What Say You Shanny?

I am surprised at what is going on in Toronto.  I saw the Leafs play the Capitals last week and must admit Toronto could be beaten by a few AHL teams at this point.  In today's Boston Globe Hockey Notes http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/03/07/sunday-hockey-notes-rangers-range-stanley-cup-but-sure-thing/x8Pbq4iXoTWEFiEzQ6MxNM/story.html Fluto Shinzawa points out something I have been thinking about for the last month, why is Brendan Shanahan not saying or doing anything? I think the real question is why is Brendan Shanahan in the Toronto President's position in the first place? Time to come public Shanny and discuss the way out of this mess!

Most Pressing Issues

Sportsnet is a television property of Rogers Media in Canada.  They have a segment called "To The Point" in which Nick Kypreos and Glenn Healy argue different perspectives on hockey's most pressing issues.  It is hard to believe that a Canadian television property would view Alex Ovechkin's relationship with current and prior Washington Capitals coaches as a more pressing issue over the ineptness of the Edmonton Oilers' and Toronto Maples Leafs' organizations.  

Once they have found a solution to the Oilers and Leafs woes (that will keep them busy for a while), they should come down to Washington and watch a Caps practice.  It would then become apparent to both Kypreos and Healy their comments on Ovechkin are off-base, inaccurate, uninformed and borderline unprofessional.  I do realize Sportsnet and "To The Point" are intended to provide entertainment value but do some research rather than "ready, fire, aim" analysis.

The Puck Daddy writes an article on this matter worth viewing at http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/puck-daddy/glenn-healy-rips-alex-ovechkin-and-his-mother-173731507.html

The Business of Hockey

I became curious about which owners are taking the most active roles with the NHL in the ongoing CBA negotiations.   An interesting article by Pat Hickey in yesterday's Montreal Gazette sheds some light on this http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/montreal-canadiens/Hickey+proves+rich+people+different/7602720/story.html  He discusses the most involved owners and their motivation:

1. Jeremy Jacobs - the Bruins made a number of signings prior to the lockout.  Word has it he is one of the more driving forces behind the lockout as he attempts to pad his profit margin through these negotiations.  Curious, he could also have padded his margin by not going on a spending spree prior to the lockout.  
2. Craig Leopold - as Hickey points out in his article, Leopold's Minnesota Wild lost close to $6 million in 2010-2011.  Leopold was whining about his hockey losses this past spring.  So how does he address the problem?  He signs Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to 13-year $98 million contracts knowing that his attendance is already at 98.4% capacity.  The only way for Mr. Leopold to remediate this poor decision is to be staunch in his support for increased HRR - shocking he is an active participant in the ongoing negotiations.  
3. Ted Leonsis - in 2010-2011 Leonsis' Washington Capitals lost $7.5 million.  Hickey points out he is experiencing some buyer remorse.  Was he referring to Leonsis' purchase of the Capitals or the 0-10 Washington Wizards?    
4. Murray Edwards - the Flames made $1.1 million in 2010-2011, their average attendance was 19,289.  Not far away the Edmonton Oilers made $17 million in 2011-2012 with average attendance of 16,839.  That is a statistically significant revenue difference in markets that are not too distinct from each other.  

If these guys are not making enough money in hockey why can't they go back to businesses that are more lucrative for them - and let us get on with the season?  It will be interesting to see how the fan base in each of these cities supports these teams whenever the NHL gets underway.   

Fehr Factor

For hockey coverage, the Washington Post Sports Section does not compare to the likes of The Boston Globe, the Toronto Globe and Mail or the Montreal Gazette.  Today's Post, however, has a terrific article from baseball guru Tom Boswell who does a terrific job summarizing Donald Fehr's approach to the CBA negotiations.  Here's an excerpt, "Hiring Don Fehr, the Sun Tzu of jock labor, to face NHL owners in a lockout is like getting the Godfather to help you fix a parking ticket."  Details can be read at:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/capitals/nhl-lockout-owners-shouldnt-underestimate-the-fehr-factor/2012/11/21/7529ec82-341b-11e2-bb9b-288a310849ee_story.html  At some point the NHL leadership will understand they are dealing with a highly solidified NHLPA led by a loaded gun.  

Another interesting article in the Toronto Globe and Mail discusses the numbers from the latest NHLPA offer  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/globe-on-hockey/the-nhlpa-proposal-by-the-numbers/article5530468/  As this article points out, the make whole amount from the NHLPA is $393M and the make whole amount from the NHL is $211M - a difference of $182M.  Here's a brainstorming thought, how about we agree on $300M and get the season started?

Can Of Worms

Well before all this CBA drama took center stage, my prior blogs mention concerns with the KHL competing against the NHL.  The KHL continues to improve and this year is a haven for locked out Russian NHL players.  The oil-backed funding of many teams provides stars like Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk a good salary in their homeland.  Depending on the haircut these guys take on the final CBA agreement, it's quite possible a few of them may consider staying home.  After escrow, salary deduction resulting from the CBA and quality of life considerations are made, some players may determine that it is best to stay in the KHL.

The KHL is only five (5) years old, but they honor their contracts.  The NHL is increasingly being viewed by players as unstable given the recent lockout history.  In addition, the players are increasingly circumspect with regard to the contracts they sign.  The fact that owners negotiated long-term contracts during the CBA process is reprehensible.  If the players are asked to take a significant pay cut from an existing contract, breach of contract suits will become quite interesting as players decide to stay in the KHL.  This is where the can of worms comes in.

As Gary Bettman and the NHL geniuses continue to act like they are holding all the cards, the more they push HRR reductions the more they negotiate against themselves.

Dug In

I believe comments from these two individuals sum up where we are at with current collective bargaining negotiations.

Brooks Laich, Washington Capitals as quoted in Washington Post on September 15, 2012
"......every contract ends with a handshake. Every single contract, where I come from, you honor your handshakes and you have your word. If you don’t have that you have nothing. If I make a bad deal, sign a bad contract that’s my fault. And I accept that, I’m a man and I work through that. That’s something I deal with. I don’t go crying foul and looking for somebody to fix my mistakes. I accept that as a man, that I made a bad decision. I think that hockey players are pretty honest people and they don’t like it when it’s coming back the other way.”

Gary Bettman, Commissioner, National Hockey League as quoted in SI on September 13, 2012
When asked how the owners could justify signing players to contracts and then asking them to take less in real dollars (i.e. losing money to escrow), Bettman reasoned that there was no “perpetual entitlement” to the 57 percent share of overall revenues the players currently receive.

Players seem dug in as does Bettman.  I'm thinking some of these owners should consider selling their team if it's not generating enough money for them.  

NHL Not Starting Anytime Soon

I cannot see the NHL starting on time this year.  Players seem adamant they will not agree to a 24% pay reduction.  Think about those contracts Suter, Parise, Weber, and Crosby signed over the summer.  A payment over a certain period of time was negotiated, now because of the CBA, the payments at the agreed upon rate cannot be honored.  The owners are holding the cards in this one.  The players have the deck stacked against them for the following reasons:

1. High diversity among players.  Over half the players come from Canada, 24% come from the USA and 23% from Europe.  There is high disparity in language, culture and education which makes collaboration efforts a substantial challenge.
2. Feeder systems.  Half of he NHL players come through either the Ontario Hockey League, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League or the Western Hockey League.   The leagues train the players in a hockey environment that offers them limited rights. They have advisors from their early teenage years who provide guidance, but don't always have the best, long-term interests of their clients at heart.
3. History.   Clearly the owners have the advantage here.  Bettman and most of the owners have been through prior CBA's and fully understand the history of how we got to this point.  On the union side there are few players with experience in prior CBA negotiations. 
4. Education.  Only 30% of NHL players have had some college training and only half of these guys have college degrees.  While a college degree is not a measure of intelligence, four years on campus would help a player strategize, better plan, think critically and be more likely to stick up for themselves.  

Source:   Warren Zola, Asst Dean Boston College Carroll School of Management

This one is not ending soon.  It will be difficult over the long haul to keep the players in sync.  As the lockout wears on, the NHLPA will start to fragment.  The good news is college hockey starts in October.   

We will put this blog entry en francais to placate the patrons of Boon Island Ale and the media in Montreal.

LNH pas commencer n'importe quand bientôt

Je ne peux pas voir que le NHL commence à l'heure cette année. Les joueurs semblent inflexibles qu'ils n'accepteront pas d'une 24% réduction de salaire. Penser à ces contrats Suter, Parise, plus Web, et Crosby a signé sur l'été. Un paiement sur une certaine période de temps a été négocié, maintenant à cause du CBA, les paiements au consenti sur le taux ne peuvent pas être honorés. Les propriétaires tiennent les cartes dans ceci l'un. Les joueurs ont le pont empilé contre eux pour les raisons suivantes :

1. L'haute diversité parmi les joueurs. Sur demi les joueurs est venu de Canada, 24% est venu de l'USA et 23% d'Europe. Il y a l'haute disparité dans la langue, la culture et l'éducation qui font les efforts de collaboration un défi substantiel. 
2. Systèmes d'alimenteur. La moitié de lui joueurs de NHL viennent passé ou la Ligue de Hockey d'Ontario, le Québec Hockey Ligue Junior Majeur ou la Ligue de Hockey de l'ouest. Les ligues entraînent les joueurs dans un environnement de hockey qui les offre ont limité des droits. Ils ont des conseillers de leurs premiers ans adolescents qui fournissent la direction, mais ne pas toujours avoir les intérêts meilleurs et à long terme de leurs clients au fond. 
3. Histoire. Clairement les propriétaires ont l'avantage ici. Bettman et la plupart des propriétaires ont été par CBA préalable et comprennent entièrement l'histoire de comment nous avons obtenu à ce point. Sur le côté d'union il y a peu des joueurs avec l'expérience dans les négociations de CBA préalables. 
4. Education. Seulement 30% de joueurs de NHL a eu de l'entraînement d'université et seulement la moitié de ces gars a des degrés de collège. Pendant qu'un degré de collège n'est pas une mesure d'intelligence, quatre ans sur le campus aideraient un joueur élabore une stratégie, le meilleur projet, penser d'une manière critique et être plus probable pour enfoncer en haut pour se. 

Source:  Warren Zola, Asst Dean Boston College Carroll School of Management

Ceci l'un ne termine pas bientôt. Ce sera difficile sur la prise longue de garder les joueurs dans la synchronisation. Comme le lock-out porte sur, le NHLPA commencera à fragmenter. Les bonnes nouvelles sont les débuts de hockey de collège au mois d'octobre.

Nous mettrons cette entrée de blog en francais pour apaiser les clients de Boone Island Ales et les médias à Montréal.