EDMONTON -- Edmonton Oilers first-round pick Nail Yakupov welcomed the chance to get back to competitive hockey at the recent Canada-Russia Hockey Challenge. He hopes he wont have to wait too long to do it again. Yakupov arrived in Edmonton to prepare for training camp ahead of a season in jeopardy of a possible lockout as NHL labour talks continue in Toronto. Yakupov, who has signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Oilers, admits hes given some thought to what he might do if the season is delayed by a lockout. But he doesnt want to talk about his Plan B. "I think every player has a Plan B," he told reporters. "I just want to play. I dont want a lockout. "For now, Im just thinking about the Edmonton Oilers and the NHL and thats it." Yakupov relished the opportunity to play for his country in the Canada-Russia Challenge, which was a four-game series between junior players from the two hockey powerhouses. The series had another level of emotion. The first two games were played in Yaroslavl, Russia, as a tribute to Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. The club was involved in a horrific plane crash last September that killed 44 players and coaches. "The first game in the (series) we played against Canada and it was something crazy," said Yakupov, who scored in the series opener that Canada won 3-2. "It was fun -- we played for the fans." The 19-year-old forward said hes focusing on working out with his new teammates and hasnt given much thought to how hell fit in a squad that already boasts young talents such as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall. "Well see what the lines are going to be and what the coach says," he said. "I just want to play and play well and help the team win and have fun." Yakupov is also busy settling into his new home and waiting for the rest of his family to join him. "Mom, dad, sister, dog. And me," he said. beats by dre . JOHNS, N. beats by dre uk . The Maryland Racing Commission voted 7-0 on Tuesday in a special hearing at Laurel Park to change the official time of the race from 1:54 2/5 to 1:53. That gives Secretariat records in each of his three Triple Crown races -- the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes -- that still stand. [url=http://cambridgediversity.org/beats-by-dre-uk.html]http://cambridgediversit... . The move to retain Gordon on Saturday was expected, as Hornets general manager Dell Demps and coach Monty Williams had indicated they hoped the 23-year-old former Indiana standout could be the centre piece of a rebuilding effort that will also include first overall draft choice Anthony Davis and No.Its widely recognized that the circumstances and issues surrounding the current NHL lockout are much different than those that caused the National Hockey Leagues shutdown in 2004. Back then, it was all about owners trying to institute a salary cap and this time, its all about how the owners and players should split up the leagues swelling revenues. Back then it was ideological. This time its about fairness - a word both sides use liberally. Yet the most important dynamic in the economics of hockey remains the very same as it was eight years ago: the enormous disparity between the NHLs wealthiest teams and its not-so-wealthy. And it is that dynamic which is again responsible for the NHL going dark. First, heres a short review of recent history. Eight years ago, a collection of teams in big American markets - and Toronto - were driving up the NHLs salary scale and creating a ripple effect across the league that made it difficult for smaller market teams to remain economically viable. The NHL was so bent on curbing runaway salaries that it sacrificed an entire season to get a salary cap, one that – at the leagues demand – was tied to overall league revenues. In other words, the league guaranteed itself that salaries could only increase in relation to overall league revenues - which certainly sounded like a fool-proof idea at the time. The cap leveled the playing field across the National Hockey League and allowed teams such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers to pocket millions of dollars by slashing their payrolls to get under the cap - which began at $39 million in 2005-06. Suddenly swimming in money they used to spend on player salaries, the big market teams agreed to direct a portion of their substantial savings towards revenue sharing that subsidized their competitors in weaker markets. So with all those good ideas put into action, how did we get back to the very same spot eight years later? You can start with the impact of a strong Canadian dollar. When the last lockout began in 2004, the Canadian dollar was worth about 77 cents U.S. and had hovered in the low 60s just a year earlier. By 2007, however, a little more than two years into the new collective agreement, the Loonie had soared past parity, where it remains to tthis very day.dddddddddddd The impact of six strong Canadian franchises all taking in dollars for par has had a dramatic impact on league revenues in the post-lockout era. Replacing the low-revenue Atlanta Thrashers last season with the re-born Winnipeg Jets only added to this dynamic. Over the same period, the NHL has improved its lot in many of its key American markets such as Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington with revenue growth in those cities outpacing that in the NHLs weaker American markets. All of these factors boosted overall league revenues. And as revenues have climbed, so has the salary cap, which was set at $70.2 million for the 2012-13 season with a floor - or minimum - of $54.2 million. So where does that leave the dozen or so U.S. teams where growth hasnt kept up with that in Canada or the stronger U.S. markets? Well, thats where the NHLs need to fix the current system comes in. The NHL says many of its teams are losing money, which can only mean those teams dont take in enough to pay their players and that there isnt enough revenue sharing in the system to make up for the shortfalls. So, just as the lockout the last time around was about the NHL trying to cut costs for the wealthiest teams so they would subsidize the leagues weaker sisters, it is about that very same thing again. And just as it did in 2004, the NHL is asking its players to reduce their share of league revenues in order to accomplish that. And this is where the players are digging in. The NHL and its wealthier franchises certainly have a responsibility to support those teams in weaker markets, especially since those teams were born of the leagues own vision for expanding the game. The players, meanwhile, have also benefited from that vision by virtue of there being so many more teams and thus jobs to employ them. There are two groups of people that have done very well in the NHLs current economic system over the past seven seasons. Theres the players, whose average salary is now at $2.4 million. And theres the upper tier of NHL owners whove pocketed tens of millions of dollars that otherwise would have gone to players. The key to ending this lockout is determining how much each of those two groups is willing to contribute to the cause of teams that cant make it on their own. ' ' '