Tuesday, 25 September 2012

NHL, NHLPA to resume talks; ESPN lockout poll; Daryl Katz in Seattle (Puck Headlines)

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• An ESPN SportsNation poll on when the lockout will end, with 44-percent of respondents saying it won't end in time to save the season. Is the most interesting thing about this screen grab that there are 70 hockey fans in Wyoming or that so many of them are pessimists? [ESPN, via MMiotts]

• The NHL and the NHLPA are heading back to the bargaining table on Friday. "The first collective bargaining negotiations since Sept. 12 are expected to focus on non-core economic issues, a departure from the approach taken in the final weeks before the lockout was enacted." In other words: Let's decide what color the shutters are before we decide on every other detail of the house. [Y! Sports]

• Here's some sunshine from the Motor City: "If the Detroit Red Wings do not play a single home game this season, Detroit will be out $84.4 million." [MLive]

• Danny Briere of the Philadelphia Flyers wonders why the owners aren't allowed to speak: "It's weird seeing owners not get involved or allowed to talk or say anything. They're very savvy businessmen to be where they are, and they're not allowed to say a word."  [Broad Street Bull]

• Ted Wyman's theory on the lockout: "You have to believe the owners will eventually gravitate toward accepting 50-50 as well, but right now the hardliners are simply not willing to go there. Those hardliners, we presume, include commissioner Gary Bettman and the owners whose teams are better off with no games being played than they would be if the season were a go. Owners in bad markets (we'd put money on places like Florida, Tampa, Dallas, Columbus, Nashville, Phoenix and Carolina) have reportedly hijacked this entire process and are not willing to entertain a moderate deal." [QMI]

• The top 20 fantasy goalies in the Eastern Conference, Vol. 1; sorry, Washington Capitals. [Dobber]

• It's 500 days to the Sochi Games. The Olympics' official slogan: 'Hot.Cool.Yours' No. Spaces. ARRRGH! [Fourth Place Medal]

• Jesse Spector on the NFL's locked out officials and the NHL's locked out players: "It is clear enough why the NFL and NHL are where they are today. It's more than just greed. It's a system that not only rewards that greed, but institutionalizes it." [Sporting News]

• Down Goes Brown on cost saving measures for NHL teams, including the Buffalo Sabres: "Ask the concession stand employees to defer a percentage of their multi-million dollar signing bonuses and/or no longer allow Terry Pegula to negotiate contracts for the concession stand employees." [DGB, and buy that man's book!]

• Wayne Simmonds apparently would like to score eleventy-seventy billion goals during the lockout, and get cursed out in German. [Broad Street Hockey]

• Diminutive dynamo Cory Conacher is ready for another strong season for the Tampa Bay Lightning's farm club. [Bolts]

• Here's Daryl Katz and the Oilers brass visiting Seattle. The rain, with that hair? Not bloody likely. [via @LitBomb]

• Edmonton's mayor on the Seattle gambit: "The Oilers have sold out what 150 to 200 games in a row (in Edmonton)," Stephen Mandel said in a TV interview Tuesday morning. "In Seattle you have football, baseball, if they get an NBA team (then it will be pro basketball), college football, college basketball, and then hockey. I'm not sure you're going to sell out 18,500 seats a game or 18,300 seats a game there at $8,000 a season ticket." [TSN]

• From the "tell us how you really feel!" files: "Daryl Katz is a scumbag." [Habs Blog]

• Why the Edmonton Oilers should move to Seattle: "If the team is no longer named after petroleum products, they no longer need to show their support for such products by eating Dairy Queen 'ice cream.' Hall and Eberle could move their traditional pre-game date night to a higher-quality establishment like Molly Moon's or Peaks Frozen Custard." [Espresso Slap Shot]

• How Phoenix Coyotes fans can cope with the lockout. [Five For Howling]

• Who are the Washington Capitals on the hot seat next season? [Japers' Rink]

• More fallout from the North Dakota party bust, as three more players were suspended. [CHN]

• Fighting drop 50 per cent on OHL's first weekend, compared to last season. [Buzzing The Net]

• Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman signs with … the KHL? His agent: "He wants to play in the best league there is right now." [Lightning Strikes]

• Pekka Rinne takes his talents to Minsk, replacing the Niklas Backstrom. [NHL.com]

• Patric Honrqvist, meanwhile, heads to Sweden. [On The Forecheck]

• Here are Jay Baruchel's plans for GOON 2. [First Showing]

• Finally, here are a pair of fights from the KHL's game between Barys Astana and HC Slovan Bratislava — including Nik Antropov.



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