And you all thought Mike Babcock had a big mouth, no?
Not even he could muster up a fine as large as the one that his bosses got hit with Saturday by the NHL - $250,000.
Reading Red Wings senior veep Jim Devellano's comments on IslandsSportsNews.com, I kind felt like we were part of The Big Valley.
With Devellano in the role of Jarrod Barkley,played by Richard Long:
“The owners can basically be viewed as the Ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle," Devellano said. "The owners own the Ranch and allow the players to eat there.
“That's the way it’s always been and that the way it will be forever. And the owners simply aren't going to let a union push them around. It's not going to happen.”
Yep, that ain't Lee Major's character talking, it's Richard Long's.
And then there was this beauty of a gem from Devellano basically saying that the owners are in collusion with their "unwritten rule" that you don't target other team's players with Group II offer sheets:
“If [Shea] Weber gets this much, then another player gets less,” Devellano said. “Now does that mean it's right for another team to do that? My answer is this: They [Flyers] operated within the CBA and it's totally legit to do.
“Having said that, I will tell you there is an unwritten rule that you don't do that, but they did, and just like everything else in life, some people are great to deal with, some aren't.
“If you are asking me if it's right, I would say there is, again, an unwritten rule...we all know it in the NHL, but not everyone follows it.”
Now here's the rub. Devellano is right. The players will always be subservient to the owners; and the FLyers have long ignored unwritten rules because ... the Flyers have the gonads to play by the RULES that exist in the CBA. More power to them.
That said, what Devellano suggested was collusion and during a lockout, that's a dangerous thing to say or imply.
You know why the NHLPA doesn't silence its 700+ members? Because there's too many of them. You can't keep track of them. It's a lot easier for Bettman to gag 30 owners than Donald Fehr to gag 700+ players.
That and the fact that the union, under him, doesn't muzzle anyone.
So the lockout hits Week 2 on Sunday.
With no end in sight.
Sorry Ek.
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