16 hours.
In 16 hours you can watch the entire Rocky movie series one and a half times.
In 16 hours you can watch James Cameron's Titanic five times.
And in 16 hours you can put to rest the 113 day NHL lockout.
I went to bed last night while the NHL and the NHLPA were pounding away with their meetings. I left my phone on vibrate on the slim chance that something gets settled. Sure enough at 5 AM, a good 16 hours after their meeting started (12:43 PM the day before), my phone exploded with 40 texts in a minute. And that's how I started my day.
Sure, people are ecstatic that the seasons back but I kind of want to address a few things.
First we'll deal with the public's view on this.
First thing I did this morning, being the cynic that I am, was go onto ESPN's Sportscenter hoping to find some form of hockey talk. But sure enough they were too busy dissecting meaningless Bowl games and blowout college basketball games. (Note: they weren't even talking about the US' triumph in the World Juniors which happened the day before)
As the morning aged a bit, more web sites and radio stations began talking about the ending of this awful CBA saga. But the comments on some web sites by fans were all too typical for America.
"I didn't even realize there was a lockout."
"Spring training is in another few months."
"Wake me up when the playoffs start."
Yes this is how some people reacted to the news and as a diehard Puck fan, I'm honestly used to it. But in all honesty, today is a day to be relieved and excited for hockey. Twitter was buzzing this morning with players and fans all excited to get back to the NHL action. I was on Twitter for almost an hour laughing at the jokes players were cracking and joined in with the complete joy of the analysts, players, and fans who were tweeting.
Another topic to discuss is the fans of the NHL. It wasn't rare to see a fan post about boycotting the league. Since 2004 the ticket price has increased a whopping 39%, something Bettman promised he would keep down after the 2005 lockout. They have every reason in the world to be pissed off at the league.
But now that the season's back, I say it's just a matter of time before these fans come back. However angry a diehard hockey fan is, they have nowhere else to turn, a brutal lesson we all learned this year during the lockout. Following a lower level of play gets boring, it's too difficult to follow an overseas league, and you can only sit on your ass playing video games for so long. So I think those fans will be back.
Now for the partial fans.
It's gonna be easy for them to just walk away from this sport and I don't blame them. It's gonna take a while for the league to get those fans back. It was evident that the NHL was at an all time high but it's gonna be a short amount of time before we see how crippling this lockout was.
Oh and by the way, watch out Western Conference. Pavel Datsyuk is a good hockey player:
Goals like this
Or this
And this
And don't forget this
Next we'll jump to Bettman and Fehr. Honestly, these two individuals, the leaders of the owners and players respectively, have caused this thing to drag on too long. To quote Tom Gulitti, "I truly believe this deal could have been done a lot sooner if leadership on both sides took a different tact from the start."
From Fehr falsely, publicly stating many weeks ago that the deal was just about finished to Bettman who's always the villain, these two men seemed to be at the forefront of every bad negotiation day throughout the process.
And should we be surprised?
These two gentlemen have been involved in 64% OF CANCELLATION OF GAMES SINCE 1972 IN ALL OF SPORTS!!! We have hockey, baseball for Fehr, and basketball for Bettman. For whatever it is, these two men have caused a lot of sports fans grief for a long time and it's over (for now) for hockey fans.
The CBA reportedly is for 10 years with both sides being able to opt out after 8 years. That means that we have CBA peace until at least 2019-2020, a much needed break for us fans, especially if you look at these astounding numbers.
Since 1992 here are the amount of games cancelled due to lockouts:
NFL=0
NBA=504
MLB=938
NHL=2658
You CANNOT make up those numbers.
So the 10 year cushion will be something good for us. Hopefully we won't have any trouble once it's done but for now we can sit back and enjoy.
Just a few more things I would like to touch on.
The first is the incredible job the media has done in the past few months. It's been a drag having to go into the city, even on New Years Eve, and sit and wait for nothing to happen. For a job that's similar to watching paint dry or watching grass grow, these men did it with little complaints. Especially during the World Juniors tournament when some analysts and media men left the NHL offices at around 12 and would wake up at 4 to watch the Juniors, one has to wonder how they kept going. Being a Devils fan I follow Tom Gulitti closely and words cannot describe how much I respected him for putting in his long hours getting us the info ASAP.
The media had their fun too, especially when a picture of the freezing TSN analyst Darren Dreger went viral and the world had fun with photoshop. You can read about that greatness here.
Well now that this ordeal is finally over, we can look back and see who won this long struggle.
But that's the thing. In this lockout, nobody won.
The players didn't win. The coaches didn't win. Bettman didn't win. Fehr didn't win. The fans sure as hell didn't win.
When there isn't hockey being played, everybody suffers mightily.
The one party that won in this lockout is Federal Mediator Scot Beckenbaugh who worked tirelessly to get this thing settled.
Like the parent who splits the candy bar down the middle ending a feud between infants, Beckenbaugh went back and forth between the parties, constantly communicating until the whole thing was settled.
Different sports outlets credit Beckenbaugh with "providing herculean assistance of the highest caliber to the parties."
But in my opinion, Edmonton forward Sam Gagner put it best:
In 16 hours you can watch the entire Rocky movie series one and a half times.
In 16 hours you can watch James Cameron's Titanic five times.
And in 16 hours you can put to rest the 113 day NHL lockout.
I went to bed last night while the NHL and the NHLPA were pounding away with their meetings. I left my phone on vibrate on the slim chance that something gets settled. Sure enough at 5 AM, a good 16 hours after their meeting started (12:43 PM the day before), my phone exploded with 40 texts in a minute. And that's how I started my day.
Sure, people are ecstatic that the seasons back but I kind of want to address a few things.
First we'll deal with the public's view on this.
First thing I did this morning, being the cynic that I am, was go onto ESPN's Sportscenter hoping to find some form of hockey talk. But sure enough they were too busy dissecting meaningless Bowl games and blowout college basketball games. (Note: they weren't even talking about the US' triumph in the World Juniors which happened the day before)
As the morning aged a bit, more web sites and radio stations began talking about the ending of this awful CBA saga. But the comments on some web sites by fans were all too typical for America.
"I didn't even realize there was a lockout."
"Spring training is in another few months."
"Wake me up when the playoffs start."
Yes this is how some people reacted to the news and as a diehard Puck fan, I'm honestly used to it. But in all honesty, today is a day to be relieved and excited for hockey. Twitter was buzzing this morning with players and fans all excited to get back to the NHL action. I was on Twitter for almost an hour laughing at the jokes players were cracking and joined in with the complete joy of the analysts, players, and fans who were tweeting.
Another topic to discuss is the fans of the NHL. It wasn't rare to see a fan post about boycotting the league. Since 2004 the ticket price has increased a whopping 39%, something Bettman promised he would keep down after the 2005 lockout. They have every reason in the world to be pissed off at the league.
But now that the season's back, I say it's just a matter of time before these fans come back. However angry a diehard hockey fan is, they have nowhere else to turn, a brutal lesson we all learned this year during the lockout. Following a lower level of play gets boring, it's too difficult to follow an overseas league, and you can only sit on your ass playing video games for so long. So I think those fans will be back.
Now for the partial fans.
It's gonna be easy for them to just walk away from this sport and I don't blame them. It's gonna take a while for the league to get those fans back. It was evident that the NHL was at an all time high but it's gonna be a short amount of time before we see how crippling this lockout was.
Oh and by the way, watch out Western Conference. Pavel Datsyuk is a good hockey player:
Goals like this
Or this
And this
And don't forget this
Next we'll jump to Bettman and Fehr. Honestly, these two individuals, the leaders of the owners and players respectively, have caused this thing to drag on too long. To quote Tom Gulitti, "I truly believe this deal could have been done a lot sooner if leadership on both sides took a different tact from the start."
From Fehr falsely, publicly stating many weeks ago that the deal was just about finished to Bettman who's always the villain, these two men seemed to be at the forefront of every bad negotiation day throughout the process.
And should we be surprised?
These two gentlemen have been involved in 64% OF CANCELLATION OF GAMES SINCE 1972 IN ALL OF SPORTS!!! We have hockey, baseball for Fehr, and basketball for Bettman. For whatever it is, these two men have caused a lot of sports fans grief for a long time and it's over (for now) for hockey fans.
The CBA reportedly is for 10 years with both sides being able to opt out after 8 years. That means that we have CBA peace until at least 2019-2020, a much needed break for us fans, especially if you look at these astounding numbers.
Since 1992 here are the amount of games cancelled due to lockouts:
NFL=0
NBA=504
MLB=938
NHL=2658
You CANNOT make up those numbers.
So the 10 year cushion will be something good for us. Hopefully we won't have any trouble once it's done but for now we can sit back and enjoy.
Just a few more things I would like to touch on.
The first is the incredible job the media has done in the past few months. It's been a drag having to go into the city, even on New Years Eve, and sit and wait for nothing to happen. For a job that's similar to watching paint dry or watching grass grow, these men did it with little complaints. Especially during the World Juniors tournament when some analysts and media men left the NHL offices at around 12 and would wake up at 4 to watch the Juniors, one has to wonder how they kept going. Being a Devils fan I follow Tom Gulitti closely and words cannot describe how much I respected him for putting in his long hours getting us the info ASAP.
The media had their fun too, especially when a picture of the freezing TSN analyst Darren Dreger went viral and the world had fun with photoshop. You can read about that greatness here.
Well now that this ordeal is finally over, we can look back and see who won this long struggle.
But that's the thing. In this lockout, nobody won.
The players didn't win. The coaches didn't win. Bettman didn't win. Fehr didn't win. The fans sure as hell didn't win.
When there isn't hockey being played, everybody suffers mightily.
The one party that won in this lockout is Federal Mediator Scot Beckenbaugh who worked tirelessly to get this thing settled.
Like the parent who splits the candy bar down the middle ending a feud between infants, Beckenbaugh went back and forth between the parties, constantly communicating until the whole thing was settled.
Different sports outlets credit Beckenbaugh with "providing herculean assistance of the highest caliber to the parties."
But in my opinion, Edmonton forward Sam Gagner put it best:
Do we have every excuse in the world to be excited?
Kind of.
I've been giddy all morning.
But if this were a movie, this wouldn't be the scene when you realize it was all just a dream and everything is good again.
If this were a movie, it'd be a post-apocalyptic world with you slowly walking out of your house, seeing the destruction that ensued.
It's great to have hockey back. We've been dying for its return ever since October 11th.
But we can't say that this season was saved. This season is in no way, shape, or form saved.
This season was mercifully salvaged.
This entire ordeal has been one publicly humiliating saga for the league and the fans. Now that it's over we should be grateful, humbled, and appreciative.
But let's enjoy this season.
It's gonna be one helluva ride.
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