how idiotic to put in place a system you swear will “reduce ticket prices” when the cap is tied directly to league revenue - which gives the teams an incentive to RAISE ticket prices to increase revenue.

good job Gary.  Ass.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 06/26/08 at 06:43 PM ET

I really don’t get it. The new league minimum is more that the old maximum under the cap. And this is supposed to help the struggling teams how? They now have to spend the minimum: what was once the max. They still cannot compete - parity, my ass!

So everyone gets a couple extra million to sign Hossa or Richards, and maybe a goalie; but we’re back to square one here, the rich are richer, and the not-so-rich are screwed. And we had the lockout why...?

Posted by JAMESinMI on 06/26/08 at 07:05 PM ET

I may be a village of 1 but I’m sticking to my guns.

Every village needs an idiot, Iwo.

I keed, I keed.

I think, if Tucker would accept closer to 2 mil a year and buy into Babcock’s system, he would be a great pickup.

Posted by J.J. from kansas on 06/26/08 at 07:56 PM ET

I think, if Tucker would accept closer to 2 mil a year and buy into Babcock’s system, he would be a great pickup.

How did this become a Red Wing debate? Yes, Tucker would be a fantastic agitator/scrapper/15 goal scorer… but you jumped into the wrong topic, I think.

Posted by JAMESinMI on 06/26/08 at 08:20 PM ET

I read George’s post before coming here and, yeah, he’s a better writer and thinker than 98% of the idiots who work for the MSM.

I’m half hoping that he gets picked up by a major paper, but only if they don’t control him.

Posted by Osrt on 06/26/08 at 08:30 PM ET

As George says, the unspoken goal of the CAP was to castrate the Red Wings.
Ken Holland and Mike Babcock did not let that happen.
Hurrah!

Posted by w2j2 on 06/26/08 at 08:37 PM ET

Ditto Osrt.

Posted by hankyspanky40 from Michigan on 06/26/08 at 09:46 PM ET

As George says, the unspoken goal of the CAP was to castrate the Red Wings.

I really believe that is true.  the idea of “parity” was to stop the Red Wings from their 15 years of dominance.  that it didn’t change is the ultimate punch in the face to the league.  even Osgood is in on the joke…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=A2aVpwCZ1Ho

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 06/26/08 at 11:27 PM ET

how idiotic to put in place a system you swear will “reduce ticket prices” when the cap is tied directly to league revenue - which gives the teams an incentive to RAISE ticket prices to increase revenue.

The new contract wasn’t designed to lower ticket prices. Ticket prices had nothing to do with the lockout. That was pure hogwash designed by the owners to gain sympathy from the public. Ticket prices are based solely on local supply and demand. They always have been and they always will be. Florida, Atlanta, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, New York and the rest of them had no intention whatsoever to lower ticket prices league wide. It wouldn’t make business sense to do so. A team isn’t going to sell a ticket at $40 on the charity notion that they care about the fans when the demand says that they can sell it at $70. 

The lockout was like any other union/management situation from time and memorial: Power. Each side wants more power than the other and neither side could give a damn about what the conflict does to their business. I despise unions. And you know, I have absolutely no sympathy for these billionaire owners/corporations who say they are losing money because they a)don’t hire competent managers who know how to run a business on a budget, b)place teams in small bad markets where they know its going to take 30 years or more to gain a solid fan base all the while they took in hundreds of millions of dollars in franchise fees. As far as I’m concerned, these two sides deserve each other, just like baseball. And if this contract happens to cause a franchise or two to go away along with the union jobs, well so be it. Hockey would be better for it.

Posted by UMFan from Colorado on 06/27/08 at 03:01 AM ET

Ditto #2 for what Osrt said.
Chief, maybe you should e-mail Drew less than Sharpe and see if he has anything to offer? 
Piss poor management cannot be overcome by any CBA. Much like the airline industry needing constant bailing out every decade or so.

Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 06/27/08 at 08:03 AM ET

Ditto #3 for Osrt, but more importantly, ditto for this:

And if this contract happens to cause a franchise or two to go away along with the union jobs, well so be it. Hockey would be better for it.

Pree-cisely.  The only reason the cap was needed was because of teams in small (bad) markets.  While this is true to some extent of every single non-Canadian NHL market, it’s far more relevant to a Florida or Nashville than it is to a Detroit or New York market.

And am I the only one who wanted to see the Devils win a Cup post-lockout because of the rule changes that were pretty much designed to STOP THE NEW JERSEY DEVILS?  Not that that’s happened, or that they’ve even done all that well, but still...Our success laughs in the face of Bettman’s cap.  Theirs would laugh in the face of Bettman’s New NHL.

Chief, I’m still with you on Tucker, but I have to qualify that with something that fell by the wayside when the feces hit the rotating blades-- that’s only if we can’t get Rolston.  We stopped talking about him when we stopped talking about Hossa and Sundin, and started talking about Tucker.  I think Rolston’s the most likely target, and if we signed him to a sensible deal, there really wouldn’t be much of a need to go after Tucker (provided at least D-Mac or Downey was re-signed).

Dave at Gorilla Crouch is hoping that Chuck Kolosov turns out to be an evil version of Lilja.  While I agree with these wishes, Dave, if you’re reading this, I’d rather he DIDN’T turn out to be ‘Evil Lilja,’ if you get my drift.  We can all do without another third-pairing defenseman who becomes either a shot-blocking Dr. Jekyll or a brain-farting Mr. Hyde depending on whether the coin landed on heads or tails before the game.

Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from a traditional (field) hockey market on 06/27/08 at 08:32 AM ET

And am I the only one who wanted to see the Devils win a Cup post-lockout because of the rule changes that were pretty much designed to STOP THE NEW JERSEY DEVILS?

YES!  I hated their system and watching our 95 team not get a effin shot on net for 9-10 minutes at a time. And when we did, we’d trickle something from long range on the best goalie of his generation. WonderF#$$infull. We were better for it...blah blah blah...but that hurt like a motherF@#$@.

I hated Scotty Needatoolinmyrear then, especially for his GWGs, and now his brother too.

Posted by Osrt on 06/27/08 at 09:36 AM ET

We missed a whole season of hockey for what? Sigh.  I’m a hockey fan despite how hard the NHL tries to kill my love for the sport.

Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 06/27/08 at 09:46 AM ET

Hockeychic:

In another effort to kill the sport, little Gary has reduced the number of days the Red Wings get to tour with the Stanley cup from 120 to 100!

Posted by w2j2 on 06/27/08 at 12:11 PM ET

Chief, I agreed with you regarding Tucker in another one of your blogs.  I’d like to see him in a Wings’ sweater myself.

Tucker, IMO, was guilty of trying to keep a positive atmosphere in his dressing room when the shit was flying in left and right.  From the games that I’ve seen on Versus and on TSN at the casinos, I didn’t see anyone else on that team trying to make good things happen.

Granted, he takes stupid penalties; jaws too loudly; whines too much about calls and non-calls.  But what you can’t discount is that he really gives a damn.  Like Downey, in a dressing room like the Wings (where the skill level is astonishingly high), he will carefully pick his spots.  I think he will learn to do things within his skill set at the right times.  Drake used to be fairly reckless with his checks but with the Wings?  He picks his spots just like Downey has learned.  I can see it right now:  Tucker, on home ice at the Joe, L-E-V-E-L-L-I-N-G Jordin Tootoo with a legal open-ice hit and then laughing his ass off back to the Detroit bench.  Tootoo tries to get even but does it illegally and sets his team back on a PK.  Tucker gets up, shrugs his shoulders, and skates back to the bench and the Wings go on the PP.

Yeah, I’d go for it with Tucker.

But not at $4 million/year.  I’d pay him somewhere what we’re paying between Maltby and Downey.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 06/27/08 at 12:32 PM ET

Not that I am very well read on the post lockout NHL contract details but isn’t there some kind of revenue sharing program in place?  Guaranteeing that all clubs will always be able to spend the wage floor in salaries?  It should compress the playing field a bit from top to bottom.  Granted, the Wings among other rich clubs are likely paying the salary of players like Tootoo of Nashville.

European soccer has become a farce of about five to ten teams, from what I gather.  Only a couple of games a season are relevant for these teams.  The other 100 or so European top flight clubs can only dream about competing with the likes of Madrid and Manchester.  Is regulation necessarily a bad idea?

In no way am I a fan of Bettman’s but I think the hockey quality has improved a bit since the lockout.  Up and comers like Ovechkin, Malkin and Kane certainly help the game though.  Maybe the NHL was simply suffering from talent depletion?  Would these guys have made it regardless of the rule changes?

Posted by lilja4ever on 06/27/08 at 12:37 PM ET

YES!  I hated their system and watching our 95 team not get a effin shot on net for 9-10 minutes at a time.

Well, okay, that did suck, and I’m glad we have more Cups than them-- a TRUE dynasty, but the pain really has dulled for me at least (back-to-back Cups with the possibility of a three-peat does that to you).  I’m just saying that at this point, I’d rather see Bettman embarassed than see the Devils, as boring as they are, fail.

European soccer has become a farce of about five to ten teams, from what I gather.

You’re not wrong there, Lilja, but for what it’s worth, the big-money leagues experience a fair amount of parity within themselves despite the lack of regulation over salaries.  Within each league they have their powerhouses and their also-rans, but there are usually about five big clubs that always win in a league of about twenty.  That’s not too far off what the NHL is now.  The inter-League matchups, such as the Champions League and the European cup competitions, tend to expose the great disparity between leagues-- not between teams.  The domestic competitions are more like the NHL-- the European competitions are much closer to say, the Wings and Penguins squaring off against Salavat Ulaev and Djurgardens IF.  There’s a broader margin in that matchup than between the Wings and the Penguins.

...If any of that made sense.

Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the set of Dio FA, the football opera on 06/27/08 at 12:52 PM ET

Woot!  Underlines instead of quotes!  What do I win?

Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the Friday evening typing pool on 06/27/08 at 01:00 PM ET

Thanks for the added insight Andrew!  You obviously have a broader grasp of what’s going on over there.

I can only ask myself how you know so much about European sports.  Although, I must add to your saying that there are only five big clubs that always win in the NHL too.  Yes, that is probably true.  But is it way off base to claim that the poorest team in the league (Bubba) was also the one to test the Wings the best?  Yes, we had to go through a goalie switch and the team wasn’t playing to its potential, but still.  I was all but ready to jump off the Hasek with a rope tightly tied around my neck after the consecutive road losses.

Now, while on topic, lets get into European wines and cheese while discussing appropriate outfits for the Wimbledon finals!

Posted by lilja4ever on 06/27/08 at 01:09 PM ET

YES!  I hated their system and watching our 95 team not get a effin shot on net for 9-10 minutes at a time. And when we did, we’d trickle something from long range on the best goalie of his generation. WonderF#$$infull. We were better for it...blah blah blah...but that hurt like a motherF@#$@.

I’m glad my memory isn’t as dependable as yours, Osrt!  Now that you bring it up though, it’s not difficult to remember the pain of watching those kind of games.

In my opinion, the single most significant rule change that brought back the game from the Devils was allowing two line passes.  Maybe that rule alone did more for hockey than anything Bettman could ever have come up with during the lockout?

Posted by lilja4ever on 06/27/08 at 01:24 PM ET

Not to change the subject, but in player and signing-related news, Marian Hossa, Brooks Orpik, Ryan Malone, Kris Beech, and Gary Roberts have all stated their intention of pursuing free agency this summer.

We came to respect those guys at Pensblog, and there was a lot of love between Pittsburgh and Detroit fans after we won our fourth Cup in eleven years, but I think this development should get some attention.  All of the adulation the Penguins received from the mainstream media, casual fans, NBC, and the Stanley Cup Finals officials needs to be compared to the fact that while the Red Wings remain a hallmark of consistency, that Penguins team was basically a bunch of hired guns.  Hired guns that are now all going their separate ways.

This makes the Wings even more remarkable.  We may or may not lose our #4 defenseman, who can be replaced with one of three promising rookies.  Yawn.

Posted by TDeters on 06/27/08 at 01:36 PM ET

During the SC Finals, I recall hearing that we played a trapping style of puck. Osrt brought back TERRIBLE memories of what a trap is and what it did to one hell of a high powered offensive machine.
The talent is a bit more watered down now with more union members (meaning expansion teams) and with the cap in place everyone is needing a few “bargain” players (meaning less skilled and more akin to filling roster spots than a role with the team).
The rule changes have helped quite a bit. The old days of waterskiing ala hooking and the beat downs in front of the crease etc etc etc would make life a B*TCH for the smaller skilled guys like Crosby, Kane & company. Me thinks AO would have done a-ok though....

Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 06/27/08 at 01:43 PM ET

In the event that Lilja will not re-sign with the Wings (yes, I know that Lilja is leaning towards staying with the Wings), the Wings have re-signed prospect Sergei Kolosov, who is described by Jim Nill as a, “...stay-at-home defenseman with a mean streak."* I can see him easily replacing Lilja.

So there is a possibility that we’ll see FOUR promising defensemen (Ericsson, Meech, Kindl, and now, Kolosov) coming up soon and we know that at least, two of them are NHL-ready.

*[credit to redwingscentral.com]

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 06/27/08 at 01:46 PM ET

YES!  I hated their system and watching our 95 team not get a effin shot on net for 9-10 minutes at a time. And when we did, we’d trickle something from long range on the best goalie of his generation. WonderF#$$infull. We were better for it...blah blah blah...but that hurt like a motherF@#$@.

I think you are letting tunnel vision cloud your memory of that series.

The real source of the Wings dismal performance that year in the finals was Chicago.  It was revealed after the cup was won that the Wings were all hobbled with sprained knees, and wrists.  Duct tape on their ribs and flak jackets.  Shoulder harnesses on shoulders requiring surgery...etc.  The fact that the wings went on to back to back cups without anti-trapping rules kind of negates your argument.  Chicago really did a number on the Wings in the Conf. finals.

The so-called trap goes way back, even before television.  When it wins the Cup, there is lot more going on than the Trap.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs don�t live up to my expectations on 06/27/08 at 02:29 PM ET

HTT,
Good memory. CHI seems to fade from my SCPO memories, might have something to do with not really seeing them in the last week of April for umm.... awhile. Most likely to soon change, but they won’t but a beating on us like in the old “Black n Blue division”.
IIRC there was a pretty bitter ending to 96’s campaign too.
Then 97.... SWEET SWEET Stanley. 98 just for Valddie. 02 for the Team for the Ages.
08… making up for a few recent years.

Posted by MOWIngsfan19 on 06/27/08 at 02:49 PM ET

allowing two line passes.

excellent point Lidstrom4ever!

Just to be clear, I hated the Devils for being boring but also, and much importantly, for playing their system so well. They made us look like a farm team!

They helped us solidify our “left-wing lock” system, and for that I’m grateful. But man, I couldn’t even play hockey with my friends after that series. The next year, NHL96 for Sega had Scott Stevens protecting the puck against Stevie on the cover

I had to stare at that stupid thing before/during and after getting beatdown by the Dive.

Posted by Osrt on 06/27/08 at 03:13 PM ET

I hate this stuff and usually ignore it until the season evaporates like Dallas ice.  But what is it about the Wings?  Does Holland have connections with the NSA, and got his hands on a top secret brainwashing machinething?  And if so, why couldn’t he have persuaded those connections to alter the weather in Dallas for that series?  Getting top players to sign at ‘below their pay-grade’ is doable, but ensuring an ice surface worth playing on isn’t?  C’mon.

Jedi Ken says, “You’ll win a Stanley Cup, and I’ll pay you a few million to do it.” Now that I think about it, maybe there are no tricky mind games involved.  Yes, players deserve to get paid what they’re worth just like everyone else does, but what they’re worth is not solely dependent on they’re performance - just like everyone else.  I mean, if no one wants Cracker Jack, Cracker Jack ceases to be irregardless of the talented people working hard at the Cracker Jack factory.

Anyway.  That’s my rant.  I hate this stuff.  I hate the fact the NHL higher-ups are completely inept when it comes to marketing and attracting new fans.  Coddling Crosby while mostly ignoring the rest of the great players in the league, misspelling the name of the greatest defenseman in the league as he accepts yet another trophy, expanding into markets with little to no chance of ever turning a profit because there is little to no interest (that could be changed, I’m guessing, but not with the crew in charge now).  That isn’t a whine about how the league treats the Wings, just a few examples of how they’re shooting themselves in their heads.

Fans are the lifeblood of hockey (or baseball, football, basketball, etc.) as a professional sport.  If you don’t sell tickets, you don’t have a league.  That would immediately solve all of these player-owner disputes, though, wouldn’t it.

@PaulinMiamiBeach…

I forgot Ozzie used ‘kerfuffle.’ lol

Posted by jrl123 on 06/27/08 at 03:17 PM ET

They helped us solidify our “left-wing lock” system

“left wing lock” is just a euphemism for “trap”.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 06/27/08 at 03:23 PM ET

I know Paul; I was just demonstrating the beastiality of my memory. Just letting Gramps know that I realize Montreal played that system for decades and we played it later.

Posted by Osrt on 06/27/08 at 07:10 PM ET

I can only ask myself how you know so much about European sports.

Hey Lilja.  I live in Europe, so know my way around European sports-- even if I don’t like them.  For one as wildly popular as soccer (football), I tend to absorb a lot by osmosis from friends, coworkers, the media, and so on-- it’s generally unavoidable, especially during the big tournaments-- anybody going to watch Germany vs. Spain?  (Yeah, me neither.)

As for Nashville giving us a hard time in the first round, well, they were in ‘playoff mode’ for at least a month, fighting for that eighth spot, while we already had a top-three playoff spot locked up for a while.  It’s what makes the first round VERY dangerous, and what makes being the top seed against the eighth just as dangerous.  Plus they play a very good defensive game and had a hot goalie.  You can go pretty far in hockey strictly with defense-- just ask Lou Lamoriello.  Add to that that our starting goalie was shaky, and you have a bad recipe.  But it was a test that we needed if we were going to go all the way, and we eventually passed.  And a good thing too, because I was right next to and your noose with a gun and a bottle of poison.

Now, while on topic, lets get into European wines and cheese while discussing appropriate outfits for the Wimbledon finals!

I’ll have the Prosecco and a slice of Ossau-Iraty, monsier.  And it doesn’t matter what outfit it is as long as Maria Sharapova is wearing it.  Even better if she’s not wearing it…

Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the village green, chomping strawberries on 06/28/08 at 01:11 AM ET

Well I just seem to think Rolston would be the best talent and fit for the money of the Forwards.

I’m also moving away from my love affair with B. Campbell in Defense, I’ve always said I’d prefer to keep B Stuart around to knock Cindy Crosby on her ass again.

“They hunt people.” Kind of hard to go back to a “soft” defense once we’ve had that 2d line knocking bitches down all over the ice.

c’mon Brad/Tick Tock.  3 seasons at $3.5 each.

Posted by RWBill from jabbing a six inch sewing needle into my eye. on 06/29/08 at 07:24 PM ET