I didn't know hockey players could backpeddle...........

As has become so predictable, Mike Modano made comments that appeared yesterday morning saying that the NHLPA's solidarity would be hard to maintain if the 2004-05 season were lost and there was not an 05-06 season ready to go in October and then backpeddled last night.

I have no problem if the NHLPA wants to smack around their members if they speak up and voice a dissenting opinion. Just don't insult my intelligence by saying that your members are free to say what they want and that you don't employ the same heavy handed tactics that the NHL does with the owners and their henchmen.

Or is withholding Rob Ray's lockout stipend not punishment for suggesting that he'd be a replacement player and that he knew 10 guys that would do it before him?

Or are we to believe that every single player that has back tracked from statements about how a salary cap might not be that bad to Modano's latest words really are mistaken or misquoted or uninformed?

Sorry, that doesn't fly with me. So in the future, please stop the BS and just come out and say what's really going on. I'll respect that a lot more than the insulting of my intelligence with your weak spin doctoring.

An interesting NHL CBA proposal

http://www.eagletribune.com/features/nhl-proposal.htm

One of the NHL's 6 proposed systems once upon a time included a salary bracketing system. Russ Conway has proposed a system that would do just that.

While neither side would likely want to deal with it, I like the system. It would more equitably distribute talent and youth throughout the league.

But who wants a league where teams are roughly equal in talent?

Certainly not most sports writers and TV execs.

ESPN offers up their version of a new pro hockey league

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/index

ESPN put forth their idea for an ESPNHL which would be a new start up pro hockey league to replace the shut down NHL.

Some of the changes are drastic (no fighting), some are great (3 players and 1 coach from each team have to wear a microphone for TV broadcast use), and many fall somewhere in between.

Being a Buffalo Sabres fan it's tough to look at a proposed pro hockey league with teams in Atlanta, Miami, Hartford, and Columbus and not Buffalo.

But all in all, it was a lot of work, it had some good new ideas, plenty of recycled ideas, and it was a pleasant temporary diversion away from the real ills of pro hockey.