Playoffs make big spenders like the Blues look foolish

By Jeff Gordon Post-Dispatch Online Sports Columnist
updated: 05/06/2003 10:56 AM

Online Columnist Jeff Gordon
Blues fans should be cheering their guts out for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Ottawa Senators and the still-breathing Minnesota Wild.

Sure, it's tough to tear off that game-worn Greg Paslawski sweater and root for other teams in the National Hockey League playoffs. But it's great fun watching mid- and small-budget teams knock off the league's biggest spenders.

It's also good for the industry and good for the future of hockey in this market.

As we've lamented again and again, the NHL has been on a self-destructive course leading toward a shutdown in 2004-05. The owners are pressing for a new collective bargaining agreement that will protect themselves from their own mindless spending sprees.

Understandably, the players seem unwilling to help the owners curb their compulsive urges. They've cashed in on the league's runaway salary inflation and they don't want the party to end. So the big showdown looms after next season, one that could wipe out an entire season or more.

History tells us that such stoppages accomplish little. Owners that choose to squander millions always find loopholes in every collective bargaining agreement.

(In the current CBA, for instance, owners circumvent the rookie salary cap by paying ludicrous bonuses for easily-met accomplishments, like "showed up for the game" and "remembered to tie skates." And to think the owners fought long and hard to get that cap.)

The key to preventing another bleak era of retrenchment, we'd argue, is sensible budgeting. So it was encouraging to the see the value-built Mighty Ducks and Senators knock out the Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night to reach the Final Four.

It was great to see the expansion Minnesota Wild rout the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night and take their second-round series to Game 6.

Perhaps owners will ponder those results and see the light.

In recent seasons, big-spending owners proved you really COULD buy a Stanley Cup. The Detroit Red Wings, Colorado Avalanche and Stars armed themselves to the teeth with expensive veterans and outgunned the poorer teams.

Berserk spending brought each franchise championship glory and prompted teams like the Blues, Flyers, Rangers and Maple Leafs to spend furiously in the same quest. Highly competitive owners and general managers blew the game's economics so far out of whack that Blues executives could, with a straight face, claim annual losses topping $40 million.

That's insane. So perhaps the early demise of the Red Wings, Avalanche, Blues, Stars, Flyers and Maple Leafs -- and the Rangers' failure to even make the playoffs -- will provide a wake-up call to the men that make the vital decisions in this industry.

There is exactly one top-paid player left standing in the playoffs, Anaheim's Paul Kariya at $10 million. The rest of the NHL's Top 24 salaried players are watching the postseason on TV:

$11 million or more per year ... Jaromir Jagr, Capitals, and Keith Tkachuk, Blues.

$10 million or more ... Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings, and Pavel Bure, Rangers.

$9 million or more ... Joe Sakic, Avalanche; Brian Leetch, Rangers; Bobby Holik, Rangers; Chris Pronger, Blues; Peter Forsberg, Avalanche; Rob Blake, Avalanche; John LeClair, Flyers; Mats Sundin, Maple Leafs.

$8 million or more ... Bill Guerin, Stars; Doug Weight, Blues; Patrick Roy, Avalanche; Steve Yzerman, Red Wings; Mike Modano, Stars; Jeremy Roenick, Flyers, $8,000,000; Curtis Joseph, Red Wings.

$7 million or more ... Al MacInnis, Blues; Alexei Yashin, Islanders; Zigmund Palffy, Kings; Brendan Shanahan, Red Wings.

That's right, 23 of the 24 players earning more than $7 million this season are done. The highest-paid players on the perennial power still left in the playoffs, the New Jersey Devils, are Scott Stevens and Martin Brodeur at $6,891,103 each.

So perhaps this postseason can be the start of a much-needed correction for this sport. We want to see the NHL fix itself and give the loyal markets a better product at a more affordable price. We want the Blues to remain viable here.

We want to see owner Bill Laurie, who has dug DEEP into his own pocket trying to win, stick with this franchise and this sport. Perhaps the Hockey Gods are sending us all a strong message this spring on how to clean up the mess.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/...adline=Playoffs%20make%20big%20spenders%20like%20the%20Blues%20look%20foolish

First member of the "DELete(tm) und Tripcke gehört weg"-Circle
"Lernen ohne zu denken ist verlorene Arbeit. Denken ohne zu lernen ist gefährlich..."
Ich kann gar nicht soviel essen wie ich kotzen kann - gegen Tempobeschränkungen auf deutschen Autobahnen! Pro !
Im Blut hat er Stickstoff und im Gehirn einen Tank voller Benzin!
Staff-Member of EH.N