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Talks Break With No Progress Made Between NHL, Union


Associated Press
Saturday, February 19, 2005; 4:58 PM


NEW YORK -- Even with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux at the bargaining table, the NHL and the players' association still weren't able to come to an agreement Saturday that would un-cancel the hockey season.

NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly told The Associated Press that no progress was made in the 6 1/2-hour meeting. No new talks have been scheduled.

Just three days after the season was called off because of the protracted lockout, the NHL and the union restarted talks at 9 a.m. Saturday at an undisclosed location in New York.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and players' association executive director Bob Goodenow were not at the meeting, two sources close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

However, Gretzky, the managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes, and Lemieux, the player-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, joined the talks aimed at getting a deal done that could save the season, the sources said.

Gretzky and Lemieux were joined on the owners' side by Daly and outside counsel Bob Batterman, while the union was represented by NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin, director of business relations Mike Gartner, players' association president Trevor Linden, vice president Vincent Damphousse, and outside counsel John McCambridge.

McPhee, however, wasn't disappointed when he found out yesterday morning that a season wouldn't happen.

"I thought we were playing," he said yesterday in the team's downtown office. "I thought we would be getting going today. [But] I'm relieved . . . [because] the deal wasn't right for us in Washington and it wasn't right for our fans. We want to be able to compete and win a cup, and I'm sure that system wouldn't have worked."

Capitals defenseman Brendan Witt also experienced a full range of emotions in recent days.

"I thought there might be a good chance that we would be playing," Witt said. "In the scheme of things it came down to $6 million, and they couldn't figure a way to bridge the gap. It's a shame for everyone, especially the fans."

Although the cancellation left players, owners and fans disappointed, it may work to the Capitals' advantage in time. McPhee and owner Ted Leonsis were criticized for dismantling the Capitals last season, when they traded away star players such as Jaromir Jagr, Peter Bondra and Robert Lang for draft picks and prospects.

McPhee and Leonsis said the moves were necessary to prepare the Capitals for the new economic reality that was coming to the NHL. It was a gamble, and in the end, it appears to have been the right move.

Because of the lockout, Leonsis didn't have to pay large contracts owed the few remaining veteran Capitals, the biggest belonging to Olaf Kolzig ($6.25 million). Meantime, the organization's prospects, such as Boyd Gordon, Steve Eminger, Tomas Fleischmann and Shaone Morrisonn, spent the year honing their skills and fostering team chemistry with the Portland Pirates of the AHL, the Capitals' top minor league affiliate. And whenever the NHL resumes, the Capitals will have the money to fill in the gaps by signing a handful of free agents.

"We have a lot of cash in the bank," Leonsis said. "And a lot of room under the cap. I believed last year this could be a long and contentious lockout. We took some strong medicine."

One issue that remains unresolved, however, is when fans might expect to see Alexander Ovechkin, the Capitals' No. 1 overall draft pick last June. He is now playing for Moscow Dynamo in the Russian Super League.

Owners Win, Hockey Loses

By Michael Wilbon

Thursday, February 17, 2005; Page D01


There was one moment of stupefying arrogance during Gary Bettman's news conference yesterday when the NHL commissioner, moments after announcing the cancellation of the season, said with the straightest of faces, "I don't have any concerns that the fans will come back."

During this man's tenure, four NHL franchises have declared bankruptcy and two teams have left the game's home, Canada, to move to the United States.

This is a man who oversees a league that walked to the brink of economic ruin by putting franchises in places that value palm trees, not ice. Bettman is a man who will be perfectly ready to trot out replacement players to start the 2005-2006 season in October.

Ray Ferraro, the former NHL player who works for ESPN as a hockey analyst, said during an interview from Vancouver on ESPN's "Pardon The Interruption" yesterday, "If I had a business and he was the face out front, I'd poke my eyes out."

And having said that, because everything in sports comes down to winners and losers, I should probably point out Bettman has won the great hockey labor debate of 2005. He won because he answers to the owners and the owners made clear when this lockout began that they would lose less money canceling the season than they would playing it. Bettman won because the players' union, or at least the leaders of the players' union, caved in the 11th hour like you wouldn't believe.

But I guess pure economics shouldn't come into economic discussions.

Scooter wrote:Lost my giva-shooter on this one a long time ago. I usually side with Owners, but I don't think either side is in the right - and they'll both suffer a great deal because of it. They have my number if they REALLY want to get a deal they can live with... and I work pretty affordably.

World's longest hockey game nears its end

Not even lopping off part of his finger in a freak Zamboni accident could keep Brent Saik from a date with history.

The organizer of the world's longest hockey game just bandaged it up and hit the ice.

That was nine days ago. He's still going.

"We are on adrenaline right now," he said late Saturday. "I don't know how many people are here. It is crazy."

Player Mike Burge said: "The fans are always giving you that extra boost. Otherwise, you are just out here skating."

One of those fans is Glen Oldach: "This is the best hind of hockey. With the NHL, those guys want too much money. They guys are doing it for nothing."

The game is being played in Strathcona County, just east of Edmonton, on Saik's acreage.

All the players have a special motivation: All have lost a family member to cancer. Saik's father and wife died of the disease.

Part of the tournament's goal is to raise money for cancer research. They have a target of $200,000.

"At this point no cure for cancer, but if we can do this, they can find a cure," Saik says.

Having established a new world record late Saturday night with 203 hours of play, the 40 players are planning to keep going until Monday at noon, MT.

That would make for 240 hours of play since they got started on Feb. 11.

They are wresting the record from a group in Ontario.

The players have skated in shifts through whatever the weather threw at them.

They have played through the cold, through the slush -- and through injuries.

Jay Brookman took a stick in the eye, but he was stoic about it: "I ended up leaking a bit from the eye. It doesn't even hurt."

Doug Geschuk says: "... The sores go away. You know it makes it all worthwhile."

tazlah wrote:That's what Hockey is to Canada!

Who Needs the N.H.L. When the Moose Is on the Loose?
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb. 20 - This blue-collar prairie city is often belittled for its icy winds in winter, its ravenous mosquitoes in summer and its deplorable skid row in the heart of downtown. Now suddenly modest Winnipeg has some bragging rights.

With the National Hockey League season all but extinguished, Winnipeg's American Hockey League team, the high-scoring Manitoba Moose, has emerged as the hottest box office draw of any professional hockey team in Canada.

That is sweet revenge for a city that has not had an N.H.L. game since 1996, when the Winnipeg Jets left for Phoenix. Now the rest of Canada is finding out what life after the N.H.L. feels like - and maybe learning a thing or two about the game's traditional roots and joys.

"If there's a Leafs fan who wants to watch hockey, I'm happy to scalp him my ticket to see the Moose!" said Jeff McEachern, 37, a software company executive, referring to the Toronto Maple Leafs. "The Manitoba Moose mean getting out with your neighbor and seeing good hockey without needing to mortgage your house to do it." He spoke Friday night between periods of the Moose's sellout 3-2 overtime victory over the Edmonton Road Runners.

Winter in Winnipeg is made almost cheerful by neighbors getting together weekday evenings and weekend afternoons to tie their skates and tape their sticks on backyard rinks, lakes and ponds. But the city is particularly excited this winter about its new arena and Cinderella team.

Having finished in the cellar of its division last year, the Moose, a farm team of the Vancouver Canucks, are contenders this year for the league championship. They are playing the fast-pace, give-and-go, shoot-out hockey that was given up long ago by many N.H.L. teams, which seem content to clog up the neutral zone and win low-scoring games.

If Canadian hockey fans are jaundiced, the Moose have a cure. The team is big on community outreach, including an annual dinner where the players wait tables and give their tips to charity, and a sports carnival where children can shoot on the team goalies. There are pee-wee exhibition scrimmages between periods, with announcers providing play-by-play.

But what is most important to fans is the aggressive Moose style of play. When opportunity strikes, the team sends a full complement of forwards and even an occasional defenseman on the attack in the kind of go-for-broke play fans love. That's how they won Friday night, as their star left wing, Jason King, sneaked the puck through the legs of a defenseman and faked out the Edmonton goalie on an overtime breakaway.

"The fans want to see goals scored and a fast pace where there are lots of offensive chances," said Nolan Baumgartner, a 28-year-old defenseman and the team captain. "That's what we work on in practice."

Morley Duchschler, a 42-year-old restaurant owner, said, "I live and die for the Chicago Blackhawks, but I am so sickened by the N.H.L. right now that I could care less if they come back." He pointed to five children no older than 10 banging excitedly on the rinkside glass while waiting for the initial Moose-Road Runners face-off. "This is hockey: the excitement of the kids to get close to the players. Does the N.H.L. care about these little guys?"

Players and management are not shy about criticizing the N.H.L. product. "I think it needs a remake on the ice and off the ice," said Mark Chipman, the Moose's owner. "It needs to be a lot more exciting to watch, and more affordable for the fans."

Mr. Chipman's team has doubled its advertising revenue this year and leads Canadian teams in the league in attendance. Moose tickets cost a small fraction of what an N.H.L. ticket would cost, because the team's salaries total less than $2 million. (That is less than 10 percent of the gross salary for the Pittsburgh Penguins, which has the lowest N.H.L. payroll.)

But for all of the Moose's popularity, the ghost of the Jets lives on. "Go Jets Go" is a chant still heard sometimes at Moose games.

In their 17 years as an N.H.L. franchise, the Jets never won a Stanley Cup or a conference championship, but they gave the city a certain panache and self-esteem.

With a population of fewer than one million and a small, outdated arena, Winnipeg, like Quebec City, ultimately could not sustain an N.H.L. team. But as the N.H.L. faces a shake-up of its business plan and rules, fans here dare to dream they could attract one of the failing big league teams.

"In '94 we didn't have the building to generate revenues, but now we do," said Mr. Chipman, who tried to help finance a rescue of the Jets before they left. "We would love to be playing in the greatest league in the world - if and when it gets fixed."

Knights make OHL history with lopsided 7-0 victory over Sting
LONDON, Ont. (CP) - The Knights became the first team in OHL history to register consecutive 50-win seasons with a 7-0 win over the Sarnia Sting on Friday night before a capacity crowd of 9,090 at the John Labatt Centre.

Trevor Kell scored three goals while goalie Gerald Coleman got the shutout as the Knights outshot the Sting 57-33.

The Knights (50-4-2-0) have the best record in the Canadian Hockey League. They won the regular-season title last year, finishing at 53-11-2-2. Their 110 points is the OHL record.

The league record for most wins is 54, held by the 1984-'85 Soo Greyhounds. The CHL mark is 60 by the 1980-'81 Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League.

The Knights have six games remaining....

Firms made pitch to owners Tuesday

TORONTO -- An investment firm and a sports advisory company reportedly made a joint proposal to buy all 30 NHL teams for as much as $3.5 billion.

The two Boston companies were invited by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to present the highly unusual offer, the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail reported Thursday. Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan LLC made their pitch Tuesday in New York to NHL owners, whose season has been shut down by a lockout.

Game Plan chairman Robert Caporale confirmed to WBZ radio in Boston that the companies had offered more than $3 billion.

"It's taking the National Hockey League and its 30 teams and operating it as any large corporation does with each team essentially being a division of one company," Caporale said. "We would keep in place team management, team presidents, the GMs. They would be completely autonomous."