Game over: NHL cancels season

[SidDithers]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/sports/national/2005/02/16/Sports/noseasontest050216.html

Sad day for hockey fans.

Sid

[Oreo]

1. Bettman is such a weasel

Say goodbye to at least 3 teams

[Renew Deal]

16. They should say goodbye to some teams.

I wish.

[LisaM]

2. Crap. Crap crap crap.

Steve Yzerman will probably never play again. Thanks, greedy assholes in Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and all those other places that just HAD to have teams that expanded the league out of reality. Thanks Fox Sports for deciding the NHL had to go to NASCAR cities. Thanks for NOTHING Bettman.

[bif]

4. That is sad about Stevie Y.

What a crappy way to go out.

[Joe Power]

6. Yzerman (and a lot of other guys) deserve much better than this

[Renew Deal]

18. Why wouldn't he play next year?

He'll be extra fresh and rested.

[kypper]

3. Screw them

It's about time they addressed the issues with hockey by capping salaries and putting revenue sharing in place. Major Canadian teams have been flung to the USA because of dollar differences and massive advertising.
The NHL has become a joke... a farce.
Besides, why in the hell should players continue to get exorbitant salaries, especially given the economic downturn?

That being said, they should definitely limit the number of teams and foster the struggling, established ones.

[TheMightyFavog]

5. Damn stright.

Any city south of the Mason-Dixon Line does not deserve a NHL franchise.

[bif]

7. No city in a red state deserves a team

[PROGRESSIVE1]

11. ..

[KamaAina]

8. Gary Bettman career option: RNC chair

He could expiate his grievous sins by running the repuke party into the ground just like he has done to the NHL. That way we'd at least have a free country, even if there wasn't any hockey: kind of like Australia or New Zealand, maybe. :-)

On the other hand, he may not be qualified. Remember how he'd never even seen a hockey game prior to being installed as commissioner? Something tells me he's not nearly so naive when it comes to voting repuke...

In the words of the immortal Bob and Doug McKenzie, "Take off, ya hoser!"

[anarchy1999]

9. No "Stanley Cup" ? I am confused and disoriented now. I'm sure of

it..

What drugs need I take now?

[glarius]

10. Nobody asks "why did they wait till the last minute to get serious?"

What's wrong with those reporters?.....My son is sitting here yelling "ASK HIM WHY HE AND GOODENOW DIDN'T GET DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY MUCH EARLIER?"....They left the serious stuff until there wasn't enough time to get it done!.....DISGUSTING!!!

[BunnyPuncher]

17. Can't say I'm that upset...

I figured a Canadian winter without hockey would be horrible.

Surprisingly I havn't missed it at all, we just stay in the kitchen all night now instead of taking the beers into the living room!

[x-g.o.p.er]

12. BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

How depressing. Guess I'll have to change my sig line...

[DainBramaged]

13. Most of us who are baseball fans do not care.

In 7 days, pitchers and catchers report. I haven't watched a hockey game since the early Eighties (old time hockey), and doubt that I would ever again.

[sir_captain]

21. 7 days?

A bunch of teams have reported already! And you call yourself a baseball fan?!?

On a serious note, this totally sucks about hockey. It's a great sport and this could really be a killer note for it. A real shame...

[sniffa]

14. they're Looking for scabs

for next season. if i couLd skate, i'd think about it.

[Renew Deal]

15. That's fucking horrible.

:argh:

[Book Lover]

19. Shit - you're kidding?!

I mean, I'm no sports fan, but ... geez!

[brooklynite]

20. I'm not sure anyone's going to notice

Seriously, if the NHL plyers really cared about this, they would have been going around the country during the lockout doing free exhibition games to maintain fan interest and boost their community profile.

[ticapnews]

22. I love hockey, but they gotta blow this up to make it work...

The economics of the game just aren't working. They need a salary cap $42-48M), a salary floor ($28-33M) and they need contraction. Eliminate the teams in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Tampa and DC) and Nashville. With San Jose and either Anaheim or Los Angeles as possibilities as well.

They can realign the divisions and schedule to make travel more affordable. And they desperately need to rewrite the rules to get rid of the trapping, clutch and grab crap that ruins the game.

Thankfully we still have the college game.

Go Black Bears!

[SmileyBoy]

23. Beautiful day for Winnipeg hockey fans.

This makes the chances of a new NHL team in Winnipeg even greater.

The people on the JetsOwner forums are having a hey-day.

Check it out:

http://www/jetsowner.com

[maveric]

24. I wish the league would go back to 6-8 teams again.

Too many teams in cities that dont know shit about hockey.

Atlanta
LA
Dallas
Phoenix
Columbus
Nashville
Carolina
San Jose
Tampa
Miami

Bring back teams to Winnepeg and Quebec.

[SmileyBoy]

25. THANK YOU!!!!! Just what I wanted to hear!!!

Check out this site, maveric:

http://www.jetsowner.com

[maveric]

26. I still cant beleive thsat they moved that franchise.

Quebec too.
I hope that you guys get your team back, after all this labor shit clears up.

[Hand]

27. Hockey? What's hockey? nt

:dunce:

[ticapnews]

28. Darren Pang (ESPN) thinks it may not be over yet...

he reported on ESPNews that he is getting a lot of calls from players who apparently didn't know how close they were to a deal and are going to be lobbying Bob Goodenow to announce a new offer at his 4PM press conference. The odds are slim, but I'll be watching... :)

[DancingBear]

29. What they need is...contraction

The NHL struggles because, in the infinite wisdom of Bettman (one of the worst commissioners in modern history) it decided that the NHL should be in hockey bastions like Phoenix, Columbus, and Nashville, not to mention Florida.

To make matters worse, he then decides that even though 50% of all NHL teams don't draw flies anyway, he should cap the league so that ALL 30 of the teams survive.

As a die-hard fan, I must say that in order for this league to survive it must play to its strengths and concentrate on its core U.S. and Canadian markets. Hockey has NO business being in Tennessee or North Carolina, and the NASCAR model that Bettman is using is absurd.

I am waiting for the fool to try an '05-'06 season with replacement players (and he will) - the red ink bloodbath will be spectacular (um, Gary, you got a .2 rating on ESPN with the REAL guys, remember??) and the harm will be irreparable.

[u4ic]

30. They've had some good movies on CBC

in place of hockey night in Canada. :thumbsup: