Union Responds

…with any of this is that nobody has kicked Brian Burke in the nads yet.

Gary Bettman’s tenure as the comissioner of the NHL and his relationship with the fans (especially here in Canada) has been a very tumultious one. But with that said this summer this man has taken his persona from a man many thought was unable to lead the NHL to man that we are convinced cannot lead the NHL.
Think about it! Jim Balsille one of the richest entrepeneurs in the world, owner of the highly popular and renouned Blackberry cellphone comes knocking on Bettman’s door willing to relocate a deserted franchise from the middle of nowhere to a market with a brand-new state of the art facility in a hockey-mad fanbase all the while using his own assets to fund this project saving the NHL millions (60 million per year in fact) and Bettman turns him away-And this hasn’t been the first time! Remember Nashville? How’s that thriving these days? Thank goodness that team didn’t relocate to Hamilton it might have made money last season. His stand-off of having no team relocate to Canada or anywhere else (Seattle and/or Portland) is pathetically similar to Pulford and Dollar Bill’s stand-off on no televised home T.V. games. It’s nonsense and it’s nice to see the American fans and media take notice of this stupidity.
And to add to it he sends out his clueless guard dog Daly to complain and look into contracts that they already approved and have seen the beneficiaries receive their first respective paycheques from it. No team, no player, no dumb-ass donkey would ever have in writing and would admit to having a clause in the contract that would have them retire before the contract would end, especially in this age of the salary cap. It was senseless and useless from the get-go and never would’ve held up in a arbitrary hearing.
As far as the Coyote ownership auction is concerned it looks like it may end up in the hands of the highest bidder and if that is the case it seems as if Balsille will end up winning this enduring saga, and if he does it may signal the eventual end of Bettmans’ tenue as the comissioner of the NHL. With the a new war about to be raged over the 2011 CBA it looks as if the salary cap era may be drawn to a close and Bettman may be the casualty of the owners disappointment and/or disapproval that the system that they fought so hard for over 1 calendar may eventually be wiped out. The owners cannot (or it appears to me) that they couldn’t reform themselves as a cohesive unit as well as they did back in 2005 an in the end the NHLPA will eventually get what they wanted back then.
Wouldn’t be suprised (ala 1992) that the owners eventually decided on a new comissioner, a new voice to move forward. We can only hope.