Former Habs tough guy passes away and...

The man that wrote the work description for an NHL tough guy, John Ferguson, the former Hab enforcer passed away Saturday after his battle with cancer.
Ferguson was not an enforcer like we see in today's hockey, but he could also score, play the power play, penalty kill and many other things, one thing he was respected and feared. Toronto Maple Leafs, forward and tough guy, once told me '' I ''hated'' Ferguson, he use to beat me up all the time.'' Well Eddie, maybe you deserved it.

I only got to see Fergie play in his last year, it was the miracle cup run in 1971. In the off-season, he and Serge Savard owned horses and would enter races at Blue Bonnets in Montreal in the late 60's and early seventies. Ferguson was an assistant coach with Harry Sinden in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviets.

After his playing career, Ferguson went on to become an NHL executive in New York with the Rangers, in Winnipeg, where he convinced his old buddy Savard to play a few extra years from 1981 to 83, before Savard himself become and NHL executive with the Habs. Ferguson made stops in Ottawa and San Jose, where he was a scout.

His son, Ferguson Jr, is the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and both have been seen together at times in the Air Canada Center. My deepest sympathies to the family. Fergie, you will be missed and thank you for the memories.

The cap is not working like it's suppose to

Last Friday, was the second anniversary of the new CBA, on that day two years ago, we all were jumping with joy, finally we would be getting hockey back, that lock-out was over. We thought at the time, the NHL had gotten the business under control, but as we have been seeing in the last two years, it's far from that, the same crap that cost us a year without hockey is starting over.

Why you may ask ? Well it's simple, the cap under the present structure, is not protecting the small markets as it should of. Oh yes, shoot me, but there is revenue sharing. I forgot about that. Well explain to me then, why two teams in the NHL's biggest market, New York, were among the sixteen teams in 2005-06, earning below the league average in revenues ? In that same year, league revenues were 2.265 billion, divide by 30, it comes up to 75.5m per team. The Devils and Islanders, registered 63 and 56 million. Because they play in that market, they are not eligible for revenue sharing.

This past season, the NHL reported that revenues had gone up 7%, do the math, that means the per team average went up to 80.7 m. The problem is that the cap limit is based on the league revenues, minus the benefits times 56 % and divided by 30, you have your cap limit and floor, the difference between both cannot be more than 16 million. So let's do the same exercise, but create the cap limit based on the per team average revenues. We will use the 2006-07 revenue base. So 80.7 million minus 2.5 million for the benefits, that total times 55%, comes up to 43.5 million. So last year's cap limit would not of been as large, if the same exercise had been used. So with that formula the cap limit would not of gone up as fast, but gradually. That is how a real cap system should work.