Sabres human belt sander, Steve Ott, was all smiles after the game on Saturday night. Ott got by with a lot a help from his NHL friends. They played river hockey for a crowd of 5,000 fans in Windsor. In so doing, Ott and the players raised $10,000 for SPARKLES Foundation, a pediatric cancer charity that is near and dear to Ott's heart.
Ott's Team White defeated Horcoff's Team Black, 17-11.
Ott, Dan Cleary and Shawn Horcoff joined forces to presented this great charity event. In the end, they donated a check for $10,000 cash to SPARKLES Foundation.
Here @OtterN9NE is thankful for the generosity and participation of his NHLPA brothers, including his Sabres teammates Thomas Vanek, Drew Stafford, Jordan Leopold and Matt Ellis
On the topic of labor negotiations, Ott is not fond of what happened in NYC on Thursady.
"There is a bargaining process that has to be done in order to get a deal done, but it's really frustrating when Gary [Bettman] comes out on Thursday and says that everything is off the table now".
@OtterN9NE has resisted temptation to find a job playing hockey in Europe during the lockout. Ott proposed to his longtime girlfriend last weekend in Las Vegas, and the couple have a young daughter who they enjoy spending time with. For now, Ott bee bops between Buffalo and and Windsor. He skates with his NHL bros and waits for his cell phone to vibrate to alert him that a new CBA deal is done.
"I haven't looked for a place to play because I still believe there's a process to be followed," said Ott. "If a deal doesn't get done this week, then maybe next week or the week after."
"I'm not prepared to throw in the towel as I still think the season is going to start."
"I'm not going to look for a place to play until the season is officially cancelled and then I'll wipe away my tears and then go out and find a place to play."
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Ryan Miller's former Michigan State Spartan teammate, Shawn Horcoff talks about the emotional roller coaster that is the NHL CBA negotiations.
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Here's Michigan native and NHLPA negotiator, Kevin Westgarth, who scored four goals for the winners. Not bad for a fighter!
Thanks, Windsor Star for the videos.
Who knows, if this dastardly lockout lags on for a couple more weeks, Buffalo may play host to a charity NHL game like #RockOutTheLockout.
Donald Fehr stepped to the podium in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. He was addressing the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). I could swear that Fehr's message was tactically directed at Gary Bettman and the NHL owners.
Fehr's message, in a nutshell: He and is 700+ man membership are not intimidated by the bully tactics that were leveled at Fehr and the players in New York City on Thursady.
Just when everyone in the hockey universe, even the harshest critics, were basking in the warming glow of "cautious optimism", the owners yanked their deal off the table and stormed out of the Westin hotel.
Fehr delivered his speech to the CAW in measured, relaxed tones. This guy is as cool as a cuccumber. He reminded the auto workers of his career path and told them that his best interests are that of his players, not of himself. In other words, its a matter of trust.
“I learned a long, long time ago, again from Marvin Miller, that in the end, if you really don’t have any idea what to recommend, or none of the choices are good or none of the options appear tremendously better than the others, what you do is you trust your membership,” Fehr said.
“Because they’ll do what the right thing to do is. All you have to do is make sure they know what the issues are and involve them enough so they understand the context.”
He even opened the floor up to sugegstions from the CAW for solutions on how to get our great game back on the ice where it belongs.
“If anyone has a brilliant idea on how to solve the lockout, don’t keep it to yourself,” Fehr quipped.
Fehr conducted a very intriguing sidebar presser after his CAW address had concluded. In it, Fehr said with confidence that he sees a deal in the short term future.
Bettman and Daly are preaching doom and gloom, while Fehr prefers to see the water bottle as half full still. Fehr said that he feels the owners and NHLPA “are very close” on a new collective bargaining agreement. He also remindedus that it was the NHL which had leveled threats, tried to drive a wedge between the players and Fehr, walked out of talks, or abruptly pulled the plug on the talk-- not the NHLPA.
Asked what is the next step since the NHL pulled its offer from the table, Fehr calmly replied, “You keep negotiating.”
if I'm a betting man, I'm confident that the NHL and NHLPA will pout aside its differences and will be finalizing a new CBA in the next week. There will be a seven day training camp to get overseas players like Pominville, Myers, Sekera, Ehrhoff, Weber, and Sulzer back from Europe so that they can get re-acclimated to the North American game.
I'm saying that the puck will drop on the 2012-13 season on Boxing Day (12/26).
Mikhail Grigorenko will bid adieu to his Quebec Remparts after tonight's game at St. John. This will be Grigo's 30th game of the season. I'm hoping that he can score 30 goals in 30 games. He's sitting at 28 right now.
(Update: Grigo scored his 28th of the season to give the Remparts a 3-1 lead early in P3 vs. St. John). Sick Mitts! He added #29 with an empty netter with :19 remaining in regulation. Grigo now leads The Q in goals scored. Bravo, Grigo!
Thanks, Sabresprospects.com
Grigo will take leave from Patrick Roy's club for the next few weeks so that he can participate in Team Russia's WJC preliminary camp in his mother Russia.
The WJCs will kickoff in Ufa, Russia on Boxing Day.
Can't wait to watch Grigo up the ante and to take his game to a new level in the World Juniors.
Before you know it, he'll be in the NHL.
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