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| Teemu Selanne decided to come back for one more season, but when he actually can skate is unknown. (Getty Images) |
The owners might be under a gag order but the players aren't. That means they can get honest and offer scathing takes on the lockout from the people directly involved in the ongoing CBA negotiations.
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As luck would have it, that's exactly what the great Teemu Selanne of the Anaheim Ducks has done via his blog (link in Finnish).
The Finnish Flash who elected to come back for another season in what many presumed to be his farewell tour, would seem to have good reason to be more upset than most at a lockout. After all, he's already in his 40s and every game lost is one that he's not going to get a chance to make up. So he lashed out.
As is always the case with translations from Google (starting to regret my decision to learn Spanish in school), this is a rough translation of Selanne's comments on his blog entitled "What gives, Gary Bettman?" but it gets the point across well enough.
Here is the crux of Selanne's hard-hitting nature of the post, aimed directly at the NHLPA's opposition.
NHL has warned clubs from making too long and the front-heavy contracts. A perfect example is the Minnesota owner Craig Leipold, who is also one of the NHL's members of the group. He makes a two-player, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in a couple with 13 years and more than $100 million contracts (per player) and tells the hockey world how excited the entire Minnesota is fresh purchases. The next day, he put a jacket on top of the NHL, going to the other side of the table and tells the same hockey world how incomprehensible are these new long-term contracts. Come on! None teams forced to pay such sums, and in the 13 years of absurd contracts. It is their decision! Are NHL clubs still do not know that any of mega long-term deal has not yet been owners of operating. You also have to remember that it has a contractual dispute with 57 per cent share of the players had their offer, which we had to accept. And now, it is not enough!
Gary Bettman has been the NHL's boss for almost 20 years. He was hired by the NHL to bring the salary cap, and so he did, as he had received the salary cap NBA Basketball: acquisition. Twice the lockout has been a stoppage during his reign, and each time the lockout is done. Now it is the third! He is certainly the NHL's most hated person. For every NHL team's arrival at the hall throughout the hall buuaa and show her mind. Yes fans to know! He makes himself more than eight million dollars a year. Would Mr. Bettman willing to give up their salary and give part of it to these "poor" teams? Hmm ... interesting question.
As I warned, the translation is hardly verbatim but you can easily piece it together to decipher the meaning. It's certainly pointed.
Selanne saves his derision for Bettman the most, calling the commissioner "the NHL's most hated person." Considering how Bettman is received anytime he makes a public appearances, that isn't a surprising statement on the surface. But coming from an NHL player, even in a moment of strife? It's noteworthy, at least if not surprising.
Of course the post wouldn't be complete without an apology to the fans. Every single statement we see from now until the season actually begins will contain an apology, I believe it's a requirement by law on statements about the lockout. Still, that doesn't stop him from correctly pointing out that there will be no winners in this lockout, especially should it last long.
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