There’s a lake in Quebec called Lac Pin Rouge (Lake Red Pine).  When my grandparents lived in the Montreal suburbs they heard loads about how great this place was.  The water was clear as crystal, the sun was always shining and the pines were as majestic and red as the lake’s name would suggest.  The legend of Lac Pin Rouge was built up so mightily that when they got there, and saw it was a run-of-the-mill lake in the middle of nowhere, it was a massive disappointment.  Now, whenever there’s something that’s built up to be awesome but ends up being a real stinker, the extended Boomer family has deemed it a “Lac Pin Rouge.”

Yesterday’s NHL negotiating sessions were just that.  We all thought there was some good hope; a real deal put on the table by the League, potential for a solid counter from the players, maybe even a chance of a full 82-game slate.  Not anymore.  The sessions only lasted an hour, Bettman said, because the league and players were so far apart that it was clear there was nothing more to discuss.  Rumors have already started to circulate about the NHL cutting games through November 1st as early as today.

September 13, 2012; New York, NY, USA; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman speaks during a press conference at the Crowne Plaza Times Square. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-US PRESSWIRE

Still, there’s some hope.  Apparently, even with their shut-down attitude publicly, read the first 2 paragraphs from this article on TSN.ca.  Not bad.  The TSN Insiders usually do a bang up job of forecasting, and the optimist in me likes our chances.  As I said in an earlier post, if you cancel the All Star Game there’s still lots of room on most teams’ schedules to make it happen and not extend the Stanley Cup Finals too far into June.  The pessimist?  He thinks it’ll just be another Lac Pin Rouge.

~BB

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