* The top ten money-making teams contribute to the pool. The bottom 15 money-making teams are eligible to collect from it.
* The amount of money contributed by the top ten teams is set by a formula that includes a percentage of overall league revenues and some playoff revenues. The exact number isn’t worked out until the season is over and all revenues have been counted.
* For a bottom-15 team to collect a full revenue sharing cheque, it must reach at least 80% capacity in home attendance (last year that meant averaging about 14,000 per game) and show revenue growth that exceeds the league average. Missing either threshold means a cut in the share.
* In 2010, a full share of revenue sharing was about $10 million.
* Teams in markets with more than 2.5 million television households cannot qualify for revenue sharing. By my unofficial estimate, that means the Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Flyers, Blackhawks, Ducks, Sharks, Stars, and Kings are ineligible.

What does this mean? It means every team with an operating loss EXCEPT the Coyotes, Islanders, Ducks, & Sharks had that negative operating income turn into a positive because of the current CBA. This means that really only four teams (give or take each year) lose money.

So, what is really being discussed is the 10 rich owners that pay into the pool want the players to prop up the 15 worst teams.

While growing up as a youngster in Montreal, Bobby Orr was my first ever hockey hero … and to this very day, despite being a King’s fan for some 39 years now, I still view him as the “best” that ever played the game. I can say with certainty that an NHL player with greater skill, bravery, honor, humility and class, simply doesn’t exist !

Orr is correct by taking a stance with the players, though his feelings are undoubtedly influenced by the fact that he comes from an era where “owner abuse” was downright deplorable. Of course it’s gotten so much better since his time, when contracts were written on the back on cigarette packs, etc. Nonetheless, the societal trend is now going backwards right across the board. The NHL owners’ attempts to reverse “player progress” is no different than what’s happening with our society at large. Everywhere you look, “money” is on the offensive seeking to acquire ever more, while screwing the middle and lower classes in the process, not to mention the irreparable damage being done to our environment. Egalitarianism and “decency among men” are now forgotten concepts, replaced instead by this new-age “me me me” wickedness.

I read somewhere recently that shows like the “Hunting Channel” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” draw TV audiences which literally “dwarf” those of the NHL ? So if these “pigs” pull the plug on another season due to their stupidity and greed, then suffice it to say that “that” which follows, will be completely a result of their own doing … and I will no longer be counted among their faithful.

Owners you better figure this out amongst yourselves and all get on the same page. If you don’t want to support the weak sister teams then contract them.