NHL: IT'S CAP CRAZY!

By the end of August, because of the new CBA and salary cap structure, the rosters of the 30 NHL teams you know (and love?) are going to look quite different. For the most part, that's a good thing, because it will balance things out and hopefully make the league more competitive. Last week there were a few big name contract buy-outs (Amonte, LeClair, Holik), but the real free agency craziness starts today. Just released, here's the full list of NHL free agents, players who may or may not be changing uniforms before the season begins. The phone lines are open! Let's make a deal!

The good news for the players is that Bob Goodenow resigned as head of the NHL Players Association. Although everyone says the original deal in February was better (which is debateable, but it seems to be the consensus), he still talked them into throwing away the entire season instead of trying to negotiate and salvage it. Do you think he said to himself, "Well, my work here is done!" as he wrote his letter of resignation? Maybe he's decided to accept a job at Enron, or become the head of the WNBA--who knows? I just don't see Chris Chelios and Jeremy Roenick sending this guy a Christmas card this year.

ESPN Page 2's Bill Simmons wrote an article about the return of hockey, and actually agreed with me on one count, saying that during the lockout he was hoping that some teams would fold and some move back to Canada, leaving only 24 teams (which unfortunately didn't happen). He also mocked Gary Bettman, saying that he's so inept he couldn't even fix the draft lottery to make sure #1 pick Sidney Crosby ended up on a big market team (a point Rob made, when the flailing Rangers' odds inexplicably were made worse). Bettman was brought in here as a marketing guy, and all that's happened on his watch is: overexpansion of the league, bloated player salaries that the revenue couldn't support, and no TV deal. Let's read that last one again: a marketing guy couldn't get his league a television deal. Way to go, genius! I understand why the owners' like him, but I can't believe they're sticking with this guy. I still think Gretzky should take over in some sort of bloodless coup.

Everyone is expecting that the new CBA will allow ticket prices to drop, but that's not going to happen in every market. Locally, I've seen the owners make tiny gestures, like giving away free Rangers tickets to people waiting in line all day, and decreasing season ticket packages by 10% and throwing in a personalized jersey. For most people, that's pretty useless. Most of the discounts I've seen only affect season ticket holders, or those who opted for a refund from last season; the common fan (like me) who is only going to attend a handful of games is not affected at all. So far, only a few teams have discounted single game ticket prices, like Toronto (5% decrease) and Colorado (10% decrease), but for the most part the working-class fans will still be priced out.

Oh well. For better or worse, hockey's back.