From Reuters:

By Ben Klayman

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - National Hockey League players have the option to reopen the current labor deal with owners a year early, but likely will not make a final decision until the middle of next season, the players' union chief said on Friday.

Three years since NHL teams imposed a salary cap after a bitter labor dispute wiped out the entire 2004-2005 season, the National Hockey League Players Association is weighing the merits and challenges of reopening the deal at the end of next season, NHLPA Executive Director Paul Kelly told Reuters.

"We're just beginning to have that dialogue with the players," he said at the Sports Lawyers Association's annual conference in San Francisco. "I don't think anyone has a tremendous appetite for serious labor negotiations unless there's a good, solid business reason for it."
While acknowledging the union would love to kill the salary cap, he warned that reopening the deal would also give owners a crack at renegotiating parts of the contract they do not like.
"The players need to understand ... be careful what you wish for; that you could be finding yourself embroiled in a much longer and more difficult discussion," he said.

The union also has the option of extending the deal a year through the 2011-2012 season, Kelly said. The owners do not have similar options.

Kelly said the union will hold player meetings in Colorado Springs, Colorado, next month and in Rome in July to begin talks on contract issues. Those talks will continue during fall tours with each team and by the middle of next season the union will have established its views to make a final decision.

The NHL on Versus continued its record breaking romp thorough the post-season as it set an all-time record for viewership for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. The game drew 2.3 million viewers, and got a 1.8 rating. It was the most watched event in terms of viewers in Versus/OLN history and second to the final stage of the 2005 Tour de France in terms of ratings.

The 2.3 million viewers is equal to Game 5 between the Penguins and Rangers which was broadcast on NBC the previous Sunday. That was the most watched non-Stanley Cup Final playoff game in five years.

Versus was again the #1 cable network in terms of total viewers, the 18-34 and 18-49 male demographics during the telecast. It also beat the competing NBA telecast on TNT (Hornets-Spurs) in these metrics. Versus is now averaging a 1.2 for the Conference Finals, which up 50% from the 0.8 it averaged last season.

The fact that Versus continues to set record ratings may be surprising to some but seems fairly predictable when you look at the facts. You have a matchup of the 4th largest US media market with the most exciting, young team in the league, which by the way, is also located in a hockey crazy city. On top of that, unlike in many markets in the US, Versus has excellent penetration in the two cities, with Versus and parent company Comcast being based in Philadelphia. This allowed Versus to draw a 22.3 in Pittsburgh and a 9.4 in Philadelphia, and be the top show on either broadcast or cable in Pittsburgh and #2 in Philadelphia among both broadcast and cable. It is also a reason that Detroit-Dallas didn't draw the same ratings despite having a few hundred thousand more TV households in their markets.

It will be interesting to see if Versus will draw significantly higher for their Stanley Cup Finals games, since I don't believe they have the same type of penetration in Detroit or Dallas as they do in Pennsylvania. I think they will, but I will be curious as to how much.

I came across this video on Youtube of an Ottawa Senators game in the 1st round this year. This has got to be the worst pre-game introduction ever, not just in the NHL, but all of professional sports. What do you think?

The NHL on NBC finally got its ratings! Game 5 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers was the highest rated NHL broadcast excluding the Winter Classic and Stanley Cup Finals, on any network since May 10, 2003. The telecast drew 2.3 million viewers! On May 10, 2003 the Anaheim Mighty Ducks faced off against the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on ABC, and ended up drawing 2.4 million viewers.

It must've been a real disappointment to the suits at the league office that the series didn't go 7 games. Though I'm not sure that Game 7 would have been on NBC, the ratings would still have been excellent.

I'm a little surprised that a game involving Anaheim and Minnesota would out-rate a New York-Pittsburgh matchup, but it was the Conference Finals and this was only the second round. It also seems as though a lot of fans were waiting till the series progressed and there was the threat of elimination to tune in. Anyways, the news is good for the league, and with three big market hockey teams plus the most exciting marketable team in the league in the Conference Finals, the NHL should re-establish itself as a major league in terms of TV ratings (in the eyes of some mainstream US media) this year.

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The City Planning Commission in Pittsburgh approved the project development plan for the new arena slated to open in Pittsburgh in 2010. Penguins CEO Ken Sawyer was elated telling reporters that “we’re very happy,” after the commission voted unanimously to approve the plan. “There are several stages to building the arena and this, certainly, is a very important one.”

During the presentation, architect Wayne London revealed many renderings of the new arena for the first time.

The Penguins and HOK, (the company designing the arena) still have many hurdles, as they "must meet several conditions set forth by the commission and will work with the City Planning staff to accomplish those."

The project development plan, from what I know, is basically the process of figuring out how you are going to meet your goals and objectives for the project. Basically, how you're going to get the project done, on time and on budget. It's good that they have decided how they are going to approach building this arena, now they will have about 2 1/2 years to make it happen. The renderings look promising, though I don't think the Pittsburgh arena is as nice as the Newark one, which I believe, was also designed by HOK.

The renderings can be seen here: http://penguins.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=MediaGalleryPlayer&galleryId=6283