Random Wednesday.... err Thursday!

Whatever day it is today...! We take a break from all the sarcasm to bring you random information around the league! YAY!

• So I'm late to the party on this one, but I'd like to say a quick "byebye" to Tanguay. I for one, am really not going to miss him. I was never particularly fond of him from the start and unlike Lang who ended up growing on me a lot, I never got to like Tanguay a whole lot. He never excited me as a player and he just ended up irking me a lot. I hope he enjoys his time on the beach with Skinny Vinny and Shorty Marty....
  
  
• Puckdaddy has the latest on the NHLPA mess. Including some theories on why Kelly was fired. There are some reports that "he was allegedly caught reading a transcript from a confidential meeting between the union's advisory board and 30-member player executive last June." Interesting...
  
  
• Also while we're all SO fascinated by this implosion, here is Glenn Healy's resignation letter. He was part of the NHLPA and resigned after that meeting in Chicago.
  
  
• The Habs FINALLY have info about the upcoming training camps (I've been waiting days and days and days for this. Not necessarily pleased to see Louis won't be at the rookie camp though). Now I need to figure out for sure if they're letting us mortals in or not.
  
  
• My political science course books are TOTALLY Canadian. One said something to effect of "helping a candidate or party win an election can be as exciting as being part of a winning hockey team". The other was dicussing the use of the word "power" and how we see the word a lot. "this person has power, that person is seduced by power, another person is on "a power trip," while Forbes trucks have more power and Sidney Crosby has perfected the power play". Great job, textbook. We're no talking for a while...
  
  
• The baby goalie that I saw at the Juniors pre-season game is apparently not even 16 yet. I say this with much surprise because while I thought he looked like a baby, I didn't think he was THAT young. Jeez, now I feel really old.
  
  
• And in US Open news...Apparently the top ten men have yet to lose a set in the tournament. This is great news and makes it all the more sad that two of the top 5 women are already out of the competition. Women's tennis is NOT in a happy place these days...

Sorting through this NHLPA mess

If you live in my house, you would've heard that Paul Kelly was fired yesterday. If you aren't me, then you probably were staring at me cross-eyed as I attempted to explain the significance of this move. Here I've attempted to give the basics on this situation and why the average fan should care.

Who: Executive director of the NHLPA, Paul Kelly, interim ombudsman Buzz Hargrove, general counsel Ian Penny.

When/Where: Yesterday at 3:30 in the morning in Chicago.

What happened: Paul Kelly was fired yesterday. The decision came from executive board which is made up of 30 player representatives.

Why? That’s the million dollar question. Nobody knows exactly why Kelly was fired.

Of course that doesn’t mean we can't speculate, right? Among the more interesting theories/questions out there:

• TSN has said that some inside the NHLPA thought Kelly wasn’t doing enough to get to know the players and/or was too close to Bettman and Daly.
• Was Kelly fired because he actually did his job instead of simply being a mouthpiece? That was one question posed one of the talkshows that I happened to overhear (I can't remember which). They seemed to feel on the show that Kelly was fired because he was doing his job. Because he had opinions and would voice them. They claim the NHLPA's board didn't like this.
• What about Ian Penny who is currently sitting in as the interim exec director? He's had issues with Kelly before and now he has his job. Coincidence?
• What of Buzz Hargrove the former president of CAW? Apparently his report on Kelly's (alleged) flaws played a large role in the executive board's nearly unanimous decision to fire Kelly. What will his role be in the post-Kelly NHLPA?

WAIT! This Kelly guy was close to Bettman?! Say no more! Allegedly. But let’s also contrast that with Kelly’s predecessor, Bob Goodenow, who apparently couldn’t even sit at the same table as Bettman during negotiations for the current CBA. Fractured relations between the head of the NHLPA and the head of the NHL aren’t good either. Obviously I don’t know the exact nature of Kelly’s relationship with Bettman, but it seems to me that it would be important for the head of the NHLPA and the NHL to at least sit at the same table.

So why would the average fan give a damn about this? Kelly wanted to work with the NHL in a constructive manner. Now that he is out and we know that guys like Hargrove tend to take a hardline approach, we can expect the NHLPA to assume a more rigid stance once the CBA can be renegotiated in 2011. Which means.....

....We could be in for another lockout, right? Quite possibly, yes. The NHLPA had the opportunity to re-open the CBA this year but they optioned not to. Keep in mind though, that that decision came under Kelly. Under a new executive director who is willing to take a hardliner approach, we could very well be in for another lockout.

And that’s....bad? Yes. Not only is a lockout sucky for the fans, but a second lockout could be devastating for the league (particularly for franchises that are currently struggling to survive). The Preds on the Glass and the Program offered up the ultimate doomsday scenerio. Granted it's an absolute worst case scenerio (for Bettman anyway), but it's interesting to think about where the NHL could potentially end up.

What do the actual players think of this? So far I've only heard Ilya Kovalchuk call the current CBA "dumb". Past that, I don't know what anyone else thinks. But it's not exactly comforting to see a player like Kovalchuk calling the CBA dumb.

More reading: Ken Campbell details why this matters to fans. Sportnets explains the situation in more detail. Down Goes Brown has has his own take. Worth the read if you want to be amused for a change.