A couple of times over the past week, I have linked to a new weblog named HockeyRumors as a source of lockout-related ‘news’ and gossip.

The author, ‘Eklund’, claims to be a former NHL employee, a journalist, and a former employee of NHL teams. Since he was posting rumours and innuendo, it made sense that he would want to protect his real identity.

As with any hockey rumours, especially those churned out by Al Strachan and Larry Brooks, I took them at far less than face value and didn’t put too much ‘faith’ into them.

Still, the rumours he posted on his site seemed plausible and I do remember the hockeyrumors.com site as being quite popular. Without looking into his site all that much (I admit, I didn’t comb through his material as I don’t put much stock into rumours in most cases), I didn’t think he was total fraud.

As ‘Eklund’ has posted more and more on his new site, James Mirtle, Bolts Mag, and others have begun to see the cracks on the façade. Somebody even created a ‘spoof blog’ called Hockey Roomers

After reading ‘Eklund’s posts from today, it’s clear to me that I have to call ‘BS’ on him, too:

From a source in the NHL Office.

"Tonight on the Canadian TV Show 'TSN Insiders' an unbelievable thing happened. The owners, realizing that the players aren't getting any info regarding the lock-out from their leadership, sent Brian Burke a detailed e-mail explaining the new deal the two sides have been working on since Saturday. They told him that all indications are that the players will accept it, and they asked him to go on the air and be as 'optimistic as you ever have been' regarding this deal.

I also received e-mails stating the WFAN e in Toronto acknowledged, "There have been several rumors this week that the two sides are working together in secret as has been written about in Gord's (Stellick) favorite Hockey Rumors blog."

If you are going to be creating rumours and spreading them as fact, you should get your facts straight.

1. There is no TSN show called ‘TSN Insiders’. There was a post on hfboards.com from someone using that title to post some information...so is ‘Eklund’ simply creating stuff from material he reads on hfboards.com?

2. Canadian radio stations all start with the ‘C’ designation: CFAN, CFOX, CJES, etc… there is no ‘WFAN’ in Toronto. New York City may have a WFAN, but not T.O.

And now that ‘Eklund’ has been figured out, he has turned off the COMMENTS section of his blog.

His ‘stuff’ is entertaining and gives some sheep a false sense of optimism. For fiction, he does a pretty damn good job until he made his recent slips. Maybe he ought to work for one of the Toronto papers, after all.

Just heed the warning you see from all Psychic hotlines:
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!!

Now, if you want the REAL goods, I suggest you read Bob McKenzie’s latest column. Bob can always be trusted to deliver ‘real’ information, and he details some of the elements that could be part of a new CBA or are already part of the negotiations.

The profit sharing and ‘truth in reporting’ items are really quite interesting. If this is to be believed, then the NHL and NHLPA may have done some unprecedented work in creating a real ‘partnership’ within the CBA talks.