The NHL needs a David Stern, an egotistical maniacal businessman but a great negotiator!

 

He said yesterday that conceding a lot of ground was better long term than a lockout. The owners will still be making money!

 

Somebody in the NHL should be listening.

 

I doubt they are.

 

The art of a good negotiation...everyone walks away unhappy The NHL just does not get it!

 

Everyone walks away unhappy, but everyone is still getting paid.

 

Bettman

 

Exactly! Hockey forgot this..of course the economic climate of hockey is much different, but come on GET IT DONE ALREADY!!

 

The economic climate is much different now, but it wasn't all that different a year ago. NHL gave ESPN a chance to discover they can sell more advertising in poker than they can in hockey, lost fan base, etc. If 20 NHL teams lost money in '04, I bet 25 will lose money in '06 no matter how good of a deal they get.

And don't ever forget that the owners' actions were what got them there - the desire to (over)expand, thinning the talent pool to the point where a guy like Marty Lapointe can get $5.5 million/year, etc. The owners of those 20 losing teams should probably sue the Rangers for salary inflation.

 

Good points Billy.

Good page says strike will kill the following teams:
Anaheim
Carolina
Florida Panthers

Maybe kill:
Nashville Predators
New York Islanders
Tampa Bay
Washington Caps

It also points to some teams that will be negatively impacted by the salary cap.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature.asp?fid=5246