The Original Sportsdiva’s Weblog

The NHL owners and players have approved the new collective bargaining agreement among much positive spin on the new partnership between teams and players.  It’s now Saturday night and the only team who’s done quite completely what the Flyers have done is the Flyers. We know who’s definitely missing (either staying in Europe–and I knew there’d be a lot of guys, particularly at the lower end of the pay scale for whom it would be much more difficult to justify leaving home–or being waived and bought out). We know the new pricing structure. And we’ve had management (executive and hockey) and players sit on the same dais, make statements, and answer questions. I have every confidence the Flyers will win this game of the cap management era because, as usual, they are thinking ahead, communicating effectively with the fans, and thinking of everything. (I’ve already emailed them that I expect we’ll all be sitting in the stands opening night in those “back where we belong” t shirts. But I’m sure they already planned to do that.) Meanwhile, there isn’t another team out there that has so much as announced their waivers. And again, I wonder if anything will really change for hockey. Because how any team can’t have been fully prepared for today, after a week of knowing exactly when it would happen, is beyond me.