A can full of iced worms

By Scott Antoszewski

The arbitrator ruled in favor of the NHL this week and has voided the 17 year $102 million contract Kovalchuk signed with the New Jersey Devils. Kovalchuk is now a free agent again and can sign with any NHL team. The problem is not who wants him; it’s who can afford him.

He’s stated that he wants at least $10 million a season. The Thrashers offered him that last season and he flat turned them down. He’s not only looking for big bucks, but he wants them from a contender, which limits his options dramatically. The arbitrator ruling will prevent teams from offering a front loaded contract, so the question becomes who has the money to pay for a $10 million a year player who hasn’t led a team to victory or won anything of note himself. I believe that Ilya is in a real bind here. He’s going to have to lower his demands or face playing in the KHL next season, both of which may be a good thing for hockey fans.

The arbitrator’s decision has also opened up a whole new can of worms that the Players Association most likely never thought through. The collective bargaining agreement with the NHL has two clauses that state that the league can review any contract, even after it has been approved, and there is no time deadline for the review of any contract.

A player can be in year two or three of a ten year contract, and if the league chooses to review it and reject it, that player is going to be up the creek without a contract. I think the NHL has let these super long term deals go on for a few years to build up enough ammunition to enact these clauses and make the players pay. The NHL has apparently already started reviewing the contracts of Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo, Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa, and Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger. The league will use the Kovalchuk decision as its precedent because the arbitrator even went so far as to mention those three contracts by name in his decision on the Kovalchuk case.

Long story short, Kovalchuck is back on the market, and now any player who signed a mega deal in the past few years, has reason to sweat. Stay tuned, it looks like this is just getting good.

Deal gets rejected

By Scott Antoszewski

The NHL announced early this morning that it had rejected the 17 year, $102 million deal that the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk had signed yesterday. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman advised Devils GM Lou Lamoriello early in the day yesterday that he may want to hold off on the press conference announcing the deal, but the Devils chose to go through with it.

The NHL rejected the deal because they felt that it was a direct circumvention of the salary cap, and a “retirement contract”, where neither party expected the contract to progress all the way to completion. It’s back to the drawing board for the Devils and Kovalchuk.

I’ve never seen this happen before, so I have no idea what the next steps are, but I’m sure it won’t be quick or easy. We’re going to be hearing about this for weeks. I thought I was going to struggle to find hockey news to write about this summer, boy was I wrong.

Kovalchuk resigns with New Jersey

By Scott Antoszewski

The New Jersey Devils have landed the biggest fish in the free agent sea this summer: Ilya Kovalchuk. I haven’t been able to track down terms of the deal yet, but you can bet that it will be at least 10 years, and it will be for somewhere between 80 and 100 million. Just when everyone thought he was going to the L.A. Kings, he re-signs in New Jersey. Typical. I hope for the Devils sake that he produces more than he did in the few months that he was there last year.

Paycheck for a jersey

By Scott Antoszewski

Call it what you want, loyalty, fashion, honor, fanaticism, whatever. The odds are if you are reading this blog, you most likely own at least one, probably multiple sports jerseys. I bet each one cost a lot more than the shirt you are wearing now. Unless you are wearing a jersey now, if so, bravo!

The whole thought of jerseys and their cost came to mind today because of the Lebron James circus and secondly, because Capitals goalie Semyon Varlamov announced he is changing his number from 40 to 1. Those events made me think of all the people with James’ Cavaliers jersey, and the masses of people who own jerseys of teams that they love, with player names on them that have changed numbers or moved on long ago. My twitter feed is going nuts with Caps fans complaining about owning a Varlamov #40.

I remember the feeling of buying my first jersey. It was a Caps jersey, the white one with the Eagle on the front, and I was so proud to have #55 and Sergei Gonchar on the back. I picked him because everyone had Jagr or Bondra at the time, and I figured Gonchar would be around for a while and my wife already had a Kolzig.

I was a new partial plan holder and I wanted something to wear to the games. Less and four months later Gonchar was a Bruin, and I was initiated into the club of people who now had “throwback” jerseys. My situation got worse because Gonchar then went and signed with Pittsburgh, whom I can’t stand, so the jersey went to the back of the closet.

I feel for the millions of folks who spent their hard earned money on Lebron James jerseys, both authentic and replicas. Just think, you can sell it on Ebay for 1/3 of what you paid for it. Lord knows you should try and get some of that small fortune back. Most of those costs are licensing fees and profit.

The New Jersey Devils were selling authentic jerseys at their equipment sale a few weeks ago for $100, which is considered a deal for a jersey with no name or number, but has the heavy material and fight strap that a replica lacks.

Basketball and football jerseys are the same way, if you want the nice ones with the names and numbers stitched on, you better be prepared to part with several hundred dollars. Heck even the replicas with silkscreened names and numbers still go for over one hundred dollars, and are wrecked after several trips through the washing machine.

Players these days are so superstitious or are just plain head cases, but we love sports and are more than willing to pay the price for a jersey with their name on it. Take a look on Ebay, you can find almost any jersey you can think of there. The folks who rushed to buy Brett Favre Jets jerseys also come to mind today, heck I saw people with Brett Favre Vikings jerseys before he even announced he was going to play there. Crazy.

The only way to avoid being in this situation is to not buy jerseys at all, and that will never happen, so frame that LaDanian Tomlinson powder blue Chargers jersey, and if you are lucky he’ll get into the Hall of Fame and you won’t feel so bad.

Crazy round one

By Scott Antoszewski

We’ve seen our first casualty of the 2010 NHL Playoffs. The New Jersey Devils have been eliminated in five games by the Philadelphia Flyers. The fact that the Devils were a two seed makes this a fairly large upset. I didn’t get to see a lot of the games in this series, but I did see the one last night. Marty Brodeur looked very “ordinary”, and the Devils just looked like they weren’t really all that interested. Let the Kovalchuk free agent speculation begin!

I thought I was going to get to see a second elimination when the Penguins rallied to take a 3-2 lead on Ottawa in the third period, but to the Sens credit they fought back. The game kept me up way past my bedtime, but it was worth it to see Ottawa get a 4-3 win in triple overtime. Game 6 is back in Ottawa on Saturday night. (Pens win, advance)

The Capitals get their first chance to knock out the Canadiens tonight in DC. Washington has dominated this series ever since getting down 4-1 in the second period of game two. The Habs are going back to Halak in goal tonight to try and extend their season. The Buffalo Sabres are down three games to one to the Boston Bruins, which is a major surprise. (Caps lose 2-1, Sabres win 4-1)

Out west, the Canucks lead the Kings three games to two in their series. I haven’t seen many of these games, but the highlights are proving that they are playing some very entertaining games. The Red Wings took game five from Phoenix, also leading to a three games to two series lead. The Sharks have weathered an “own goal” in OT against the Avalanche and are now up three games to two. The Sharks need to close out this series as quickly as possible. They can’t let Colorado hang around and push it to a game seven, even though it would be played in San Jose. (Sharks won game six) Lastly, the Blackhawks and Predators are tied at two games a piece heading back to Chicago for game five. (OT win by Hawks, lead 3-2)

Round two will get going toward the end of next week. Overall the games have been very entertaining, I’m happy with the level of play and the officiating. Game five between Pittsburgh/Ottawa was the first real “epic” overtime game of the playoffs. I’m looking forward to at least one more three or four overtime marathon before the end of the playoffs.

Enjoy the games!

NHL playoffs underway

By Dan Rodgers

The first games of the first round of the NHL playoffs have been rather interesting:

• (8) Montreal stunned (1) Washington in OT to take a 1-0 series lead against the best team in the NHL
• (7) Philadelphia beat Marty Brodeur and the (2) New Jersey Devils to switch the home ice advantage
• (1) San Jose continues to struggle in the playoffs, dropping the opener to (8) Colorado
• (5) Ottawa upset the defending champion (4) Penguins in game one

Hopefully, the rest of round one games will be as interesting as these. Nothing better than the underdogs coming through. Both one seeds going down would be extremely interesting. Best of luck to everyone...

Rodgers That