your missing the bigger penguin story. and all of the cba issues for the most part. grab a shovel and dig yourself a position already jes! lol

the owners are gagged by buttman and can not talk about their needs, even though several owners have apparently leaked out that they do not believe bettman's salaray cap hard line improves their teams chances of making money, or addresses many of the fundemental issues that face the nhl as a viable entertainment choice.

what does this have to tdo with the penguins?

everything. the league is in choas. THAT team is on life support and is unwatchable, BUT super mario claims (and NOT for the first time) he has 'several' out of town interests pursuing buying the penguins.

HUH?

just how bad is the nhl's ownership position really? that there are several people willing to buy a bankrupt crappy team and move them to even a smaller market than columbus? WHILE there is ever chance that at least 82 games will be lost before the new owners get any revenue isn't scaring them off?

the games a foot. or at least the hypocrasy of the nhl brass stinks like an unwahsed foot.

Who is lying? mario or bettman? is the league in its death throes, or are they several potential owners out there for the worst that the bettman monarchy can produce?

bettman can't sell the sabres? mario can sell the pens 3 times over.

bettman can't keep teams north of the border (and when he gets a year long strike that he wants, he will likely tank one northern team and possibly two ), but mario can make money selling off a 'no arena' pile of rejects wearing black and gold while never seeing any gold or getting in the black? [is it the shoes?]

bettman can not get his owners, as a group, to police themselves responisbliy in a finacial setting they alone create, but he can get the owners to agree to give up their constituational rights (at least the americans amoungst them) of free speech and freedom of assembly by impossing mind numbing penalties for even whispering that bettman's position doesn't speak for all owners. yet walk up to brett hull and ask him anything about the nhl, the cba, bettman, refs, his father, and bribing andy before scoring the clenching goal for the stars, and he is free to talk and as loose as a cannon when he does.

and on a side note:

HASEK?!? HASEK?!?

----BLUELINES: Will Hasek pay off?

Stan Fischler / FOX Sports Net

Is Ottawa getting a lemon in Dominik Hasek? One former Russian teammate thinks so. The defenseman says The Dominator is much less than a team player. Wade Redden, Chris Phillips, beware!

ha!

to me, great, or best, BOTH require being a solid teammate, and hasek has never been one. Does hasek have competetion? In roy, for great yes. roy started the trend of skilled youngsters WANTING to be tenders (instead of forwards, and orr had talent wanted to play defense instead of forward). that wasn't hasek. People learn to play goal like 'patty rooooy'. they can't and shouldn't learn to play like hasek. and this all assumes fuhr isn't in the running (which he is and should be for several reasons). and yea roy is less than the best teammate occasionally, but he only needs to be better than hasek at shaking hands, and he is.

the winner is really fuhr though. amazing what he did and how little he is respected for it. it is a numbers game, but the offensibve team played in front of him, and his job was not to get a shut out, but to make the big save when needed, and he nearly always did. he was and remains an inspiration to some of the minority nhl players and is often credited as a major reason they chose to pursue the nhl. and i saw his teammate qualties when he had almost nothing left and wore the blue note. his knees were gone. age had caught him, yet he had his best statistical years in his career. Why? because as a blues his team required it of him. so he did it. all while having the attitude of any human you would ever want to work with. or go to war with.