While debate rages over who should win the NHL’s annual honors, such as the Hart, Norris and Calder trophies, the 2013 Chutzpah Award has been decided by acclamation.
The winner is: the Buffalo Sabres.
No organization could even come close to competing with the one from western New York that has earned this dubious achievement for citing the league’s new collective bargaining agreement — under which the owners take home 50 perecent of revenue, as opposed to the old agreement, under which the Lords of the Boards were entitled to 43 percent of the share — as the reason the club is increasing season-ticket prices for 2013-14.
No, seriously. The scale of audacity just doesn’t register any higher than it does in Buffalo, where after just a couple of seasons in which, by the way, the Sabres have failed to qualify for the playoffs, Terry Pegula has gone from the Peoples’ Owner to, well, the Owner of the People.
The letter to the Sabres’ band of season-subscribers informing them of the price increase was over the name of John Sinclair, VP of Tickets and Services, but it is impossible to believe the owner was not either involved with or informed of the communique, as follows: “Before next season, one necessary change we’ll be making is increasing the average price of our tickets by roughly 4% across all ticket levels and seat locations,” the letter begins.
Ah. “A necessary change.”
Why?
Oh, here it comes:
“As part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement with our players, all teams must produce revenue primarily through ticket sales in order to keep the stability of the league and its franchises strong,” the communication continues.
Is Buffalo ownership contending the preceding CBA presented greater opportunities for clubs to generate revenue and this agreement that followed a three-month lockout is restrictive?
Is Pegula claiming that because more of the fans’ money goes into his pocket under this agreement as opposed to the preceding one, they should pay more?
Is Buffalo ownership suggesting this CBA places the burden on Sabres’ season ticket-holders to keep the league stable?
Do Pegula and his executive cabinet believe the club’s fans are so naïve they will buy any of this, even if they continue to buy tickets to watch a team that has failed to make the playoffs in six of the last eight seasons?
The owners keep more under this CBA. They locked out the players — and the fans — for three months in order to keep more. Now at least one owner is citing the labor agreement as the reason they need to charge more.
The envelope, please.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. The winner of the 2013 Chutzpah Award: Terry Pegula and his Buffalo Sabres.
* In Toronto, meanwhile, the Maple Leafs have raised regular-season ticket prices by up to 75 percent for the first round of the playoffs.
The Canadiens have raised prices by 55 percent. The Canucks’ cheapest ticket will be increased from $86 to $123.75.
So this is what Detroit VP Jimmy Devellano
actually meant to say way back when: “The owners can basically be viewed as the ranch, the players are the cattle … and the fans are the pigeons.”
* After bearing witness to the Staal Family Reunion in Carolina on Thursday, the Rangers should be worried — very worried — about losing Marc Staal to the Hurricanes when the defenseman become a free agent in two years.
* Ilya Bryzgalov is a buyout candidate in Philadelphia, while Sergei Bobrovsky is a Hart and Vezina candidate in Columbus after being traded to the Jackets by the Flyers, and this after more than a decade of tom-foolish decision-making in Mr. Ed Snider’s organization.
Which leads to the inescapable conclusion the owner and general manager Paul Holmgren should adopt the philosophy practiced so famously and effectively by George Costanza when he did the opposite of his instincts.
“Bryzgalov? No, I’ll have chicken salad on rye with a side of potato salad … and a cup of tea.”
* In recognition of Ryan Callahan’s goal that clinched a playoff spot for the Rangers, the Metro Area’s all-time No. 24’s, a pretty light list at that:
1. Callahan, Rangers; 2. Gord Lane, Islanders; 3. Doug Brown, Devils; 4. Jay Wells, Rangers; 5. Bryce Salvador, Devils. Honorable Mention: Mikko Makela, Islanders. Dishonorable Mention: Red Berenson, Rangers (for hitting the post).
* I believe it’s entirely credible for a player from a non-playoff team to win the Hart, though the strangest MVP choice of all time, not only in the NHL but in pro sports, has to be the 1954 selection of Chicago goaltender Al Rollins to win the Hart for a season in which the Blackhawks finished sixth and last with a 12-47-7 record for 31 points, 37 points behind the fifth-place Rangers.
What? Without Rollins, the Blackhawks — who made the playoffs the previous season — would have won just eight games?
* Finally, wonder if Tim Thomas will be expecting a playoff share from the Islanders.