by Barry Stagg
February 1995
Icing the Hockey Strike
Good news for hockey fans has finally come down the pipeline from the twin solitudes of the National Hockey League owners and players. As of the afternoon of January 11, 1995 a deal had been reached subject to full ratification by the players and/or some other bizarre development such as the other hundred or so absurdities that unfolded during the seemingly pointless strike/lockout. It would appear that there will be a forty-eight game National Hockey League schedule and thank goodness we will not have to endure any further travesties such as the Wayne Gretzky European tour which seemed to be little more than an exercise in gentle aerobics for Gretzky, Messier and crew. I still would have liked to see how the business talents of the players would have worked out if they had been put to the tasks of running a league and actually paying bills rather than receiving paycheques. Mercifully a six year deal is in place and hopefully the National Hockey League now has the most stable of labour agreements which will take the League past the terrible swamps that the baseball players and owners have now entered.
More than a little credit must be given to some of the higher profile National Hockey League players such as Gretzky and Messier who, no doubt, did play a behind the scenes role when the negotiations got down to the usual non-stop, no sleep bargaining that eventually gave birth to the deal. Despite my usual criticism of professional hockey players I do regard them as having the most common sense and the most practical focus of any group of professional athletes. Certainly the social indiscretions of your average National Hockey League player are nothing in comparison to the ridiculous extremes that many major league basketball and baseball players reach. Outside of the on-again, off-again career of drug and alcohol plagued Bob Probert, the National Hockey League really has nothing to offer that would compare to the self destructive crash dives of baseball's Darrel Strawberry and his former New York Met team mate Dwight Gooden. As an aside, it is interesting to note that Gooden, a former Cy Young award winner in the majors, is now considering a job offer in the Northern Baseball League which is basically an independent Class A league which operates clubs in the mid-Western United States. This is something like Brett Hull making a decision to shift from the St. Louis Blues to a spot in a Toronto Men's League. It certainly is indicative of how far overpaid and under-informed athletes can fall in a very short period of time.
With the National Hockey League basically going to a hurry up schedule, it will be hockey every night of the week with most teams playing three or four times weekly. Conditioning will be a real factor in the early going and I would look for a multitude of hamstring pulls, abdominal strains and "charley horses" before the season lurches beyond Valentines Day. It could well be that many minor leaguers will be getting the call in the early going. I would look to the St. John's Maple Leafs to supply some fresh and well conditioned talent to Toronto once Pat Burns realizes that the less than rigorous workouts that the players inflicted on themselves during the lockout were hardly adequate to achieve game shape. Burns, like other NHL coaches, will find plenty of able and willing bodies down on the farm. Players like Kenny Jonsson are guaranteed recall to the big club, but other players such as Darby Hendrickson and Janne Gronvaal may find their way to Toronto in the early going as well.
It will certainly be good to have a chance to watch hockey again both live and on television and if all goes well and if none of the main combatants take any trips to the dark side of the moon during the ratification process then there will be hockey. However, if by the time you read this it has become apparent that another fiasco has developed from today's settlement then I apologize for my optimism and my salutes to these gentlemen.
Until next month, be proud, be prosperous.