NHL lockout: Hockey fix for Day 104

This is Day 104 of the NHL lockout, 2012 edition. Every day, we'll serve up some CBA talk and help you get your hockey fix.

By Adam Gretz

Dec 28, 2012 at 8:00 am ET • 2 min read

This is Day 104 of the NHL lockout, 2012 edition. Every day, we'll serve up some CBA talk and help you get your hockey fix. Let's begin, shall we?

CBA roundup

• This is so stupid. We are now 104 days into the NHL lockout, and 626 regular-season games have been missed. There's also the Winter Classic, which was scheduled for next week in Ann Arbor, Mich., as well as the NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus.

• Even though the NHL is looking at a potential 48-game season as a best-case scenario at this point, it would still stand to make a lot of money.

How much? Potentially 70-75 percent of the $3.3 billion that it made last season. Or, in other words, about $2.5 billion. How would the league not see its revenue take a significant drop despite losing half of its season? Because, as James Mirtle writes in the Globe and Mail, the playoffs would remain the same length (four best-of-seven rounds) and that is where the league makes the bulk of its cash.

"Unless you’ve had a fan revolt, unless you’ve had a large percentage of season-ticket holders cancel their tickets, you’ve got a base to get revenue from," Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, told Mirtle. "Sponsors are typically on long-term deals and still with you. Television and media-rights holders are all waiting for that content to come back. It’s a formula that gives them some level of certainty ... and a huge drop would be shocking."

No wonder they don't seem to be in any rush to get back to the bargaining table and get this idiocy settled once and for all. [Globe and Mail]

• Speaking to Chuck Gormley of CSN Washington, Capitals forward Jason Chimera gives us quite the visual for the NHL lockout: "It just seems like we’re chasing a chicken around, around and around and we can’t catch him. I don’t know if they’re trying to crush the union or what. We gave a lot."

Chasing a chicken, indeed. Only in this case, I think the chicken already had its head chopped off. [CSN Washington]

• Philadelphia Flyers forward Danny Briere signed a contract extension with Berlin for the remainder of the season. I wouldn't read too much into that. It's likely just a Plan B for him in the event the lockout doesn't end. If it does, he'll surely be back in Philadelphia scoring goals and watching as other teams score against him. [CSN Philadelphia]

• In other lockout contract news, Los Angeles Kings forward Trevor Lewis has signed with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL. [Utah Grizzlies]

Hockey fix

For Day 104, we're going back to No. 4, Bobby Orr, and his legendary Stanley Cup clinching goal against the St. Louis Blues in 1970. Also, because of this awesome pinball machine featuring him (though, it's as a Blackhawk and not a Bruin) that we posted on Thursday.