Alexander Ovechkin continues to prove that there are still players in the game who care more about money and whining.  He has made some bold statements about his plans to risk suspension by defying the NHL rules about Olympic participation.
In case you haven’t heard, that jackass of a commissioner, Gary Bettman, has hinted at the possibility that the NHL will not be sending players to the Olympics after the 2010 games in Vancouver.  Meanwhile, the NHLPA has shown unwavering support for continued participation.
With the 2014 Winter games taking place in Sochi, Russia, there’s no way that I would expect this …read more

The NHL has put out the “Best of the Week” highlights for last week and, again, you can see that some teams are really pushing up their efforts in order to secure a spot in the playoffs.  One of my favorite goals was by Alex Tanguay (Montreal Canadiens) against the Atlanta Thrashers but then there were incredible shots by Ales Hemsky (Edmonton Oilers), TJ Oshie (St. Louis Blues) and the Sedin Sisters (Vancouver Canucks).
Honestly, with everyone playing the way they have been lately, it’s not only going to be tough to predict a playoff winner, it’s also going to be …read more

I have to admit that I am green-obsessed and was happy to hear that the NHL Players’ Association was getting on board to do their part in helping the environment.  They are getting a little help from David Suzuki, though.  I swear, that man’s voice is in my head all day every day so I think it’s a good partnership.
The players have agreed to become more eco-friendly at home and at work through the NHLPA Carbon Neutral Challenge.  The initiative "involves players purchasing clean-air credits to compensate for the extra carbon produced by their extensive travels — a concept known …read more

Wow… to say that Trevor Linden and Chris Chelios don’t like each other is an understatement! All I know is that I never want to upset Chelios since he can really hold a grudge… Read this!

Eleven years ago, when the Vancouver Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 in overtime, Trevor Linden got into Chris Chelios’s face after the winning goal and the pair tussled.
Chelios threw the first punch and, after the players were separated, accused Linden of covering up and refusing to fight. And that was the high point of their relationship. It has devolved the last two …read more

Paul Kelly will be officially announced as the new executive director of the NHL Players’ Association at a press conference later today. The 30 player representatives (one from each team) elected him in a secret ballot. The former director, Ted Saskin was removed back in May after he was accused of monitoring players’ emails (along with the union’s head of business development, Ken Kim).

Kelly was nominated Oct. 15 to replace Saskin as executive director following an exhaustive search by a five-player committee consisting of Mike Cammalleri, Chris Chelios, Shawn Horcoff, Eric Lindros and Robyn Regehr, with the help …read more

*sigh* More salary cap stuff… I’m going to be honest – I don’t completely understand this but here’s the story anyway:

Player paycheques will be 9.5 per cent smaller during the first quarter of the 2007-08 NHL season, but that money could find its way back later on depending on the league’s bottom line.
The money withheld goes to a fund established under the new collective bargaining agreement to ensure owners don’t give up more in player salaries than their allotted share of revenues.
The NHL and NHL Players’ Association signed off on the 9.5 per cent number for the first quarter of …read more

Ugh. I know some of you may actually like Scotiabank but some of my worst memories come from my days of dealing with them. One time, they lost my student loan documents and wanted me to write a letter to the government saying that I lost them. Yeah, if you’d seen the fit I threw in that branch that day, you’d understand why I had my money by dinnertime. I closed the account immediately.
Moving on…

Yesterday, Gary Buttmunch Bettman grinned like the lizard he is when the NHL, NHLPA in Canada and Scotiabank came to a …read more

The past few years have not been good ones for the National Hockey League Players Association. First, it lost a bitter battle against the owners over a new collective bargaining agreement, which saw the league shut down for a year before the players finally conceded defeat. Then, the NHLPA bungled the job of replacing executive director Bob Goodenow by anointing Ted Saskin as his successor despite flaws in the selection process. Then, Saskin gets turfed “for cause” after allegedly hacking into the e-mail accounts of the NHLPA members in an attempt to control the inmates.
These days, the NHLPA is looking …read more

A bunch of interesting items from the hockey world – aside from the Anaheim Ducks holding a 3-1 edge over the Ottawa Senators in the Stanley Cup final.
1. The scandal-plagued NHLPA plans to meet with a couple of sports union heavyweights in Toronto this week: Major League Baseball Player Association’s Donald Fehr, MLBPA legal counsel Michael Weinberg and National Basketball Players Association director Charles Grantham. The trio is apparently going to help the NHLPA, which has been leadership since executive director Ted Saskin was fired “for cause”, map out its future.
2. The Buffalo Sabres have yet to start contract negotiations …read more

While Chris Chelios is getting awful of credit for his role in the demise of ex-NHLPA head Ted Saskin, it would be wrong to overlook the role played by Trent Klatt, who was among the first players to question the hiring process after Saskin was anointed Bob Goodenow’s successor two years ago. It was Klatt who was the lone voice in the woods while most of his peers just wanted to start playing hockey again after the lock-out. As it turns out, Klatt, who abruptly retired in 2005 despite having time left on his contract, was right – although he …read more