1) The NHLPA Approach to Bargaining: The NHLPA negotiating strategy under Donald Fehr has become fairly obvious. Not only did Fehr delay opening negotiations for as long as possible, he has still not officially responded to the NHL initial proposal some three weeks after Gary Bettman tabled it. The strategy appears to be annoying Gary. [...]
I think David Poile is one of the best general managers in the NHL. I’d go so far as to suggest that Poile more than anyone else has been responsible for the survival of the Predators in Nashville. At the time the league chose to expand to Nashville, I thought it was the most bizarre [...]
I don’t have all that much to say about the fact that Pavel Bure finally made the cut and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Clearly he belongs. I am happy for Bure because I’m sure he cares and he is easily my all time favourite player. Still, it doesn’t do anything to [...]
Tyler Dellow has a couple of posts up about drafting strategy and what type of young player teams should be seeking. This is a subject I thought a lot about at the time the current CBA was signed and I haven’t changed my mind very much since then. Tyler, of course, is actually looking at [...]
NHL items that have caught my eye over the past few weeks: 1) I can’t take the most recent agreement to sell the Phoenix Coyotes very seriously. The sticky part doesn’t seem to have gotten any less sticky – the city of Glendale has to pony up significant cash. Even if they are willing – [...]
Ellen Etchingham makes a number of thoughtful and valid points in this post on concussions, the culture of hitting in the NHL and in hockey more generally, and finding a workable (and effective) disciplinary system. She concludes with: What we often forget when proposing new punishments is that the players are not only objects of [...]
Tom, Don’t want to put any pressure on you to post, but I’m dying to hear your thoughts on the Canucks and the playoffs in general. Is there anything more to say than the league’s best team has run into a hot goalie and are missing their top scorer due to a gratuitously violent non-hockey [...]
Brief comments on various stories or issues around the NHL: 1) Are there any other Canuck fans who are hoping that Columbus ends up with the first overall draft pick? They’ve already indicated they are prepared to deal the choice and I can’t think of a better return for Cory Schneider. 2) I know Oiler [...]
I’m going to comment on the Duncan Keith suspension even though I’m probably going to hear about how, as a Canuck fan, I cannot be expected to have an unbiased opinion. In a sense, this is unfair because nothing Brendan Shanahan did was going to affect the Vancouver Canucks. In another sense, I plead guilty. [...]
According to Darren Dreger, NHL GMs will be discussing whether or not removing the red line was good for player safety and even whether the decision to eliminate the two line offside has improved the game. Greg Wyshynyski, while worried about the safety issue, thinks that it has been a good rule, and is afraid [...]
