Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Sunday Morning News | Apparently, It's Time for Football »

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Sports We are SO CLOSE to Getting NHL Hockey Back!

Posted by Megan Seling on Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 10:48 AM

Both sides in the NHL lockout have made a "tentative agreement" to end the lockout! I will not get too excited until it is 100% officially over and dates have been set to get back on the ice. But! Still very good news for hockey fans. The best news we've gotten in months, in fact (save for the USA WINNING THE GOLD IN THE WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS! YAY!).

From NHLPA.com:

Following a marathon session of bargaining that began on Saturday morning and lasted into the early hours of Sunday, the NHLPA and the NHL announced that they had reached a tentative agreement in principle on the framework of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman met briefly with the assembled media just past 5:30 a.m. to announce the agreement in principle and give the hockey world an update on what is to come in the next few days, as we approach the puck-drop of the 2013-14 season.

DROP THE PUCK! Yes! Let's all go to Angry Beaver for some celebratory poutine!

FacebookShare

Comments (17) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

This is some Stockholm Syndrome shit.

The NHL treats its fans like shit and this is your response? GIVE US MORE SHIT ASAP PLEASE.

In my mind, the NHL is a total joke, and I will never give 1/10 of a fuck about hockey -- a game I occasionally enjoyed watching.

Posted by Swearengen on January 6, 2013 at 10:50 AM

The rest of the country's response: "meh."

Posted by JenV on January 6, 2013 at 11:00 AM

I know I should be pissed at both sides but really I'm just insanely excited about getting to watch hockey.
The junior world's yesterday just whetted my appetite for a hockey season.

Posted by moosefan on January 6, 2013 at 11:22 AM

It's just a game I enjoy watching and following, and I will watch again. With mixed feelings of course but my world didn't end when they weren't playing.
And since my favorite league (CFL) finished up their season, I have been without sport! Sportless! (Sorry NFL, just can't get close enough to caring...) So I say welcome back you privelaged players of games, you fat cat millionaires...entertain me! Also; go Oilers!

Posted by ArtBasketSara on January 6, 2013 at 11:31 AM

Besides, I'm Canadian....what am I supposed to do?! Protest our crypto-fascist Prime Minister? Focus on meaningful issues? Boring...

(j/k...I can do those things too! while watching hockey! Sweet.)

Posted by ArtBasketSara on January 6, 2013 at 11:36 AM

It bugs me that our fearless crypto-fascist leader is a big hockey fan. Stephen Harper is a disaster. He's imported a lot of bad ideas from the U.S. It sucks because there's good stuff to import from America. Argh.

Anyway it's nice to have this ridiculous lockout over. Also, congratulations to Megan on team U.S.A.'s mighty victory.

Posted by Puty on January 6, 2013 at 12:35 PM

@ 6 - wouldn't it be weirder if he wasn't a hockey fan?

Posted by UnoriginalAndrew on January 6, 2013 at 1:10 PM

Can Bettman just, you know, disappear now?

Posted by orange&black on January 6, 2013 at 2:08 PM

The league finally got player salaries down to 50% of revenue like they were aiming for all along. OK, Bettman and gang, so you got what you wanted, but does the phrase "Pyrrhic victory" mean nothing to you? Wasn't it weeks ago the players were willing to go down to 52%? Isn't 52% + some measure of a real season + not having squandered fan goodwill for years to come worth more than the almighty 50%? Have you just done more harm or good for the teams in weaker markets?

This season is starting so late, and has been so compromised, I have trouble convincing myself this is preferable to just losing the season and starting over next year.

I feel bad too for the KHL fans who must have just been getting used to the idea of watching the likes of Yevgeny Malkin for a full season.

Posted by cressona on January 6, 2013 at 2:19 PM

From the NY Times story:

The lockout was the third since Bettman became commissioner in 1993. The three lockouts together have led to the cancellation of about 2,400 regular-season games, about 10 percent of the games scheduled. That percentage is more than three times as high as any other major league in the same 20-year period.

For the good of the game, wouldn't this be a good time for Bettman to step down and give a new commish a fresh start?

Oh, did I just say "for the good of the game"? Never mind.

And I'm more of an NBA fan. I can only imagine the disgust a hard-core NHL fan (or former NHL fan) is feeling.

Posted by cressona on January 6, 2013 at 2:23 PM

Bettman never regained fan support from the last lock out. He will be boooo-ed into eternity at this point. He really just needs to go away. He has done way too much damage to ever be a credible part of hockey operations ever again.

However, I am just so excited for hockey to come back I can hardly sit still. Go Sharks!!!

Posted by SeattleKim on January 6, 2013 at 3:08 PM

I love hockey but have abandonment issues so I avoid the NHL. This year confirms that I must continue to indulge ECAC fandom from my college years instead of investing emotionally in a major league team. It's a shame as I would dearly love to squander my money on hockey fandom.

Posted by wxPDX on January 6, 2013 at 4:39 PM

Isn't there some rule about getting a hockey team before a basketball team. It's simply not done, in some circles.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on January 6, 2013 at 4:49 PM

So will Slog decide to hate hockey once we get a team in Seattle?

Posted by Nic in Greenlake on January 6, 2013 at 7:54 PM

The Canadian Supreme Court was about to hear an appeal that the NHL was an illegal cartel, which is still against the Canadian Constitution.

It's not like the owners had much choice.

Posted by Will in Seattle