Lockout reaches Day 74

CBA roundup

• The NHL has now canceled 422 regular-season games, lost the Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, MI, and the All-Star weekend in Columbus.

• New York Rangers forward Brad Richards has remained stateside through this entire lockout, working out in New York and Tampa Bay, so he has been able to keep tabs on the talks. He told New York media on Tuesday that he's scared for the game right now and more or less laughed at the notion that the owners have given in on anything.

"That's the biggest crock I've ever heard of," Richards said of the league's concessions. "I still don't know what they think a negotiation is. None of us really do. Right now, [the league's offer] is take-it-or-leave-it and it's a deal that makes no sense for the future of the league, so we're trying to figure out a way to get some momentum and get it so it's good for both sides, not just one side."

Richards also said he wasn't optimistic one bit about mediation. (ESPN.com)

• The last time the two sides met, the NHLPA gave the NHL exactly what it had long been asking for; a full proposal. It still was dismissed by the league but, according to Larry Brooks, some of the owners are starting to get a little tired of this circus.

Believing a deal is there to be had, several team executives have told The Post of their frustration with the league's refusal to negotiate off the PA's proposal of last Wednesday and with the NHL's all-or-nothing approach to bargaining.
Team executives -- with the apparent exception of militant Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke -- have all but been eliminated from the process by the hard line Board negotiating committee. (New York Post)

• Remember that charity game the players set up in Atlantic City last weekend? Why wasn't that televised? It would have been great to watch some live hockey with NHL players and benefit a good cause. One report said the NHL told NBC to back off.

A source directly associated with NBC Sports has informed me that the NHL specifically requested to NBC that they not broadcast Operation Hat Trick. While it's not definite that NBC would have gone through with the broadcast, the NHL's intervention seems to have been enough to end all discussions of the possibility. (NYRangers Blog)

However, NBC Sports' vice president of communications denied that report to Dave Isaac, saying NBC considered it but couldn't.

"We had interest in the game, but pre-existing programming commitments made it impossible," McCloskey tells the Courier-Post. (Courier-Post)

• Fans and business parties alike are feeling more and more wronged by this lockout. Katie Carrera wonders how damaging it will truly be.

Whether involving a neutral third party will help create traction remains to be seen, but as the lockout drags on, fans' loyalty to their sport is becoming a frayed trust.
"The league has become known for lying to its fans, to its sponsors," said Ed O'Hara, senior partner of New York-based SME Branding, which helped devise the strategy for the NHL eight years ago and still counts the league among its clients. (Washington Post)

• It can be a super sad time without hockey, particularly in a good hockey city such as Chicago. That's why Megan Kluth of Chicago Side took to the streets on Black(hawk) Friday to spread some hockey cheer.


• The San Jose Sharks are beginning the ticket-refund process for fans. It's probably not going to do much to please already-angry fans, as David Pollak points out.

That first refund from the Sharks after the lockout-forced cancellation of 16 regular season and three pre-season games through Dec. 14 isn't likely to soothe many fans. That's because that first check comes to 1.8 percent of the 70 percent of the season that most season-ticket holders have paid for to this point. For example, a fan with two $80 seats in the lower bowl using the installment plan paid 70 percent, or $4,928 of the $7,040 total cost before the team stopped collecting the final payments with the lockout pending. That fan will be getting back $88.70. (San Jose Mercury News)

Hockey fix
Highlights from the CHL between the Denver Cutthroats and the Rapid City Rush. Major highlight is the shootout at the :58 mark. There is an absolutely beautiful toe drag that would make Pavel Datsyuk proud.

KHL update
Here's some action from the KHL.