Note: A big happy birthday wishes go out to Illegalcurve.com co-editor and analyst on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show Richard Pollock who is celebrating his birthday sans social media.
Jets & Affiliate news:
Winnipeg Sun: Reality of shortened NHL season sinking in for Winnipeg Jets. Appears charity games are the only ones Jets fans will see their favourite players playing in for the next while.
Winnipeg Sun: Burmistrov scores winner for IceCaps. The young Russian ended a wild one, which saw the IceCaps storm back and win it on Burmistrov’s goal to win the contest 8-7 in overtime.
The Telegram: Captain’s comeback complete. Despite a long road back to being health, the Caps captain Jason Jaffray is ready to return to action.
TSN: Kane suspended one game for hit to head in KHL. Considering he has 0 points in 5 games, perhaps a game off can help.
CBA news:
Globe and Mail: Lafleur says NHL, NHLPA need to think about fans, businesses. A number of former players are speaking up and against the intransigence of both sides.
Winnipeg Free Press: The next 48 hours will tell us a lot. It is quite a gamble that the Fehr brothers are making with a lot of livelihoods They better hope it pays off.
Toronto Star: Time spent on meaningless stuff boggles the mind. The amount of time that has been wasted by both sides is criminal. To think of the people who rely on hockey to make a living, who don’t have escrow cheques or multi-million dollar businesses to fall back on.
Globe and Mail: Time for Bettman to walk away. This ignores the success the game has achieved under his reign.
TSN: NHL, Players Association reach stalemate in CBA talks. The players say they are prepared to meet anytime, anywhere. Here is a ‘crazy’ idea, meet tomorrow at 9 am and keep that meeting going until you have compromised.
Globe and Mail: NHL end-around seen as another PR gaffe for league. Not really sure why the players should care about the tactics used by the NHL. They have as much control over that as the NHL does over what the players are doing right now.
Globe and Mail: Does Habs’ property development fall under hockey-related revenue? The Habs are a money machine and the strength of the brand allows anything it touches to turn to gold.
Toronto Star: Gary Bettman allowed GMs, owners to talk to players. Perhaps the gamble was originally judged by the NHL to be worthwhile, but you can understand why Fehr & the Players Association would be less than pleased by the move.
NHL news:
New York Post: Islanders skate to Brooklyn. This looks like a done deal which is sad for those on Long Island who have supported the Islanders. Good news is the MTS Centre is no longer the smallest building for hockey in the NHL as the Barclays Center holds 14,500 for hockey.
Columbus Dispatch: Davidson, Jackets close to deal. Well at least there is some bright news for the city of Columbus as they have to hope that J.D. can help turn them around, similar to what he was able to help accomplish with St. Louis.
Toronto Star: Markham goes slow on NHL-sized arena plan. When you are asking the public to participate with their tax dollars, the least you can do is make the process open to public debate/comment.
CFL news:
Illegal Procedure: Winnipeg Blue Bombers Papers. If you are a fan of CFL football, check out our other site, which gives you all the latest Bombers & CFL news. Good news Blue fans, Winnipeg can still make the playoffs and the math is quite simple. Bombers need to win out and have Eskimos lose out. At least some Bombers fans continue to show their pride.
