The Weird 2020 Off-Season Thread

[titans04]

48 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

We want it to be amicable for sure.  Long and short is that we hadn't been truly happy in many years, and a lot was missing.  We want to remain friends and be good parents to our daughter.  We both love her more than anything.  

Best of luck through the process and of course hoping your daughter escapes with no scars. Certainly will help that she's loved by both side and if you can keep it civil it will help but still a terribly difficult situation having been in her shoes at even a later age.  However staying in a broken marriage isn't the answer either so hoping you can find peace and happiness too down the road CR.

[MadDog2020]

3 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Pretty much where I am.  This has been a sh!t-storm of a year...and to finish it off, I'm getting divorced (still navigating our way through that one...and it was obvious that things hadn't been right in a long time, so don't want to imply there was any blindsiding from either party...was only a matter of time).  But with an awesome 12-year-old involved who did nothing wrong and has tremendous spirit, I just hope this won't break her.  Fortunately she's loved equally by Mom and Dad.  

Sorry to hear that man. My parents got divorced when I was 19; my sister was 16. So I’ve been through it from your daughter’s perspective, although I was obviously several years older when I went through it. I’m sure she will be fine. It’s a very tough thing to deal with, but it’s made a bit easier knowing you are equally loved by both parents. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

56 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

Sorry to hear that man. My parents got divorced when I was 19; my sister was 16. So I’ve been through it from your daughter’s perspective, although I was obviously several years older when I went through it. I’m sure she will be fine. It’s a very tough thing to deal with, but it’s made a bit easier knowing you are equally loved by both parents. 

Thanks man.  We plan to remind her how loved she is a LOT.  And we have no interest in using her as a weapon against each other...ever.

[mfitz804]

3 hours ago, jagknife said:

Took a back loaded, team-friendly 3 year deal to stay down south. Ugh.

Holy sh!t, he is worth more than that. Very sweet deal for the Lightning. 

[Nicomo]

7 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Pretty much where I am.  This has been a sh!t-storm of a year...and to finish it off, I'm getting divorced (still navigating our way through that one...and it was obvious that things hadn't been right in a long time, so don't want to imply there was any blindsiding from either party...was only a matter of time).  But with an awesome 12-year-old involved who did nothing wrong and has tremendous spirit, I just hope this won't break her.  Fortunately she's loved equally by Mom and Dad.  

Sorry to hear that, CR. Went through it myself as a kid even a little younger than your daughter. I obviously don’t “know” any of you guys for real, but you seem like a good dad, and that’s going to go a long way in getting her through it. Hopefully we’ll return to some sort of normal soon, and you can start doing all the fun stuff with her again. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

11 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Sorry to hear that, CR. Went through it myself as a kid even a little younger than your daughter. I obviously don’t “know” any of you guys for real, but you seem like a good dad, and that’s going to go a long way in getting her through it. Hopefully we’ll return to some sort of normal soon, and you can start doing all the fun stuff with her again. 

Thanks man.  Yeah I’m not perfect, but I try very hard, and love spending time with her.  Really miss watching hockey with her...that was very much “our” thing.

[mfitz804]

15 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Thanks man.  Yeah I’m not perfect, but I try very hard, and love spending time with her.  Really miss watching hockey with her...that was very much “our” thing.

And it will be again my man. 

[vadvlfan]

On 11/25/2020 at 2:17 PM, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Pretty much where I am.  This has been a sh!t-storm of a year...and to finish it off, I'm getting divorced (still navigating our way through that one...and it was obvious that things hadn't been right in a long time, so don't want to imply there was any blindsiding from either party...was only a matter of time).  But with an awesome 12-year-old involved who did nothing wrong and has tremendous spirit, I just hope this won't break her.  Fortunately she's loved equally by Mom and Dad.  

Best of luck navigating through this CR. It's relatively common (divorce)  these days, but I think all of us can't wait to see '20 in our rearview.

[EdgeControl]

According to a forbes article,  without fans in attendance the players are now earning 80% of the nhl revenue. Which puts many teams in the red,, but that also means the escrow deferred by players is as good as gone.. its a tough call on both sides.. the players are being asked to take a pay cut. Its not just deferral 

[mfitz804]

If they play less games, they should be paid proportionally for the games they play. There should be no other reduction of their pay.  

[Crisis]

I think the reduction in their pay comes from having to dish out more in escrow to make up for the owners lost pay at the gate.

[HellOnICE]

The whole thing's a mess. The owners had a crappy deal. The players are right to say "you signed it." But at the end of the day, I'm sure it'll edge to getting a 48 game season in. Public opinion doesn't matter too much, but people don't want to see bickering given the state of the world. With that said - I think owners have the public opinion here. No fans in the seats, what are the owners supposed to do? Take the hit? Could be a huge hit w/o gate revenue. 

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

Has anyone else just sort of ........checked out? 

I have almost got used to not watching hockey now. 

I will 100% be back when it starts again, but I am not sat here longing for it to be back. Especially in some of the formats that have been announced. 

Also sport without the fans in the stadium does lose some of its meaning. I have seen it with the Premier League, games just feel flat. 

I am at the point where I could quite happily wait till the season can be done properly. 

[NJDevils1214]

24 minutes ago, Chimaira_Devil_#9 said:

Has anyone else just sort of ........checked out? 

I have almost got used to not watching hockey now. 

I will 100% be back when it starts again, but I am not sat here longing for it to be back. Especially in some of the formats that have been announced. 

Also sport without the fans in the stadium does lose some of its meaning. I have seen it with the Premier League, games just feel flat. 

I am at the point where I could quite happily wait till the season can be done properly. 

The issue is the league can't really afford to loose the momentum. Fans like you and I will be back, but those fringe fans will check out and be a lot harder to draw back in. That and the TV deal are really huge. They need to keep interest at a peak. 

[EdgeControl]

4 hours ago, Crisis said:

I think the reduction in their pay comes from having to dish out more in escrow to make up for the owners lost pay at the gate.

Thats exactly what the issue is , all the escrow will go to the owners this year because revenues will be way down under the agreement level.  so when they want more money held in escrow they are taking it straight out of the players pockets never to be repaid.  But the owners are asking for 25% when only half the games will be played , a 50% work reduction. Sounds more than a fare offer from owners

[titans04]

Forbes article is pretty fair imo.  It's ugly, just like the rest of the real world. Touches on the numbers and the anticipated losses. In the end they don't think the ask is unfair. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/search/?q=nhl&sh=1b6b9c80279f

[mfitz804]

Gotta love this one. Evander Kane, a member of the NHL’s Diversity Alliance gets dinged for making a sexist comment in calling Ryan Reaves and his brother “the Reaves sisters”. 

Proof positive that my man has no clue what “diversity” means. 

NY Post

[HellOnICE]

2 hours ago, NJDevils1214 said:

The issue is the league can't really afford to loose the momentum. Fans like you and I will be back, but those fringe fans will check out and be a lot harder to draw back in. That and the TV deal are really huge. They need to keep interest at a peak. 

I don't know if that's accurate. I think if the league took the season off and started up fresh on-time next season- things would be fine. Not to mention it's an Olympic year. 

I had these same thoughts myself around like "do I even care at this point" - and I can't tell if it's because we are rebuilding and the expectations are low - so like whatever.

In terms of teams losing the revenue, I mean - I bet there are teams who would lose more playing than not playing. We're probably one of them. A lot of this has to do with the tv deal. It's up after this season - so they need to burn it - even if it's a short year.

Edited December 1, 2020 by HellOnICE

[NJDfan1711]

On 11/25/2020 at 6:22 PM, MadDog2020 said:

Sorry to hear that man. My parents got divorced when I was 19; my sister was 16. So I’ve been through it from your daughter’s perspective, although I was obviously several years older when I went through it. I’m sure she will be fine. It’s a very tough thing to deal with, but it’s made a bit easier knowing you are equally loved by both parents. 

Almost the exact same for me.  I don't remember my exact age, but I was somewhere between 18-20, and my brother was about 14-16.  It was tough, but I believe it was for the best, and I came out of it about as best as could be expected.  Fortunately I was off and starting to do my own thing into adulthood, and my brother wasn't far off, so we weren't too traumatized and didn't miss out on a lot of "family" things from a cohesive two-parent household sort of perspective.  On the other hand, I actually jumped into a relationship with my now ex who had three of her own when she divorced her children's father - the kids were 9-7-2 at the time.  On the one hand it was hard for them to be so young and see their parents split, and you'd think she and I getting together rather quickly with little no break in between would make it difficult to adjust to and see a new man (especially a young one like I was at the time) step in and sort of take their biological father's place, but I also think that really helped, because things didn't really miss a beat.  Their father was out of the picture for a number of years before eventually coming back in, but if not for me, their childhoods and life growing up probably wouldn't been drastically different.  They would've have been able to afford and do half of the things they did, from sports, to vacations, birthday celebrations and holidays, etc.  But like others have said, as long as both parents love the children, all of that is still possible even if they're not living in the same house anymore, it's just different, that's all.  The effect/outcome can still be pretty much the same. 

Anyway, enough rambling.  Sorry to hear about it CR, but best of luck to you.  I'm sure you'll do and be fine.  

Edited December 1, 2020 by NJDfan1711

[NJDfan1711]

On the subject of whether or not I'm missing sports a ton, the answer is both yes and no.  I'd love for it to be back to normal, full fans in attendance, as I think we all would, and I'd also like it to be back even in part - half stadiums with the option to go (without mandatory vaccinations and sh!t like that), as well as simply watching on TV as we did over the summer, but I'm not desperate for it either, and I've learned to live without it.  Lord knows I could stand to use this free time to do things like exercise, strengthen relationships with family and friends (or make new ones), educate myself in areas that I didn't have time for in the past, etc etc.  But at the same time, sports are a form of entertainment that some of those other things can't replace, and it's also a nice thing to have in the evenings when most games are usually played - Netflix can only take you so far and it's starting to get stale.  I think I mentioned this on here earlier in the year about Netflix running out of content because productions were shut down for a while and someone called me crazy, but here we are not even a year later into Covid isolation, and new shows/seasons/documentaries aren't popping up nearly as often as they were pre-pandemic. 

If we have to go another 6 months, a year, or longer, the need for additional entertainment is only going to rise, and if sports/hockey is possible to have, at least in some degree, I'll take it. 

[MadDog2020]

So anyone pick up a reverse retro jersey? They appear to be selling briskly on the Devils website (only Hughes available for now it looks like).

Edited December 1, 2020 by MadDog2020

[mfitz804]

19 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

So anyone pick up a reverse retro jersey? They appear to be selling briskly on the Devils website (only Hughes available for now it looks like).

I ordered one (Hischier) against the possibility of not being able to afford one of the game worn jerseys down the line. 

Worse comes to worse, I will re-sell it for whatever I can get and be happy I had it to wear for the season. 

You know, if there is a season and all. 

[EdgeControl]

IMO the owners need to put it in the hands of the players, take our deal or we cancel the season. You have 48 hrs to give us your answer. Then we can all go on with our NHL hockey-less lives

[sundstrom]

41 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

So anyone pick up a reverse retro jersey? They appear to be selling briskly on the Devils website (only Hughes available for now it looks like).

i was going to - had a hughes in my cart and got distracted. now they're gone.

i don't love getting from NHL shop as they just iron it on and don't sew it. I'm ok to wait a little until one of the shops in Canada can get it and do a professional sew job.

also - i am legit thinking about taking the gamble and getting Holtz 88.

[mfitz804]

21 minutes ago, sundstrom said:

i was going to - had a hughes in my cart and got distracted. now they're gone.

i don't love getting from NHL shop as they just iron it on and don't sew it. I'm ok to wait a little until one of the shops in Canada can get it and do a professional sew job.

also - i am legit thinking about taking the gamble and getting Holtz 88.

Every time I have ordered a jersey from the NHL shop, I have wound up returning it because of how craptacular the customization job is. This one will likely be no exception.