Jedi

Looks like today's meetings won't start until sometime around 1pm ET, at the earliest. @Real_ESPNLeBrun

Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pts. 1 & 2 - The Flaming Lips

Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Looks like today's meetings will be underway soon. Several players will be in attendance today, per the NHLPA's twitter feed... Fehr's addressing the media at the moment. Per LeBrun...

Never said it did. Only that it clarifies the positions. I do, however, think it goes to show that the league saw it as an opportunity to get an early shot in against the PA in the eyes of the general public. Both sides understand how important it is to be on the upper hand in the PR war, and the article goes to suggest it was something that the League wanted to get an early advantage in.

Puck Daddy had a pretty good article about the PA's realignment rejection. It's worth a read, as I think it helps clarify the two sides' positions on the issue. And Wysh got it right that the whole issue was a bellwether for the CBA talks as well...

Turn to Stone - Electric Light Orchestra

No surgery required, just need for the swelling to come down and the stitches to be removed, per Ansar Khan.

Sucks, but it's the best thing to cancel the game. The lockout has left yet another black mark on the history of the league, and that mark doesn't need to tarnish the league's premier event. The teams don't deserve that, the participants in the Winter Festival at Comerica don't deserve that, and most of all, the fans don't deserve it.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

That's it!!! Banish him to Saint Helena! Genius!!

We're all thinking it, Ian White's just saying it...

That's a minimum of 60 games, maximum of 105 games. So that's at least 2,084 games lost, probably closer to 2,100 games or more...

NHL officially announced the cancellation of all games through November 30th. A total of 326 games scrapped, which accounts for 26.5% of the season.

Harrison Mooney with Puck Daddy posted a good summary of the NHL pulling the offer off the table, and provides a little insight into just how PR-oriented the NHL's offer was. I'd recommend giving it a read. Some highlights...

Looks like the League will pull their most recent offer off the table as of today. Read the story for reactions from both Daly and Fehr regarding this...

The Puck Daddy piece I linked to earlier somewhat addressed that point...

During the press conference, the Islanders confirmed that neither the team name (New York Islanders), nor their logo will change when they move. And they better get nice and comfortable at the B.C. They'll be there for at least 25 years... http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/islanders-officially-announce-25-lease-barclays-center-name-181517366--nhl.html

Standing On The Corner Of The Third World - Tears for Fears

Brooklyn's part of Long Island. The Islanders signed an agreement with the Rangers that allows them to play in the New York area, but they're restricted to Long Island (so, they couldn't move to The Bronx, or Manhattan, for instance). Of course, if they had moved to Kansas City, then it wouldn't matter.

At 14,500 seats, the Barclays Center will have the lowest seating capacity of any stadium in the league. However, for the Islanders, that's not a problem, as the last year they averaged attendance over that mark was 2002-2003...

To help pass the time during the lockout, the Detroit Red Wings and Farmers Insurance are hosting a bracket style vote with the fans voting on the greatest Red Wing Alum of all time. Each day, the fans will vote on one matchup between two players (32 total players). The bracket, shown below, is up on the Wings Twitter and Facebook pages. Should be interesting to see who the fans vote as the greatest.

Lengthen them out, meaning existing players have to play even longer before going to Free Agency? The PA will burn that to the ground faster than the Hindenburg. Oh the humanity... Now, if you mean that a player on a 5 year contract gets 100 % of the contract over 7 years, but still becomes a Free Agent in 5 years, then I think the Owners would burn that down fas... well, you get the idea... Also, there's no way the owners would pay the decrease in salaries up front. The whole idea of their side of the argument is to not have to pay the players what they're contractually owed. What makes you think the owners would agree to pay them what they're contractually owed when they took a grand total of 15 minutes to reject a proposal that would pay the players what they're contractually owed?

I had assumed that was commonplace, especially after the League slapped Jimmy D with a $250k fine for speaking out. The League hired Bettman to be their mouthpiece and chief negotiator. If the Owners are spreading the message instead of Bettman, it undermines his position as League spokesman, and makes it less likely that everyone stays "on message". Plus, if the owners and players were allowed to speak without League supervision/approval, then you could see the more moderate owners and players working together to oppose the official League stance. That is the LAST thing Bettman wants at this point.

It certainly is interesting to consider, but I'm not sure I buy it, to be honest. Bettman only needs 8 votes in his favor to ensure he isn't overruled, for the "Bettman's fault" theory to not be true, he would need 23 owners against him to force his hand. And since we already know that Jacobs (Boston), Leipold (Minnesota), Edwards (Calgary) and Leonsis (Washington) are solidly in Bettman's camp as well as the League-Owned Coyotes, that leaves Bettman only needing 3 votes to ensure that he gets the final say on the League's stance. My best guess? Bettman has more than 8 owners in his court, but their support very well could be conditional on him doing everything he can to completely break the PA, and force them into only a deal of the League's offering.