chances14

pierre lebrun's take on negotiations

http://espn.go.com/n...ate-discussions

This is so stupid.  I seriously think Bettman and Co. wanted to take a year off, devised a plan for doing so, and are following it through to fruition.  They were responsible for setting the meetings, which they did at the last minute, and ever since then they've had a negative rhetoric about how far apart the two sides are.  Then they announced right off the bat that they would not use the option to play another year on the current CBA and they would go for a lockout.

All of this screams bad faith.  The initial low-ball offer I can understand from a negotiation point of view even if it reeks of smarmyness <---It's a word because I say so.

I don't see any effort on the part of the league nor any urgency as the deadline approaches.  Either they seriously don't want this season to happen or they are posturing, and doing so badly.

let's not forget that the players aren't putting any effort into getting negotations going again either

neither side has shown any urgency. otherwise i agree with the rest of your post

A blues blogger is not a legit source to me.  

Unless this rumor is confirmed by someone more substantial, I'm gonna move it to the Rumors forum.

I also changed the topic title to more accurately represent the source.


Anyone hearing about this anywhere else?

i've been following andy strickland on twitter for a couple years. he's legit

and he's followed by all the tsn insiders on twitter also

i remember reading an article on datsyuk a few years back where said he didn't want to be playing hockey when he was 40 and that he wanted to return to russia before he retired from hockey. i will have to dig it up when i have some time

Anyone who has freezing issues, rip the game to your hard drive.  You will notice that you have about 1000% less freezing.  It will take about half hour or so to put the game on your hard drive but it's worth it cause the hockey games are way too big now not to put on there.  

Anyone who doesn't know how to do this (for XBox 360):  From the dashboard and the home part, go onto the game as if you were going to play it.  You'll notice that if you press X for game details it will go to the next screen and you select Install.  Then you just wait for the 100% and away you go.

this tip is pointless for people like me who have ps3

just for the record, the last time the hockey news predicted us finishing low in the conference was the 06-07 season where they said we would finish 6th and could very easily miss the playoffs. that year the wings finished tied for 1st in the league and went on to the conference finals

yea that video was pretty distasteful.

They had a segment about him on the local news here in detroit today and by the sounds of it, he's a pretty good guy. constantly helping out in the community.

Thing is, we actually didn't deserve to be 2-0 and 3-2 up.  The only game we outplayed them the entire series was Game 5.  The entire series we were so banged up we were just clinging on by our fingernails through sheer willpower

agreed. osgood was our best player by far in that series.

if wings win the cup, osgood most likely gets the conn smythe, a 4th stanley cup and would most likely be a shoo in for the hall of fame

doan jumps to number 2 on my most wanted forwards list behind parise. he is exactly what the wings need. physical, shoots right handed, and will get you 20 goals and 50 points. plus, he will have that drive and hunger to finally get his name on the stanley cup.

I remember writing like 800 words in response to this already.  I hear you, but you aren't countering my points. Getting knocked out in the first round one year after winning the cup doesn't discount the quality of your team or the likely hood of winning multiple titles. How many times in the past 20 years have the Wings been knocked out in the first or second rounds?!?!

plenty of times, but they've also had several years of success as well. this kings team does not.

when the wings won the cup in 08, they had gone to the conference finals the year before then backed that up with another finals appearance the next season.

pens in 09. went to the finals the previous year against the wings

hawks in 10. finished 1st in the central division and went to the conference finals the year before.

ducks in 07. finished 2nd in the conference and went to the conference finals the year before

imo, it's premature to start saying that the kings are a dynasty.  that's why i said "Right Now" this team looks like a fluke to me. They  didn't show me anything during the regular season nor last season that would lead me to believe  that this isn't a fluke.

There is no doubt that they are a dynasty.  They are in great cap shape, have the core locked up, have one of the strongest farm systems with an AHL dynasty currently going strong, and to top it all off they are young and ambitious.  Plus they now have an extreme amount of extra benefits in going after free agents.  You can live in Malibu, you can be friends with stars, you can try to have a movie career on the side, you can come here and play on a team so strong that we owned the playoffs on a level only seen by the Oilers.  Very few teams will be able to compete with that.

They will win as much as they are hungry, and the talk is they want to get Parise to stay hungry.  I already said on another thread that I would watch out for them going after both Parise and Suter.  They have to be the main competition with all that I outlined here. Futhermore, they need to sign two more players to have 22 under contract... they are only losing Stoll and Penner (Penner would be no loss).  they have 16 million in money.

They could give both Parise and Suter 8 million for life, and if they need more space they can buyout Gagne's final year at 3.5.  It is a gamble with Quick coming into his final year... but the cap was expected to go to 76 before it was temporarily set at 70... I wouldn't be surprised if that money shows up later in the offseason or next year.  They could have a rough... but manageable offseason next year that could include moving some players.  

I know if I were to be the Kings GM, I would go hard at these two.  If you could convince Parise to take 6.8 like Kopitar and Suter to take 7 like Doughty... they would be the greatest team in the league for years to come.

i remember people saying the exact same thing about boston last year and they were bounced in the first round this year

right now, this team looks like a fluke to me.  they looked like a lottery team at the midway point in the season. then they got sutter who pushed all the right buttons and got hot

if they can manage to finish near the top of the conference next year and make another deep run, then i will say this team is not a fluke. but with no playoff success prior to this year, i am still skeptical that this is a dynasty in the making.

on the bright side, we might see some dirt cheap ticket prices for regular home games this year on places like stuhub if people are buying season tickets just for the winter classic and can't even go to the games.

Yea it'll sell out. For Leafs fans, that's a bargain!


The sad thing is, if the Leafs win, their fans would act like they won the Stanley Cup. I was at an exhibition game once, Leafs/Wings, and Leaf fans were honking their horns after they beat the Wings. It was September!

well yea.. when you haven't been to the playoffs since 2004, the winter classic is about as close to a playoff game feel as their ever going to get

$89 for the cheapest ticket. Wow, there goes my hopes of getting a cheap seat. Do you think that it will be selling out at these prices? Like really selling out, not "sold out" with 1000's of tickets going for $15 on the street before the game.

how cheap did you expect the winter classic tickets to be? 89 dollars for a winter classic ticket is a bargain compared to what prices have been going for in the previous winter classics.

for me personally, i don't care what tickets i get. i didn't plan on having a great view of the game anyways. i'm just going for the spectacle and to be part of history.

good luck buddy. sorry to hear you lost them, but please dont waste your money on stubhub. absolutely absurd what those motherf***ers are asking for on there. last time i looks $96 if you wanna sit by yourself in the last row, in the corner. are we playing for the cup tonight or something?

ticketholders are just looking to take advantage of a rare  weekday regular season game where the game actually means something, against dallas nonetheless

stubhub usually has some good deals for wings tickets though. i was able to ****** 2 tickets to sunday's game for $24 each after fees. They were selling for $50 minimum on ticketmaster and it was a premium game

this is nothing but a negotiation ploy for the NHLPA. Get ready everyone because another lockout is coming