8 replies to this topic

[DropThePuck]

Some really great comments from former NHL player and head coach Terry Crisp. <link> (Scroll down, they're underneath the Beliveau comments.)

And, I cringe when they say this: 'well, we're doing it for the guys coming behind us, we're doing it for the guys for the good of the game'. That's the biggest crock I've ever heard said in my life.

Like, they slam a guy who says: 'if it's a cap, okay we can settle for a cap'. They all jump all over him with both feet and kick him around, but if a guys says, 'oh, so be it that we come back with six less teams', nobody says a word. They accept that stupidity.

[DropThePuck]

More NHL alumni quotes: <LINK> (one-sidedness due to these being on the NHL CBA website...duh!)

[Barmy Army]

(Hall of Fame forward Phil Esposito, Winnipeg Sun, May 20, 2004)

"How much money is enough? The lower echelon of a team gets $500,000 to $900,000. Not a bad fricking living. You've gotta stop this 10, 11, and $12-million crap, too. There will be a salary cap, or there won't be hockey."

I'm with Phil

[Veca]

Just imagine how guys that played only a few years ago feel about the millionaire Prima Donnas of today....
The Esposito boys played with hardly any padding or protective equipment and they played for the love of the game, it sure wasn't the small amounts of money they got.

They came to work each game and played pretty tough. You just didn't see them sitting around game after game looking preoccupied and lost!!!

[lvsprt]

  Just imagine how guys that played only a few years ago feel about the millionaire Prima Donnas of today....
The Esposito boys played with hardly any padding or protective equipment and they played for the love of the game, it sure wasn't the small amounts of money they got.

They came to work each game and played pretty tough. You just didn't see them sitting around game after game looking preoccupied and lost!!! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is precisely how I feel about this mess. You make an excellent point, Veca, the guys that have retired from the game that are speaking out are representative of why I loved this game and came to it from basketball. Now the guys playing now are lined up with the rest of the spoiled pro sport players that just can't remember that "love of the game". I truly believe that the next time the NHL hits the ice it will be quite a different incarnation than we are used to. Less teams, minus some of the high paid players and not quite the innocence that I felt the game had over the other big time sports. Sad very sad.

[DropThePuck]

(Hall of Fame forward Phil Esposito, Winnipeg Sun, May 20, 2004)

"How much money is enough? The lower echelon of a team gets $500,000 to $900,000. Not a bad fricking living. You've gotta stop this 10, 11, and $12-million crap, too. There will be a salary cap, or there won't be hockey."

I'm with Phil

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And a lot of the fans are with Phil and you Barmy ... the players are not going to get much sympathy at all from the fans until they come down from their ivory towers. Especially when there's a significant number of players playing for a lot less salary in Europe. For all the faults that the owners have, they're sitting prettier with their "cost certainty" stance than the players are with their "free market" or die plan.

[Just Duckie]

Right. The players say they would rather have contraction than a salary cap. If that's the case, then they aren't looking out for the good of all of the players, just the ones able to get $X amount. And if they are saying that they would willingly lower the number of players in the league, they are putting a cap on the supply available to teams. That's market manipulation, so where's the free market in that?

[Veca]

I just want hockey back.....GIVE US HOCKEY.....GIVE US HOCKEY....

[fedorov-fan91]

The players really need to think about this, they are playing and fulfilling a dream of being a hockey player for the National Hockey League! They are making good money, no doubt about it, but they also have to realize this could hurt this organization because of how stubborn they are being.

They should understand that it's a right all in it's own that they are doing something they enjoy or playing a game they are supposed to love more than money. However, the lines can truly be blurred from greed.