NHL or NHLPA, Who should Shoulder the Blame???

Ladies and Gentleman as we sit here on the edge of the cliff, no I’m not talking about the fiscal cliff, I’m talking about the Bettman/Fehr Molehill that we as fans are about to fall over, we have to ask ourselves which side is to blame for this mess… Do we blame the owners for wanting to make more money considering they are the ones footing the bill for most everything, paying salaries(we will get to this part later), marketing the team, selling tickets, and so on and only to this point making 43% of the revenue..? Do we blame the players for this mess, after all the only thing they do is skate and win or lose games, Right? Its not like they are in front of the camera all day every day, being the face of their teams, representing the owners to the best of their abilities, working immensely hard day in and day out for potentially up to 10 months of the year or anything of that sort… Notice the hint of Sarcasm? So I know leave this to you, where does the blame lie on this one?

From all I can gather and there has been a lot of chatter all over the twitter world, FB, Regular sites, etc, the players are willing to compromise on the revenue sharing aspect which the owners came up to a 50/50 split. We would all think not sitting in that room that a 50/50 split would be fair and just and that both parties would move on from there and discuss the more glaring issues of contracts.. I told you I would get back to this.. Now this gets tricky in my book, but I think you will understand my point for sure once you read through.. I think salaries are way out of line in all of sports to be honest, but we will keep in the realm of the NHL for now. When a borderline 3rd, most often 4th line player, who, I will give it to you means a lot to his team because he sacrifices his body, plays the PK, gets in the dirty areas and gets scrappy, fights when he needs to, and so on gets $2.5mm per, we know salaries are out of whack. I loved pruster when he was here, he did everything he was supposed to and more, but his talent level is limited and his true ability to help the team win games via the goal scoring and or point scoring route is very limited, I mean his career high was two seasons ago of 29 points and last year he put up in the same amount of games 17 points. So with that stated, I am saying that I think salaries have truly gotten out of hand and the length of the deals is a total joke and I will leave it at that.. On the other hand the owners have no one to blame for these contracts but themselves.. At no point was a gun stuck to any of the owners heads saying you have to sign this guy to this deal and that guy to this deal, they just went along with their GM’s and signed the deals and now they are wanting the players to roll back 17% of what they negotiated, that is plain stupid. Would you be ok with a retail store selling you an item for a set amount them calling you up a month, a year, two years later and telling you, ” sorry we charged you less then we were supposed to so pleaseSometimes as I sit down and write and email or go on a meeting for work, I wonder how some of the successful people in the world got to that point and stayed at that point, and this truly is one of those times. I want to leave that point right there and see what you all have to say, I think you can read and see where I stand on this particular point..

Now I don’t know and I am not going to lie to you all the specifics of the latest proposal that the NHL came out with and the NHLPA countered, so I am going to generalize on an issue that plagues this country as a whole, beyond just sports. What is going on with this issue that has to stop is the Rhetoric, the back and forth in the media about which offer is good and which offer is not. Don’t we get enough of that junk from the presidential and senatorial campaigns? I don’t know about you, but down here in Florida, its nasty, I don’t think I have yet to see a positive commercial about any politician from local, state and federal government. My point to the whole story is this and I will keep it to the point because I want to hear all your reactions, Bettman and Fehr need to either step up to the plate, drop their egos at the door, in fact come into a meeting in shorts and a golf shirt instead of the suits that make them look constipated, sit down and come to an agreement that is fair for both sides. The Owners pay GB to do their dirty work so let him be alone in the meeting and the players pay DF to do the same, so I propose the following. The two of the should meet in an undisclosed place, fly out of NY if you have to and lock yourselves in a room with only food and water, perhaps a coffee and hammer out all the issues to the fairest point and BRING BACK HOCKEY for the fans if no one else… Greed kills and I can promise you that the longer this goes on, the higher the probability that your market share will drop, therefore the revenues that you are fighting over will be reduced and everyone will lose in the long run… Take my advice Mr. Bettman and Mr. Fehr, GET IT DONE now….