Angry sponsors; Lupul on Russia; Binghamton Senators’ apocalypse refund (Puck Headlines)

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media.

• It doesn't say much for the Buffalo Sabres mansie that they couldn't get a model to actually wear it, so they had to photoshop it on the football guy. Send me one, Fan's Edge. I'll wear it. [Fan's Edge via @NHLHistoryGirl]

• The NHL has done some serious damage with its sponsors. “My clients are beyond frustration with what’s happened, “ says Brian Cooper, president and CEO of S&E Sponsorship Group which handles significant NHL sponsors. “The public has soured on them. Better to wait till the brand is forgiven. By then, it’s probably next summer at the earliest before people will consider the NHL brand again.” [The Globe & Mail]

• Joffrey Lupul's second diary entry for Ask Men is about the difficulties of playing in Russia. "After being here for a month, I can tell you Russia is not Sweden, nor Finland, nor Germany," Lupul writes. (Incredibly, the next 400 words are just a long list of other countries it isn't.) But it's not all doom and gloom. "Russian women are absolutely gorgeous. They're all tall, thin and, unfortunately, don't speak a word of English. You know that feeling you get in America when you see a beautiful woman with an unattractive man? Multiply it by 10, and that's what you see on every street corner here." [Ask Men]

• Donald Fehr wants you to know that the disclaimer vote is not a tactic. IT JUST ISN'T, OKAY. [USA Today]

• Is Fehr controlling the tempo of negotiations? From Elliotte Friedman: "The second thing the NHL missed was Fehr's history of waiting until the last second to make deals. Whatever mistakes the league made in this process, it wanted to be playing by now. We've talked about the Proskauer Rose playbook and how this is all scripted by "the law firm that's ruining sports." But I really believe this has gone further than Bettman wanted it to, which is why he looks so frustrated. Now Fehr is controlling the tempo and has convinced his constituency that the owners will make final concessions at the end. A lot of players don't like how long this is taking yet they seem to believe that." [CBC]

• After losing half the season, does the lockout endanger another three-week stoppage for Sochi? [Toronto Star]

• Logan Couture, on going to Switzerland and taking someone's job: “It’s hockey. It’s a competitive sport. Would people be saying the same thing if an 18 year old came into an NHL camp and knocked a veteran out of his job? It’s the same thing – people play to take someone’s job. You go into a training camp to take someone’s job so that you can play. I don’t really understand why people say that. When I madeSan Jose, I ultimately put someone out of a job. That’s just the way hockey is, and all pro sports are.” [Backhand Shelf]

• The real problem at the heart of the NHL lockout: owner greed, but directed at one another. "So greed is the issue, alright: owners’ greed, specifically owners in larger markets who refuse to recognize that sports leagues are in many ways socialist enterprises, in which the needs of the many fat cats should outweigh the few obese cats. At least if the obese cats want to keep purring." [Time]

• Want to go to the Binghamton Senators game on December 22nd, but concerned the world will end the day before? Don't worry! If the world ends on December 21, the Senators promised to refund your tickets for the next day. [Binghamton Senators]

• A defence of David Booth. [Pass it to Bulis]

• Steve Rushin practically eulogizes the NHL: "All hockey is now 'vintage' hockey, of course, the game having disappeared in America first from national television, then from highlight shows, then from our shrinking sports sections, and finally from arenas altogether, like the cartoon magician who packed all his wonderful props and finally himself into a single steamer trunk and shuffled off the stage." [Sports Illustrated]

• Sick of waiting around for the lockout to end? Go watch some college hockey. [Post Bulletin]

• Are you there, God? It's me, Jer. (In which Jer just wants his three periods.) [Battle of California]

• Looking at Ray Shero's moves leading up to the lockout, we can conclude that Ray Shero is pretty good at general managing. [The Hockey Writers]

• Some first-ballot Hall of Famers have played through both lockouts. How have their legacies been shaped by the lost games? [Vancouver Sun]

• Cool piece on Shane Hudella, the Operation Desert Storm veteran that runs "Defending the Blue Line", a charity that introduces hockey to the kids of military members. [U.S. Department of Defense]

• Alex Galchenyuk recently had a five-point night in the OHL. Here are all five points. I think this kid just might have a future in hockey. [United States of Hockey]

• The LA Kings are still planning an outdoor game with the Anaheim Ducks at some point in the future. [Mayors Manor]

• And finally, speaking of the Kings, here's a short video on inside "Holiday in the Hangar", an event where the Kings teamed up with Delta Airlines to bring a little holiday spirit to underprivileged kids in the area.