The state of hockey is deplorable however revenue is up because the Canadian dollar is up. There is NO ONE who seems to be looking out for the best interest of the game.
Basically as I see it, the powers that currently be are pitting one country against the other, the haves versus the have nots. Bad on ice officiating, conflict of interest in meting out supplementary discipline, lawsuits galore.. If you build it we will come - did i say that, what I actually meant to say was - we may come.- If we start to not protect the players better I will pick up my puck and go home...but first Mr. Cooke - here is a bonus for you.
I will suggest to you that the NHL needs to have a lot of teams that hemorrhage cash to keep the players salary cap under control. The cash cows (Toronto, Montreal, and Boston etc) of the NHL are offset with the Atlanta, Phoenix, and Floridas of the league to keep salaries down and therefore keeping the league viable in the sun belt. That is not to say I would like any fan to lose their franchise. For argument sake, if these franchises are moved to where they will sell out every night and the salaries increase as a result (cap and floor) do other teams begin to have a problem with the cap floor? It is a circular argument to be sure - much like the chicken and the egg.
We can only hope that Napoleon may be losing his grip on the BOG. The league is a joke - a laughing stock. Pretty bad when your disciplinarian has a son playing in the sport and there is ample evidence to impeach him - in a democracy. The path is clear in this case - where there is a clear documented conflict of interest - the status quo is not an option...Mario threatening to take his puck and go home because in his mind the Islanders were not punished enough - then first time an opportunity to further punish them they get nailed again (not by any means am I defending the undefendable). This is the same dude who condones having Cooke on the payroll and has him as an alternate captain. Bet before the suspension was handed down - Mario was consulted. Would not want to offend him after all-did the Penguins get Crosby the same way? Good question .
In my opinion the best thing that can be done for the state of hockey than a full cleaning house of the powers that be in New York. A fresh slate with real hockey people with transparency being mandatory in my opinion. If the league cleans up its headquarters and shows some improvement in running its operations it will be able to have better owners so the ownership fiascoes that are currently rampant in the NHL would be diminished.
It is time for the pettiness and childishness to stop - in fact it is long overdue. Please let me know what you think.
5 weeks ago
