NHL 2012-2013: A hooligans game played by hooligans

Yah that team didn't draw shit in Long Island. It was kinda sad. :(

Right, it's so difficult to get to MSG. :-P

Prices to attend games at MSG are ridiculous though. Probably Barclays will be no better, though. :(

That takes another team off of the list of potential for Seattle relocation.

Brooklyn seems like a nice fit for the Islanders, though. But two things about this move strike me as odd. First, it will be the smallest arena in terms of seating in the NHL (14,500 for hockey in that arena) and second, it was not a building designed with hockey in mind, meaning the seats won't be great.

Still going to be better than the Mausoleum.

Twitter rumors are saying that the NHL plans on announcing cancellation of the Winter Classic and the All Star Game on Monday.

Fuck Bettman.

Fuck. New year ruined.

Aggravated. Fold the league!

Dad reminded me today that this news probably means my favorite player (Daniel Alfredsson) has played his last game.

If so, double-fuck Bettman.

Here's what passes for news on the league website these days:



Seriously, NHL?

The desperation is palpable. It's not like they have anything else to talk about.

If we lose this Winter Classic (playing in my town, featuring the Red Wings) I'm going to be so pissed off.

Remember they aren't allowed to use any likeness of any players at the moment, so in that respect they're kinda handcuffed.

Fuck the NHL, fuck the owners, and most of all fuck that clown Bettman. Thanks for squandering the most talented group of superstars in 20 years, and thanks for completely killing my interest in a sport that I've loved since the minute I first saw the Legion of Doom. I'm done with the league until Bettman is gone.

Sidney can't play anywhere because he is uninsurable.

I was just coming here to post that. Yeah, we're done. Fuck this league.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/...1128/NHL-Winter-Classic-could-canceled-Friday

In the meantime, look at my awesome auto-drafted fantasy hockey lineup:



With only four teams in the league, though, we should probably re-draft if the season ever actually starts.

It's Nov. 1st so that means fuck Bettman and the owners. Fuck them to hell.

I didn't realize there was a special day for that. I pretty much celebrate that every day.

So the Winter Classic's officially canceled now.

The kittens will never recover.

The NHL probably will. Just not this year.

Hockey will be fine in places like Canada and the northern states that like hockey. However, all those struggling teams in places that shouldn't have NHL teams in the first place may not recover, and that's not a bad thing.

I'm updating my Lockout Wish List:

Gary Bettman fired
Teams move to Quebec City, Hamilton and possibly a second team in Toronto
Three or four other teams fold entirely

I can get onboard with that, though I kind of want Seattle to get a team so Vancouver has a closer opponent to play. Not that an NHL schedule would guarantee they'd actually play each other, mind you.

The last time there was a lockout, Scott Gomez went back to Alaska to play for the Anchorage team in the ECHL, so I got to see him play in Victoria.

My girlfriend and I are both lifelong Oiler fans, so I just got tickets for when their farm team plays the Flames' farm team in Abbotsford next week. I'm pretty psyched to see Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Eberle, plus that defenseman they signed. I just realized that this means I will have seen more games with NHL players playing during lockouts than actual NHL games. The only time I've been to an NHL game live was the Jets against the Kings in LA, when Gretzky was still on the team.

The proxy-Battle of Alberta was glorious. Not only did Schultz score the overtime winner for the baby Oilers right in front of us, the building erupted when he did because half the crowd were Oiler fans. I would guess there were more Oiler jerseys in the crowd than Flames and Heat put together. I also saw a bunch of team Canada jerseys, a few other random NHL teams, and one guy wearing a Michael Crabtree 49ers jersey, I guess to show his general support for sport.

So is this where I come to lend my voice to the

FUCK BETTMAN

chorus? He is so obviously incompetent and insecure that he's willing to risk tanking an entire sport so that he doesn't look weak.

I think there's plenty of blame to go around at this point. I just want hockey back. :|

I was really looking forward to hockey for the first time in a while, what with the Kings coming off winning the Cup, but it seems like they've probably lost me for another 10 years or so. Nice work, NHL!

Look at all these football threads here.

P.S. Apologies to the kittens.

P.P.S. I originally thought a half-season seemed like a reasonable bet. I no longer think this.

See you in 2014!

I hate you both :(

At least I get a nutmeg of consolation, they're actually airing the AHL showcase game at the Verizon Center on CSN, so I'll be able to see a little hockey. I just can't enjoy it watching it from my computer desk. :/

Bah! Pour your hate into someone that deserves it, the owners, the players, small markets, large markets, the Fehrs, the Betteman, or Bill Daly, not me or that lovable scamp Ned!

Hey! I just want you to know that you unintentionally made me happy by accidentally referencing the Patrick O'Brian novels I'm always gushing over. :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutmeg_of_Consolation

So apparently Bettman's newest idea to end the lockout is that he and Fehr shouldn't be involved. I can't say I disagree.

It was intentional (as in, I knew what I was making a reference to.)

OMG YOU'VE READ O'BRIAN?!?11?

(I figured you must have after I responded, but I'll confess that you got me to Google the phrase to see if it was some figure of speech I'd never ever heard of somehow.)

If Sidney Crosby gets credited with saving the NHL season, as a Caps fan, I will be enraged. As a general hockey fan, I don't care who saves it, just somebody do it!