Sunday, February 13, 2005

Some pre-Valentine's Day sarcasm

Hey you men out there, if you're looking for a place to get flowers for your wife/girlfriend/mom but can't find a place manly enough to preserve your image as a hockey-loving tough guy? Why not try out the NHL's flower service? Flowers.NHL.com will take care of all your flower needs. If you act now, you can still get your Florist Arranged selection to your valentine in time to prevent your sleeping on the couch tomorrow night. Just think, men, you get to impress the female in your life and provide the NHL with some much needed revenue. In fact, you'll be responsible for giving the league the only money it's likely to earn this year! You might even prolong the lockout! Is that a great deal or what? If you don't have someone to send a valentine, you might amuse yourself by trying to get into the NHLPA's not-so-secret site, The Source. Try usernames like "Fedorov" and passwords like "TaraReidIsHOT." Or, if you're not willing to risk legal action being taken against you for entering the NHLPA's Holy of Holies, try sending a bouquet of flowers to Gary Bettman or Bob Goodenow. I recommend some orange lilies. Let them know how you feel about them! Gary Bettman National Hockey League 1251 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10018 Bob Goodenow National Hockey League Player's Association 777 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario Canada
M5G 2C8 No guarantees those wil work, if anyone actually does it. Okay, enough kidding around. There's been some good news today: TSN is reporting that the two sides were invited to attend a session held by the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, D.C. As of 6:00 PM, they were still meeting. Apparently, Bill Daly and Ted Saskin are there. My hope meter is registering for the first time in weeks. UPDATE: Ted Saskin had this to say about the session today:
''Today, the parties met for the third time with FMCS officials. There was no progress to report as a result of this meeting, and in fairness to the process it would serve no purpose to comment further.''
Great.

7 Comments:

At 2/14/2005 03:34:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The word on espn.com is that the season has officially been canceled. Is anyone suprised at all?

 
At 2/14/2005 04:41:00 PM, Blogger Brian List said...

It's one of those things where no matter how much you prepare yourself for it, and how much your pessimism tells you this is going to happen, it still comes as a shock. I just can't believe it's gone this far.

When the indications point to no progress, you try and tell yourself it's just NOT POSSIBLE for them to cancel the season. It's just not possible for the Cup to not be awarded for the first time since 1919, when the Spanish flu cancelled the season. Think about that, World Wars and the Great Depression didn't stop this league. But this has. It's just not possible for the NHL to become the only league to cancel a season due to a labor disagreement. Well, it's happened. And I'm still in shock, even after a summer and five months to prepare myself...

 
At 2/14/2005 10:39:00 PM, Blogger matt saler said...

I will not be surprised because I've been expecting to have no season all along. I will be surprised that Bettman is actually canceling the season, though, since I never would have thought him capable of taking such responsibility. It won't help his record at all.

I will be severely hurt and disappointed, though. It will definitely ruin my day and probably my week.

It will just confirm my expectations for the last five months.

 
At 2/15/2005 12:52:00 AM, Blogger Brian List said...

It will ruin a lot more than my day and week. How can one adjust from 8 months of hockey every night to nothing?

It will confirm all of our expectations but that doesn't make it hurt any less. I don't think there's a good way to brace for Wednesday...it's going to be a shock for us all to actually hear the words whether or not we think we're ready to hear them...all the implications of the cancellation are going to instantly flood our minds. I don't see any way of myself being callous to that. Even the pessimism of the last 9 months won't be enough. It'll also be a relief in a sense that this is over and we have the summer to sort things out...

I think it'll be a lot like getting out of steaming hot jacuzzi and jumping into a cold pool. You know it's going to be really cold and no matter how much you think you're ready, you're going to be yelling and in shock when it happens. So have the Kleenex on call for Wednesday...and best of luck!

 
At 2/15/2005 12:02:00 PM, Blogger matt saler said...

Of course it will affect more than my day or week. I was understating the effect it will have. But it's not like we'll suddenly be without hockey after having it. We haven't had hockey for 5 months and an announcement will just make it official. In a practical sense, there won't be any change. All that changes is we will have no hope for hockey afterall.

 
At 2/15/2005 08:08:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It sounds like there is still a slim slim shot for a deal to go down. However, I would not be suprised if a deal was not reached and this season was still canceled. Hopefully they can at least get a deal done going into next season....One other thought, except for the die hard hockey fans, it seems like not many people care that the NHL is in the hole right now. Maybe I am wrong but it sure seems that way.

 
At 2/15/2005 10:14:00 PM, Blogger Brian List said...

Yeah the NHL is pretty much a joke to most of the nation...and this lockout is just a punchline to what they've always said about us...I can't believe media outlets like ESPN and CNN already said the season was cancelled earlier in the week....

 

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