NHL 15-16: wife-beaters, adulterers, cokeheads, rapists, pill-poppers, AND METHODISTS

[CreamSoda]

14 hours ago, habsfan1 said:

The Canadiens can't win games anymore. But now they are very good at tanking!

 

If they keep up this pace, Habs will be top contenders for 1st overall.

 

 No Price is too high for Mathews.

[teddthebucfan]

1 hour ago, CreamSoda said:

I will never understand the hatred for Bettman, he has only given the NHL more exposure and hate somehow hockey fans hate him for it. 

Yeah I don't understand the hate at all. I mean I just don't get why people wouldn't give their utmost admiration to a man who has sat over three work stoppages including an entire cancelled season, five franchise relocations, and quixotic expansion into and league propping up of unsustainable hockey markets. 

 

[CreamSoda]

On February 4, 2016 at 10:43 AM, teddthebucfan said:

Yeah I don't understand the hate at all. I mean I just don't get why people wouldn't give their utmost admiration to a man who has sat over three work stoppages including an entire cancelled season, five franchise relocations, and quixotic expansion into and league propping up of unsustainable hockey markets. 

 

 

MOD EDIT

 

The work stoppages were necessary to continue the growth of the game.  There was no way the league could support those player salaries.  The second work stoppage was unneccessary but that was the NHLPAs fault.  They should have just gone to 50% share right away.  Everybody knew the outcome.  

 

Please do yourself a favor and look at league revenue and growth since Bettman took over.   Look at the increased market share, TV ratings are at all time highs.

[Still MIGHTY]

Holy  , how much is NHL PR paying you? What a spin!

[Crabcake]

On February 4, 2016 at 9:28 AM, CreamSoda said:

 

MOD EDIT

 

The man took the NHL from a fringe sport to a multi billion dollar industry.  You know how you can watch every single hockey game on your phone now?  Do you hate that? Would you prefer that hockey was as popular as hand ball here in north america?

 

I will never understand the hatred for Bettman, he has only given the NHL more exposure and hate somehow hockey fans hate him for it. 

If anything, Bettman has made the NHL more of a fringe sport than when he took over. It wouldn't have been a stretch to say that the NHL was the third most popular sport in North America in the 80's. Now the NHL is teetering on the Big 4 edge. 

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

^Back in the 80's, no major US network would touch the NHL with a ten foot pole.

[Sykotyk]

On February 4, 2016 at 10:58 AM, CreamSoda said:

 

MOD EDIT

 

The work stoppages were necessary to continue the growth of the game.  There was no way the league could support those player salaries.  The second work stoppage was unneccessary but that was the NHLPAs fault.  They should have just gone to 50% share right away.  Everybody knew the outcome.  

 

Please do yourself a favor and look at league revenue and growth since Bettman took over.   Look at the increased market share, TV ratings are at all time highs.

 

Look at all sports revenue. It's not like the NHL is doing this in a vaccuum. Of all the big Four, they're still a distant #4. And MLS is nipping at their heels.

 

Why are sports properties big? Bigger stadiums, more revenue for wealthier fans to part with their money. More fans just want to sit at home and watch, generally on cable, which has revenue streams the old method of live over-the-air TV didn't have (subscription fees). There's more people in the U.S. (we have well over over 320 million people, while we had 259 million in 1993). That's almost 24% increase in people in 23 years. The NHL had 24 teams in 1992-93 season. They now have 30. Or, a 25% increase. Not exactly difficult to understand.

 

And that's total league wide. Which 6 of those teams are in another country. Including two of those expansion teams (Ottawa and then the relocated Atlanta-to-Winnipeg). More people, more demand when you're not really upping availability over 23 years. Same number of teams per population, and yet that's a sign of 'progress'.

 

Also, inflation. The loss of network television drawing eyeballs which made live sports (which are difficult for most fans to tape-delay themselves, either by logistics or by not wanting to know what happened in advance) meant the prices paid for television contracts to sports properties that drew even modest eyeballs would increase. Which, the NHL hasn't kept pace with the other big 3. And has been all but curbstomped by the NFL.

 

 

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

17 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

 And has been all but curbstomped by the NFL.

 

 

 

Everyone gets curbstomped by the NFL.

 

[NJTank]

The problem in the 80s was the Canadian teams were dominant and that was not sexy to American Audiences and John Ziegeler was an idiot too. He took the NHL off ESPN in 1988 and put it on premium Sports Channel America. Total disaster.

[CreamSoda]

1 hour ago, Still MIGHTY said:

Holy  , how much is NHL PR paying you? What a spin!

 

 

How is that a spin?

 

What would you prefer Bettman, or any other Commissioner do?

 

 

All I ever hear is blind hatred for the man yet nobody offers any solutions.   The work stoppages were unavoidable.  You can thank the greedy NHLPA for those.  He helped keep teams in Canada and even brought back the Jets.  There is a reason the owners keep extending his contract, the fact is he is doing a GREAT JOB for the NHL.  If he wasn't the owners wouldn't be getting paid and they wouldn't be extending his contract.

 

Everybody takes Bettman hatred on a personal level for some odd reason.  The game is in much better shape than it was in the early 1990s.   You can romanticize all you want about the NHL being ahead of the NBA but that was never the case.  The NHL has always been the 4th sport in NA and because of Bettman it has stayed that way.  

[Kevin W.]

MOD EDIT He thinks that the players' union is greedier than the owners.

 

You're right, though, that Bettman gets blamed far more than he should. It's not his fault that the owners are greedy :censored:s who rip off the players and fans. Bettman just does what they want him to do.

[Kevin W.]

15 hours ago, Kaz said:

In 1970, both the Habs and Leafs (only Canadian teams in the league) missed the playoffs.  I don't think it has happened since then

 

EDIT: It was only a field of 8 back then, if that's what you were getting at

No, it has not, as the Canadiens have only missed the playoffs six times since that year and every one of those years, at least one other Canadian team has made the playoffs.

[Still MIGHTY]

Bettman has done a great job FOR THE OWNERS. Yes, that is his job. He's earned his contracts. Great.

 

But for the league and sport as a whole? No. It's everything teddthebucfan said. Three work stoppages (and most likely a fourth under his new extension) including an entire season is unforgivable, to start. The first was was avoidable, the second maybe not as unavoidable but you can't cancel an entire season, and the third was entirely avoidable. And blaming the "greedy NHLPA"? Seriously, what's you inbox number at NHLHQ? All these work stoppages have been LOCKOUTS, as in the owners/Bettman/NHL locking out the players. These haven't been players strikes as it was in baseball 1994.

 

There's all the other stuff that has or will be mentioned (relocations, the Coyotes, OLN, etc), but for me, cancelling an entire season in a top flight pro sports league is absolutely unforgivable. The fact that lockouts are expected now is a sad state. There is a reason we created "Only In The God Damn NHL" around here. It wasn't just crafted out of thin air. There is stuff that goes on in and around this league that wouldn't happen anywhere else except OITGDNHL. And who is the head of the GDNHL? That would be one Mr. Gary Bruce Bettman, Esq.

[KittSmith_95]

28 minutes ago, Still MIGHTY said:

Bettman has done a great job FOR THE OWNERS. Yes, that is his job. He's earned his contracts. Great.

 

But for the league and sport as a whole? No. It's everything teddthebucfan said. Three work stoppages (and most likely a fourth under his new extension) including an entire season is unforgivable, to start. The first was was avoidable, the second maybe not as unavoidable but you can't cancel an entire season, and the third was entirely avoidable. And blaming the "greedy NHLPA"? Seriously, what's you inbox number at NHLHQ? All these work stoppages have been LOCKOUTS, as in the owners/Bettman/NHL locking out the players. These haven't been players strikes as it was in baseball 1994.

 

There's all the other stuff that has or will be mentioned (relocations, the Coyotes, OLN, etc), but for me, cancelling an entire season in a top flight pro sports league is absolutely unforgivable. The fact that lockouts are expected now is a sad state. There is a reason we created "Only In The God Damn NHL" around here. It wasn't just crafted out of thin air. There is stuff that goes on in and around this league that wouldn't happen anywhere else except OITGDNHL. And who is the head of the GDNHL? That would be one Mr. Gary Bruce Bettman, Esq.

 

Could not have said it any better.

[T-ROY]

CreamSoda, everything you're saying about what Bettman has done for hockey would have happened anyway. Hockey was never not a popular sport and never on the same level as handball. Whether Bettman was commisioner or not those TV deals and such would have been implemented anyway. Every shred of hate Bettman gets is deserved.

[The_Admiral]

Sometimes I wonder what kind of commissioner Mitt Romney would have made. I mean, he'd still be a douche, but without Gary's signature dissembling legal quintuple-negatives and Parkinsonian bobblehead movements. 

[CreamSoda]

MOD EDIT  You guys all think the players aren't greedy.   You think all the blame goes to the rich owners.   

 

Its not like the players were getting over 70% of hockey revenue.   Oh wait, they were.   

 

Its not like the NHLPA was hard lining to not accept a cap, which caused the cancelled season.  Remind me, what was the outcome of that lockout.  Did the NHL get a cap?  Oh yes.   Maybe if the NHLPA would have just accepted their reality the season wouldn't have been cancelled.  

 

Its like you guys want to be best buddies with the players and can't see the truth behind the lockouts.   They were all necessary and the greed of the NHLPA extended them longer than they needed to be.   

 

Yes Bettman has made the owners a lot of money.  But guess what, if they didn't have money they wouldn't be paying players $10M a year and likely the players would follow the money to Russia or whatever league was willing to pay them. 

 

 

But continue to live in your poor defenseless players world MOD EDIT 

[rams80]

Are the players greedy when the owners are the ones who offer the stupid contracts that they realize are unaffordable a year or two down the road?

 

Seriously, though, a trained circus monkey probably could run the NHL and you'd see the kind of revenue increase you saw under Bettman. 

[CS85]

In lighter news, here's Joel Quenneville employing almost 80% of his profanity lexicon in a timeless meltdown.

[CreamSoda]

1 hour ago, rams80 said:

Are the players greedy when the owners are the ones who offer the stupid contracts that they realize are unaffordable a year or two down the road?

 

Seriously, though, a trained circus monkey probably could run the NHL and you'd see the kind of revenue increase you saw under Bettman. 

 

 

Umm yes the players are greedy.  I am sorry you cant see that.   Do you honestly think the players only wanted $5M a year and the owners forced them to take $10M?? Wake up.  The players are just as much at fault for the lockouts as the owners.  

 

When Bettman took over in 1993 the highest paid player was:

 

1993-1994

$3,350,000

Lindros (PHI) adjusted for inflation that would be $5,494,857.79 today.

 

Today the highest paid player is:

 

2015-2016$14,000,000Weber (NAS)

 

So the highest salary has pretty much tripled under Bettmans watch.   Boy, the players have such good reasons to hate him!

 

 

 

Now lets look at the average NHL salary:

 

1994-95: $572,000.  Adjusted for inflation would worth   $889,591 today.

 

2015-16: $2.58 million   

 

So tell me again how Bettman has hurt the game.  I am dying to hear your spin on those numbers.  

 

The facts are the NHL player on average makes more than the NFL player.   Boy Bettman has done a terrible job growing the game.