StevieY is the captain

i disagree. the longer this plays out the less each side is going to gain due to loss revenue. the players need those casual fans just as much as the owners do. if owners don't make money, the players aren't getting paid either.

The sentiment behind that statement is that the more time elapsing without games being played, the more the owners lose in revenue.
The Owners have to pay the bills ( overhead from owning a team ) while the players just need to show up and play. While the players do lose money by being locked out, the longer it goes on the more money the Owners will lose. The players stand to lose Millions with an extended lockout, but the Owners... 100's of millions... so as time progresses further and further I think the Owners stand to lose more money thus making them susceptible to caving to players demands.

The players are on the hard road as we speak, but half way into next season it will be the Owners turn.

I think they're MORE interested in cancelling this season and having it next.  If they continue with it this year, they run the risk of unhappy fans boycotting and not making as much money.  If they wait until next season, most will be forgiven and forgotten by then.

Perhaps. But then you give the players all the bargaining power. The longer this drags out the more the players can gain.
Plus the NHL is going to lose casual fans the longer this plays out.. This isnt Football or Baseball, casual fans will dump this sport quickly. All will be forgiven by those of us here on forums and that play and love the game... but Bettmen wants Hockey to compete on a level above "nitch sport". In order to do that you need the casual fans to grow in numbers. And a whole season lost plus a major WC game cancelled is going to turn many casual fans attention back to other things.

You're probably right tho because the NHL is run by incompetence.

Perhaps I am jumping the gun here, but I think that if the cancellation of the WC is postponed we could actually salvage this season.
I've thought all along that this would be a long lockout, but perhaps the NHL is bluffing hard up to this point. This WC in particular is very important, 2 of the largest fan bases in Hockey filling a huge arena during a game that is nationally televised may be enough for the NHL to crack and get a deal done. The hit from canceling this game "MAY" be too much for the NHL to risk.

If the WC is called off then in my humble opinion this season and part of next is lost. The Players will have more power going into next season still locked out. They know it to.

Yzerman, with no doubt.
Lets say that you had to have one of these two players to bring your team out of an era of failure, which would do the better job?
Without Yzerman the Wings could very well have maintained the gold standard of fail around the league.
I love me some lids, but he could NOT have been the spark this team needed to reach success.
I draft a rookie Yzerman over a rookie Lids each and every time.

Dont forget that Yzerman was a mad mad point producer, scoring 1040 points before Bowman took over and made him a two way player. Had Yzerman remained the pure scorer he was he would have challenged many records.

10 years before 2 way play by Bowman 1040 points, After Bowman, 12 years 715 points.
Now I'm not arguing that this helped us win our first cup in forever, just that Yzerman unselfishly changed his entire game for this team, and he could have gone on to break records had he decided to not put this team first.

Yzerman is the better Wing and the better player.

this quote from dan cleary disgusts me. nothing but bs.



everyone knows neither side gives a damn about the fans. stop trying to insult our intelligence.

I don't think it's fair to group every player into a box labeled "Group A" and say not one of them has feelings for us fans.

I'm sure many NHL players do feel bad for us fans. I can understand frustration and anger over the lockout setting in but lets not allow it to give us false impressions of these people. Yes, money is a key motivator in this situation, for both sides. But you cant take the people caught in the middle and throw them under the bus simply because they have a desk job or they skate for a team.

Know what I'm saying?