National Hockey League Says: “Bring On The Scabs”

[AmericanErrorist]

National Hockey League Says: “Bring On The Scabs”
By Dave Zirin

Three billion dollars. This was the offer put on the
table by a coterie of Boston based businessmen to buy
the entire National Hockey League puck, stick, and
barrel. In the language of the mega rich, their three
billion dollar offer is the equivalent of saying that
the league is worth little more than a carton of
shrimp fried rice and a pack of Kools.

But the great humiliation was not so much the offer.
It's the fact that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman felt
like he had to take it seriously. “We felt we should
hear them out,” said a Bettman spokesperson. This was
a definitive statement that the NHL, once one of the
big four North American sports along with the NFL,
the NBA, and Major League Baseball, is now on a tier
with indoor soccer and box lacrosse. Bettman’s NHL
limps not only behind the aforementioned “Big Three”
but also NASCAR, men’s and women’s college basketball,
college football, Arena Football, and the Westminster
Dog Show. A terrier with a silicone snout has more
star power than anyone in Bettman’s locked out, shut
down, sclerotic NHL.

As professor Andrew Zimbalist said, "What billion dollar offer] does say is that there are
people out there that see much more potential and
value in hockey if the league is run properly. They
think the asset value of the franchises has been so
depreciated by mismanagement and the lockout that
there’s an opportunity to get a bargain.’’

To make matters worse, Bettman delivered a speech
announcing his plan for restarting play this fall.
Making peace with the crisis of overproduction that is
the National Hockey League, Bettman announced that
every one of the NHL’s thirty teams would return. That
means hockey hotbeds like Columbus, Nashville, and
Atlanta will see action this October. The same can’t
be said however for the players. Bettman in his next
breath dropped the other skate, publicly threatening
permanent replacements this fall. Yes, the one thing
that can save the NHL, in Bettman’s mind, is scab
hockey.

Other than the moral abhorrence of this practice, it
signifies little more than the fact that Bettman has
been in the Sunbelt too long. The Commish might be
served to remember that hockey is also played and
watched in Canada. Using scab players would in fact
violate Canadian labor law, where unionists are
protected against job loss while on strike or locked
out. This would make games in places like Montreal,
Toronto, and Edmonton the site of picket line combat
and a potential legal nightmare.

Also, while US workers have no such labors
protections, the key cradles of US hockey - places
like Detroit, Buffalo, Philly and Pittsburgh - don’t
take kindly to picket crossers.

As Al Strachan of the Toronto Sun wrote about the
prospect of scab hockey, “It’s a desperate step, a
virtual legal minefield, but has no choice
now. He promised too many owners a hard cap spending limits on players to make up for budget
problems rooted in over-expansion] and he is backed
into a corner. If the owners think replacement players
will restore credibility to their sport, they have
been misled. It will only make the NHL more of a
travesty than it is already.”

While Bettman meanders without a plan, his iron clad
United Front of owners seems to be rusting at the
thought of how filled their empty arenas would be with
scab hockey and picket lines as the main attraction.
“We just want to get this thing started again,”
Islanders general manager Mike Milbury said. “We want
to be playing in the fall and we want these players to
be part of it.” Los Angeles Kings president Tim
Leiweke said it was to the best interest of both sides
to continue negotiations and working toward a new
Collective Bargaining Agreement “before we kill the
sport.” Other owners have been observed by beat
reporters as rushing to their cars tight lipped and
steaming after hearing Bettman’s latest plans to scab
their way toward a “hard cap.”

Meanwhile, the players -- after seeming to wither
toward the end of negotiations -- are straightening
their backs and holding firm. They have offered to cut
their pay, but they refuse to have the owners crisis
of overproduction solved on their backs. As Islanders
representative Mark Parrish said, “The union has bent,
but right now we are stronger and more united than
ever.”

They should be united. Because if both sides come
together and end the lockout on the owner's terms, an
NHL with a hard cap and thirty bloated teams won't be
addressing the root of it's problem: the product on
the ice.

Fans who grew up on the thrilling breakneck sport
simply do not recognize the ugly product being put out
on the ice. Hockey, because of its comical Sun Belt
expansion, is finding its skilled players marginalized
by a glut of grabbing, pawing, clunking defensemen. I
received this letter after writing the column 'CSI:
How the Owners destroyed Hockey' two weeks ago, which
I believe says it all.

"Dear Dave, I read your column on the NHL. I am a
Canadian. I loved hockey when I was young, in the
early sixties. Many of the players were (as you
mentioned) French Canadian, small, tough, extremely
fast, and highly skilled. Lots of them were under 5
foot ten inches tall. Except boxing, no sport can
compare to the excitement of good hockey.

I don’t know how old you are, but maybe you got to see
Bobby Hull take the puck behind his own net, and blaze
through the entire opposition team, blast a shot and
score. He could do that cause he wasn’t hooked,
speared, or tackled the way it’s done now. ‘Finish
the check’ the experts like to say. What crap. The
end of the NHL for me started with the “Broad Street
Bullies” the late sixties Philadelphia flyers. They
had some good players, but their main skill was
grabbing, spearing, cross checking, boarding, hooking,
holding, and fighting. Those things used to get
penalties; Not anymore; They won the Stanley Cup. It’s
been straight downhill ever since, cause the team
owners didn’t and don’t know didley squat about
hockey, or didn’t care. Its hilarious to hear any of
them talk about “Saving the Game” they destroyed years
ago."

Reading this makes it all too clear that fans deserve
better than the stewards of the National Hockey
League, who no matter what their rhetorical flourishes
don’t seem to give a damn about a sport that has in
the past meant so much to so many. Scab hockey hold no
solution to this and should be opposed by hockey fans
across the continent.

Dave Zirin's new book "What's My Name Fool? Sports and
Resistance in the United States" will be in stores in
June 2005. You can receive his column Edge of Sports,
every week by e-mailing
[email protected]. Contact him at
[email protected]

[Sinistrous]

1. A very good, very depressing analysis of MLH today.

I am pleased to see that I am not the only one carrying a long-term disgust of the "Broad Street Bullies". They disgraced the entire city of Philadelphia. To this day, I root heartily for any team playing Philadelphia - regardless of the sport.

[MrSlayer]

3. Screw your sanctimonious bullshit.

This is the second time you have dissed the Bullies. Again I will ask you. What made the "Big, Bad Bruins" anymore palatable than the Flyers? They were every bit as intimidating and vicious. Check out the other teams of the time and you will find plenty of goons. You have a very near sighted view of the era. The Bullies got the name recognition because they won The Cup twice. You do know the Flyers were the top road draw of the time, right? You know why, right? Because people love the fights. You are also forgetting the skilled, hall of fame players on the team and obviously haven't the first clue about the sport. Go watch figure skating or something.

[Sinistrous]

7. Only the second time?

Hell, I diss those slugs every chance I get. Am I supposed to apologize for respecting sportsmanship? Or sportsmanship merely a laughing matter among those of the World Wrestling mentality?

[MrSlayer]

9. Answer the question.

Why, when the whole sport was inundated with goons and fighting, do you insist on acting like they were the only team doing it? What about the Bruins? The Blues? The Leafs? The Sabres? Even the vaunted Habs had their share of goons and in fact outgooned the Flyers in the 76 final to end their reign. You are ridiculous, that was how the game was played back then and while not as good as the 80's era was far superior to the crap we have to watch today. Why not just denounce that era of the sport as a whole instead of sounding like a fool by insinuating that the Flyers were the only team that was tough. The Bullies came about as a result of having the shit kicked out of them constantly by the Blues and Bruins, why not hate them for forcing Snider's hand? Learn your hockey history before making ridiculous statements.

[Sinistrous]

13. Because they reveled in the name and the reputation.

None of the other teams marketed thuggery -- only the Flyers defined themselves with a nickname like the "Bullies".

I am well aware that hockey has always been a very rough contact sport, but the Flyers brought the use of dirty tricks to a new level and made it the reason they went on the ice.

BTW: I suggest you re-read the forum rules on personal attacks.

[MrSlayer]

14. I don't mean to attack you personally, this just pisses me off.

The "Big, Bad" Bruins most certainly reveled in and advertised it as part of their game. The Flyers had to match the violence to survive, else they would be getting thumped every game. They got sick of it and beat the others at their own game. They were no worse than the other teams. Again, they got the name and rep because they won. If they didn't win they would probably be forgotten.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. I don't follow hockey, so somebody fill me in

Is Bettman really a bigger idiot than Bud Selig? He sounds like it.

[MrSlayer]

4. Selig is Einstein in comparison.

Bettman is the worst commissioner of any sport in history.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Wow. That says a mouthfull.

!!

This Bud's for you, Gary.

[MrSlayer]

5. They can try it but no one will pay to see scabs.

And no one will cross the line here. If I want to see inferior hockey I can pay 12 bucks to see the Phantoms rather than 100 bucks to see the same thing dressed up as the NHL. They must get rid of Bettman if they hope to come back.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Not As Sure As You, Slayer

I think there are game tweaks they could put in place with replacement players that could make the game palatable for fans.

I won't use the word scabs, because i don't think of professional athletic collectives as unions. They are loose guilds of independent contractors. I think it acceptable to be pro-union and against the type of marginal extortion engaged in at times by the players' associations.

That doesn't make me a fan of the owners. But, one side needs to take the side of the fans, and the players are equally guilty. It's easier to replace a player than an owner with a lease on a stadium. So, for the sake of the game, i'd watch a replacement game.
The Professor

[MrSlayer]

10. Well if you want to pay major league prices for minor league talent.

That's on you. I'll go watch the Penn team or the AHL Phantoms. The owners need to be taught a lesson that the fans will not tolerate lesser talent at major league prices. All they care about is the money, they don't care about the game and the best way to teach them is not to attend. I don't want to see shootouts and other ridiculous gimmicks put into the NHL to attract more non fans, they should be putting the game back to the way it was 15 years ago to bring back the real fans. I'm very bitter about this.

[jakefrep]

11. It's probably not going to be strictly "minor-league" talent...

I'm willing to bet that many NHL players cross the line.

[MrSlayer]

12. If a few players cross it's still mostly inferior talent.

Hell, the game as is was last year featured too much minor league talent. Over expansion has really diluted the pool, scab league will be that much worse.