Lockout - Day 25

CBA roundup
• The lockout has eaten up a total of 179 games -- 97 preseason games and most recently 82 regular-season games.
• On Tuesday, it was reported that the longer the lockout goes, the more likely the NHLPA is to go after the salary cap in negotiations, as in trying to get rid of it. If that happens, then all bets are off the table. The owners could respond by going after guaranteed contracts.

You don't think there would be just a slight uptick in that player's performance in the middle of a four- or six-year contract if there was the chance come, say, July 1, the owner signing his paycheque had the option of walking away from the deal and letting the player become an unrestricted free agent? (Toronto Sun)

• Of course, should the talk about nixing the salary cap and ending guaranteed contracts come up, we're looking at a long lockout.

Can a 24-month lockout be possible? You bet. What the game will look like and what will be left to fight over when that is said and done is unknown. But don't think it can't happen. (Winnipeg Free-Press)

• One reason why we could be looking at such a long and crushing lockout ahead of us is the two sides can't agree on how to attack the hockey-related revenue split. The owners simply want a reduction in the players' share while they have rejected the players' suggestion of more revenue sharing to help each other out.

By their own admission, the owners need each other to have a healthy league -- they are so stubborn about keeping the Phoenix Coyotes from moving, they have paid the team's bills for three years -- but they seem to have no interest in creating a system that would insure the NHL gets healthy and stays that way. (Globe & Mail)

• Are you still having a hard time believing that we're even going through this again? The answer is probably yes and no. Yes because they are just stupid to allow it to have gotten this bad, but no because this was so predictable. Just another case of the NHL testing patience of the fans, but this time they might not like the response as much. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Could the lockout actually benefit a team like the Nashville Predators? Consider this seems to be a fight for the "little guys," then maybe it will still be worth it. At some point, though, there is probably a point of diminishing returns. (The Tennessean)
• One unforeseen casualty of a longer lockout that wipes out the Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, Mich.? It could delay Washington, DC's own designs on getting the Winter Classic. Ted Starkey says the vision of announcing the 2014 U.S. Olympic team in the shadows of the Capitol is getting blurrier by the day.