Nastiness, Citizenship and Absurdities

Three topics worth perusing this morning:

NHLPA

There is no sports organization I've ever been in contact with over the years that has the level of personal viciousness that currently exists in the NHL Players' Association. It goes both ways, too, between the camp that once supported deposed leader Paul Kelly and the old guard that appears to now be back in charge. Told that Vince Damphousse had suggested "paranoia" was behind Kelly's dismissal, one former player who served as a key union executive derided Damphousse as a guy who "took a $250,000 job with the union and did nothing." 

Eric Lindros, meanwhile, has been tarred and feathered by the Kelly camp, with all kinds of personal accusations and smears. In this vicious circle of allegations and counter-allegations, it's difficult to see who actually might be telling the truth, and who is just following a personal or group agenda. Over the next few weeks, Kelly's enemies will start to leak out "details" of his firing, and will try to make it appear as though he was just like Ted Saskin, nosing around where he shouldn't have been nosing. Surrounded by enemies from the day he took the job, one wonders what Kelly was supposed to do to while simultaneously trying to learn the job, defend himself, ignore the constitutional breaches of others and advance some kind of progressive agenda.

Here's the most salient point. NHL players, above all, seek consensus, and don't like those who think differently. They want to be told what to do, and Alan Eagleson, Bob Goodenow and Saskin accommodated that need. Kelly didn't want to tell them what to do, so he was slammed as "soft" and ousted less than two years into the job.

PACMAN

Well thank goodness somebody came to their senses in Winnipeg and yanked the welcome mat out from under Pac-Man Jones. The office of commissioner Mark Cohon was silent on this one, but you have to hope maybe a phone call or two was made from Cohon to the Bombers at least asking the question, "Do you really want to do this?" Happily, its seems possible that Jones was having trouble crossing the border with his long laundry list of legal woes, which makes one somewhat hopeful that Canadian authorities are on the ball.

From a football point-of-view, it's seems pretty doubtful Jones could have been a difference maker in Manitoba. Nobody wants him in the NFL, a league that will ignore any indiscretion if a guy can play. Based on Jones' play in Dallas, his long layoffs have left him a below-average cover man, and its seems doubtful he could have stood up to the high-paced CFL pass-every-down game.

Of course, Jones didn't apparently even know where he was going to play, suggesting in some on-line communique that he was going to play in the "UFL" and then bolt back to the NFL in time for the playoffs, according to the Winnipeg Sun.

COYOTES

The notion proposed in a Phoenix bankruptcy court yesterday that the Phoenix Coyotes could pull up stakes partway through the season and move to Hamilton was the height of absurdity. This kind of nonsense doesn't help Jim Balsillie's bid, and neither did attacks on NHL owners like Eugene Melnyk. More and more, this fight seems to be bringing out the absolute worst on both sides, with both the NHL and Basillie staking out increasingly extreme points of view. Right now, its appears virtually certain the team will stay put for one more season, and it would do Balsillie well, if he has hopes of ever winning the support of other NHL owners, to start supporting their business and helping the franchise he wants to buy stop swirling down the toilet.

Aiding the death of the Coyotes may not necessarily be in the Balsillie's long-term interests.

Comments

[Puckhog]

I would like to nominate Balsillie's lawyer to head up the NHLPA. He has experience dealing with Bettman & Co., can handle the media coverage and is very creative. What do you think?

[Bold Bravado]

Damien, Very well put. If Hargrove has any say, he'll tell the NHLPA to walk to the edge of the cliff, then push them off. Players and the game will become his new ponds developing his own personal legacy. Seems he's always the last man standing. If nothing else Kelly gave the NHL what it was lacking with since Eagleson, class. From the members I know,they want to stay removed from it all.
Pacman, was always this little yellow mouth eating dots. I'll leave it at that!
Coyotes, really interesting how Balsillie can piss off the people he needs in his corner and what's even worse, he doesn't care. Even from where I sit I'd keep this guy as far from a team as I can. On the other side, it really has brought out what we already knew about Bettman.

[Smitty]

I have to agree with your comment on the proposal that the Coyotes could play half the season in Phoenix and half in Hamilton. I was shocked to read that they even suggested this. Surely anyone with half a brain can see that regardless of who owns the Coyotes at the end of the bid the team will be playing Phonix this year. Jim Balsillie and his team come off looking link foolish schoolboys on this one. The guy runs a major technology company - he has to be smarter than this. Let the Coyotes play in Phoenix, keep Wayne happy, and then move the team next year.

[Peter]

Damien, what did you expect from an organization which includes Buzz Hargrove in any capacity? they are going to ruin the game. Kelly was a decent man who realized that they have to work with the league, not against them. with all the complaining and bitching of the PA, the players are making more money then ever before and have ridiculous long term, guarantied contracts.
i was doubting Balsillie from the beginning. i don't know how he managed to make RIM such a successful company, but he sure doesn't come across as very smart...

[2nd Guess]

It's impossible to leap to the defence of the NHL after its mismanagement of the Coyotes mess, but you can see how Bettman would have unanimous support from the league governors in his attempts to keep Balsillie out of the lodge. He's dragged them into court, forced them to make their by-laws public and is trying to tear down the self-evident notion that a league has the right to determine where its franchises are located.

It's been said several times before if Balsillie had played the NHL's game, he would have had a team years ago -- and, after lobbying from the inside, probably now be poised to move it to Hamilton (a la Peter Karmanos in Hartford).

[chris]

Excuse me, Bold Bravado? Are you saying Alan Eagleson has class? Have you any idea what a lying, bullying, stealing, scumbag Eagleson is? This guy went to jail for ripping off his own players, like Bobby Orr, for years and would have served a lot more in a U.S. prison if he didn't go and hide behind all his high powered friends in Canadian circles. What's more, he lives overseas in England without showing any remorse for what he did. What he is is pure pondscum, far worse than anyone you mention. Please give your head a shake!

[Nitetrpr]

Balsillie's take no prisoner approach has worked very well for him in the past (except for NPT) He is willing to make a stand, push the envelope and take a chance on letting the chips fall. If anyone thinks that by playing the NHL's game he would have a team in Canada by now or the end of the next decade is smoking some awful good stuff!
Bettman's whole premise is to get a National TV contract in the Excited States not expand in Canada. While NFL football stadiums are full their revenue is still TV driven. The NHL's revenue is attendance driven. The six teams in Canada probably do not want a seventh because they would have to slice the pie more and get less.
I for one am getting sick and tired of hockey and its antics.
The NHLPA is eating it young.
The NHL doesn't want any more Canadian teams
The owners complaining about not making any money then structure contracts so that 40+ year olds are getting paid to retire. Yes they get the money back on the cap but they have paid it up front to their STARS. Does this not mean that they are actually speending more than 56% allotted from revenue. Cry me a river!
I am hoping the hard liners get in at the NHLPA and we have a strike for 2 years so the owners and the players realize who is actually paying their salaries. And trust me on this one it isn't the owners, it is the true fans and not the corporate support. They buy the tickets to give away because it helps business. If no one wants to go to the games then the tickets are worthless.
While it will never happen, ALL CANADIANS SHOULD GO ON STRIKE AGAINST THE NHL UNTIL CANADA GETS AT LEAST ONE TEAM AND PREFERRABLY ONE MORE TEAM EVERY THREE YEARS FOR THE NEXT DECADE