A dash of cautious optimism

by on December 5, 2012 in Morning Mashup - 2,772 Comments

A dash of cautious optimism
Photo: Associated Press, courtesy of Sportsnet
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Long since dead and buried is any hockey fan holding their breath after every sign of optimism throughout the last 12 weeks of off-and-on negotiations. Cautious optimism isn’t a new development, but it’s up to you to determine if it has a different feel to it this time around. One of the Fehrs and Bill Daly standing side by side talking progress certainly is a first.

What Daly and Fehr said yesterday wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, but there they were standing beside each other sharing in one another’s semi-optimism. Daly thanked the sizeable group of negotiating players for putting in a hard day of productive negotiations, and Steve Fehr went as far as to say it might possibly have been their best day of them yet. At least, “in some ways.”

Anyways, the two sides do appear to be buckling down with this new approach to solving what seems to be a resolvable gap (in terms of the make-whole sticking point) with around 55 games left on the uncanceled portion of the schedule.

From Craig Custance:

Armed with the revenue and expense data that only the league and its teams have, economists say the league can project almost to the date when it becomes less beneficial to hold out for a better CBA and more beneficial to start playing hockey.

We may have finally reached that point. Hope, I think there’s reason to, but I’ll leave anything beyond that to Steve Burton.

Wednesday morning Leafs links..

Four Leafs on World Junior Preliminary Rosters
Tyler Biggs (USA), Garret Sparks (USA), Tom Nilsson (Sweden) and Morgan Rielly. Team USA has three goalies on the prelim roster and has to cut four bodies, so hopefully Sparks sticks.

The Colborne Conundrum
Gus Katsaros takes a really good in-depth look at the struggling Joe Colborne. Kats finishes off by asking: “Is it Joe Colborne the skilled player Burke and co envisioned? Or is it David Steckel adapting to a bottom six role.”

Even minus Murray, Canada’s defence looks powerful
A look at the strong Team Canada blueline that includes Morgan Rielly. The article include speculation of Rielly joining Dougie Hamilton in the top pairing. Because Leafs fans couldn’t just enjoy having one of the best D prospects in the game without hearing, “could’ve had Hamilton, too!”

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  • Bob’s your uncle

    Fehr may be black and white but more like a panda or a penguin.   imo   And they’re SO lovable.   lol 

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  • djamon

    Then that’s their fault and they were never fans in the first place. Their attendance was shit long before the strike too.,

    The building sucked balls.

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  • hometeem

    but the 5 years of 10 yr cba affects 75 players, 

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  • JVR

    I really don’t give a shit how high the ticket prices are, I’d rather watch it on TV anyways.
    You can see the game much better and you even get instant analyst of all the plays, which I suppose sometimes isn’t really that much of a benefit, haha. 

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  • Optimustic

    The expos were done before Fehr called the strike.   None of the players wanted to play there.  The ones that were drafted by them wanted out as soon as they could get out from what I remember.  Just like the Nordiques..

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  • Mortar

    Nicely put but still doesn’t quench my dislike and distruct of Donald Fehr.

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  • hometeem

    people only remember that they had the chance to win and didnt, devils in the details eh

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  • TrackofShack

    Being in 1st place is odd behaviour for a bunch of guys that don’t want to be there then.

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  • Zeus_the_friendly_hobo

     So your saying the high end education of the american couldnt come up with better cars. The country that thrives on technology couldnt come up with ideas to compete. The british car industry the same? Saab in Sweden the same. These are the industries that gave us the seat belt, airbags, satnav, electric windows etc etc. The fact of the matter for Detroit was cars were flooding the market from far flung lands that hadnt had runaway Unions or in some cases little to no union influence. Not only fabrication of cars but also parts. This meant Detroit had to build cars cheaper than before when Unions drove up the wage bill. You have to realise that one day  there will be a break.
    Yes the cars were shitty but thats because they had to cut corners, cut expenditure.

    Unions are companies that infiltrate other companies to serve their members best interests. Dont believe me, leave your union then get in touch with an issue. They wont help if your not a member, therefore they are not doing something for the good but for the profit.
    A union can best be described as being like a tape worm. It infiltrates its host, swells then poisons the host from within pumping it full of hormones telling it to eat. Swelling the hosts belly making it always feel hungry and have an ever increasing volume to fill. Eventually the host dies if not properly treated.

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  • djamon

    I know…they actually had the same cars but with different names, depending on whether it was a Chevy or Pontiac. The Unions did get out of control, but it was starting to be corrected when the bailout happened.

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  • Mortar

    You’re right as well.

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  • Optimustic

    My father always said the same thing,  I agree too, but still it’s nice to see the team live sometimes.  The atmosphere is incredible.  Especially in big games or against rivals.

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  • Zombie27

    wish that was peoples only memories of the Habs

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  • JVR

    Actually, the atmosphere at the ACC is quite horrible.

    I’d equate it to being in a funeral home!

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  • djamon

    You should write sci-fi man…your imagination is impressive.

    Needless to say I don’t see it that way. There are stories of abuses for sure, but Unions are responsible for so much more than wages. 

    If unions fall, we should ALL be very afraid. What the government seems to be attempted to do is to get rid of unions. This is about the government exerting unjustified power to wave their magic wand and do whatever the heck they want and this is NOT OK!!  Whether you are in a union or not, whether you support unions or not, remember that they are the ones who have fought for statutory holidays, minimum wage, overtime and good working conditions.  Whatever is negotiated, ALL workers benefit!  Get rid of the unions – you’ll also be getting rid of the middle class.  Less people have less money to spend = more people out of jobs.  Period.

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  • TrackofShack

    Rogers Centre. Maybe it wont be soon though.

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  • hometeem

    u obviously have a personal happening with a union cause u now have verbal diarhea

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  • B_Leaf

    ACC is brutal…better to go to games on the road…but heh I wont be doing either.

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  • hometeem

    they are pros and baseball is an odd team game in that it requires very very little team play

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  • Optimustic

    Maybe, but that’s what I was hearing at the time.  I’ve never really followed baseball that deeply though. I followed the Jays when they were building up to the Championships, after that I didn’t watch them much until this year.   I heard they were improving and may contend for a wild card spot.   When the injuries hit they were done.

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  • Zombie27

    I’ve seen the buds in every Canadian nhl city and can honestly say Toronto is the lamest place to see them.

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  • JVR

    While I’d much rather watch a baseball game on TV as well, I’d love to get some tickets to the Blue Jays’ season opener.

    It’d be awesome to watch a baseball game there with 50,000+ other fans!

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  • Bon Scott was a Leaf fan

    I used to love the atmosphere at the Gardens.  When’s the last time you heard the Bullshit chant at the ACC??

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  • TrackofShack

    things are def. looking up.

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  • B_Leaf

    If we had a great team it might be different, but yeah its bad

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