Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of the NHLPA.

I should probably pay a lot more attention to this stuff than I am.. I just can’t make myself care.

Please no lockout, please no lockout, please no lockout.

I’m not even sure what else anyone can do or say. This is such a highly dysfunctional situation and I can’t imagine it being resolved cleanly (too late for that really, right?). Good job keeping tabs on it but what is even left to say?

its beyond dysfunctional.

League General Counsel (and interim Director) Brad Penny

Maybe the dysfunction results from him focusing on 95mph fastballs all summer instead of the NHLPA.

Ugh. Never a fan of Chelios as a player — worst combo of cheap-shot artist, particularly with his stick, and cry ass — but this is a much more important deal than his on-ice annoyances. As much as I feel like professional sports athletes need to be well protected due to their inherent high risk lifestyle, both regarding the extremely short life-span of their careers as well as long-term health issues that often arise, they often need most protection from themselves and their incompetent “leadership” (see Upshaw, Gene)

Hopefully the league and the players can find a nice mix between the disastrous CBAs of the NFL (disastrous to the players) and the NBA (disastrous to the motivation and thereby watchability of the sport).

This kinda stuff is much more in my wheelhouse than the stats break down at Japers (which is why I love Japers’ stats).

My main interest in these politics though, stems from how the ineptness of the NHLPA will affect the Olympic Negotiations. OV’s playing aside, I am a strong supporter of professionals playing for their countries in the Olympics in general.

I do understand the Owners and players risk, which then creates one of the inspiring stories similar to a general hockey tenant; Sacrifice and Risk. Players risk their salaries for their country just like they risk their bodies for their teams in the playoffs (sans pay mind you)

The floundering of the NHLPA may prevent a lockount and a “continuation” of the CBA but what happens to the issues the Owners want to negotiate such as the Olympics? or the nitty gritty like the escrow calculation? I don’t see who or how the NHLPA will have any power at the table.

Is this right?

Paul Kelly gets fired by a cabal of Pink, Hargrove, Lindros, and (to a lesser extent?) Penny, much to the disgust of players, reporters, and respected professionals who have been around hockey for a while. The dust-up is such that a 4-person review panel was created to investigate the firing (and included Chelios).

Chelios, a Kelly supporter, does what a lot of people might assume he would do as a member of such a panel and attacks the guys in the cabal since there were no other repercussions forthcoming. Chelios is now seen as the newest cancer in the NHLPA since this kind of head-hunting feud isn’t good for the union as a whole, even though no one else was going to hold Pink, Hargrove, et. al. accountable, and they were essentially free to run the union—and possibly the sport—into the ground.

I guess my question is: I could give a fig about Chelios in general, but where were Larmer, Baumgartner, and the others denouncing him & resigning when Kelly—by all accounts the best thing ever to happen to the NHLPA—was being ousted? Why are we getting so up in arms about Chelios fighting fire with fire…was the alternative of letting Pink, Hargrove, and Lindros run the NHLPA like it was their private fief perfectly fine since they arranged it “legally” by a rep vote?

It seems like a great job of bait-and-switch by Pink, Hargrove and Co.: everyone’s calling for Chelios’s head while they try to hold on to theirs.

p.s. Have the results of the audit that Kelly mandated—and led to Lindros’s ouster—ever been published?

Another one bites the dust?

Whisper…Buzz Hargrove may resign as Ombudsman before the conf call, where sources say, its expected he will get voted out.

Allan Maki with an excellent article that also helps bring people up to speed ahead of Sunday’s call. Note a familiar Caps alum in there too.

Friedman with a must-read about where the Union was at the time of the lockout and what they’ve done since then.

As expected, Hargrove resigns. Among other things, he mentions the Review Committee was acting like Big Brother over the ombudsman, including being forced to notify the committee of who was filing any possible complaints of union action.