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Crosby + Toews = Waste of Time

December 3, 2012, 5:36 PM ET [115 Comments]
Richard Cloutier
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
We all knew the owners were going to send Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs to the players/owners meeting tomorrow. The guy gives me a rash; hardest of the hardliners. At least the owners from the Jets, Flames and Lightning will bring a little perspective.

But why...Why in the world are the players sending Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews? Seriously, why have the meeting at all if these two are the knuckleheads that are going to do the talking for the players? Things are going from bad to worse.

Here's a tip: If you want this situation to get sorted, send the owners of the six teams in most financial difficulty, and let them meet with six borderline NHL players in their 30's. All involved would actually negotiate, because there would be some urgency to fix this. Does Crosby, wobbly noggin and all, even care if he ever plays again? Likely no. He's set for life. Even with no hockey being played, he continues to rake in the cash by endorsing products. Seems to me I've seen Toews do some bad acting as well.

Both are "hero" types; meaning, they're going to go in there to protect the game, to save the NHL from disaster, to make this a happy and prosperous land for generations to come, and all that other BS. That type of self-righteous clap-trap is what got us in this mess in the first place.

And what exactly will both groups talk about in this meeting, anyway? If I was the owners, the hope was to sit with the players and to explain to them how completely insane Donald Fehr is. We needed to have the owners save the season and perhaps the entire league from crashing into the abyss by waking up the players to the reality of their actions and the entire situation. But is this going to happen? NOOOOOO. Why? Because Steve Fehr is going to be there. Yep. Baby Fehr and Billl Daly will be in the room to babysit. To make sure the owners and players don't do a no-no in the sandbox. What's the fricken point?

The only hope we have at this point is someone like Mark Chipman from the Jets. Obviously every time Jacobs will open his mouth, everyone in the room (players and owners) will start to daydream about Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2. My wife made me watch Breaking Dawn 1 the other day, and I have to say, what a stupid, dull, pointless movie. You'd think by the time the fourth Twilight movie rolled around we'd get a little action. You know, violence, gratuitous nudity, and an apocalypse where everyone dies. What did we get instead? Bella is mopey. Edward is the limpest vampire ever. Jacob gets grumpy and cries a lot. Oh, and there was that creepy imprinting thing at the end with the baby. Shouldn't that have got him a jail sentence? Frightening.

Chipman is a nice guy, and the Jets are a nice team. While they'll be a profitable franchise, no one has any illusions: Small NHL city, and Winnipeg itself sorta blows. They are never going to win a cup, and they're always going to need to battle just to survive. Chipman might be able to articulate to players in a way that's not threatening why it's not a bad idea for all teams in the league to turn a profit. If he can convince mediocre players to stay in Winnipeg, the man might be able to also walk on water.

The meeting goes Tuesday at 2:00pm EST. My guess is it will end 90 minutes later, with both sides walking off in a huff. This will be followed by the rest of the December schedule being cancelled, a threat from the league that the entire season cancellation is next, followed by a threat from the NHLPA that they'll do something wacky to their union, just to drag this out for years. All of which mean my wife is going to make me watch more stupid Twilight movies.

NHL and NHLPA: I hate you both so much.
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