The State of Hockey In North America The players union and the owners met yesterday for the first time since the lock out began, maybe they can come to an agreement, but I doubt it. From what has leaked out from the players it sounded like a system that might work and the league might have to take, even if it didn't include a salary cap.
But when the cloud of PR crap settled it turned out the NHLPA had nothing of any interest to offer. I horribly weak salary cap, and the their big seller, a 24% salary roll back. Now maybe I have super intelligence that allows me to see things that people like Bob Goodenow can't see. But I doubt it. A salary cut of 75% is just as useless as a salary cap cut of 24%. Teams will do fantastic next year, and maybe the year after but when all the contracts start to expire we are right back where we started. A Brilliant plan that was obviously well conceived and executed… This is a perfect example of what has really got my upset during the work stoppage; a total lack of respect shown by the players to anyone.

The first slap in the face provided by the players was not directed against me the fan, it was directed at the players making a living in Europe. The NHL players sat here and told their fans we can't possibly play for a group of owners that want to restrict our salaries. Fair enough, the owners are saying they are going to artificially restrict the amount of money you can hope to make. So 200+ NHL players take off for Europe, they give up their million dollar salaries to play for hundred thousand dollar salaries all because they want to keep in shape and play hockey. Am I the only one that saw a huge shift in priorities here? Here is what I'm hearing from the players "We won't stand for you restricting our million dollar salaries so we will go to Europe and restrict our own salaries while you sort it out". So there they are in Europe because 4 - 6 million isn't enough to live, while they are there they steal jobs from players who were actually playing hockey to put food on the table. Yea lots of respect shown there, Forsberg you are exempt from my scorn (he quit the NHL and won’t come back even if there is hockey this year), as is any player who has only been in the league for a year or is making the league minimum or close to it.

So European players got their slap in the face, now comes the encore performance. The IMG player agent group decided to get their players together for a couple exhibition games, there are big names including Tie Domi, Sergei Federov, Anson Carter, Kris Draper, Martin Brodeur, Sundin, and more. All to be played in Europe??? What about the North American fans that have supported the NHL and the players forever? We don't deserve to see some hockey? Its not bad enough all the quality players fled to Europe to plunder and pillage hockey jobs, but now when someone puts together a traveling road team to do exhibitions you take them to Europe too? All the North American fans really appreciate that; we appreciate everything you have done during this lock out to show us you actually give a damn about us, and hockey in North America.
Thank you.