Wird NHL-Saison noch gerettet?

[Bam_Margera]

Langer NHL-Lockout lässt Fans zu drastischen Mitteln greifen

Wien - Die eisfreie Zeit in Nordamerikas Hallen wegen des scheinbar unlösbaren Streits zwischen NHL und Gewerkschaft, könnte länger dauern als von Fans auf der ganzen Welt befürchtet.

Die stärkste Eishockey-Liga der Welt könnte noch für ein weiteres Jahr auf Eis liegen, seit 15. September des Vorjahres sind die Spieler von den Klubs ausgesperrt

Laut der kanadischen Tageszeitung "Ottawa Sun" empfiehlt Bob Goodenow, streitbarer Vorstand der Spielergewerkschaft NHLPA, den Cracks bereits eine längerfristige Planung am alten Kontinent über die heurige Saison hinaus.

Mangelnde Gesprächsbereitschaft zwischen Streitparteien

"Ich glaube nicht mehr, dass wir diese Saison noch ein Spiel bestreiten, es gibt einfach zu wenig Gesprächsbereitschaft", gibt sich selbst Superstar Eric Lindros pessimistisch.

"Im Moment sollten beide Seiten nicht über die öffentliche Meinung nachdenken oder darüber streiten wer falsch oder richtig liegt, sondern ihre Kräfte darauf verwenden eine Einigung zu erzielen.", fordert der Stürmer der New York Rangers und weiter: "Im Moment gibt es jedenfalls keinen Grund für Optimismus."

Gerüchten zufolge soll noch diese Woche ein Angebot der Liga an die Spieler erfolgen, allerdings mit wenig Hoffnung auf Erfolg.

Für Kirk Miller, NHL-Veteran mit 19 Jahren Erfahrung, liegt das Problem im mangelnden Vertrauen: "Ich wäre schon mehr als überrascht, wenn dieses Jahr der Spielbetrieb noch beginnt."

Puck-Hersteller entlässt Hälfte des Personals

Die Auswirkungen des Lockouts ziehen jedenfalls weite Kreise.

Der offizielle Hersteller der NHL-Pucks InClassCo, etwa, entließ als Reaktion auf den Geschäftsrückgang 20 seiner 40 Angestellten. Das kanadische Unternehmen produziert normalerweise rund 300.000 schwarzen Scheiben pro Jahr, darunter auch die bei Fans beliebten Pucks mit den Logos der Vereine.

"Wir haben seit September kein einziges Produkt an die NHL oder eines der Teams geliefert.", so Denis Drolet, Präsident der Muttergesellschaft von InClassCo.

Doch auch bei den Fans ist der Geduldsfaden schon mehr als angespannt.

Hockey-Fans mit kurioser Frustbewältigung

In Buffalo/New York trägt ein enttäuschter Sabres-Fan seinen Frust auf offener Straße zur Schau.

"I need my hockey fix(ed)!" - frei übersetzt: "Ich vermisse mein Eishockey und will es erneuert wieder haben" - ist derzeit auf vielen Autos der Stadt zu lesen.

Doug Sitler zeigt auf den populären von ihm kreierten Auto-Magneten seine Ablehnung über den Streit: "Diese beiden mächtigen, mit Geld vollgepumpten Organisationen streiten wie kleine Kinder und lassen die Fans im Dunkeln stehen!"

"Verrückt nach Eishockey"

Bisher mehr als 2000, der in den Farben der NHL gefassten Objekte, wurden an den genervten Hockey-Fan gebracht.

"Die erste Person, die ich damit gesehen habe, war eine 70 Jahre alte Lady!", freut sich Sitler über den Erfolg seiner Kreation und öffnet sein Herz:" Es muss wohl ein Wunder geschehen, dass die Saison heuer noch startet, und ich hoffe stark, dass dieses Wunder eintritt. Ich brauche Hockey, ohne werde ich noch verrückt!"

Für alle, denen es ähnlich gehen sollte: Die kultigen Accessoires zur Frustbewältigung gibt's unter http://www.hockeyribbon.com zum Freundschaftspreis von nur 5 US-Dollar!

Quelle: sport1.at

bearbeitet 17. Januar 2005 von Bam_Margera

[Bam_Margera]

Wem die Stunde schlägt - Showdown im NHL-Gehälterstreit?

Wien - Wenn du glaubst es geht nicht mehr, kommt von irgendwo ein Lichtlein her!

Selten zuvor hat dieser nette Stammbuch-Spruch besser den Punkt getroffen als im aktuellen Streit in der NHL, in dem selbst Fans schon zur kuriosen Frustbewältigung greifen.

In die festgefahrenen Fronten zwischen Spielergewerkschaft und den Besitzern der Klubs kommt nach einem Monat wieder etwas Bewegung.

Auf Initiative des Präsidenten der Player Association, Vancouver-Stürmer Trevor Linden, treffen sich am Mittwoch jeweils drei Spieler- und Klubvertreter zu einem Meeting an einem geheimen Ort, um möglicherweise die letzte Chance auf einen Kompromiss und einen Saisonstart zu wahren.

"Streithähne" bleiben ausgesperrt

"Wir glauben es ist angebracht und hoffentlich nützlich, dieses Treffen zum gegebenen Zeitpunkt zu veranstalten.", so Gewerkschafts-Vertreter Ted Saskin, er stellt aber klar: "Es wird von unserer Seite keine neuen Vorschläge geben, auch die geforderte Gehaltsobergrenze bleibt für uns tabu!"

Damit das vielleicht entscheidende Treffen in "ruhiger" Atmosphäre über die Bühne geht, bleiben die beiden obersten Streithähne ausgesperrt.

NHL-Commissioner Gary Bettman und Bob Goodenow, Geschäftsführer der NHLPA, wurden nicht zu den Gesprächen eingeladen.

Man hofft, dass die Ausladung der Beiden "den entscheidenden Funken zwischen neuen, verschieden Gesprächspartnern entfachen kann", wie es ein Repräsentant der Spieler elegant formuliert: "Offensichtlich hat der andere Weg nicht funktioniert."

Weiterhin verhärtete Fronten

Die beiden Streitparteien hatten sich am 14. Dezember zum letzten Mal erfolglos zu Gesprächen getroffen.

Der Vorschlag der Gewerkschaft einer 24-prozentigen Gehaltskürzung und einer sogenannten "Luxus-Steuer" wurde von der Liga abgelehnt, so wie die von den Klubs geforderte Gehaltsobergrenze ("Salary Cap") wie erwartet keine Zustimmung fand. Ein geplantes Treffen am 14. Jänner wurde kurzfristig abgesagt.

Bisher fielen bereits 650 Spiele der regulären Saison, sowie das beliebte All-Star-Spiel dem "Lockout" zum Opfer

Tage der Entscheidung

NHL-Cracks auf der ganzen Welt warten gespannt auf das Ergebnis, für viele bietet sich jetzt die beste Gelegenheit lukrative Verträge in Europa, für den Rest der Saison und vielleicht das nächste Jahr, abzuschließen.

Obwohl keine offizielle Dead-Line für einen Liga-Beginn existiert, glauben viele Spieler, dass spätestens am Freitag die Stunde der Entscheidung schlägt.

"Ich habe keine Ahnung welche Lösung bei dem Treffen am Mittwoch schlussendlich Ende gefunden wird, auf alle Fälle gibt es endlich Gespräche von Angesicht zu Angesicht.", so Trevor Linden, der Initiator des Meetings.

Quelle: sport1.at

Naja, dieser Artikel verspricht wieder etwas Hoffnung. Aber was soll man sonst noch dazu sagen?

[chrisz21]

viel Hoffnung in Nordamerika verbreitet ein gewisser Herr Eklund.

Monday, January 17, 2005

Hope from Alaska...

Wow it is cold up here!

Anyway, I have been picking up from a myriad of sorces today that this lock-out could is nearing the end. Despite crazy propaganda, like the players being told to seek employment in Europe, things are happening. Isn't that like Goodenow saying, "sorry I'm not doing my job..." Remember he was hired to get the best deal he could. He simply can't report back to his players and say, "I got yah nothing. Go find another job". He simply has to get a deal. You don't pay someone to negotiate you out of a job.

The facts are very plain and simple. Someone said it perfectly on this bloc over the weekend. The fact that we are at January 17th and no drop-dead date is in sight should tell you all you need to know. They are working on it. According to one source, "You'd be surprised how cordial they actually have gotten behind closed doors. They both know this has to be solved, and they both know the public name calling is part of the process."

This is not to say, as the Vancouver paper reported, that Bettman and Goodenow were meeting over the week-end. Fact is they are both fast becoming figure heads, as both the players and owners are leaving the actual negotiations to much more forward thinkers. In other words, Bettman and Goodenow are the extremes, spewing extremist points of view. The meetings that occurred over the week-end were held in teleconferences with some pretty bright guys that have been brought in to hammer this out according to one source, "By the end of this week..."

I've been told, by someone very high up in the NHLPA, that they expect the basic outline to be done by Thursday, and an announcement could come on Sunday that the players are going to report back to camp in 7 to 10 days. There will then be a quick mini camp, 1 or 2 preseason scrimmages...followed by a season to start the Wednesday following the Super Bowl.

I am very close with alot of Flyers staffers, and they have been alerted to be ready to go in February.

This idea, that closed door meeting are going on in private, also occured just prior to the end of hockey's last dispute.

The terms of the deal are still widely variant, depending on the source, but they all point to the obvious...A salary cap that increases by percentage points each year...Free agency at 27 or 28...Franchise and Transitional players, maybe a minor luxury tax system, where the players would sign away their rights to sue for collusion...any way, I am meeting with some key people tomorrow, so stay tuned...

How did we get here?

I received several e-mails over the past two weeks from various sources, but I've chosen to post the following one because, after asking around today, it seems to be pretty accurate...

"I was told a group of players for an Eastern Conference team held a

secret vote to see what they would do if the NHLPA would bring a vote

on the NHL salary cap proposal, and not to anyone's surprise, a

majority vote went in favor of a salary cap system.

With this information, the player rep asked Goodenow why the NHLPA

hasn't provided the members with an opportunity to vote on the

proposal because he's got a team full of young teammates needing to

play and knows his owner is willing to budge on some issues like the

age of free agency, cap threshold, pensions, and other important

issues to players not in the upper end of the league.

Goodenow dispatched one of his cronies to tell the rep to act like a

hockey player and be a team player in this and that they would never

allow a vote in a million years that included a salary cap, no matter

the cost.

I was told this got back to a few players on the rich end of that team

and they gave a pretty good talking to the player executive, which of

course in turn had to give the info to Trevor Linden.

Linden over the past week has been getting a ton of pressure asking

why the NHLPA is refusing to negotiate a good deal now before losing

the whole season and half of next year too.

The NHLPA loses any leverage past December 2005 and Linden knows this,

that's why he asked for the meeting without Goodenow and Bettman.

Players know, if they don't get a salary cap negotiated at possible

$40 million now, they know the owners in January 06 will drop their

best offer to $31 million and hard-line on other issues too.

This deal is done by Sunday this week."

This same scenario took place on several teams, The Islanders, Bruins, Hawks, and Caps for certain...we'll see.

[AustroLeaf]

Verraetst du uns auch noch, wo der Artikel dieses gewissen Herrn Eklund erschienen ist?

[iceman]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=111787

es wurde ein neuer termin für verhandlungen vereinbart.

[chrisz21]

Verraetst du uns auch noch, wo der Artikel dieses gewissen Herrn Eklund erschienen ist?

ups sorry.. der hat ne eigene Seite! http://hockeyrumors.blogspot.com/

[AustroLeaf]

ups sorry.. der hat ne eigene Seite! http://hockeyrumors.blogspot.com/

Danke!

[Lichtgestalt]

Hope slim but at least they're talking

(by Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun)

The hockey world could use some Chicago Hope today -- and we're not talking the old TV medical drama. While initial belief is that today's low-level meeting in the Windy City won't change the four-month lockout impasse one iota, it wouldn't be the first labour dispute solved by a B team of negotiators.

"That's exactly how the 1994 talks were kick-started," said a general manager from that era who wished to remain anonymous. "At least it offers an opening, something for hope." The two sides haven't met since well before Christmas, with less than two weeks to go before the season would be declared dead by the calendar, if not by National Hockey League edict.

In the undisclosed location today will be NHL Players Association president Trevor Linden, senior union adviser Ted Saskin and outside counsel John McCambridge. Representing the league will be board of governors chairman Harley Hotchkiss, NHL executive vice-president and chief legal officer Bill Daly and the league's outside counsel, Bob Batterman. Linden had suggested the meeting earlier in the week.

Not in attendance will be chief antagonists Bob Goodenow of the PA and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Since the owners didn't jump at the players' last offer of a 24% rollback as a basis for a new deal, only vitriol has been exchanged since.

"We're not going to be bringing any new proposals to the table, what we're trying to do is open the lines of communication," union vice-president Bill Guerin told Sun Media. But don't expect the league's troika to quit the party line at this late stage. "With people such as McCambridge, Linden, Daly and Hotchkiss in that room, they probably could come up with the right solutions -- if they choose to," the ex-GM said. "But who knows what the strategies will be?"

Through Tuesday, 655 of the season's 1,230 regular-season games have been lost. A 36-game schedule is feasible, but only if this meeting is used as a stepping stone to full talks. "I'm guardedly optimistic about what could happen (today)," Maple Leafs' general manager John Ferguson said. "I think everyone understands that we're well into January now and if we want to play, something has to be done in the near term."

Philadelphia Flyers' player rep Robert Esche told Sun Media the players thought they owed it to the fans to attempt something. "If the owners cancel the season, at least we can say we tried," Esche said. "Our union is trying to spearhead negotiations, get back to the table and salvage the season."

The league has never announced a drop-dead date. None of the four major professional sports in North America has ever gone beginning to end without a single game played. The Stanley Cup is in danger of not being awarded for the first time since the Spanish flu wiped out the 1919 final. Even the Second World War couldn't stop the playoffs.

-> toronto sun

[Lichtgestalt]

THERE'S STILL TIME SAYS MURPHY

(by Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun)

Like the last-place team clinging to its mathematical chance of making the playoffs, the National Hockey League hopes for a 36-game schedule if a collective bargaining agreement is reached in a week to 10 days. "I don't think it would be that difficult," NHL vice-president, hockey operations, Mike Murphy said yesterday. "We figure you need two days for every game, so if you multiply 36 by two, that's 72 days, which could be fit in if you started Feb. 1 (ending mid-April). But you have to build in a five-day training camp and give players time to get back from Europe.

"Is that livable, suitable or workable? Without having done a great deal of research, we keep counting on playing at least four games against teams within the division and two against each of the rest in the conference. But not only does a deal have to get done, it has to have the i's dotted and t's crossed. And what we don't know is what buildings have been released (each of the NHL's 30 teams have had a rolling 45-day window to book other events)."

The 1994-95 lockout ended in mid-January with time for a 48-game schedule that ended the first week in May. The Stanley Cup was won by the New Jersey Devils on June 24, but the NHL is not interested in dragging the playoffs into July. Murphy said a 16-team playoff could be accommodated before Canada Day, provided the season is launched soon. "You'd have to consider playing three games in four nights or four in five," he said, keeping in mind the past CBA forbade games on three consecutive days. "This is an extenuating circumstance, but you still can't risk injury or fatigue and a lesser calibre of play. We have to be sensible."

-> toronto sun

[AustroLeaf]

Trotz im Sand verlaufener Gespraeche in Chicago bzw. Toronto werden die Spielervertreter, allen voran NHLPA-Praesident Trevor Linden, eine Einladung der Liga zu Gespraechen, die abermals in Toronto stattfinden werden, annehmen. Das Ganze wird morgen ueber die Buehne gehen.

Irgendwie kommt mir das Ganze nur mehr wie prolongierte Folter fuer die Fans vor; ich hoffe ehrlich, dass ich mich ganz boese irre.

[Lichtgestalt]

ich hoffe ehrlich, dass ich mich ganz boese irre.

detto. mmn gehts aber mittlerweile nur noch darum, möglichst dem anderen den schwarzen peter zuzuschieben.

zum nächsten meeting am mittwoch:

11th-hour pitch

The NHL and the players' association will resume talks in a bid to save the season, and they'll meet yet again without NHL Commissioner Gary or union head Bob Goodenow.

TORONTO (CP) - The NHL's labour talks will resume Wednesday in Toronto, with the 2004-05 season hanging in the balance. Officially, both the league and the NHL Players' Association were not saying where or when the meeting would take place, but sources confirmed to The Canadian Press that the talks would be Wednesday in Canada's largest city. One thing's for sure, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow will once again sit this one out. "Today, the league contacted our office to arrange for continued small-group discussions," said NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin. "We agreed to this request."

The same group will meet again: NHLPA president Trevor Linden being joined on the union side by Saskin and outside counsel John McCambridge while the league will have Bill Daly, the NHL's executive vice-president and chief legal officer, outside counsel Bob Batterman and board of governors chairman Harley Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss missed Thursday's second day of talks in Toronto after attending the Calgary funeral of fellow Flames part-owner J.R. (Bud) McCaig.

 

The 11th-hour talks resume with the league rumoured to be working on a new proposal. The two sides met last Wednesday and Thursday at the request of Linden, but the Vancouver Canucks centre came away frustrated by what he heard - the league still insisting on a salary cap.

It's believed the NHL met this weekend and worked on a new offer, one it believes may address some of the NHLPA's concerns. At the very least, the league will likely come armed with new ideas and concepts aimed at appeasing some of the union's issues but at the same time definitely still including cost certainty.

Linden and some of his fellow players came out swinging last Friday, suggesting the season was likely done given the league's insistence on a fixed link between player costs and league revenue - a salary cap. But the tough talk Friday may have been by design, hoping the league would react by softening their new offer. Linden also told the union's 700-odd players via a message on the NHLPA's private website not to expect hockey this year.

More than half of the NHL season has already been scrapped by the lockout, which was announced Sept. 15 by Bettman. Through Monday, 699 of the season's 1,230 regular-season games had gone by the wayside. The league has never announced a drop-dead date to save the season, but few believe there can be hockey this season if there's no agreement before the end of the month - or perhaps the end of this week.

None of the four major professional sports in North America has ever gone beginning to end without a single game played. The Stanley Cup is in danger of not being awarded for the first time since the Spanish flu wiped out the 1919 final.

-> slam.ca

[AustroLeaf]

War's das endgueltig?

Ominous signs for NHL

No progress, and no new talks

The NHL and NHL Players' Association met for four hours yesterday in New York but in an ominous sign, no further talks are planned.

Furthermore, the word out of the Big Apple late last night was that no progress was made in the second meeting in as many days. So, even if math was not your thing in school, it's fairly simple to conclude that no progress + no talks planned = no hope for a season.

"We continue to have significant philosophical differences," NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin said in a release. "No meetings are scheduled and we will not make further comment at this time."

Speculation was rampant that the NHL tabled concepts that included a salary cap of $42 million US per team, with a minimum spending amount in the range of $30-$32 million. Additionally, team payrolls would be linked to revenues at approximately 54%. There reportedly was no luxury tax involved.

Nobody should be surprised that the players scoffed at anything that included a hard cap. They have been stressing for months that there is no way they would accept a salary cap in a new agreement.

In an email to The Associated Press, NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said the league would "continue to keep quiet on the status and substance of negotiations."

The meeting yesterday began at 4:30 p.m., and ended at 8:30 p.m. Had there been anything for the sides to agree on, talks would have gone on well into the night. There had been no progress made in a meeting in Toronto on Wednesday.

Pessimism remains the common thread in the NHLPA.

Players have been told for years by union boss Bob Goodenow to be prepared for a long work stoppage.

"I have about the same amount of optimism that I had before (which was not much)," Maple Leafs player rep Bryan McCabe said before last night's meetings ended. "It's getting late and there is a long way to go."

Chicago Blackhawks forward Matthew Barnaby was more succinct.

"Let's put it this way: It would be a shock to me if we played hockey this year," Barnaby told Sun Media.

"I hope we play, but I would say we're not going to see the NHL back on the ice until December or January, 2006 at the earliest.

"I don't blame anybody for what's happening right now. Both guys (NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Goodenow) have their positions, I just think Gary Bettman could be the one fired out of all this because he made promises to some owners he was going to get a salary cap."

Daly, New Jersey Devils executive Lou Lamoriello, NHL board of governors chairman Harley Hotchkiss and outside counsel Bob Batterman represented the NHL at the meetings in New York and Toronto; Saskin, NHLPA president Trevor Linden and outside counsel John McCambridge represented the players.

The NHL, already trailing the other three major leagues in the U.S. in popularity by a wide margin, will be the first of the major sports to lose an entire season because of a labour dispute if this one is cancelled in the coming days.

To date, 721 of the NHL's 1,230 games this season have been wiped out, as has the all-star game.

Both sides are entrenched in their beliefs, and all that may be left is an announcement by Bettman that the season is dead.

It's difficult to see how anything can be salvaged, since, in Saskin's words, there continues to be a significant difference in philosophy.

Quelle: Toronto Sun.

[Lichtgestalt]

AT LEAST THERE'S STILL HOPE

(by Scott Burnside)

This must be how the condemned man feels when the guard comes by, dragging his keys along the bars just before midnight and says, "Not tonight Charlie." Maybe tomorrow, but not tonight. So it was for the 2004-05 NHL season Thursday night.

Most believed the season had been given its death sentence with the rejection of an owners' proposal by the players Wednesday afternoon. The proposal was roundly criticized by players, agents and analysts as reflecting the league's single-minded determination to bring the union to its knees even if it means becoming the first North American professional sports league to lose an entire season to a labor dispute.

All that remained in the wake of the rejection, it seemed, was the brief, final confrontation between the respective leaders, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow. But instead of the eyes-darting, Sergio Leone stare-down across a barren boardroom table and the quick-draw conclusion to negotiations and the season itself, there was something else altogether. A stay of execution to be sure, but beyond that, no one is quite sure.

"A collective bargaining meeting between representatives of the National Hockey League and NHL Players' Association began Thursday afternoon and finished after 10 p.m. ET. In deference to the process, there will be no comment, and no further update is expected tonight," the NHL announced. The sides will meet again Friday. "That's interesting. That's probably as good news as you could ask for coming out of today," a player rep told ESPN.com.

So tight-lipped were the two sides it's not even known if they will meet again. Although given the dire warnings from the NHL's chief negotiator, Bill Daly, that talks needed to be revived Thursday and keep going almost non-stop in order to save the season, one small movement Thursday meant the sides will meet again Friday, and so on, until the talks spontaneously combust or a deal is reached. "That's how a deal will get done," the player rep said.

What exactly has transpired in New York will no doubt launch a thousand rumors across the hockey universe. What is known is that Goodenow and Bettman rejoined the negotiating process for the first time since an exchange of proposals in Toronto Dec. 9 and Dec. 14 and began meeting at 1:30 p.m.

We also know that Goodenow told his constituents, the 730 players now scattered across the globe and with whom he communicates electronically, that he was going to New York with the express purpose of trying to extract from Bettman an explanation of why the players' last proposal couldn't be the basis for an agreement. "He's confident that our offer would work especially if you tweaked it," a player rep told ESPN.com on Thursday night.

That proposal included the players' landmark offer of an across-the-board, 24 percent rollback on all existing salaries along with modifications to salary arbitration, entry level contracts and a luxury tax. It did not contain a salary cap or any kind of cost certainty. That led the league to reject the Dec. 9 offering before making a separate offer five days later and yet another Wednesday, both of which were based on tying players' salaries to revenues.

Given the disappointment that greeted Wednesday's proposal, there seemed to be little left to discuss Thursday but the disposal of the remains of the season. And yet, the two sides continued to meet into the evening hours even after the NHL put out its news release. Analysts, observers, professional mediators, soothsayers and just about anyone else asked about the matter have insisted that somewhere between the players' "we will never accept a salary cap" and the owners' "we must have a salary cap to survive," is a workable solution. Is it possible that at the proverbial eleventh hour Bettman and Goodenow are finding that middle ground? Perhaps a luxury tax that morphs into a salary cap or vise versa or any of a hundred different permutations that might drag salaries and guarantee owners a fair shot at profitability?

Trying to decipher the nature of a meeting about which there is no real first-hand information is a mug's game. There have been lengthy meetings between the two sides at various points since the lockout began Sept. 15. But those "meetings" have often been marked by long periods of "caucusing" which is a lawyers' word for not negotiating but racking up billable hours just the same, being in the same building but not in the same room.

The very same process might have been at play Thursday. One hopes not, but hope has been in exceedingly short supply throughout the lockout. No real reason to think otherwise now, other than the belief that when staring into the abyss Goodenow and Bettman finally grasp what's at stake and step back together.

And so the prisoner sits back on his bunk, the guard's footsteps disappearing down the hall, keys clanging on the bars. Whether the season has earned just a short reprieve before the inevitable or is headed on the path towards a full pardon remains unknown -- at least for another day.

-> espn

[Lichtgestalt]

"Do you care that the NHL is expected to cancel the 2004-05 season?"

With the NHL season on the brink, we asked SportsNation: "Do you care that the NHL is expected to cancel the 2004-05 season?" Of the nearly 100,000 ESPN.com users who responded, 73 percent said, "No." Even more telling was the breakdown of voting within the 50 states. Not one state said it would care if the NHL cancelled the season.

STATE NO YES

Alabama 85% 15%

Alaska 74% 26%

Arizona 73% 27%

Arkansas 80% 20%

California 76% 24%

Colorado 62% 38%

Connecticut 72% 28%

Delaware 65% 35%

Florida 70% 30%

Georgia 76% 24%

Hawaii 83% 17%

Idaho 79% 21%

Illinois 78% 22%

Indiana 67% 33%

Iowa 80% 20%

Kansas 82% 18%

Kentucky 84% 16%

Louisiana 84% 16%

Maine 71% 29%

Maryland 73% 27%

Massachusetts 71% 29%

Michigan 58% 42%

Minnesota 69% 31%

Mississippi 86% 14%

Missouri 75% 25%

Montana 73% 27%

Nebraska 79% 21%

Nevada 75% 25%

New Hampshire 67% 33%

New Jersey 67% 33%

New Mexico 77% 23%

New York 67% 33%

North Carolina 78% 22%

North Dakota 73% 27%

Ohio 76% 24%

Oklahoma 81% 19%

Oregon 80% 20%

Pennsylvania 63% 37%

Rhode Island 73% 27%

South Carolina 80% 20%

South Dakota 78% 22%

Tennessee 78% 22%

Texas 80% 20%

Utah 80% 20%

Vermont 64% 36%

Virginia 74% 26%

Washington 79% 21%

West Virginia 78% 22%

Wisconsin 77% 23%

Wyoming 67% 33%

[thedragonlord]

So... who in North America cares about Hockey?

Nach dem Umfrage-Ergenis scheint es ja sehr vielen Nordamerikanern egal zu sein, ob in einer ihrer - angeblichen - Nationalsportarten eine Meisterschaft ausgetragen wird.

Deshalb werfe ich hier einfach mal so die Frage ein: Wieso diskutiert man in Europa so leidenschaftlich über eine Sportart/Meisterschaft, die in der Region, in der sie statt findet, anscheinend keinen mehr interessiert?