The Ditch

After 5 and a half hours the meeting broke for din din.  The players are trying to wear the old guys down before the Board of Governors meeting tomorrow.  Hopefully their strategy of making Jacobs lose his voice will work.

There is rumor that Bettman/Fehr have been brought into the meeting after dinner.  Hopefully it isn't to just serve dessert.

Brandon Shanahan to review the hit from Parros on Jacobs.  Looked clean to me.

They did the dance instruction, they weren't in the room.

Local writers throwing b.s. all over the place about how some of the players and owners are working to bridge the gap.    Not buying any of it, owners have their projections and lines in the sand and we haven't seen any of it.   Gary and Don are out drinking together at a strip club laughing at the charade they set up as they crunch numbers between lap dances and jello shots.

I've heard that there was progress, especially with crosby and lemiueux there, but who knows what will come of it, bettman to adress the media tomorrow at 1 pm, let's hope its a start.

Lemieux was supposedly supporting the players today (conflict or dain bramaging the mental midget?).

Mario Lemieux wasn't at the meetings today, he is in New York but not at the meeting.  The Penguins other owner Ron Burkle is there and has made his presense felt.  He's been known in the past to strike deals with unions, hopefully he can help do that again.

Donald Fehr is in the building, but is waiting by the water cooler...seems to be having some trouble understanding why they don't have a fathead poster of himself there.  He's asked his son if it would be possible to put one up in Times Square pre-xmas.  Steve said "We'll work on it dad."

TSN is reporting

Both sides have resumed talks from the midtown Manhattan hotel. :

Accompanying the owners upon their return was commissioner Gary Bettman,
deputy commissioner Bill Daly, NHL lawyer Bob Batterman and [Brendan Shanahan], the NHL's
top disciplinarian.

They do not mention Donald Fehr being there . 

Local writers throwing b.s. all over the place about how some of the players and owners are working to bridge the gap.    Not buying any of it, owners have their projections and lines in the sand and we haven't seen any of it.

I'm not buying it either.  What is there, 6 owners at the meeting?  In the end it only takes 8 owners to tell the NHLPA to blow it out their a** and we're back at square one.  Anyway,  how do they bridge the gap when they were so far apart?  I'm not worried about them being 200 million dollars apart on that "make whole" thing or whatever the heck they call it because I think the NHLPA would rather give up 200 million dollars then lose 100 percent of their paychecks for the year.  But when you have the union suggesting 50-50 is ok as long as they're share can't decrease from one season to the next there's no closing any gap there.  The owners aren't going to bend on a 50-50 split of all revenue coming in.  Good or bad it's 50-50 and I doubt they'll bend even a little bit on that point.   And then you have the owners demanding no more then 5 year deals.  The players were at 9.   Nobody is budging......   not to mention the league demanding players with 1 way deals who clear waivers and playing in the AHL count against the cap.  That results in another paycut for the players, another not so good thing.

I have no doubt there was progress, but I think it would have happened regardless of who is there.

Burkle-Mario-Sid stories of unity for the sake of the game just a savvy PR move from PR conscious franchise.   Burkle along for the ride with the owners, not strong enough to bridge gaps imo, Mario is just a good face for the league.   

Hopefully circus act accomplished something, Don and Gary BFFs now?

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So far so good. No major fights broke out and they agreed to meet a couple of hours this morning before the board of governors meeting. Im still waiting for something concrete though... maybe later today, maybe not.

Read Paul Friesen's column in the Winnipeg Sun.  YeeHaw!!

Read Paul Friesen's column in the Winnipeg Sun.  YeeHaw!!

LOL...that was pretty good. Ive never read the Sun before...thanks. Good article.

Read Paul Friesen's column in the Winnipeg Sun.  YeeHaw!!

That was entertaining.

As we discussed on TSN last night. New faces help, but progress in negotiations is more based on NHL's flex on contractual rights.

That was from Dreger.

If it turns out Sidney Crosby was instrumental in saving the NHL season, I hope his legion of mean-spirited haters give the guy some credit.

This is from Adam Proteau

I am not a Crosby hater but crediting him with saving the season is a pile of crap if a deal comes through.   

I'm staying pessimistic until both sides of clowns give me a reason to think otherwise.

Owners hired Dave Bolland to rile H. Sedin up.     Sedin sounded off about the owners...too bad, he normally doesn't jump into the stoopid pile by responding to perceived insults.    If the owners actually called him stupid, that's one thing but given so many responses in writing from players about events, I think he has to understand the players haven't done themselves many favors in that regard.  

i have no idea who proteau is, but i hope he at least wiped his chin off before he tweeted that.

and a ps to adam, since i'm sure he reads these threads ;)

sycophantic comments like that are the reason many of the people u refer to join that legion.

sycophantic comments like that are the reason many of the people u refer to join that legion.

My thoughts exactly.

A writer in Pit wrote a love story (if placed in subjective context) about the Mario-Burkle-Sid holy trinity and both countries latched onto the and blew it out of proportion.   

Speaking of fun with guns, Robin Yount doesn't like Cubs coach Dale Sveum.   Yount "Cheneyed" him on a quail hunt.    Bad fall for pro athletes and firearms.

A writer in Pit wrote a love story (if placed in subjective context) about the Mario-Burkle-Sid holy trinity and both countries latched onto the and blew it out of proportion.   

Instead of just grammar and spelling, I've added a new wrinkle to my creative use of Inglish.    I omit words and let people guess what I meant.

Instead of just grammar and spelling, I've added a new wrinkle to my creative use of Inglish.    I omit words and let people guess what I meant.

STORY STORY STORY !!!  You left the word STORY out !!!  So Bob, what do I win ?????????????

I like this game !!  LOL

Your prize is that you get to hurt your head trying to read my posts.    I remain commmittted to knot proofreading.

Ferr enuff !!!  I'm a goood spellure so you'll never half a tough time reeding my thots !!!!

seeing as i proofread professionally on occassion, i may have to take out a contract on both of you

seeing as i proofread professionally on occassion, i may have to take out a contract on both of you

You write "i" twice when in fact is should be "I"  How much can I make proofreading professionally?  Just playing man, no marm intended as I mispell, bad puctuation and all most of the time