some of their higher-paid guys or until the current contracts end. After that, they must be cap-compliant. This would screw the ones who rushed out and signed huge contracts anticipating a rollback and reward those who planned wisely. It would also mean that the players would get the money they agreed to. I would also do away with escrow. If the league miscalculates the cap, or if owners spend right up to it and the league and/or team doesn't rake in as much as they thought they would, then tough titties. They still have to pay what they said they would and it would have to come out of the owner's pocket who gambled that it would be covered. Just some thoughts that entered my head. (EDIT for clarity)

Agreed. I had totally forgotten this all happened around Halloween. I was trying REALLY hard to wrap my brain around that one lol.

Oh. I had forgotten the date he was arrested. The costume makes a lot more sense now. The rest isn't good, but at least he had an excuse for being a Tellytubby.