Trettioåtta

Urgh i hate twitter - so hard to read conversations. But from what i got it is highly amusing

Negotiations have basically not even begun, 2 months is probably not long enough to do it, so why pay the money?

"Dear players, lets analyse. You have just given up 26% of your annual income for the year (excluding endorsement deals for the privileged few). The Bell-Rogers consortium that owns Maple Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Leafs just gave up 26% of the $82M profit from the Leafs. Divided by their combined annual profit (not revenue profit) of roughly $5B.... yields 0.004264 or 0.4% of their annual profit. Wow, you players sure have a strangle hold on these owners. /end sarcasm/" From TSN Commenter In my mind, this starts and stops with the players for 4 reasons: 1) They refused to negotiate up until 3 months before the CBA expired - they should have started a year and 3 months before, when the NHL wanted 2) They said they would play knowing that the NHL would have to lock them out to stop them striking - it was in bad faith and a blatant PR move 3) They did not subit an offer until 2 months before the CBA ended 4) They have yet to submit an offer that deviates from their initial proposal in the details. All their proposals have nothing to do with wanting contracts honoured but with wanting a large slice of pie I also don't like how the players are whining to the media and going abroad taking a 4th liner in Europe's job - who needs the money more? I also think that the NHL players are not intelligent or experienced enough to be in this field of work to even comment, they are not business men and they are not really college educated (most of them), so i feel they are just listening to what Fehr says instead of actually looking at the CBA offers (from both sides) themselves That said, i also find it disgraceful that the Wild would offer contracts with the full intention of then trying to get them knocked down under the new CBA

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=408161 I think he is the first player to talk of the fans and the game being impacted by this lock-out. Players seem to be more concerned with the honoring of contracts compared to HRR

The guy said he earns $112,000 a year, JD would earn far more than that I think, although the idea of turning columbus around was mentioned several times. Did JD play hockey in college but no further? And go through sales to his position? Seemed to me more like this guy was a youngish exec, he said at the last lock-out he was no-where near his current rank

Well that explains why the NHL took 10 minutes to reject the NHLPA offer - we will eventually agree to 50/50 if we decide what counts towards our 50 is not a healthy negotiation strategy. I think the worst part, for me, is if we do get a shortened season, i don't really want the Sabres to win the cup as it will always be tainted and feel less of an achievement

I think it is pretty funny. Made me laugh. He probably gets asked about the no-goal call by every other hockey fan he meets. People love controversies. He is just having a little fun with it. He probably knows that the goal would have normally not counted, but as a player you take what the refs give you and argue when you think it goes against you in the hope that in the future the refs side with you a little more.

Ridiculous. The players are so thick it is unbelievable, if only the NHL had gotten tough on head shots a few years ago :( The players lose the PR battle, the fans (probably) lose the season, the NHL (probably) loses Florida, Phoenix, Dallas, Columbus, Islanders

My allegiance is now on the owners side, the PA and the players are coming across as greedy wankers. And it doesn't help when Backes says that this offer is the equivalent of someone who earns £50k taking a 5K pay cut instead of a 10K pay cut. The players deserve no sympathy if they don't accept a very slightly altered version of this offer. That or i hope the season starts with the winter classic and the stadium is only half full and a chant of "###### you players" starts and lasts the whole game. I would also accept that. The PA refused to negotiate until 3 months before the CBA ran out, they submitted a counter-proposal 1.5 months before the CBA ran out and they have not submitted another one since.

Yeah, I thought the same. He made the effort to compromise first, if the PA continue to refuse to play ball then it is clear they have no intention of doing so

The PA cannot reject this offer. It is fair imo

The very fact that those numbers fluctuate so much would imply it is the players, not the coach? Ignoring pre-lockout as they are irrelevant to hockey now a days, it is the players who change, not the coach. Going from 3rd to 17th but rising from 5th to 1st in the league also means PP and success are not very well correlated. Seems like you are stretching an argument there. Do you think New Wave got a discount cos it is a lockout?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/nhl-lockout-soundtrack-taylor-swift-vs-bettman-fehr-122720786--nhl.html

Good signing - nice term for both parties (he will still be an RFA) and gives him time to develop and earn the bigger bucks later. Strong move DR

Yeah, you would think it would weigh on his mind. Back to Lucic - I'm not sure if it is that pricey - he put up 60+ points, which is good enough for $5 million and the fact he is a fighter/hitter/intimidator and the fact the Bruins value those attributes, mean that these extras are probably worth $1 million

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=405244 Steal

During the worst recession since 1930 the league improved their revenue 50%. Likewise player salaries have been increasing. Everyone has been making money. The CBA should be about filling in loop holes for parity. I think that this lock-out was inevitable, both teams have been using it as a bargaining piece. They have not spoke formally in September - they are playing chicken. The NHL was ready to sit down and discuss this in July 2011, the PA refused. The PA agreed to play this season, probably so they could go on strike in December for leverage. It is not acceptable to have a business that every 6 years skips a season. In fact it is disgusting business practice. The NHL will hugely suffer, if a lock-out happens, i think the only way they recover is to drop 6-10 teams - which basically undoes the last 20 years of work. Teams in Nashville, Phoenix, Florida, Islanders, Columbus and Dallas struggle as it is. It seems the PA want to use the HRR to stabilise struggling teams - i'm not sure why Bettman doesn't want this, seeing as he is the one trying to keep teams in random markets. However, the NHL want to basically make the game far more boring, so whatever team draft you, you are stuck with till you are 30-33+. But the real issue is that both sides define HRR differently (god know's how) http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=404960

Why would the companies bother to sell their drug then? It makes no sense to just accept a low price because the country has a universal healthcare program They would invest because when you get a drug that works (viagra, beta blockers etc) you make a sh!t ton

They don't recoup their investments anyway. Plus, i thought it worked as the company sells the drugs to the hospitals, and the government takes the blow and passes the drug on more cheaply to the patient It takes 15 years to go from an idea to selling the drug on the market. Having affordable drugs would not change that time all that much and i think that either the government would take the blow, or other companies would invest (wealth creators and all)

70% of drugs that make it to the market never turn a profit. That figure doesn't even include completely failed trials. The companies are used to not making a profit, they rely on block-buster drugs - which won't be affected by the market

Ann Romney is making a good push to topple Clint's - classic lines as 'I love you women", "I'm not sure if men really understand this, but i don't think there is a woman in America who really expects her life to be easy" and "Michigaaaaaan"

Eastwood was a joke - his speech made him seem like a senile old man. I liked the Obama one, whilst the others spoke about hope i felt he showed a realistic view and didn't try and shy away from the fact that life wasn't/isn't easy Although, i have not seen all the speeches on your list

My favourite speeches so far: 1) Eastwood 2) Clinton 3) Obama The Republican party seems very right wing this round, to me it is not a remotely hard choice on who to vote for (unless you are very wealthy, obviously) Also, not too sure why people thought Biden was actually implying that soldiers were the devil - seems overly sensitive and looking for something to be offended by

Why would Ennis be worth more? He is more injury prone, has less points, doesn't play the penalty kill, hits less, and they have similar PP production

http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/gary-bettman-the-nhl-nolockout-save-the-hockey-season