Hey Caps Fans - I'm Excited How About You!

Okay so I was being sarcastic there with my headlines Caps fans - I mean right now unless the Capitals pick it up about three or four notches the only thing we'll have to be excited about is the draft lottery.  The list of things wrong with the Washington Capitals right now is just too long to cover it all.  As James Mirtle tweeted during the middle of last night's 4-1 no point, third straight loss: "The Capitals are a mess."  While there is the total economy of words in Mirtle's tweet that only a 140 character limit can compel, not much else needs can really be said.  Of course I will try, why because I'm sitting here "musing" like I do in the early morning as I start to shake the cobwebs from my mind and get rolling in a productive manner, so there's just not much else I usually do at 04:48 in the AM... So how about our Washington Capital's?

As of this AM it's official and undeniable, the Capitals are and will be the last team in the NHL to earn a standings point, they still haven't done that.  Nobody likes to get off to a slow start to a pro sports season, but when each game is twice as important as they usually are because the season is shortened, it's even more painful.  As one tweet I saw last night after the Capitals game said this year a three game losing streak is like loosing six games in a row, that's basically an accurate statement.  That's why we can't take any solace or comfort in the fact that the Capitals are in pretty good company as far as getting off to a slow start, other teams picked to do well this year that are also off to slow starts are the: LA Kings 0-2-1, Calgary Flames 0-2-1, New York Rangers 1-3-0, Florida Panthers 1-3-0, Philadelphia Flyers 1-3-0, Detroit Red Wings 1-2-0, and the Carolina Hurricanes 1-2-0, yep these seven teams and the Capitals are all off to a less than 0.500 start to a shortened season.  Feel any better? Nope?  I know I don't and I sure hope the Capitals team doesn't either, there's absolutely no time or place for any sort of failure to make changes and take action to improve their game in this 48 game season.  I think my "favorite" post game quote last night came from Coach Oates: "I would say some of our mistakes are pure effort. It’s very upsetting. Not pushing the panic button but obviously it’s upsetting."  Last night on twitter I indicated I wished that Troy Brouwer would have just been quit and think about what he was saying, and just play harder.  I stand by those tweets in these morning hours.  Brouwer is one of the Caps NHLPA representatives.  As such over the past couple of months he's been involved in the "Lockout" and had a few things to say about what other players said, etc. during the said Lockout.  That was all fair and in keeping with that role.  Now the lockout's over and we have a season again, and Brouwer is the only guy in the Caps locker room with a Stanley Cup ring.  To me that means leading - leading by example - not by calling out everyone, including himself - but Hendricks, Perrault, and Crabb, it's just my opinion and I acknowledge that Brouwer is the only player in the room with a ring right now. I just think tat it's time for everyone on the team to take responsibility for the horrible start, pointing fingers, even if you have at least one pointed to yourself doesn't really help or do anything. Sure its pro sports so there's always media looking for post-game quotes, and yes we all hate the Sidney Crosby-esque "white toast quotes" like the ones that Backstrom voiced last evening:

Backstrom: "I think it’s embarrassing the way we played, we’ve really got to regroup."

Last night and this AM my reaction to all the numerous quotes I keep seeing in blog posts and MSM articles from Brouwer is pretty basic.  I know he's a great player - really I do and I root for him every minute he's out on the ice, but this morning reading those quotes all I hear is the sound effect they make when the teacher is talking on a "Charlie Brown TV Special" on the Hallmark channel and the only visual I see is of him making a mental mistake and getting that delay of game penalty to put the Caps two men down at 2:16 into the second period with the game still tied 0-0.  All those juicy quotes and not one, not one taking personal responsibility for an action that seems to me was the catalyst for what changed the game.  Sure it was something that should not have changed the game, sure the Caps killed off the first full minute of the 5-3 and seemed like they might just use that adversity as something that could be chewed on as fuel to drive them to maintain an acceptable or better energy level the rest of the game.  But alas it wasn't to be.  Look a minute and half plus is a LONG 5 on 3, no question about that; and the defensive paring that was out there for the first Canadians goal - Carlson and Alzner - appear to honestly be more than willing to take full responsibility for their failings in these first three games.  However, I just felt it strange to be the guy giving so many "juicy" quotes about how "pathetic" and "emabarrassing" everyone but three players were last night to the press without making a point that Brouwer himself was the guy who put a team that seems like it doesn't yet have a single defenseman in "game shape" two men down for over a minute.  Enough about that...

I just touched on what I think is the biggest problem the Capitals have right now.  It hasn't looked like any of the Capitals efensemen are even close to game shape yet; and at least one has openly admitted he doesn't yet feel comfortable with the changes to the system - while there hasn't been a game where every one of the Caps defensemen have been caught out of position at least once.  Last night's game, for all the embarrassment of the four goal second period, was, from a goals against perspective, the Capitals best defensive effort yet.  You read that correctly - game 1: 6 goals against, Caps never led despite having the first three power play man advantages and they fell behind in the first 10:00 of the game; game 2: 4 goals against, Caps scored first at 10:02 of the first period and held the lead for just 2:32 before the Jets evened the score and then went ahead never looking back; game 3: scoreless first period, followed by giving up two power play goals early in the second period to the Canadians who then never looked back.  Well if I was being a total optimist, like I prefer to be I'd say from a defensive perspective, the "trend is our friend."  Unfortunately, in a lockout shortened season the slope of the curve isn't nearly steep enough and as Nick Backstrom said, the Caps need to regroup - and regroup fast. 

Tonight they are in New Jersey to face the Devils who are 2-0-0 so far this season.  Seems that Brodeur guy might b as ageless as that Selanne guy is out in SoCal.  Fourty year old  "Marty" is now 2-0 in his first two starts and snatched the 120th shutout of his 20 year career in the Devils home opener on Tuesday night.  His SV% so far this season 0.977 and his GAA is 0.50 - that puts him number one in those NHL statistics this AM.  So the key to tonight's game for the Capitals will be two things, IMO, and those are two things they haven't done for a full sixty minutes yet this season:  1) a relentless forecheck to keep pressure on Brodeur - not easily done with the latest apparent crackdown on goalie interference as we saw last evening against Carey Price ... weakest goalie interference call yet against Matt Hendricks, IMO .... and 2) high energy backcheck and quick transitions out of their defensive zone with crisper passing. 

My views on the following:

A) Oates' system:  It's the right one for the Capitals and any other team with the number of players on their team with these high skill levels.  That said it's much more unforgiving wen a team doesn't have their timing down, or doesn't execute it well, or as we've seen doesn't work very hard for a full sixty minutes.  Right now the system isn't the problem or issue, conditioning and time playing it together are.

B) Ovi on right wing: Is it the answer?  I don't know.  I do know that both Ovechkin and Oates seem to agree for Ovechkin to get back to a 40+ goal pace AND be the more defensively responsible player a team Captain of an elite level team needs to be, Ovechkin's game needs to continue to evolve, become more creative and be less predictable.  So for now, I think its a great idea, it forces Ovie out of his comfort zone, when he flies down the left side, "muscle memory" seems to kick in and even guys like Joe Corvo can anticipate what he's going to do.  Right now though as part of the transition, I think Ovie's challenge is that in order to "get it (these changes) down" he needs to be able to practice against a big, fast skilled defenseman and as I said neither Hamrlik or Alzner seem to be in game shape.

C) Caps Goalie - Who Should It Be Now?:  Look I don't think the issue in any of the three losses were either Holtby or Neuvirth.  That said, last night I thought Neuvirth played better than Holtby did in either of the first two games.  I'd be giving both guys their starts, but tonight in New Jersey and come back with Holtby on Sunday, I'd go with Neuvy, unless he said he's rather face the Sabres on Sunday..  The schedule is just to fast paced to not have two "goto's" in goal fr a team this season.

Everything else is just noise right now.  The Caps are at the bottom, literally of the NHL standings, they are better than that.  They know it, we know it, they just have to go do it now.

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

NHL Opening Day, Caps Travel To Tampa to Open Season

Well it's finally here - opening day for the "2013" NHL regular season. The season starts today with 13 games - since the Capitals open on the road this season, it's definitely a day and evening when having the NHL Center Ice package "might" be worth it.  The only teams NOT playing in games today are: Buffalo, San Jose, Calgary, and Edmonton; all of whom open their seasons tomorrow; Calgary and Buffalo fans get rewarded for their patience with a home opener. The National TV opening games today are Pittsburgh at Philadelphia  on NBC at 3PM EST in the US on NBC, and Ottawa at Winnipeg on CBC at 3PM EST in Canada.

There's already a fair amount of trash talk between the Pens and Flyyers' fan bases on #Twitter for what should be a pretty good game.  A game where frankly in the long run, those teams overall fortunes are likely to rest right with where they were at the end of last season - the answer to the questions: a) how, in both team's cases, their starting/#1 goaltender will play throughout the entire season and playoffs and; b) how their #4 through #6 blueliners will compliment their top 3 and help keep the puck out of their net. 

While it likely won't be of more interest to Capitals fans than the Pens-Flyers game is, the Senators - Jets match up should be.  Given that 1) the shortened season, 2) the Jets are still in the Southeast Division, and 3) the Jets will be Capitals opponent in their Home Opener Tuesday night, we Caps fans should be very interested in today's game in Winnipeg; but in the nature of the Southeast Division we likely won't care about it as much as we should.  To me the big question marks for the Jets this season are: a) will their off season moves "up front" yield the results they need; b) will Ondrej Pavelec handle the compressed schedule and extra travel the Jets have compared to their SE Division peers well enough to play well in at least  35 games and if not can Al Montoya find enough of a "groove" to make up for that? and c) can their blueline corps outside of Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Bogosian rise to the occasion and play well enough assuming questions a and b are answered positively to keep them in the playoff hunt in what looks like it could be a very improved Southeast Division?  For Ottawa, the questions this year for me center on a) will Erik Karlsson's fourth NHL season be as awesome as the 21 year olds' third season was? b) how will the team with what seems to be the biggest "gender gap" handle the shortened season and the fact this may well be both Daniel Alfredsson and Sergei Gonchar's NHL "Swan Song" and c) will #1 goalie Craig Anderson return to the form he had at his best seasons (SV% ~0.93x) or will he merely be a good to very tender as he was last season (SV% ~0.915)?  The 31 year old Anderson's career statistics and statistics from seasons where he's had to "shoulder" 65% or more of the load suggest the latter rather than the former.  Given last season the only Northeast Division team that Anderson had a better than career average SV% (0.913) against for the regular season was Buffalo, and the Senators just managed to be the eight seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, this seems an important thing to watch.  Anderson's backups 21 year old Robin Lehrner and 26 year old Ben Bishop have a total of 36 games NHL experience between them so it's fair to say, they are untested and unproven as the season opens. 

 Other interesting match ups today to me are: Chicago at Los Angeles, my gut tells me the Western Conference regular season points leader will either be: the Black Hawks, Kings or Blues so any games between these three teams are of interest to me; Rangers at Bruins, I' a sucker for a "classic original six match up and the Rangers are tremendously deep, their fast paced game is fun to watch, and who doesn't want to see just how good Rick Nash can be on a team where he's not the only superstar? Detroit at Saint Louis is of interest to me because: a) I want to see how the ed Wings start their first season in 20 without Nick Lindstrom and b) I want to see if the Blues are going to be as good as I think they probably will be this season.  The Avalanche at the Wild because you know I want to see just how much the Wild's investment in Parise and Suter will result in changes to their game.  Finally, Carolina at Florida because it's a Southeast Division match up, I'm a Capitals fan, and I just want to confirm my gut view, its unlikely the Panthers will repeat as Southeast Champs. But hey who doesn't like the Panthers current entry splash screen to their website "Season Tickets for as low as $7 per game." I could go for that even more than the Senators free beers at their Home Opener... 

#BeatTheBolts ....

Now what about "our" Washington Capitals' season opener down in the Tampa Bay Times Forum against the Tampa Bay Lightning? Well lets start with the Lightning's home opener is a sellout despite them not making the playoffs last season and that other ... you know ... uh ... lockout thing, so I expect the crowd will be into it and the Capitals, who know every game counts even more in this shortened regular season, will look to take the crowd out of the game early on, if possible.  Second, I will be surprised if Capitals defenseman Tom Poti is NOT in the lineup tonight for the thirst time in over two seasons, as he continues to work on what could be "comeback of the decade."  Poti's long, and unlikely road back to a roster spot, can't be anything but insanely inspirational and motivating for his teammates.  Also in a game where the opposing team has guys named Lecavalier, Stamkos, and St Louis, having a "position" player D-Man with better than average skills and 808 NHL games experience in the lineup seems prudent. Having Roman Hamrlik, who was Tampa Bay's first draft pick EVER as well as the first pick overall in the 1992 NHL entry draft and who has 1,490 NHL games on his resume - assuming he is in as good or better shape then the alternatives who in my mind are: Erskine, Schultz or Hillen, also seems to make sense to me for a lot of reasons.

Relevant "quick hits" about tonight's game in West Central Florida:  Alex Ovechkin has 28 goals and 62 points in 47 career games against Tampa Bay.  Steven Stamkos had five goals and eight points in six games last season against Washington. The Lightning won all three home games last season against the Capitals.

The Capitals' lines at Friday’s morning skate remained the same as they have been all week.
Johansson-Backstrom-Ovechkin
Wolski-Ribeiro-Brouwer
Chimera-Beagle-Ward
Hendricks-Perreault-Fehr-Crabb

The defense pairings:
Alzner-Carlson
Hamrlik-Green
Erskine-Schultz
Poti-Hillen.

So from my post above, you can see my view is to go with the third defense pairing of Poti - Hillen if you want to keep those pairings though I'd probably go with Poti - Schultz as they used to play well together or Poti - Erskine if I thought the game was going to get scrappy.  Of course the issue with a any current option for "Third Pair" is they are all left shooting defenseman.  Another relevant thought and consideration related to trying to take the crowd out of the game early is the fact that as Peerless notes, Tampa Bay gave up a lot of goals last season, though they did beat Washington all three times the Caps played them in Tampa.  So the Tampa Bay players I'm looking at most closely during the first period are 28 year old newcomer Matt Carle and 22 year old  Victor Hedman, for Tampa Bay to turn things around and made the playoffs this season, its essential these two blueliners and 35 year old netminder Mathieu Garon anchor the Lightening defense and keep the puck out of the net better than the Lightning did last season.  Oh and yes I know many others thinks that the Tampa Bay goaltending solution has to be newcomer Anders Lindback but the talented 22 year old Swede from the same hometown (Gavle) as Caps #1 center Nicklas Backstrom, has just 39 games of NHL experience, and is still growing into his 6' 6" frame and NHL game in my view.  I do expect that Lindback will start in net for Tampa Bay tonight though.

The keys in my view are:

For the Capitals: 1) Solid, smart play - don't let Tampa Bays second, third and fourth liners beat them. 2) Pressure down low on either Garon or Lindbeck but especially Lindback.  and 3) Play the new system - out of their end fast; aggressive,  but smart forecheck, and shot the puck from smart, not dumb angles and spots in the Bolts end of the ice.

For the Lightning: 1) Score first and keep the energy level going.  2) Smart defense - force the Capitals to shot he puck from places they'd rather not do so. 3) Either excellent play and production from their big three (Stamkos, Lecavalier, and St Louis) and at least one goal from secondary scoring.

Players to ponder:

Capitals: Mike Green.  At various times in his career Mike Green has been a "Bolt Killer/Cutter" - remember Tampa Bay was he place where Green got his NHL record 8th goal in his 8th game in a row.  He's also been known to score clutch goals to win one goal games - something that Tampa Bay led the league in last season.  Can Green return to his earlier form in what should be a more open system than the Caps payed under Dale Hunter last season?  To me this question is as relevant when asked of Green as it is when asked of Ovechkin.

Tampa Bay:  Marty Saint Louis.  Basically, this is usually my answer when the Caps meet the Bolts.  St Louis is one of my favorite players to watch in the NHL.  I believe he's often underrated and overlooked so I always focus on and ponder him.  The truth is though tonight the Bolts player to ponder is really either Benoit Pouliot or Ryan Malone as the difference of whether the Capitals or Lightning come away from this game with two points is probably dependant on whether one of those two score or not.

Wow, it's just so nice to have NHL hockey back, I don't know what else to say except for this:

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

Hockey Is Back ... Finally ... and Thankfully

It's been Eighty (83) days since my last post/rant on this blog.  I'm glad hockey is back, and I will be restarting more regular posts here, though I do not expect to make posts daily or even necessarily after every game.  I've resolved though to post/blog regularly on this blog at least twice weekly between now and the Stanley Cup finals.  I may end up posting more shorter blogs after a game or event during the season, however, I'm going to try and have something cogent and worthwhile to say at least twice a week here on my usual hockey musings and "fan-boy" stuff with regards to the Capitals here - probably every Tuesday and Thursday or Saturday weekly.  I've decided I've missed blogging, I enjoy it as a creative outlet.  I've also decided that since this blog has a following that is mainly hockey/NHL/Washington Capitals Centric, since that's been the main content in the 600+ blog posts over the past four years to just continue to keep this blog "hockey-centric".

I have another blog "In Peace and War" that was meant to be U.S. Merchant Mariner, and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy centric when I started it that I have benignly neglected for the sixteen months since I started it.  My plan with that blog is to generate and make a post on those subjects at least once a week (nominally on every Wednesday), I'll also be inviting other USMMA grads and Marine Industry friends and acquaintances to use the venue to post their thoughts and content, if they do not have access to better, more widely acknowledged current marine industry trade media (e.g. gCaptain, Maritime Executive, etc.)  Simply put, the title of the blog, which is the motto on the U.S. Merchant Mariner's flag is what has generally brought and generated regular traffic from search engines, etc so far, given I've only made ten (10) blog posts there in the seventy (70) weeks since the blog has been up.

Finally, I'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks and how "back into" blogging I get over the next couple of weeks.  Since I started constraining my posts her on "Mark's Musings" to mainly NHL & Capitals items, I've begun to miss the ability to "muse" on other subjects relevant to what I think of as "typical middle aged guy" sorts of things and thoughts.  I'm "noodling" on the idea of trying to capture those thoughts and topics and put them on a blog that is centered on those sorts of things a different set of days twice a week.

The above is really just an set of background stuff in case you are a regular follower and have started to wonder what's going on with this blog as it's basically been dark (like the NHL season) since October.... Now as they say - On with the show.

CAPTAIN OVECHKIN IS BACK AND LIKELY BETTER THAN EVER ----

I don't know about you but following a lot of the message board chatter and blog post comments during the #Lockout, I certainly got tired of people a) taking sides in general, especially so many obviously uninformed and biased folks taking sides in general, and b) so, so many people somehow equating how, what and why players they liked and/or disliked did or said during the #Lockout to be seeds for rants by them against players they did not like.  In particular, and remember this is a FAN blog, not a Journalist's blog, so many @Ovi8 haters venting bile against my team - the Washington Capitals' Captain.  To those that just ranted, and ranted that they hoped Ovechkin would just go away and stay in Russia, after he said he might do that if the results of the negotiations ended up with his current contract being invalidated or otherwise affected, I say what planet do you really live on?  I say that for very simple rationale reasons, here they are:

1) If you were in the same situation Ovechkin was when he made those, even handed, and likely pretty unemotional, straight talking, genuine comments, wouldn't you have said the exact same thing?  Yes, every player in the NHL, even the "grinders" make lots more than the average upper middle income season ticket holder, let alone the average middle income fan.  However, the average career length of a player in the NHL is substantially less than pretty much any other profession, other than other professional athletes.  Further, any injury, even seemingly minor ones, that might slow them down even a quarter of a stride, etc. could be enough to mean they are no longer able to play the game at the exceptionally high level required to be competitive in the most talented, highest level/quality of play league in their sport. When that happens, for reasons that may, and often very well are, entirely outside of their control, their career earnings' potential is drastically reduced.  In other words, professional athletes, ALL of them, know the simple truth is, they need to make it while they can.  In Ovechkin's case, and the haters will hate and spew as much bile as they normally do for me saying so, I think it's even more justified for him to say what he said.  Here's why: i) his entry into the league was slowed by the last lockout and that, in my opinion, no doubt cost him money and took away from his time here in the NHL - at age just 27 years of age to have had your earnings ; ii) the contract he is playing under was negotiated and signed in the middle of this last CBA, and it's not a contract that seeks to "get around the rules" (e.g. no end of contract "tack on cheap years", no signing and signing bonusright befor the end of the current CBA, etc.)  He had every reason to believe the cntract would be honored for its full term.  Yetat the time he made that statment, things were looking 50/50 for it being otherwise.

2) Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin, Weber, Kopitar, Richards, etc. - the stars of today's NHL - wether we admit it as fans or not - they are why we go to see games.  Sure there are die hard fans in every city but the stars and the amazing athleticism and moves they make when they play "the world's fastest major sport" are why 2/3rds or 20 of the 30 NHL teams basically sellout every game.  I mean sure I like and root, in a big, big way all "the grinders" etc. but I have season tickets because I want to see what sort of "sick" play that only four or five humans on the planet can even contemplate, let alone make, that I've come to expect @ovi8 make at virtually one out of two Capitals games I attend.  I expect the same can be said by sason ticket holding fans about their own team's star players in virtually very NHL city.  Without Ovechkin or Kovalchuk or Crosby or ...   the game wouldn't be as exciting or fun to watch.  Sure the game is bigger than any one player, even Gretzky says that, but to fail to admit the "water level" of the NHL wasn't lowered when a superstar leaves the NHL, is in my opinion intellectually dishonest.

3) Most people ranting about Ovchkin's commets - where were they coming from?  From what I could tell they just for their own reasons are indeed "Ovi haters".  They're out there.  Just like there are Crosby Haters and Ovi Lovers (like me) and Crosby Lovers and Malkin Lovers and Haters, and ... the list goes on.  There's nothing the guy could have said or done they wouldn't have commented negatively on.  And for those that talked about how Crosby's comments on Hamrlik were classier and more articulate, I say three things: i) get a grip and be real; ii) how many languages do you speak? and iii) most people sound a lot more professional and articulate when they converse in their first langague then a second langague; and iv) I think you probably really think the reason Crosby didn't go play in Europe is loyalty vice the truth which is that he couldn't easily get insured, and you're likely as naive as you are foolish.

Okay enough of that, other than taking a look at what and why there likely was a #Lockout and during a slow hockey week this coming coff season, this blog is jut going to be forward looking and all about hockey as it's being played on the ice for the rest of this NHL season.  I'm quite bullish about the Caps new head coach and the team that is coming back.  I truly can't wait for the home opener, of course it would be nice if we knew when that was.

In the meantime...

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

And the Insanity Continues - Four Weeks and Counting ---

Maybe I should have just titled this blog post, "this month's rant" but hey I really don't expect anyone to make it through to the end so let me give you the BLUF - bottom line up front:  a) the NHL's last offer to the NHLPA stinks as anything other than a starting point for reasonable discussions;b) if you were a player you wouldn't take it, I know I wouldn't; c) the latest PR campaign by the NHL to turn public opinion against the NHLPA is morally reprehensible and ALL fans should be insulted by it; d) as such I believe all fans should use every available outlet, in particular social media to let the NHL staff and Owners know they still hold the owners responsible for the LOCKOUT and the fact their henchmen Buttman and Daly aren't negotiating in good faith is wrong/stinks, etc. Now onto my rant with more details in case you want some sarcasm, etc. that you might find humor in since you don't have hockey to watch and the Nationals have been eliminated from MLB post-season play.

Well, last week the league - you know Gary Buttman and Bill Daly - finally put a reasonable initial counter-offer on the table to counter the reasonable initial offer the NHLPA has had on the table since July.  That was good news and we fans immediately got optimistic that progress might be quickly made and we might be able to attend an NHL game before January 1, 2013.  Alas it now appears that optimism was totally misplaced and the League - Buttman and Daly had no intention of using that as a starting point to negotiating in good faith and providing we abused hockey fans with the sport we crave.  Nope, not at all. Instead, what they wanted to do based on the events since the meeting on October 18th - that one hour long, grueling dialogue of emotionally draining, stressful attempt at compromise on their part, in the service of the Billionaire (or nearly so) owners , was to use it as a starting point for a PR war against the players that who after this ludicrousity is settled, are --- their product. 

You see ranging from the immediate press conference he held in front of a black background (am I the only one who see's the physical resemblance between Buttman at that press conference and "Barnabas Collins" in those old "Dark Shadows reruns?) to the ongoing self-serving portrayal of the "fairness" of the NHL's latest and  "best we can do" - so it's basically in negotiating speak a "best and final" offer; the NHL has been conducting a very urgent and concerted effort to make it sound like the players are being unreasonable now.  How crazy is that?  The NHLPA has had a reasonable starting point for negotiating a settlement on the table SINCE JULY.  The NHLPA wanted to start negotiating during the latter part of last season to avoid a lockout.  The NLPA has indicated a willingness since July and reiterated it with their three counter-proposals to move to a 50/50 split in a fair and reasonable way over time that honors all current contracts.  The League (is it really the League or is it these two wingnuts - Buttman and Daly - who fine anyone "on their side that voices a contrary opinion, call the Red Wings if you wonder what I'm talking about here.  Wait a minute, never mind they won't answer you anymore.

Let's be clear yes this is a battle between millionaires (the players) and billionaires (the owners) - no question there, this isn't your traditional labor dispute between a large group of people making between 40 and 100K and a couple of CEO's and their boards making millions.  That said, the players didn't put guns at these owners heads over the past 5 or 6 years and force them to sign the current contracts they have.  The owners did that on their own competing with each other for the services of the "best of the best" so they could own the team that held the Stanley Cup and reap all the financial and egotistical rewards and benefits that provides them and their organizations.  Sure some players play for 20 seasons in the NHL like Chris Chelios but many, many others have short careers - a lot like Brian Pothier and Tom Poti have careers shortened by injuries sustained during games.  Games that are played for our entertainment and games that provide the revenue that is being fought over.  Games that over the past NHL CBA generated revenues that have grown over 200% since that deal was struck and that the players were entitled to 57% of under the last CBA.  Before you scream "57%" incredulously, remember that 57% was a HUGE rollback and concession by "the players" last time.  Also remember since they agree to it, EVERYONE, has profited and benefited.  For the owners and players the revenue pool has grown to over $3Billion from ~$1.5B - since 2006 - that's huge growth; much better I'd postulate than any investment in almost any fan's 401K - and while the players have reaped 57% of that revenue there are ~1500 players sharing in their part of the pool; while on the owners side there are between 70 and 150 sharing in their 43% and as far as Capital gains go in addition to the increased ongoing revenues most of those owners now also own franchises worth A LOT more than the teams they owned in 2004-2005.

My point is simple - from a players perspective - pretty much any player in the NHLPA, the deal that Buttman and Dudley put on the table - STINKS.  That's right as anything other than a reasonable starting offer, it's a joke.  There is NOTHING in that deal that would or should entice any of the World's best European Players to come across the ocean and continue to enable the NHL to be what it has been up to this current LOCKOUT. (This is NOT a STRIKE - this is OWNERS depriving or attempting to deprive the best ice hockey players in the world - the ability to make a fair living and enable them (the owners) to renege on legal contracts they have signed over the last five years with those same players.)  There is also nothing in the league's last proposal that should keep the best North American players here playing for the NHL instead of "spreading the wealth" and raising the level of play in all those European Leagues where many NHL'ers are playing right now to either make a living or keep in shape.  Nothing at all on the part of the league.  If the NHLPA were to accept this deal, the only reason to play in the NHL vice the KHL, the Swedish Elite League, etc. is again you and me - a larger market of affluent fans here in North America.  In short, what i'm saying is the deal as currently offered to the NHLPA by Buttman and Daly is, in both the mid and longer term detrimental to the quality of product the NHL will put on the ice.  That's why if I were the Monumental Sports and Entertainment, MSG or any of the other 30 NHL Owners I'd be working very hard to use my Board of Governors vote and influence to show BOTH Buttman and Daly - the door.  As my dear departed father used to say - it's time to give these guys their walking papers - this is the third lockout that Buttman has choreographed, FANS DON'T FORGET THAT!  It is the reason to legitimately really dislike this guy and everything he stands for.  Whether, you have a son who plays hockey and aspires to make it to the NHL or you just have a sense of basic decency and fairness recognize that Mr. Buttman has done nothing over his tenure as the Commissioner of the NHL that hasn't been grounded in either serving his own ego or feeding the baser instincts of his collective masters (the owners), in particular their egos and greed.  Buttman is smart no doubt about it - his PR victories this past week make that clear.  But smart is NOT decent, moral, or fair.  In fact i doubt those words ever enter in Buttman and Daly's minds when they are "negotiating."

So here's where I'll reiterate some words from an interview between Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun that were reposted on PuckDaddy as I think they are "dead nuts on":

"Two questions of note from the Garrioch interview, including this one that's frankly leading the witness a bit: 

QMI: Why does the league not want to honour the deals that were signed?
FEHR: "They want to pay less money. That's all. It's really very simple: 'We've agreed to pay to the dollar all the contracts we've signed.' We've now decided that's more money than we'd like to pay.' The reason we made the last proposal the way we did was simply because they want to move toward 50-50. The players have already indicated they are willing to do that over time. The question is: Should you agree to honour the contracts you signed between now and then? Players think that's a straight-forward thing to do and not an unusual thing to do. It's sort of the way everybody does business." 

The "make whole" provision the NHL proposed tries to give the owners what they want (an immediate reduction in player costs) and the players what they want (the full value of their contracts, through deferred payment). No one can blame the players for being suspicious or mistrustful about the League's proposal, because the NHL has done little to earn that trust in this negotiation or through its actions back in 2005. 

That said, Nick Cotsonika nailed it: This was a path for the NHLPA to achieve its primary objective, and "they could have proposed that it come out of the owners' share instead. They didn't." 

The players deserve the full value of their contracts, and any NHL proposal that doesn't achieve that is garbage. But there's no question the League's latest salvo showed a desire to fulfill that obligation through some creative accounting; it's just a matter of whether the numbers add up and who pays for it. Which is why the NHLPA should build off that idea.  

It has potential.
• This was also interesting, regarding the PR victory for the League this week in gaining major sympathy from the fans: 

QMI: What's your message to fans who have spent the past couple of days calling players "greedy" after the 50-50 offer from the league?
FEHR: "It's pretty hard to treat seriously the notion that the athletes, who are the only people who anybody comes to watch, that they would be greedy in the face of a 24% reduction in their pay last time; billions of dollars went to the owners, not the players; seven years of record revenues that was more than anybody thought. The result of all that success is for the owners to say, 'OK, now we want to renegotiate all the contracts again and we want to lower them.' My message to the fans is: I don't think that characterization hits the facts very well. Hockey players are pretty down-to-earth people. That's why fans like and identify with them. They want to do the right thing. The right thing here happens to be proceeding in a way which is not merely, 'Oh the owners asked for billions of dollars I guess we have to give it to them because who are we? Hockey players.' " 

Fehr is completely right here. 

It's been stunning to witness fans and media turn off their brains and swallow up the NHL's talking points out of an insatiable desire to have an 82-game schedule. There's been way too much "oh, they went 50/50, take the deal boys!"; it's a sentiment that exists without regard for the contractual concessions the players would have to make, the revenue sharing system and other considerations that make "50/50" an unbalanced deal.
We ask these men to sacrifice their bodies on a nightly basis. We ask them to sweat and fight and bleed, to show resolve that many of us couldn't imagine having in pressure situations. 

And then we expect them to fold like origami when the League finally makes a mature, quasi-equitable proposal? 

Again, it's a credit to Bettman and the NHL (and Frank Luntz) that the proposal and the PR blitz worked this week. But like Fehr said: If you're a "greedy players" person, that characterization doesn't hit the facts very well."

So I say NHL Fans - go forth and light up the social media and the web from Twitter, to Facebook, to TSN.CA to any and all outlets including NHL.COM to let the owners of the NHL that you know how cray and stupid and disingenuous Buttman and Daly's PR campaign is and that YOU the fans want NHL hockey back on the ice and NOW and the fact it's not is wholly the fault of their henchmen Buttman and Daly.