A hockey/poker vlog
Good news first.
We finally have just one womenâs pro hockey league in North America.
Bad news
Everything about this is filthy.
This all started when the PWHPA players refused to play in the PHF(formerly NWHL) because it wasnât going to compensate them well enough. They expected the PHF to fail without them. Instead, it made progress.
The PHF this year raised the salary cap, and some of the top players had salaries up to $150k! Finally could quit their day jobs and play hockey. They also had 7 whole teams worth of players.
The PWHPA though, had big time partners with deep pockets. Billie Jean King and some billionaire who owns the Dodgers. Just now, they bought the PHF.
Hereâs what we know about this purchase so far. There will be six teams next season, not seven. A team will be eliminated. Each team will have 23 roster spots. A lot of players out there are not going to make the cut, especially many of those who had PHF contracts already signed.
PHF players had their contracts voided. Theyâll get some health care, and some severance. They wonât be bought out fully. They just get hosed if they canât get a spot in the new league.
There is a new CBA. It doesnât seem likely that the PHF players will be part of the negotiating process, but PWHPA players will be. If thatâs true, then if any PHF players make it onto a team in the new league theyâll just have to sign it and wonât be able to have input in negotiations until the next time.
The new league owns all the rights to the IP of the PHF. But will they use it? Will teams be renamed? Rethemed? Who knows.
TL;DR: Happy there will be one league with the best players to enjoy watching. Upset that itâs going to start with a really bad taste in the mouth.
Addendum:
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I am slowly catching up with this and I think this is the best video to explain the whole (ice hockey) booktok v Seattle Krakens.
Fuck Mike Babcock and fuck the Columbus Blue Jackets for even trying.
For people not in the know, Babcock was an NHL coach who, despite winning a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 2008 and a gold medal with Canada in 2010, is absolutely despised by a large amount of players in the league. In 2019 he got fired from his position as head coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs after a 6-game losing streak while at the same time embroiled in a story of him mistreating his players. For example he had Leafs rookie Mitch Marner rank his teammates by work ethic, then turned around and shared the list with the team. Several other stories from his time with the Wings also come to focus.
Babcock became persona non-grata, but found a job with the University of Saskatchewan in 2021.
This summer the Columbus Blue Jackets hired Babcock as their head coach. Babcock lasted two months until a story surfaced where he went through players phones and projected their private photos onto a tv screen via air play. Babcock resigned yesterday. The pre-season hasnât even started yet.
Hereâs hoping that teams finally learn their lesson with the old hockey mans, but we know they wonât.
Yeah, they fucked up bringing him back, but at least they investigated and dumped him quickly. The leash was as short as could possibly be. This is an improvement over the old NHL that would have covered it up and such. And they did attempt to do just that before quickly changing the tune. Theyâre still far from where they need to be, but this is an improvement.
The person Iâm most disappointed in is John Davidson, president of hockey operations for Columbus. I havenât seen anyone bring his name up, but certainly he is the one ultimately responsible for this whole thing to begin with. The dude was a legendary broadcaster for the Rangers back in the day. Just great on TV, and such a likeable guy.
The Rangers eventually gave him the job of team president, but he fucked that up somehow. Piece of shit Dolan fired him and the GM somewhat suddenly and suddenly a few seasons back, which put us into the Drury era. At the time I was like WTF Dolan. Columbus took him right back.
But now Iâm realizing that no matter how nice a guy JD seems to be, maybe heâs just shit at running a team. All the teams he has been president of have been bad on the ice, and are frequently bad off the ice as well. Dude needs to give up on this and go back to broadcasting, which heâs actually good at. Or maybe just retire. I feel bad for Columbus fans if he gets renewed at the end of his deal.
The tricky part is that hockey is random enough to where we might not have statistically significant samples to differentiate that influence from all the other factors in a playoff run or record.
Just in general. Some dynasties won a cup on dicey OT goals, some wildcards have gone deep out of nowhere. One really good player appears for some seasons.
But also, no wildcard has ever won the Stanley Cup
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Last week I was invited to the last regular season game of the inaugural season of the PWHL, or Professional Womenâs Hockey League. My friend had some free tickets given to us by the Montreal team because his podcast interviewed one of the players. Boston took an early lead and then Montreal tied it up with 3 goals in 7 minutes during the third period and went on to win in overtime.
I was never a big sports person, but I went into it with an open mind, and I dug it! Iâm going to follow the playoffs as much as I can.
There are six teams in the league so far: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York, and Minnesota. Four teams went to the playoffs, so the first round consists of best-of-five series with Toronto vs. Minnesota and Boston vs. Montreal.
Iâm curious to see how invested I get, because Iâve found that I have a hard time following a full length game that has a chance of ending without a satisfactory payoff.
But if youâd like to follow the PWHL Playoffs as well, you can watch for free on YouTube in the US.
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I went to two NY games. They sucked! They also played in arenas and with a schedule that wasnât convenient, otherwise I would have gotten season tickets. Of course, thatâs not their fault. There arenât any convenient arenas that are appropriately sized in the NYC area. Weâve only got ones that are too small and too big.
And of course, it didnât help that NY team was so bad! I like a lot of our players, but they just didnât get it done. At least we got top draft pick. Hoping theyâre better in the next season.
I totally get that re: arena size. The Boston team plays in Lowell MA, which is at the very end of the commuter rail line going north from the city, 30 miles away. But it works out for me because I live about 20 minutes from there and I know all the secret parking lots in the area so I can avoid traffic getting out of the game.
And with the NY team being not great, all the better for the underdog story for them to build their team and climb out from the bottom to win the championship.
There are only six teams, so theyâll win eventually. All the original six teams have won the Stanley Cup at some point. Got enough years with few enough teams, and everyone will have their time.
Holy fuck, Austria beat Finland tonight at the World Championship, thanks to a goal with .2 seconds left on the clock.
For the full experience you have to hear the austrian commentary
This comes on the heels of them pushing Canada to Overtime by scoring five (5) 3rd period goals to rally from a 6-1 deficit two days ago.
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