dude
the whalers are so going down to the twin towers of power, the rockies and the SEALS!!
Hockey Returns
Here's my thought: I could give two drops of ant piss if the NHL ever plays again. What a bunch of sorry bastards bitching about how they don't make enough fucking money. They make millions of dollars to prance around on their little ice skates and slap a hockey puck around. How the FUCK does that justify making millions of dollars? I would like to line every single NHL player up and cram a big giant hockey stick up each and every one of their asses. What a bunch of sorry fucks.
/end rant/hate
/end rant/hate
<nam_kablam> I'll be naked holding a ":O" sign while pumping their door
Not only that, but there are many things you need to take into consideration when it comes to professional athletes and salaries, and this lockout in particular.
The players simply want the ability to play under a free market system, they provide a billion dollar entertainment sector for the owners, and therefore want to be paid accordingly.
Also, most NHL hockey players play on average for something like 5 years. That's 5 years to make as much money as possible because your career is so short. It is not like other professions where you're there for 30 years. You have maybe a dozen or more years IF you're lucky. These players need to make as much money as they can in a short period of time.
Furthermore, they are the best hockey players in the world. Take a look at the top 600 people in any profession, and I'm willing to bet they make more than hockey players do, even though hockey players probably work 3 or 4 times harder to get their money, and probably work a more greuling schedule, not to mention have been working towards this since they started walking.
It's one thing to say that these players are over-paid. The average salary is somewhere around 1.8 million per season, which is a lot of money, but if you consider their talent and skill set, and the work they put in, as well as the money they provide to businesses and the owners, and the short span of a career in which you need to be able to support a family for the future, they are not "sorry bastards."
I have played with a lot of players who have been drafted to the NHL. Some of them are good friends and are making more money in a year than I will probably make in 10, but they put in an endless amount of work to earn that money, and I think you're overlooking that in your little rant Matt.
The players simply want the ability to play under a free market system, they provide a billion dollar entertainment sector for the owners, and therefore want to be paid accordingly.
Also, most NHL hockey players play on average for something like 5 years. That's 5 years to make as much money as possible because your career is so short. It is not like other professions where you're there for 30 years. You have maybe a dozen or more years IF you're lucky. These players need to make as much money as they can in a short period of time.
Furthermore, they are the best hockey players in the world. Take a look at the top 600 people in any profession, and I'm willing to bet they make more than hockey players do, even though hockey players probably work 3 or 4 times harder to get their money, and probably work a more greuling schedule, not to mention have been working towards this since they started walking.
It's one thing to say that these players are over-paid. The average salary is somewhere around 1.8 million per season, which is a lot of money, but if you consider their talent and skill set, and the work they put in, as well as the money they provide to businesses and the owners, and the short span of a career in which you need to be able to support a family for the future, they are not "sorry bastards."
I have played with a lot of players who have been drafted to the NHL. Some of them are good friends and are making more money in a year than I will probably make in 10, but they put in an endless amount of work to earn that money, and I think you're overlooking that in your little rant Matt.
I can't wait until the day schools are over-funded and the military is forced to hold bake sales to buy planes.
"It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about"
"It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about"
Just my 2 cents...but with the technology and the safety factors and rules to protect players out on the ice, players are going to be around for more than 5 years. Plus they're in better shape than before. I mean, there are a lot of players who just wash up because they're just not that good. But kids like St. Louis, Lacavele (spelling?), Spezza, they're going to be around for a long time. That being said, the game is not that popular to have a lock out like this. In the US, it's a 4th rate game almost...I mean they have more interest in watching texas hold 'em than watching hockey and that makes me sick. The players need to realize this and realize that the game can't afford to pay the overblown salaries and just take the cap.
There are players out there signing up on ECHL teams or like recently, Chelios and Maltby and someone else signing with the Moter City Mechanics...seems a bit hypocritical to me. They're playing for so much less in a CAPPED financial structure and taking away money from those who actually need the money. UHL players make maybe $700 a week. They're the ones who really need the money. And NHLrs are coming to take away jobs?
Anywhosit...I just hope the players wake up and realize that the sport can't survive if they keep doing what they're doing...
*sigh* I miss hockey
There are players out there signing up on ECHL teams or like recently, Chelios and Maltby and someone else signing with the Moter City Mechanics...seems a bit hypocritical to me. They're playing for so much less in a CAPPED financial structure and taking away money from those who actually need the money. UHL players make maybe $700 a week. They're the ones who really need the money. And NHLrs are coming to take away jobs?
Anywhosit...I just hope the players wake up and realize that the sport can't survive if they keep doing what they're doing...
*sigh* I miss hockey
That's fine that the Spezza's and Lecavalier's play for that long, but there are 23 players on a team, which means a lot of players are in the NHL for a short period.
I agree there is hypocracy, but I don't think it is that they're greedy, I think they just want a free market, and that's all it's about. Let's face it, if the owner's didn't offer guys like Holik 10 million a year then we wouldn't have this problem.
I agree there is hypocracy, but I don't think it is that they're greedy, I think they just want a free market, and that's all it's about. Let's face it, if the owner's didn't offer guys like Holik 10 million a year then we wouldn't have this problem.
I can't wait until the day schools are over-funded and the military is forced to hold bake sales to buy planes.
"It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about"
"It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about"
Xavier870 wrote:Bobby Holik. *shudder* His name makes me cringe. He is the epitome of what is wrong with the game.
thats the biggest bunch of bs ever
seriously
holik isnt whats wrong with the game
its a very long list of folks
come to think of it.. if i were to make my list i'd be in no particular order:
1. av bashing (one of the highest payrolls)
2. leaf bashing (whether one likes it or not they directly lead to holik's salary/contract with their bidding war w/ the rangers)
3. ranger bashing (this one is straightforward)
4. habs bashing (yes they are my team, no they should never have made the offers they did to marty lapointe when he was UFA out of detroit [another case of 2 teams getting into a bidding war which the bruins obviously won])
5. peter karmonos (owner of the hurricanes/whalers franchise with his stupid deal for federov)
6. harry sinden of the bruins (at times) 5 mil for a fuckin 3rd line grinder? kiss my ass
7. the nhl collective bargaining agreement agreed to in the past (this would be gary's fault)
8. player agents
9. the media
10. wings bashing (im glad the flames beat them)
11. blues bashing (theyve made their share of really horrible contracts)
12. caps bashing (what the hell were they thinking when they signed jagr?)
etc etc etc
i will add something to this however:
there are times when a contract of good size or whatever are FULLY warranted given the circumstances surrounding the player/team, etc
2 examples (jose theodore of the habs and jarome iginla) and why the players involved deserve the contracts they signed:
first i'll start with theo... theo is french. montreal is in quebec. the quebecois like everyone else love hometown kids, (case in point: some (a very drunk and stupid few mind you) booed saku koivu (team captain, cancer survivor down right amazing human being) for his "altercation" with mike ribiero (cocky, young, local kid who happened to be having a good season) ... anyways back to theo.. they love him. he, at that time, was pretty well the heart of the team.. everything revolved around theo. hes a good looking guy, hes charismatic, he appeals to a very wide range of fans and helped propel the team to a level that no one thought was possible for them that year (the sabres were expected to go farther than the habs that year).. theo stood on his head.. saku came back from his cancer treatment and played inspirational hockey and the habs knocked off the "bigger, meaner, tougher, better" bruins (they were the 1st seed in the east that year) in a thrilling series filled with amazing play by theo. fast forward a few months.. the canes made a cinderella run, got to the finals and lost to the wings and the season ends, cept for the awards ceremony.. and what happens? the vezina is announced.. theo wins! rejoice! yay!. folks in quebec did. "the next patrick roy" was "found" (roy finished second to theo in voting) .. at the end of the ceremony.. they announced the hart memorial.. theo wins again.. beats out iggy and roy for that one.. so the habs go thru a rollercoaster type season with saku's cancer, recovery and come back and knocking off the bruins and all that and to top it all off.. theo wins the vezina and hart.. and guess what? its his contract year.. what choice does team management have?
if they dont sign him.. its another "roy" incident
if they do sign him.. its going to be a "is this the right move to make financially" incident
they had no choice
the problem isnt theo's contract tho.. the problem with the NHL and the way its run its that a guy like j.s. gigeure has one good season and goes thru the playoffs on a cinderella run in his contract year and gets as much as theo
i like gigger. he used to play for the halifax mooseheads. ive been watching him play for years now. i was in highschool the first time i saw him and i knew he'd be good but the fact he got the money theo did is wrong
its not a shot at gigger but the system as a whole. thats what needs to be fixed.. the case with iggy and his deal is the same thing.. the year theo won the vezina 'n hart, iggy won the rocket and the pearson (players voted him the mvp over theo while the media voted for theo over iggy).. iggy's from edmonton... so hes not EXACTLY a "local boy" like theo .. right thats okay though.. iggy however is from down the road so to speak, hes also one of the most complete forwards in the league.. he a guy who can shoot the lights out and puts people in the seats every night for a "small market" team" thats the key. i also do think (i read it somewhere im sure) that his race was also an issue when it came to wanting to have more minorities involved in the game or some such but thats besides the point.. if the flames didnt sign iggy and make him happy, they would be in trouble, in fact they may as well have closed up the saddledome and folded the team
there are other players who have used the salaries of theo and iggy to get money out of their respective teams
as long as the league continued to allow that practice where the owners have no recourse but to lose a potential "game breaker" given hockeys already tedius status in the states as a sport they were going to lose out in the long run
go fuck yourself.
I didn't say Holik was the ONLY thing wrong with the game. I am very well aware that there are many many other things to take into consideration. What I was getting at was that he is probably the most overpaid player in the league (right up there with LeClaire and Yashin), and has been in quoted more than once in the media saying that they will sit out forever until the owners change their stance on a hard cap. This is the type of ignorant attitude that WILL be the NHL's downfall if the players don't wake up and smell the coffee. This is NOT their league, as much as they'd like to think that it is. Can I go to my boss and 'negotiate' my new salary? No, I can't, and if I was to try, I would be laughed at. It just seems to me that the players want the best of both worlds. They claim to want to play in a free market system, yet they frown upon the idea of two-way arbitration. The owners really have nothing to lose. Most of the owners have other businesses, so even if the NHL teams were to begin folding, it would not affect the owners as much as it would the players. The players have to realize that they have it pretty sweet in the NHL. They need to realize that they a) aren't going to make this much money anywhere else in the world. Yes, the world. and b) are destroying the game that has taken us over a century to create.
Shame on the NHLPA, and shame on Bob Goodenow.
Shame on the NHLPA, and shame on Bob Goodenow.
Some of you probably think I left. But was I ever here to start?
It's the owner's who make the cheques. To say it's the PA's fault is absurd. If someone wants to give you 6 million a year plus signing bonuses, are you going to turn that down?
I can't wait until the day schools are over-funded and the military is forced to hold bake sales to buy planes.
"It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about"
"It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about"
another thing about holik:
im not 100% positive but im fairly sure he is or was a member of the NHLPA's executive committee or what have you
so if a member of the committee consisting of players were to say anything other than what you said he did, there'd be no point in having a lock out cuz there would be no PA
just read what bryan mccabe's been sayin for over a year or so now
same shit
mccabes the leafs player rep
im not 100% positive but im fairly sure he is or was a member of the NHLPA's executive committee or what have you
so if a member of the committee consisting of players were to say anything other than what you said he did, there'd be no point in having a lock out cuz there would be no PA
just read what bryan mccabe's been sayin for over a year or so now
same shit
mccabes the leafs player rep
go fuck yourself.
The NHLPA's bargaining committee consists of Daniel Alfredsson, Bob Boughner, Vincent Damphousse, Arturs Irbe, Trent Klatt, and Bill Guerin. Not Bobby Holik. Bobby Holik is an overrated, overpaid, under performer.
I already acknowledged the fact that it is the owner's fault that we are where we are, but the players aren't trying to fix anything by refusing everything the owners throw at them.
I already acknowledged the fact that it is the owner's fault that we are where we are, but the players aren't trying to fix anything by refusing everything the owners throw at them.
Some of you probably think I left. But was I ever here to start?