Your Graphical Guide to the NHL Barnyard
Graphic Comments
September 25 2012 08:48PM
If you're anyting like Detroit Red Wings' Senior VP of Barnyard Operations, Jim Devellano, it's sometimes hard to tell elite hockey players apart from the rest of the herd. But never fear, the handy chart above should help you out if you ever get into a pinch.
Now, far be it from me to judge a Lester Patrick Trophy winner like Jimmy Devellano, but the cattle comment was a bit over the top. If there's anything I've learned over the years, it's that you don't poke the bear. You lure it with some bait, and then shoot it while it's not looking.
Wait. No. Not only is that the wrong analogy, it's the wrong animal.
We're talking barnyard animals today, especially those that make up the NHL's pecking order...
The NHL Lockout: It's all about interest
Graphic Comments
September 19 2012 09:29AM
The 3.3 billion dollar question is: will the interest that NHL teams are paying their season ticket holders to keep their money on account, be sufficient to offset the inevitable drop in fan interest in the NHL as a product the longer the lockout continues? I'm pretty sure the answer is no. Except maybe in Minnesota, where the Wild are offering an astonishing 10% APR for fans that leave their money with the team.
Hmmm, that gives me an idea...
Winners and Losers under the current CBA (Part 1)
Graphic Comments
September 12 2012 03:07PM
(This was originally published at NHLNumbers, but I felt it warranted wider distribution. The rest of the series will be published at NHLNumbers.)
So, just why are we on the brink of yet another NHL lockout? This graph provides a pretty good explanation.
But not many are really digging into the financial ins and outs of the NHL's internal economy. Instead, there's plenty of finger pointing going on between the two sides, by the media, and among the fans. Especially the rabble on Twitter, whose "uninformed ramblings" are inconsequential to the outcome, according to NHL deputy commissioner, Bill Daly. And in truth, he's quite right. He just doesn't have to be so rude about it.
But that's for another post on another day with altogether more amateurly hand-drawn charts. Today we're sticking with good old Excel as we go inside the NHL's finances; or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof, as compiled by our good friends at Forbes in their annual list of NHL team valuations. What do the financial performance metrics tell us about what differentiates the winners from the losers in today's NHL?
NHL Fans: Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away
Graphic Comments
September 04 2012 05:41PM
You're an NHL fan. You spend your hard-earned money every year going to games. You buy merchandise. You subscribe to Centre Ice. You've been through one, maybe two lockouts, and even a strike if you're really old. And now they're threatening to make you go through yet another lockout.
This makes you mad.
So mad, in fact, that you're willing to take action and show the world just how angry you are. And maybe, just maybe, your action combined with the actions of thousands of other outraged fans might even have an impact and a lockout will be avoided or at least shortened.
Well, you have every right to be outraged. But make no mistake, the angrier you get and the more you show it, the more you ensure the lockout goes on.
Don't get your hopes up
Graphic Comments
August 28 2012 06:28PM
Today's CBA meetings in New York produced some short-lived optimism after it was reported that the NHL owners had presented a counter proposal to the NHL Players' Association.
Turns out it was just a misunderstanding. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman brought the wrong file to the meetings and accidentally presented Donald Fehr with the quotes for his kitchen reno. Or maybe it wasn't an accident, and Bettman just wanted to rub it in that he pulled in $8 million last year and is spending it on gold plated cabinet pulls...
Either way, it didn't make for very productive meetings.
