stevkrause

4 step plan proposal:
1. Fire Bettman
2. Hire a real commissioner who has the balls to stand up to the owners and do what's best for the league
3. Change the bulls*** BOG ruling back to a majority vote system by the owners instead of only needing 8 teams to pass, and disallow league owned teams from voting
4. Let the rest sort itself out once the cancer is removed

Put this in place and we'll be playing hockey again by mid November...

I'm basing it more on the sum total of his career than any PR attempts by Fehr.

3 CBA negotiations. 3 lockouts.

1st major North American pro sport to lose a season due to a labor dispute.  Other leagues have similar issues and problems but have managed to solve them without losing an entire season.  

1,780 games lost to lockout under his watch and counting.  That is by far more than any of the big pro sports.

How is that not a failure?  The NHL commissioner is not just a shill for ownership, part of his job is to protect the integrity and public confidence in the league.  The commissioners of other leagues have to deal with owners just like Bettman does.

7 years after losing an entire season to implement a hard cap, with an increase in revenue of 50% since the last CBA, there's no way there should be a lockout right now.   Bettman and his hardliners want too  much too fast.  And unlike in 1995, the owners aren't going to be able to overrule him and salvage the season.

Dead on. Anyone who doesn't realize this has blinders on.

Flat out, anyone who uses the "Bettman is doing what the owners want and working for them" defense of him is just proving the point of why he should be removed. A GOOD commissioner of any league does what is the best for the league and makes the hard stances AGAINST the owners when need be, they do not just give the spoiled brats whatever they want, whenever they want and be a yes man. A commissioner works for the league, not the owners. Bettman is a spineless yes man that bends over at all of the bog's whims and never tells them no, even when it's what is best for the LEAGUE.

More games lost than ALL of the other 3 major sports combined under Bettman's watch... Tell me again how he is doing a good job...

The NHL needs a leader and a visionary, not a spineless weasel that won't stand up to the owners in the best interest of the league when he needs to... and to put it quite bluntly, if you disagree with this post, then you are beyond logic and not worth debating with anyway.

He heavily eludes to it without saying the exact words (probably to avoid a fine)


I think this quote speaks volumes -

This is the way (Bettman) negotiates,'' Zetterberg said. “We've been through this before and if he's going to stay there we'll probably go through it again.

http://www.mlive.com...ng_anticip.html

I'll take second shift Wednesday's for leftwinger suicide watch

Since the while CBA stuff has currently left me missing hockey and not feeling very optimistic, let's play a game
If you had an opportunity to sit down and have a drink or have dinner with one CURRENT and you couldn't talk hockey, who would you choose and why?
For me I think I would pick to sit down with Tootoo and have a candid conversation about addiction and if he felt that the league "looked away" if they knew someone was struggling. I also would want to talk to an " enforcer" about losing Boogard, Rypian, Belak and the early departures of some of hockey's biggest personalities and if he worried he would slip into that headspace.
Thoughts?

Bert without a doubt... seems like he's got a good sense of humor, we have similar music tastes, and I'd ask him off the record what really went down with Crawford and the bounty situation over Moore...

All of the names listed are great, and I agree on them all... With that said, I'm going to go left field on this and take one that people don't think about very often and one that was the worst scape goat in RW history... Curtis Joseph

Had he been given his fair shake and was here through his prime, it would have been epic

My favorite ever was Stevens on Kariya. 2nd favorite was in the 2002 playoffs with Pronger blowing his knee out trying to hit Yzerman lol.

Wow... Regardless of the people and your feelings towards them, the results of both those hits... Wow... You're sadistic...

The ultimate hit on the ultimate douchebag...

This makes me sad... What could have been...

it's really crazy to think that if it weren't for such tragic events, our D core for YEARS could have been Lidstrom, Konstantinov, Fischer and Chelios...

seems like a good guy, but if people don't think ericsson uses his size enough, this guy will be burned to the ground here.

I'm one of the few here that like JBo, but that would be a MASSIVE over payment, Flip straight up would be too much for him... Let alone E, who, regardless of the flak he takes on here, was very good last year and makes a noticable difference on our PK

lol http://nhlfanchat.co...gejHpQ.facebook

That would be one of the worst trades in NHL history... looks like another Eklund site too...

Incredibly skilled player, that despite his great numbers, never really met his full potential on the ice and took shifts off... Off the ice, an ingrate and primadona who held an organization (that basically gave him a career and life) hostage and was more interested in being "the guy", than part of something special... his number should never go into the rafters amongst true greats and sully the meaning of what it means to go into elite Red Wing history, which is reserved for only the best of the best

Hopefully the new CBA will have something in it where Boston can release him outright due to the circumstances...

Let me just state by the way, that I am referring to the circumstances around him "skipping a year" unexpectedly and basically just taking a leave without medical reason, I am not making a political stance here, and I FIRMLY agree with the removal of polical rhetoric on this board, it has no place...

Will everyone get their panties out of their cracks when Doan gets 3 years (or more) at 6m(or more) and Holland trades for Ryan? Because I'm starting to believe this is on the horizon...

This is too hard to choose only a few, I have quite a few that I admire, respect, appreciate, etc... so let's just do it as though it were a top starting 5...

F - David Clarkson
F - Claude Giroux
F - Steven Stamkos
D - Zdeno Chara
D - Erik Karlsson
G - Henrik Lundqvist