The KHL is coming to ESPN. According to the site KHL.ru, ESPN has reached an agreement with the KHL to bring Russian hockey games to audiences within the United States. The new deal will place KHL games on ESPN3, a channel available within the United States, its territories and Great Britain. The move is believed to make KHL games available to roughly 73 million homes. 

The interest is there. The NHL has gone missing. Chalk this up as a wise move by ESPN.

Former TML GM & NHL Agent Bill Watters thinks Gary Bettman's will bring in replacement players in NOV, & thinks this will crack the Union.

— Josh Rimer (@JoshRimerHockey) October 2, 2012

NHL teams may be resuming play sooner than you think. There's only one issue - the roster might look very different than what you saw in 2011-12. Bill Watters, former assistant GM to Toronto and player agent, stated on Josh Rimer's show that replacement players could be coming to an arena near you. Watters believes that Gary Bettman will use replacements, or scabs, to shatter the player's union all but ensuring a "victory" for the NHL and its owners in the current CBA debacle. 

 

From /r/hockey user Fireguts comes this nightmare fuel: an Ukranian Scott Stevens nesting doll. Why? Do you need a reason?

I wonder if this li'l guy would open-shelf check stuff off of your mantlepiece.

This just in from the NHL-NHLPA labor front: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) October 1, 2012

Several months ago hockey fans were loudly counting down the months until October, longing for their beloved game of hockey to return. The Cup had been hoisted and a summer lacking ice was fully in front of us. October seemed a distant way off but we all assumed, and hoped, hockey would return with it. Surely the owners and players wouldn't be foolish enough to cancel NHL games again, right? 

...Right? 

Well, this is awkward. The “fling yourself into the glass” celebration technique is a common one; heck, it’s even programmed into NHL 13. Taylor Cox of the New Jersey Junior Titans learned the hard way that just because something’s in a video game doesn’t mean that you need to try to do it. Witness:

Three straight days of meetings to help resolve the NHL lockout didn’t accomplish that goal, but at the very least some more minor details were discussed and resolved. Drug testing? Check. Resolving the lockout? Not so much. But hey, they’re meeting, right? That’s a good sign, right? Sure, says Steve Fehr.

You know that things are contentious when one of the perks of two sides talking is that they spoke in the first place. Will they be meeting on Monday? No, because both sides “need to do their homework.” Good for them – knowing what you’re discussing before you discuss it is a great thing. But doing their homework for meetings? What is today’s date again? Oh, right, it’s October 1^st.

The NHL lockout is an ugly beast. We've seen it claim the NHL preseason and, barring a major surprise, we'll see it claiming regular season games in the very near future. Fans are outraged and understandably so as the league enjoys its second lockout in nine years. 

So what can hockey fans do about it? Unfortunately, not much but that hasn't stopped various groups from coming up with some inventive ideas on how to show Gary Bettman and the NHL their disgust.

Photo courtesy of the LA Times

 

Raise your hand if this surprises you. No, come on guys, not everyone at once.

That's what I thought -- there was no expectation that the 2012 NHL preseason wouldn't be canceled, was there? The league had already canceled the games scheduled through the last weekend in September, and with no resolution to the lockout in sight, the league did the next expected thing and canceled preseason games through the start of the season.

There's a danger inherent in being the head of an organization, a company, or a country. If you become notable -- if you become synonymous with the front office in charge of your product -- then you become more than in charge. You're part of the identity. If something goes awry in the front office, blame gets tossed at you. Is it always fair? No. Some people will always hate just to hate. Some people will boo because it's a force of habit. It's still a part of the job, however, and I believe that Gary Bettman is more than aware that it comes with the territory of being the commissioner of the NHL.

One could take it as a good sign that the NHL and NHLPA met for five hours this afternoon, pouring over books and discussing numbers. Or, one could take it for the tedious slog that it probably was. The going over accounting did not lead to a plan to further discuss the CBA, and was probably a beacon of false hope for millions of hockey fans who would really like to just go to a pre-season game.