NHL, union have tentative agreement

By Katie Strang

NEW YORK -- The lockout appears to finally be over.

A tentative agreement has been reached between the NHL and NHL Players' Association, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.com.

A source told ESPNNewYork.com that the emphasis should be placed on the word "tentative." That source said there is still work to be done but there has been a verbal agreement between the two sides on the major points.

The tentative agreement includes a 10-year collective bargaining agreement with a mutual opt-out clause after eight years, contract term limits at seven years (eight years for a team to re-sign its own players) and a 2013-14 salary cap of $64.3 million, a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com.

Word of the agreement came after the two sides hashed out their remaining differences for more than 16 hours at a hotel in midtown Manhattan, spelling the end to a lockout that has persisted for almost four months and cost more than half the regular season.

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NHL lockout: Where nobody wins after four-month charade
By Brian Stubits

Too often we fall into a trap of labeling winners and losers in such things as labor negotiations. It's akin to a fight, yes, but it's not really a competition. The whole goal of labor talks should be to strike a fair deal to move forward, not beat your opponent.

Alas, that's not the way it works. After the 2004-05 lockout, there was no getting around the fact that the NHL was the big winner. The league wrestled away a ton of what it wanted -- chiefly, a salary cap -- from the players and the fans came back after an entire season was chopped. Even if you didn't want to characterize it in terms of winners and losers, it was very hard not to see the NHL scored big.

Now, after doing the same song and dance for the past few months in the NHL until a deal was finally struck on Sunday morning just in time to save a season, the questions will arise again. Who won the lockout?

You could say the league did because it clawed back more money from the players while taking away player rights. You could argue Donald Fehr and the players did, as Puck Daddy's Ryan Lambert did, because they stopped the NHL from completely pillaging and plundering the union like a ship full of pirates. Plus, they kept a lot of their contract rights and got a nice pension package to rally around.

Or you can call them both losers. Which they are.

It might not feel like it right at this moment as the euphoria of a deal being reached is still high, but it will likely be reality; this lockout will hurt the league. The damage the NHL has done to itself in the past few months is impressive in a way -- not in a good way, but still impressive. I think the NHL has come to terms with the fact that it will have backlash from fans and that will be reflected in the revenue streams, not that that makes it any better.

Life will go on for the league and the players and they will continue to be millionaires and billionaires but that doesn't qualify as a win for either, not in my book. Ultimately it will be up to the fans to decide if anybody won at all. If they don't come back or even just take too long coming back then no way can you say anybody did anything but lose.

The league had been building in popularity and revenue in recent years. The game while certainly still not perfect, appeared to be healthy. Almost as if they all couldn't stand the building success, both sides let things go down this route and get this far.

As each day went by the pie the owners and players share was going down instead of where it should have been going; up. That momentum has been stopped faster than a Zdeno Chara slap shot with this lockout and I'm not sure how long it will take for it to come back.

The owners won some of what they wanted in these concessionary negotiations and the players held onto or gained some of what they want. In the end both sides can and probably feel like they made it out pretty well all things considered. That won't take away from the fact that it was a losing proposition for everybody from the beginning.

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Glorious.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

When do the games start up and how many are they playing in the regular season?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Finally,games start the 15th or 19th
Only play in conference

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

Is Hossa's contract grandfathered into the variance clause or will it have to be restructured?

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Start the playoffs

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

They should do that. Just an all-in single elimination season.

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

I guess the talk is of a 48 game schedule. I'm in. I miss this sport in a big way.

That being said, I think the shorter season plays well into the Hawks hands. It was nice to get time for Hossa to heal up and be ready for the game. I'm hearing he's ready.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Yeah, if the Hawks can blow through 48 to 50 games without hitting their customary crapout, we could have good things in store. And if all the games are intraconference, none of those "oh my god I don't even know what a Pittsburgh Penguins is" games. Seriously, do we have no advance scouting for the East?

My only concerns are the power play, as always, and that this is still a team built to play good hockey in a league built for bad hockey. Unfortunately, the standings don't yet have a fourth column for moral victories.

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I watched a replay of Hawks/Flyers game 6 in the 2010 finals the other night and was kind of amazed by how differently the Hawks played on defense that year. So much faster and more aggressive. The "blue collar" guys really made a difference, especially when compared to the 2nd and 3rd liners they trotted out last season.

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Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.- JD Vance
If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.- JD Vance on the J-6 insurrectionists

Its a shame that they wont play the Rangers or Bruins.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I'm still very concerned about the Hawks goaltending. I don't really think that Crawford or Emery is very good. Crawford was (without benefit of stats here) pretty bad on penalty kills.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

That's because the blue-collar guys weren't really blue-collar guys. Andrew Ladd is a low #1/high #2 left wing who was made to be a roleplayer because of fantastic depth. John Madden was one of the best shutdown centers of a generation. We were extremely fortunate to have the elite talent that we did.

Fortunately, there's a lot of talent in the pipeline. I know everyone says that, but we actually do. At worst they're in the top ten. When you consider that they're only trailing the always-replenishing Red Wings and a slew of teams that have been just plain awful at the NHL level (Panthers, Isles, Wild, Oilers), to have that much upside and a Stanley Cup is a decent place to be.

Oh and yeah I'm really concerned about our goaltending too, and I don't think we have anyone coming up, either. Would've been nice to get Josh Harding, but now he has multiple sclerosis. Crap.

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God, I'm talking hockey on the CSFMB again!

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My friend, you seem to be forgetting the Stanley Cup Finals

The faster they got to the playoffs, the more people would care about the league. Also, maybe give some first round byes, so the season means a little something?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

A great way to make the season mean something would be straight W-L. The standings are so padded with overtime losses and shootout losses that you can't tell what's what. Everyone is glossed over into an all-purpose sixth place. If you couldn't guarantee half a win by sitting back and playing for the coin toss that is a shootout, things would be a lot better.

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Admit it , you got wood.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I still don't get why they haven't done this. It should of been done the moment they got rid of ties. Why should a team be rewarded a point just for going into overtime? A team with a better W-L can miss out on the playoffs to a team that has more points because of this braindead structure.

Because they have to dupe as many fanbases as possible into thinking they're "still in it." Does a 33-30-9 record mean you're playing several games below .500? Naw! With 75 points in 72 games, why, you're just a point out of eighth place, and because you're in the Massive Head Wound Division, you're two points out of third place! Great seats still available to see your Dallas Stars inaction [sic].

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This will suck for the Blackhawks. Even with the likely decline of the Red Wings and Predators from losing key defensemen the Hawks are probably in the toughest divison in the Western conference. The Northwest could possibly give the Central a run for their money if Edmonton ever decides to play well or Minnesota takes a step up.

The Atlantic division is going to be a shit show. Center Ice might be worth it just to see those teams square off.

Accentuate the positives: four or five with the shitty Blue Jackets, three with the Stars, Flames, Ducks, Sharks, etc. So they don't get to beat up on the crappy East teams. They usually derp those games anyway (3-0 shutout loss to the awful Hurricanes)! All is not lost!

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Will there be any issue getting players back from Europe like there were with NBA players that went to China? I saw that Blackhawks Kane, Bickell and Frolik headed East. Any others?

Their contracts and IIHF treaties stipulate that they have to come home, and will. There's a minor flap going on right now wherein Lubomir Visnovsky is staying in Slovakia and refusing to report to Long Island, but that's not pertinent to us, and will either result in him coming home after all or being disqualified and having his contract tolled. The only trouble we'll have getting Kane home from Switzerland is dragging him out of the 16-year-old girl's bed.

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...conveniently located above the pub.

Also, hell-o, I just found the loophole to Cap Recapture: the Blackhawks can't get penalized for Marian Hossa retiring prematurely if he just fails to report.

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You certainly have some varied reading interests. And nice find.