The NHL is back. Let's celebrate with a box of 2012-13 Score

Yep, you've all seen it on the web, the TV (although the NHL network here in the US has had no news at all about it) and on all the tickers at the bottom of your favorite sports channel's screen. 

The NHL lockout is over.   And yet, I'm still a pessimist when it comes to the 2012-13 season.

I think the fact that I had to wait over 100 days for the millionaires and the billionaires to figure it out has got me bummed out.  I thought that it wouldn't bother me, because we've been through it before and everyone knew it was coming.   But the no hockey on Saturday nights, well that really hurt.  When you've watched hockey almost every Saturday night during the winter for the better part of 35 years, you kind of get used to it.  When someone takes it away, it leaves a hole there that nothing else could replace.  I probably will not get psyched up for the season until I start watching some games, thankfully that will be within the next 2 weeks. 

I wasn't bummed out enough though to pickup a box of Score hockey last week while at Target.   I had actually forgot about the box while ripping through the "best of 2012" box last week, and the Score sat until Saturday.  I fared quite well with this box, starting with the Retro Franchise insert of the "China Wall", Johnny Bower.

Bower is the last goalie to lead the NHL in goals against average for 3 consecutive seasons.  It might be quite a long time before someone duplicates that feat.


These Net Cam inserts are pretty cool to look at, but my groin twinged when I saw this photo.

Feel the rip...

With the NHL able to end 2 contracts per team this upcoming summer, if Roberto Luongo isn't traded by the Canucks, he's sure to be let go.

Old is new again, and the Team Score inserts also feature some great photography.  Jonathan Quick better be ready this year, everybody is going to be gunning for the champs!!

Just like the old Dream Team inserts from the 90's.  B&W photos still rock if done the right way...

Finally, I've opened about 5 blaster boxes of Score so far this year, but hadn't come across this version of "The Franchise" insert set as of yet. 

I like the 'Est. 1967' moniker on the lower right of the card. This version of the Franchise insert is a sharp looking card, and if anyone pulls the Phil Kessel Franchise card, I'd be interested in trading for it.


I've enjoyed ripping the Score boxes so far this year.  Price wise, they are right up my alley.  $10 for 11 packs with 7 cards in each is a great price point for me, and so far I've not been left wanting in any of the 5 boxes.  There aren't a lot of hits to chase after, but to be honest, at this price level, I don't expect any.


There's bigger fish out there if I want hits. 

thanks for reading, Robert

Black Thursday

This term was coined by Pierre LeBrun on Twitter today.  The NHL regular season was supposed to start today, and yet here we are with nothing but dark arenas around North America.

The NHL had me last summer, they had one of the cheapest people around when it comes to buying TV programming ready to spend a bunch of money to buy their center ice package.

Guess that just means I'll have more money to buy one of these at the Sport Card Expo next month...

Lucky me!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

It's 11:59 PM, September 15, 2012

Screen capture courtesy of NHL.com

Kind of appropriate that the NHL shield appears in black on the NHL.com homepage.

The deadline is here, and what is the NHL doing to ensure that the fans have something to watch this season?

Nothing.

Screen capture courtesy of NHL.com

There was absolutely no sense of urgency from the owners to get to the table.  I'm convinced that this lockout was going to happen all along.   The summer did nothing to enhance my belief that there would be hockey this year.  Gary Bettman announced during the Stanley Cup Finals that he was confident that there would be progress during the summer and that a deal would be reached to prevent a lockout.  Bull shit.

I read an article on Yahoo! sports earlier this week in which an agent speculated that this lockout may last 18 months!  I'm so fed up now with the NHL that they could lock the players out for the next 18 years and it wouldn't bother me.   Yes, that is anger talking, but I'm so fed up that part of it is actually the truth.

The league finally gained some steam over the past few years, and has gained market share and revenue way beyond the dreams of anyone involved in the league.  So what do the owners do?  Cry poor and say that there are several teams that are losing money.  Why wasn't this fixed the last time?  Because the owners panicked when the players called their bluff.  The players moved on to other leagues and endeavors, and watched as the fan's opinion of what was happening quickly move to their side.  The owners took a deal that led to "cost certainty", but so many loopholes were in the salary cap structure that the rich teams just wound up outspending the poor teams again, and buried their mistakes in the minors without penalty.

Honestly, yes I am very upset that my favorite sport, my passion since I was a 5 year old boy is being taken away from me again.  Yes, I may cheer for a team that hasn't won a Stanley Cup since 5 months before I was born, but it doesn't matter.  I enjoy watching the Leafs as often as I can.  It's akin to a car wreck on the Interstate, you don't want to look, but you just can't help yourself.

I don't see the sense in a 3rd work stoppage in less than 20 years.  It makes the NHL look bush league. 

This will also be the 3rd work stoppage since Gary Bettman became commissioner.  Here is the NHL's legacy as far as games missed by league due to work stoppages since 1992.

Screen capture courtesy of cbssports.com

MLB's work stoppage in 94-95 cost the sport a World Series, and put a crippling blow to the national pastime that took years for them to dig out of.  The NBA lockouts wiped out a good portion of the 98-99 and 11-12 seasons.

Notice the NFL.  Not one work stoppage in the past 20 years.  It is a juggernaut that is not going to be overtaken any time soon.

The graph shows that none of the other 3 major sports leagues have lost as much time (or money) as the NHL has.   The league is on the verge of another breakdown, largely because the league has expanded/moved into places that it shouldn't have, and trying way too hard to create a fan base that just isn't there.  The league has moved into places where it had absolutely no chance of making any money.  The league has created an environment where taking in a game is way to costly.  The last game that I attended (at least a game that I had to pay for my ticket) was 2 years ago.  The seat I had in the old Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh cost me $105.  I couldn't see the scoreboard without ducking my head.  We weren't even on the lowest level of the arena.  Really?

I hope and I pray that I will see NHL hockey this season, but I fear that I will not.   Again. 

This time, I have a feeling that there will be a lot of fans that will be singing this song to the NHL if this season is lost.

Say good bye, indeed.

Thank you for reading, and God Bless to those people whose families are affected by this insanity of a lockout. 

Robert

28 days

That's all there is before the NHL imposes a lockout on their players if a new CBA is not reached.

I can see the writing on the wall now.  It's going to happen.  We're going to lose significant time again this year.  (I'm praying that the two sides prove me wrong, but they just waited too damn long to start talks)

The problem now is what it was in the past, the owners.  The gulf between the haves and the have nots in the ranks of ownership is just way too wide.  Teams that can bury horrible contracts in the minors (Toronto and the Rangers to name two) have a big advantage over teams that are scrambling each season just to spend to the floor (Phoenix, Florida).  Sadly, the owners have to "band together" to figure a way to do it in order to save the poor clubs.

Who takes the hit?  The players....

I'm sure this guy wasn't going around to the owners with a gun to their heads and saying "give me a 13 year contract"...

 

The league has a real problem on their hands.  The divisive shift isn't within the players; if anything they seem to be more together on the issues than they ever have been.

The players are the driving force of the game, and there are a lot of great young players driving the skill level upwards at an alarming rate.

No sooner do I hear in talks that ownership wants to limit contracts to a 5 year term then I see not one but two players (Pacioretty and Simmonds) sign 6 year contracts.

The problem (at least how I see it) is the owners battling within themselves.  The rich doing their best to drive the poor ones out of business by forcing them to either put up or shut up.  Yes, I know it's the classic business model, but when you have a finite amount of teams in a sport you're trying to expand to the entire North American market, it just doesn't make sense.

Nearly $8 million (on average) per year for Shea Weber?  Come on folks, it's getting a little ridiculous.  Weber is a very good defenseman, but to pay him near what Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin are making is ....nuts.

This type of spending has forced teams that are "middle of the pack" like Carolina to overpay for players (I'm sorry, $6 million/yr for Jordan Staal is a little much..again just my opinion).

It's obvious now that the lost season of 2004-05 hasn't shown the ownership group anything, because they've gone and created the same problem as they had 8 years ago.  Out of control spending.

I'm not paying good money to go and see Ryan Suter play hockey.   Ryan Suter is a very good hockey player, don't get me wrong, but to pay him the kind of money that he received (13 years, $98 million) is crazy. 


Gary Bettman...you need to get your ownership group together....offer the players 51% of the revenue, put in an impartial mediator to hear appeals on player suspensions...and for the love of all things good, contract this league by 4 teams. 

Do not put a 2nd team in Toronto, do not give a team back to Quebec City unless an owner chooses to move there, and put no more teams south of North Carolina.


I also want to watch Nashville Predators games on the off chance that the cameras will pan and show me the visage of this very lucky hockey player's wife....

Mr. Underwood?  Nah.....

I'm sorry that you've been forced to read a very long winded and choppy rant, but when I see my favorite sport 28 days away from another lockout, well it really just fucking pisses me off.

28 days....you think I'm upset now, wait until the lockout happens....then I might go spinning out of control on the NHL....

lol....I love blogging...

Thanks for reading, Robert