NHL 2012-2013: A hooligans game played by hooligans

If this gets done I'll have to ask Lum to change the title to "NHL 2013: A hooligans game played by hooligans."

Though, really, this thread should be a generic for ice hockey.

Sure, anyone else watching the World Juniors or Spengler Cup?

I had to wiki the Spengler Cup to find out what the deal is, and I'm still not entirely clear. But thanks to the lockout team Canada won so yay.

I've been watching the world juniors a little bit, however it's on the NHL Network down here and I feel dirty for doing so. That and the results seem to find me before the game is repeated so it's spoiled.

Yeah, that sucks. I caught a bit of the US-Czech game live last night before bed, but it wasn't much of a contest. The two groups don't seem especially well balanced this year, I wouldn't be surprised if Canada, US and Russia are the three best teams in the entire tournament.

I can't help but think that this would all be over if Don Fehr wasn't involved.

Tentative agreement, holy shit they were up late.

At first, I didn't believe you, but then I looked around and ...












LET THE GAMES BEGIN

I think my favorite semi-pessimistic reaction was this:

Best news: CBA, if ratified and no hiccups in documentation, is 10 yrs with opt out after 8. 8 coincides nicely with my retirement date.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 6, 2013

Which means I've covered my last lockout. #threeisenough

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 6, 2013

An ex of mine just came into town on holidays from Australia with her family and had originally been planning on catching a Preds game while she was here. Looks like she might get a chance after all.

Tentative good news. I'll save my animated gifs for when it's signed, sealed and delivered.

It'll be interesting to see how long all the "I'll never pay for another ticket again, you greedy fucks" people actually stay away from the game once the first puck drops.

Woohoo! Hockey!!!

Tarasenko better be gettin' his ass on a plane for St. Louis....and not one of those rickety, team-killin' KHL planes, either. Tank's gonna bring me a Stanley Cup....I hope.

Still reading over the details of the tentative agreement, but it looks like the owners got the two big things they wanted: a 50-50 split of revenue and an end to cap-circumventing long-term contracts (e.g. Luongo, Kovalchuk, Hossa, etc.). Can somebody explain to me why the players deprived themselves of half a year's salary when this appears to be essentially the same deal they could have taken in September?

The kittens are saved!

I'm curiously unexcited about another half season but the shorter, conference-only play could produce some interesting results.

Because the owners were the "aggressors" and the loser of a labour dispute - in this instance, also the "defensive" side - always look, in hindsight, like double-losers for having gone through the dispute and done poorly anyway. In a wider sense obviously NHL players are fabulously better off than most unionized "workers" in North America, and the owners have a certain "but our business model isn't so good" sadface argument, but long story short, management picked a fight, management won a fight, knowing that there was no mechanism to penalize them and that the players lose a large percentage of their lifetime earnings during prolonged labour wrangles.

So, if we wind up getting an actual season, would there be any interest in expanding the old Qt3 Fantasy Hockey League to include folks from around here?

We currently have but four teams, which is hardly enough for a competitive league.

Of course, we'd have to redraft, which would mean losing my loaded team, but in the interest of fairness and competition...

Maybe! I've never done any fantasy sports team things, though!

I like NFL fantasy because I only have to deal with it once a week. I dunno that I want to have to pay attention daily and rejigger things that often.

Fantasy football is OK because of the low amount of games and fairly rigorous football schedules (i.e. obviously defined weeks), but the couple of times I've tried to play fantasy hockey it has been somewhat of a nightmare.

I've only ever participated in playoff pools at work, but they were always very hands-off. Everyone would get together to draft their teams a few days before the playoffs started, and then you were stuck with your picks (for better or for worse) until the Stanley Cup had been won. Are regular season fantasy leagues more involved than that?

Yes. You have lineups to set for every game (but you can set them well in advance), plus you can trade players or hunt the free agent pools.

Well, the mechanism is that they may have irreparably damaged the sport and cost themselves more money than they saved with the new CBA.

I potentially agree with the latter, the former is pretty much the same thing everyone says in every lockout in every American sport. I think the ratio of even the most passive hockey fans that are jaded/spent versus excited/relieved is pretty low right now, even when you factor in the usual sports blog bile. Part of being a sports fan in this country is accepting that the economic politics will continue to suck in perpetuity.

Yeah, I've been a little surprised by how quickly I switched from "goddamn NHL, goddamn lockout" to looking forward to going to games in a week or two. I'm still a little cranky, but that's not going to stop me from going down to the arena.

Already hearing that there are some players who are going to stay in Europe or Russia for the balance of the season. Not many, but a few.

The Blues spent two seasons trying to woo Vladimir Tarasenko over from the KHL, and finally succeeded in the summer of 2012...only to have the lockout hit. I was worried that Tank would be one of the guys who'd not come over, but the Blues actually did something smart (for a change). They signed Tarasenko to a professional North American contract, and then "assigned" him (much like you'd assign a guy to an AHL franchise) before the lockout to go play for his former team at SKA St. Petersburg in Russia (where, playing alongside Kovalchuk, he was clearly the latter's equal as an offensive force). Now that the lockout's over, SKA has not contract or claim on Tarasenko, and the future #91 will be on a plane this weekend for training camp in The Lou. Blues are a cup contender with him, not so much without him.

A lot of it seems like rumormongering, although the one guy who would rather play in Slovakia than for the Islanders cracked me up, because he's been fighting that trade ever since it happened.

Those Russian players that do stay, run the risk of not being able to play for their home country in Sochi.

That's silly. Next year the Islanders will have a nice home. Second class citizens there, but better than the Mausoleum.

And next year the Wings get to resume their deathmatch against Columbus for the ability to switch to the eastern conference in realignment!

It's kind of a mess, really -- both teams make more sense in the east, but other than Winnipeg who do you move from the east to the west to balance them?

Easy. Move the Panthers to Seattle.

Sold.

Any realignment had better include putting MN in the division that was once and will be again, with Chicago, Detroit, and St Louis.

Mmmmmmm.

But we'll still have an imbalance when Phoenix moves to Quebec City...

Redraw the divisions.

East
1. Tampa Bay, Carolina, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia.
2. Detroit, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, New Jersey.
3. New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Boston, Montreal, Quebec.

West
4. Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg.
5. San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Colorado, Dallas.
6. Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, Nashville, Columbus.

If there was a team in Seattle, I wonder if would be cheaper to see the Canucks there than in Vancouver. What's it cost to see the Leafs in Buffalo?

It's too bad the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg. I kept hoping that one day I could find some time to hit Atlanta for a playoff series or two, since tickets were dirt cheap even at that time of the year.

Guess it'll have to be Nashville or Florida.