{"id":6803,"date":"2012-11-04T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-11-04T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6803"},"modified":"2012-11-04T07:28:04","modified_gmt":"2012-11-04T12:28:04","slug":"gloomy-prospects-for-nhl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/11\/04\/gloomy-prospects-for-nhl-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed prospects for a partial NHL season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

That awful empty feeling. Photo: chrissthegirl<\/a>, CC some rights reserved<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

It’s a trying time to be a hockey fan.<\/p>\n

As David Sommerstein reported in mid-October, a stand-off between owners and players<\/a> has lead to no games and frustrations galore.<\/p>\n

CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada<\/a>\u00a0has been a cultural\u00a0institution<\/a> dating back to TV broadcasts in 1952. (And radio broadcasts before that, starting in 1931.)<\/p>\n

Straight-man Ron MacLean is the current host – along with frequently controversial Don Cherry, of “Coach’s Corner” fame.<\/p>\n

Love him or hate him, Cherry is known Canada-wide for his critics-be-damned opinions and his flamboyant (eye-popping?) suits.<\/p>\n

Speaking Thursday on\u00a0CBC’s\u00a0Metro Morning<\/em>\u00a0radio show<\/a> with host Matt Galloway Cherry had this to say about the current impasse:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m betting, I\u2019d say no [NHL season]\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the same interview, Cherry says criticism of\u00a0NHL commissioner Gary Betttman<\/a> is misplaced:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201c[The owners] had a vote at the start\u2026 30 said yes [to the] lockout. It wasn\u2019t Bettman. If they had said no lockout, there wouldn\u2019t have been a lockout. He\u2019s the guy everybody goes after, it\u2019s ridiculous. If 20 owners walked up to him right now and said \u2018we\u2019re going back,’ they\u2019d go back.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By Friday another shoe dropped: the feel-good, “heritage” event of the season – the Winter Classic<\/a> – was cancelled.<\/p>\n

Though it only began in 2008, the outdoor game would would have featured the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings – the first time a Canadian team played. This was all set for Jan 1 2013 at Ann Arbour’s Michigan Stadium (AKA “The Big House”) where it had been hoped<\/a> the game would set an attendance record.<\/p>\n

ESPN called the development “the darkest day yet” in this year’s bleak prospects and detailes why the game was a really big deal for all participants in\u00a0this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that’s now a write-off.<\/p>\n

The owner of the Ottawa Senators,\u00a0Eugene Melnyk, made the news earlier in the week – and most likely got himself into hot water with NHL officials – with comments made on Toronto radio station The Fan 590. (Owners are not authorized to comment on negotiations.)\u00a0As reported by the Ottawa Citizen<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely disappointed, like any fan, of where we are,\u201d Melnyk said. \u201cWe should be playing hockey by now. Everybody knows it, and we\u2019re not. Everybody can fingerpoint all they want, but at the end of the day, I don\u2019t think anybody cares who\u2019s at fault. All they know if we\u2019re not playing hockey, why aren\u2019t we playing hockey?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No less than President Barack Obama has said much the same thing. As reported in the Washington Post, on an Oct 24th appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he reminded owners and players of their debt to hockey fans<\/a> and ended with: “Y\u2019all should be able to figure this out. Get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the glimmer-of-hope department, according to an Associated Press report<\/a>\u00a0on CBC,\u00a0tentative talks were re-opened on Saturday:<\/p>\n

For the first time since Oct. 18, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and players’ association special counsel Steve Fehr agreed to meet at a secret location Saturday afternoon. The two have been talking by phone during the week and found enough common ground to get together face-to-face.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This post was begun Friday morning and has needed updates all weekend long. Early Sunday morning the lastest word was that Saturday’s talks went on past midnight. According to USA Today<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHL Players’ Association special counsel Steve Fehr were still talking in an undisclosed location as Saturday turned to Sunday. That is a big change from past meetings, when the sides met at either of the headquarters, talked briefly and held news conferences afterward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to David Pagnotta<\/a>, editor in chief of the Fourth Period (“Hockey’s Lifestyle Magazine”):<\/p>\n

This should be an intriguing weekend for everyone connect to the sport. If you’re a hockey fan, you’ll want to pay attention.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those who care, what do you think? Can the owners and players resolve their dispute in time to salvage a partial season?<\/p>\n

If not, will a lost season detract from your interest in that sport?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a trying time to be a hockey fan. As David Sommerstein reported in mid-October, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[7070,7072,7068,7069,7071,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6810,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803\/revisions\/6810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}