Hall of Famer expresses regret about lockout as current impasse hangs over NHL

Transcription

1 13 Nov 2012 The Vancouver Sun CHRIS JOHNSTON THE CANADIAN PRESS Burnaby Joe laments lost year Hall of Famer expresses regret about lockout as current impasse hangs over NHL From page C1 TORONTO There is something missing from Joe Sakic s new plaque at the Hockey Hall of Fame and it s not because the printer made a mistake. Among the list of his many achievements is no mention of his 21st NHL season, the one that was never played because of the lockout. With the sport back in another dark period brought on by another labour dispute, Sakic reflected on the year that never was on the day he took his place among hockey s greats. I lost a year of hockey, Sakic said Monday. It would have been 21 years instead of 20. That s what you lose. Fellow inductees Mats Sundin and Adam Oates were also in the NHL when the last lockout hit, while Pavel Bure, the fourth member of the class, was already retired. Sundin never managed to win a Stanley Cup during his career and can t help but wonder what could have been had the been played. His Maple Leafs were on a run of six consecutive playoff appearances before that work stoppage. It was awful, said Sundin. I think it s devastating. While all four of the inductees seem to have thoroughly enjoyed their induction weekend, the current lockout made it a more subdued affair than usual. They were to have been honoured at Air Canada Centre before a scheduled Leafs- Devils game on Friday night a missed opportunity in particular for Sundin, the longtime Toronto captain, and Oates, who grew up in the city. Sundin lives in his native Sweden now, but the impact of another work stoppage hasn t gone unnoticed even from a distance.

2 I think it s huge, he said. The National Hockey League is kind of representing the game of hockey. It s the biggest representative of the game of hockey in the world. When the NHL is not going, people lose focus on hockey. For everybody that is involved in the sport, it s huge to get the guys back playing as soon as possible. Added Sakic: It hurts the players, it hurts the owners, it hurts the fans and it hurts the game. The two men at the centre of collective bargaining negotiations, commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, both attended Monday night s ceremony, but kept a low profile. However, the subject was discussed. Hall of Famer Mike Gartner, who was active in the NHLPA during his playing days and later worked for the union, expressed concern. I think that one of the main dangers is that the fans and the game is taken for granted, that it s going to come back to the same health that it was before, said Gartner. When you look at the last time that it happened, coming back to record attendance and record profits and taking a business that went from $ 2.5- billion to $ 3.3- billion in revenue, I think that tendency can be and I don t think it s consciously is to take all that for granted. I think that there s a real danger in it. I sense that there s more of a danger now than there was in the past. Igor Larionov, another Hall of Famer who now works as a player agent, called for common sense. I m very positive it s going to be resolved in a matter of weeks, maybe two or three weeks, said Larionov. All four members of this year s Hall of Fame class were affected by a labour disruption during their careers Bure was playing for the Vancouver Canucks during the lockoutshortened season and it s reasonable to expect that trend will continue for some time after four work stoppages in the last 20 years. Oates finds himself in a unique position because the lockout has delayed the start of his first season as a head coach with the Washington Capitals. He was hired for the position on the same June day he found out he was heading into the Hall, making for a pretty emotional 15 minutes. The last season of his playing career came in with the Edmonton Oilers and he was on the fence about retiring afterward. The decision ended up being made for him. I thought about ( continuing to play) because I wasn t happy with my year in Edmonton, so I didn t really want to go out that way, he said. I was considering it, but ( the lockout) made it easy.

3 He doesn t harbour any regrets about being quietly ushered out of the game. In fact, it fit the personality of somebody who avoided the limelight by making his name as an excellent passer rather than a scorer. That s kind of the guy I am a little bit understated, said Oates. Actually, Joe ( Sakic) said it this morning: We re all understated guys, believe it or not. For now, hockey at its highest level remains on hold. Sakic works as an adviser to the Colorado Avalanche and is as anxious as anybody to see the NHL resume. Looking back, the pain of sitting out an entire season quickly went away when a new CBA was signed. I remember coming back that next training camp I was pretty excited to be back and playing the game, said Sakic. 13 Nov 2012 The Vancouver Sun CHRIS JOHNSTON THE CANADIAN PRESS Union s designated optimist believes NHL deal not far off TORONTO A new NHL labour deal might not be as far off as it seems. Steve Fehr, special counsel to the NHL Players Association, believes the collective bargaining agreement can be wrapped up in a hurry once the sides make a breakthrough in negotiations. One thing ( deputy commissioner) Bill Daly and I agree upon is that when the moment is right the deal could be done very quickly, Fehr said Monday. One days, three days or whatever. Asked later if he agreed with that assertion, Daly replied: I hope he s right. Fehr also spoke of his experiences with the Major League Baseball Players Association, where he earned the nickname designated optimist during the 2002 talks, and observed that lockouts seem to have become unavoidable in sports with a salary cap. It s almost as if, in the capped sports, it s become a rewriting of the Hippocratic Oath, said Fehr. Instead of first do no harm, it s first lock out and then we ll see what happens. I guess they ve decided they can live with how the fans feel about it and they re not going to by shy about doing it. Representatives from the NHL and NHLPA have met seven of the last nine days, but no future talks are planned. Fehr told the panel three issues remain to be solved: The split of money, player contract rights and who pays for the damage caused by the lockout.

4 The contract issue in particular has flared up recently, with Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby sounding off on that topic to reporters Monday. The NHL has proposed changes to entry- level deals, arbitration, free agency and contract limits. The question I d ask is, Why would we change that? said Crosby. Fehr and Daly discussed the player rights issue Sunday and the union leader doesn t believe it will ultimately keep them from striking a deal. 13 Nov 2012 The Province Ben Kuzma bkuzma@theprovince.com twitter.com/benkuzma Consensus easier on some topics Hamhuis says stars should be honoured, but that lockout... The local hockey populace is polarized over whether Pavel Bure s jersey should be retired by the Vancouver Canucks while NHL owners and the players association are paralyzed in progression toward reaching a collective bargaining agreement. So on a soggy Monday, it was left to Dan Hamhuis to part some of the clouds. After a 90-minute skate with members of the UBC Thunderbirds then stopping to sign autographs and pose for pictures with wide-eyed Atom players participating in a tournament the Canucks defenceman reflected on a day where the focus should be on Hockey Hall of Fames inductees Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Adam Oates and Bure. Especially the Russian Rocket. He was the guy I grew up watching and he was so exciting because every time he touched the puck something could happen right from his first game he played, recalled Hamhuis. It s good to see his recognition with the Hockey Hall of Fame, and it s well deserved. That s one consensus. But what about raising No. 10 to the Rogers Arena rafters? Bure wasn t going to accept a Ring of Honour consolation prize as the franchise s most exciting player and the author of back-toback 60-goal seasons and a 51-goal campaign. And because he wasn t warm and fuzzy his contract controversies and eventual trade created a circus-like atmosphere some simply don t want his number associated with the retired digits of Stan Smyl, Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund. Hamhuis has no doubt whether Bure s number should be raised. I think it should, he said. He s well deserving of it and I don t know what s going on behind the scenes.

5 There s never been any debate that Sakic would enter the Hall and that the Colorado Avalanche would retire his No. 19 jersey. The Burnaby native won two Stanley Cups, collected 625 career goals and 1,641 points over 1,378 games. He won Conn Smythe, Hart Trophy, Lester. B Pearson honours and Olympic gold, and his legacy as one of the game s great yet quiet leaders is unquestioned. So was that shot that looked a lot like something Markus Naslund or Brett Hull would unleash in their primes. And for a defenceman like Hamhuis, trying to nullify Sakic in the slot was tough when the Smithers native played for the Nashville Predators. He had a tremendous wrist shot with a lot of power and speed behind it, but also that quick, deceptive release which fooled defencemen and goalies, and that was a big part of his success, Hamhuis said of Sakic. It was real exciting to go up against him. He s a guy I grew up respecting so much in how he handled himself on and off the ice and he was just a tremendous player internationally and with Colorado. It s certainly a well-deserved honour. As for the CBA, as much as the owners and players agree on the concept of a split of revenues, getting there in the next week to allow a shortened season to commence Dec. 1 won t be easy. Players want a sliding scale to 50 per cent to protect contracts, while owners want a clawback in salaries. Last week, the NHL offered $211 million over the first two years to honour existing contracts and the NHLPA wanted $590 million. The owners also want to change contracting issues and players don t want to be limited to five-year deals in a new CBA that could put the salary cap ceiling at $59.9 million and the floor at $43.9 million. We ve made some decent ground on the and make-whole (contract) provision, and that s a major sacrifice by the players in giving up $1.2 billion US over five years, said Hamhuis. Aside from that, they re not budging on all the contracting issues length, terms, free agency, arbitration, entry-level contracts and that s something important to us. It s important for players coming up and those who are young and currently in the NHL, and free agency is of huge importance. In an attempt to put a drag on big second contracts by reducing entrylevel deals to two years, altering arbitration eligibility from four to five years of pro experience and moving unrestricted free agency from seven to eight years of service from 27 to 28 years of age for players entering the league at 20 it will limit options for players. But they may have to give on something to get a deal done. It s time to hold tight on those important issues, stressed Hamhuis All we ve done is move toward the owners side of things, and they re making it really difficult to get a deal done.

6 Difficult enough to prolong the lockout even longer than expected? We ll have to wait and see, said Hamhuis. 13 Nov 2012 The Province SEAN FITZ-GERALD POSTMEDIA NEWS Fehr claims NHL, players fairly close on labour deal TORONTO Amid the shards of negotiations that have broken off, slivers of optimism have appeared, inserted into the conversation Monday by an official with the National Hockey League Players Association who suggested a deal to end the NHL s months-long labour stoppage could be hashed out quickly after an agreement is reached. Steve Fehr, who is serving as special counsel to the NHLPA, said the union and the NHL are fairly close on at least one major issue and have been working pretty hard on the others. Fehr has spent hours across the bargaining table from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. I think one thing Bill Daly and I agree upon is that, when the moment is right, we ll get a deal done very quickly, said Fehr. One day, three days, whatever. Daly confirmed he shared the sentiment, but with a caveat. This isn t all that complicated, he wrote in an . But the clubs feel strongly about these issues, and feel like they have moved a lot already. There s not much more to give. Fehr was speaking as part of a panel Labour issues in major league sports: Balancing the interests of teams, leagues and players convened at a waterfront hotel in Toronto as part of the PrimeTime Sports management conference. Representatives from the NHL and the NHLPA were in Toronto for the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Fehr acknowledged there is a general agreement that the core issue the division of hockeyrelated revenue will likely end with a split between players and owners, with the question being how quickly the players will be reduced to 50 per cent, from where they were last season (57 per cent), and how they might be compensated with the difference. He said contract rights, which include issues such as term limits and limits on free agency, have been another sticking point.

7 We re not making any real progress in those areas, said Fehr. It s kind of hard to believe anyone s going to drive the industry bus off a cliff over things like that, but I ve seen things before that have surprised me. 13 Nov 2012 The Province The Canadian Press Hall of Famers lament lost season All four new members were affected by past lockouts, either in or in From page A44 TORONTO There is something missing from Joe Sakic s new plaque at the Hockey Hall of Fame and it s not because the printer made a mistake. Among the list of his many achievements is no mention of his 21st NHL season, the one that was never played because of the lockout. With the sport back in another dark period brought on by another labour dispute, Sakic reflected on the year that never was on the day he took his place among hockey s greats. I lost a year of hockey, Sakic said Monday. It would have been 21 years instead of 20. That s what you lose. Fellow inductees Mats Sundin and Adam Oates were also in the NHL when the last lockout hit, while Pavel Bure, the fourth member of the class, was already retired. Sundin never managed to win a Stanley Cup during his career and can t help but wonder what could have been had the been played. His Maple Leafs were on a run of six consecutive playoff appearances before that work stoppage. It was awful, said Sundin. I think it s devastating. While all four of the inductees seem to have thoroughly enjoyed their induction weekend, the current lockout made it a more subdued affair than usual. They were to have been honoured at Air Canada Centre prior to a scheduled Leafs-Devils game on Friday night a missed opportunity in particular for Sundin, the longtime Toronto captain, and Oates, who grew up in the city. Sundin lives in his native Sweden now, but the impact of another work stoppage hasn t gone unnoticed even from a distance. I think it s huge, he said. The National Hockey League is kind of representing the game of hockey. It s the biggest representative of the game of hockey in the world. When the NHL is not going, people lose focus on hockey.

8 For everybody that is involved in the sport, it s huge to get the guys back playing as soon as possible. Added Sakic: It hurts the players, it hurts the owners, it hurts the fans and it hurts the game. The two men at the centre of collective bargaining negotiations, commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, both attended Monday night s ceremony, but kept a low profile. However, the subject was discussed. Hall of Famer Mike Gartner, who was active in the NHLPA during his playing days and later worked for the union, expressed concern. I think that one of the main dangers is that the fans and the game is taken for granted, that it s going to come back to the same health that it was before, said Gartner. When you look at the last time that it happened, coming back to record attendance and record profits and taking a business that went from $2.5-billion to $3.3-billion in revenue, I think that tendency can be and I don t think it s consciously is to take all that for granted. I think that there s a real danger in it. I sense that there s more of a danger now than there was in the past. Igor Larionov, another Hall of Famer who now works as a player agent, called for common sense. I m very positive it s going to be resolved in a matter of weeks, maybe two or three weeks, said Larionov. All four members of this year s Hall of Fame class were affected by a labour disruption during their careers Bure was playing for the Vancouver Canucks during the lockout-shortened season and it s reasonable to expect that trend will continue for some time after four work stoppages in the last 20 years. Oates finds himself in a unique position because the lockout has delayed the start of his first season as a head coach with the Washington Capitals. He was hired for the position on the same June day he found out he was heading into the Hall, making for a pretty emotional 15 minutes. The last season of his playing career came in with the Edmonton Oilers and he was on the fence about retiring afterward. The decision ended up being made for him. I thought about (continuing to play) because I wasn t happy with my year in Edmonton, so I didn t really want to go out that way, he said. I was considering it, but (the lockout) made it easy. He doesn t harbour any regrets about being quietly ushered out of the game. In fact, it fit the personality of somebody who avoided the limelight by making his name as an excellent passer rather than a scorer.

9 That s kind of the guy I am a little bit understated, said Oates. Actually, Joe (Sakic) said it this morning: We re all understated guys, believe it or not. For now, hockey at its highest level remains on hold. Sakic works as an adviser to the Colorado Avalanche and is as anxious as anybody to see the NHL resume. Looking back, the pain of sitting out an entire season quickly went away when a new CBA was signed. I remember coming back that next training camp I was pretty excited to be back and playing the game, said Sakic. You realize how much you miss the game. Hall of Fame Class of 2012 For Vancouver, Russian Rocket was a blast Add to... DAVID EBNER VANCOUVER The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Nov , 7:49 PM EST Last updated Monday, Nov , 1:08 PM EST In Pavel Bure s first two seasons with Vancouver Canucks, the long-flailing franchise was on the verge. The accelerant known as the Russian Rocket launched the team to the top of the Smythe Division two seasons in the row but Vancouver couldn t make it past the second round of the playoffs. In , when Bure just 22 booked his second consecutive 60-goal year, the Canucks stumbled into the playoffs as underdog to the Calgary Flames, and promptly fell behind 3-1. The Canucks then reeled off three consecutive overtime wins, capped by Bure s two-goal performance in Game 7, including the double-overtime winner, which propelled Vancouver to within a single win of the Stanley Cup. The Game 7 Calgary goal is perhaps the best-known moment from a player who was a one-man hockey highlight reel throughout his career. In the grainy YouTube clip, Bure explodes into the screen exactly how Brian Burke means when he says that Bure has missile fuel for blood. Bure takes a long pass at the Calgary blueline and is instantly behind the defence and on a breakaway. Bure fakes right, pulls the puck back left, and the red light is on. He was just a guy, when an opportunity was there, he was on it, said Trevor Linden, teammate and Canucks captain of that era. He d do things that you d just look at the guy beside you on the bench and laugh in amazement.

10 As Bure is welcomed into the Hockey Hall of Fame he was first eligible for induction six years ago he is saluted by those who knew him, coaches and players. He was always deeply private, a stranger, really, to many of his teammates, known mostly for his exploits on the ice, his ability to get to top speed on the ice in an instant, and his fantastic work ethic and fitness, the son of an Olympic medal swimmer. Bure was bowlegged, with huge thighs, remembered Burke, the foundation of his incredible skating power. And he was ripped, said Burke carrying the body fat, about 5 per cent, of a world-class marathoner, with the engine of an elite sprinter. Bure, too, fed his engine well, conscious of diet and nutrition well before it was in vogue. What was known of Bure s private life fits snugly in the wild kaleidoscope of the style of successful Russians after the meltdown of Soviet Union: a brief engagement to Anna Kournikova, and close friendship with reputed mobster Anzor Kikalishvili. On the ice even in a career cut short by successive knee injuries Bure is among the greatest goal scorers to have played the game. He notched 437 goals and 342 assists for 779 points in 702 games, from his rookie-of-the-year season in through He was the league s top goal scorer with Florida in , and Bure is among history s most prolific goal scorers, ranked goals-per-game against the top 100 in NHL history. Mike Bossy is No. 1 at 0.762, and Mario Lemieux second at Bure is third at (The leader among active players is Alex Ovechkin, his 339 goals coming at a rate of a game.) To Duane Sutter, a teammate of Bossy s on the New York Islanders, and coach of Bure on the Panthers, the two snipers are one of a kind. Both wingers had exceptionally quick releases, always catching goalies by surprise, and while Bure was a more powerful skater, they both had a tremendous sense of the game and the ice. It s how they see the game, their perception of the game, to find the holes and sense the opportunity, Sutter said. And more so than others, Bossy and Bure had a craving for goals. Of all the guys I ve played with or coached, him [Bure] and Mike Bossy had a very similar demeanour, a huge craving to score goals, in practice, or in the game. In 1989, when the Canucks drafted Bure, it was scout Mike Penny who pushed the pick. As an 18-year-old Bure could have been drafted in the first three rounds but no one took him, as NHL teams didn t know that they would be able to move players over from the then-soviet Union. Penny, however, had intel that said Bure had played enough elite-level hockey games to qualify to go lower. The Canucks picked him in the sixth, No. 113 overall. A brouhaha immediately erupted and it wasn t until just before the next year s draft that the pick was okayed. Penny remembers totalitarian Moscow, and seeing the teenager play on Viktor Tikhonov s Red Army squad.

11 I m thinking, Holy god, this guy s on this team and has no trouble? How would you like to get your hands on this guy? Penny remembered. It still took several years before Bure moved, coming over in 1991 as the Soviet Union crumbled. There was a court scrap over Bure s Red Army contract, which was fought in Detroit. Once it was settled, Burke then Canucks director of hockey operations picked Bure up in Seattle on a Friday. Bure practised English with Burke on the drive north, and they went directly to the old Pacific Coliseum. This is a guy who sold tickets, Burke said. There are a lot of great hockey players who never sold tickets. This kid was exciting, explosive, he got people on their feet. He sold tickets. There was a buzz. When he came on, there was a palpable, noticeable buzz, starting with the first game.