League Reclaims Advantage Ahead of Talks

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman speaks during the announcement that the NHL's New York Islanders will move to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn from 2015 in New York October 24.

Late last week, the NHL announced interest in taking a two week break from negotiation. However, Sunday, the two sides came to an agreement to start negotiating once more on Monday in hopes of not losing the 2012-13 season.
"We can confirm that we have tentatively agreed to get back together on Monday, either late in the afternoon or early evening," said NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said. "The meeting was requested by the Union and it's their agenda. We will see what they have to tell us."
The two sides last met on November 11 after almost five straight days of meetings. The lockout is now in its 65^th day heading into Monday's negotiations. The NHL seems to have gotten exactly what they wanted. The league has been putting forth the majority of recent propositions and the NHLPA has resorted to shooting each one down and focusing on a pointless PR campaign to win fan support. The problem with that approach is that the fans do not care which side is in the right; they just want their season back. If Daly's statements are true, then the league has taken back the advantage after offering up a two week break from discussions. A two week break would ultimately end any hopes of a December start and jeopardize the season. The players are starting to lose paychecks and some may be feeling a bit anxious about losing more money if the season is lost. This could potentially create divisions within the Player's Association down the line and damage Executive Donald Fehr's tenure quickly. If it is true that the NHLPA requested the meeting and have new offers to make, then it is possible that they may finally be willing to concede some of their points. It is hard to say if this meeting will lead to any progress, but it is always better than a two week break and the certainty of no more hockey for a few more weeks.

Does Ed Snider support Gary Bettman?

You'll find in the course of labor disputes, there's always a lot of rhetoric. Most of it is just noise. Most of it is misinformed. There's propaganda. It's just a fact of life that you live with.

>> Gary Bettman, speaking Sunday with the Winnipeg Free Press

 

 

Gary Bettman should know this better than anybody else in the sporting world. The NHL commissioner has been through three work stoppages since taking over in 1993 and he's more used to the back-and-forth of labor talks than anybody else in professional sports. Yes, even more than his adversary, Don Fehr. His experience also means that he's really good at using rhetoric and adding to the noise and spreading the misinformation and the propaganda. It's just a fact that he lives with.

 

Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote a great piece on how Philadelphia Flyers chairman Ed Snider has grown discontent with this ongoing lockout. Snider has of course been a loyal follower of Bettman for years, and it's pretty clear why. The Flyers have made a ton of money since the last lockout. Player costs have gone down dramatically, ticket prices have risen, they've hosted a Winter Classic, participated in another, have been in the Stanley Cup Finals and the NHL under Bettman's watch is married to Snider's corporate brothers at Comcast/NBC Universal for the next decade. Things have been good to Ed Snider in the last seven years and Gary Bettman is a big part of the reason why. But as the 2012 lockout continues, the Flyers are among those hurting more than most. They lose money with every single home game lost, and it's no surprise that sponsors both locally and nationally are losing interest with the game. How can they support a league that stops playing every time the CBA is up for renewal? Beyond that, the revenue split is almost certainly already nailed down at 50/50 or somewhere close to that figure. The remaining issues at stake are mostly contracting issues, all of which are targeted at limiting teams like the Flyers from doing business and finding loopholes like they have over the last seven years, no more front-loaded contracts, a tighter hold on free agency, etc. The revenue sharing debate will almost certainly hurt the Flyers as well, since the union is firm on their desire to have big-market clubs like Philly contribute more to the pot. In short, 60-plus days into this lockout, it's hurting the Flyers more than it could ever help.

 

From Seravalli's report on Saturday:

Put simply: Snider and the rest of the NHL's owners were promised a big win by Bettman, with player concessions on revenue division and contracting rights. The best they'll get now is a small win in revenue split - coupled with a demoralized fan base and all-important corporate sponsors that are ready to quit. A source familiar with Snider's thinking characterized it as: "If this is the deal we are going to get, what's the point of dragging this out?"

The Flyers essentially have nothing to gain from this lockout at this point. They want to play hockey, and they have every reason to believe we're reaching a point where the lockout is hurting more than it could possibly help. We're all pissed off and completely disinterested and turning to other entertainment. The Flyers brand is hurting. As you'd expect, Snider denounced on Seravalli's report in a released statement Saturday afternoon.

"An article appearing in today's Philadelphia Daily News is absolutely erroneous," Snider said. "I am a solid supporter of National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman and the League in this unfortunate situation. "Like all fans, players, owners and League officials, I am extremely hopeful that an agreement can be reached and we can eventually be playing hockey again soon. League rules prevent me and all owners from making any comments on the labor negotiations. I will continue to honor that and not make any further comments."

The Daily News stood by their reporting following Snider's statement, as you'd expect. Then, on Monday, Bettman's interview with the Winnipeg Free Press was published. The commissioner was asked about the DN story.

It was a fabrication. Ed Snider is the one who told me about the article when he found out about it and he was terribly upset. He's in Europe and it was his idea to put out a statement. Anyone who doubts the resolve of ownership is either uninformed or (being) intentionally misleading.

Calling a journalists work "fabricated" is quite the accusation, and again on Monday morning, Seravalli and the Daily News stood by their reporting. It's really not all that hard to cut through the bullshit here. Of course Bettman is going to lash out at a report that claims one of the most powerful owners in the league has gone rogue during his lockout. Of course that owner will stand by his league publicly, even if behind the scenes he's against this now officially ridiculous lockout. But as Bettman says, and he knows better than anyone, remember, there's a lot of rhetoric thrown around during work stoppages. Cut through it all and just look at the facts.
Is Ed Snider benefitting from lockout as it enters Day 66 and beyond? As his team has missed 13 home games? As the Flyers are rapidly being forgotten about, at least for the time being, behind other sports and other entertainment options? It's pretty clear that Ed Snider is fed up with this lockout, even if his public rhetoric says otherwise.

NHL in no hurry to resolve lockout

 

A fan holds up a 'Please end the lockout' sign while wearing a Boston Bruins jersey during the game between the Boston Celtics and the Utah Jazz on November 14, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Negotiations had already hit a wall in the ongoing hockey labor fight, and now the NHL has suggested the sides take an official two-week break before getting back to the bargaining table.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman floated the idea of a break to players' association executive director Donald Fehr. The union hasn't responded to the league yet, but the players maintained their position on Thursday night that they are ready and willing to meet at any time, and the only way to reach a deal to end the long lockout is to keep talking and negotiating.

"Gary suggested the possibility of a two-week moratorium," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday night. "I'm disappointed because we don't have a negotiating partner that has any genuine interest in reaching an agreement. Zero interest."

The suggestion of a break was first reported by The Canadian Press on Thursday night.
With no new negotiations scheduled, and communication in general shutting down, the NHL appears to be getting closer to calling off more games, putting the entire hockey season in jeopardy.

"I hope not, but I'm more discouraged now than I have been at any point in the process," Daly said. "I responded to Don saying he did not know how to proceed from here."

The players' association wants to keep the bargaining going, despite how frustrating recent sessions have been.

"Of course everyone on the players' side wants to reach an agreement," union special counsel Steve Fehr said in a statement Thursday night. "The players have offered the owners concessions worth about a billion dollars. What exactly have the owners offered the players? We believe that it is more likely that we will make progress if we meet than if we don't. So we are ready to meet. If indeed they do not want to meet, it will be at least the third time in the last three months that they have shut down the dialogue, saying they will not meet unless the players meet their preconditions. What does that tell you about their interest in resolving this?"

 

The sides put on a push to make an agreement last week when they met over six consecutive days in New York. However, Friday's session ended with a heated exchange, and talks lasted only about an hour on Sunday. The 61-day lockout has already claimed 327 regular-season games, including the New Year's Day outdoor Winter Classic, and more could be wiped out within a week. It is believed that an agreement would need to be in place by the end of next week for the season to get under way on Dec. 1. That is starting to look unlikely because of the mere fact that the sides are unable to find common ground on the big issues keeping them apart. It is more than just finances preventing a deal. The disagreements over player contract terms have emerged as just big an impasse. The NHL wants to limit contracts to five years, make rules to prohibit back-diving contracts the league feels circumvent the salary cap, keep players ineligible for unrestricted free agency until they are 28 or have eight years of professional service time, cut entry-level deals to two years, and make salary arbitration after five years. A few hours into last Friday's session, negotiations broke down over the core economic differences that separate the sides. A lockout wiped out the entire 2004-05 season.

Bettman and Fehr still at war

     

There may only be a sliver, in reality, probably even smaller, of hope of seeing some NHL action this season, but there is a silver lining. The chance of commissioner Gary Bettman or NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr ever recovering from the atrocious way in which they have dealt with this entire situation is much more minute. The more we have to deal with a lockout, the less amount of time Bettman and Fehr will be around. To be fair, dealing with a lockout isn't exactly as easy. There's a reason, after all, it's called a lockout. Two sides aren't able to reach an agreement on a stance that neither is willing to budge from in the first place. By the nature of the definition, it's not only an inevitable situation, but will undoubtedly be a difficult problem to solve.

 

Who's to blame for the extensive lockout?

Gary Bettman

37.2%

Donald Fehr

9.5%

Both of them

50.7%

Someone else

2.6%

Total votes: 1,491

Bettman and Fehr's negotiation tactics have been downright awful and aggravatingly flawed. If not, we still wouldn't be so far away from playing hockey and the "serious" negotiations would have happened a long time ago. The NBA and NFL have both gone through lockouts in the very recent past; in both instances, the sides worked tirelessly through the nights to obtain some progress at the very least. In those situations, there was always hope. In this one, the only real hope is that we won't lose two seasons. The NFL ended up reaching a deal in time for the season. The NBA lost some games but still managed to come to an agreement before the season was banished. Bettman and Fehr, meanwhile, are in danger of losing the entire season and it seems like they aren't even worried (via CBC Sports):

Now the NHL and the locked-out players' association aren't even talking by phone.
With the lockout entering its third month, communications between the fighting sides have come to a halt with no clear sign of what the next step will be or when it will be taken.
"No, we have not communicated today," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press on Wednesday in an email. "No meetings scheduled, and no plans to meet."

Moreover, with the NBA, you were either on one side of the other. Either it was commissioner David Stern's fault or it was the NBPA's fault. In this situation, however, both sides have been so painstakingly bad that the majority of fans are smart enough to realize Bettman and Fehr are both to blame. There's no question that these two men have a tough job on their hands, but other commissioners and executive directors have proven it's a doable task.
Bettman and Fehr have the power in this situation. They are the two leaders with the ability to keep this process moving in a positive direction. Instead, with every day they fail to show a willingness to find some type of resolve, they are damaging the sport of hockey further and further.

The Great One speaks about lockout

Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky waves before the start of game Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup hockey finals between the Los Angeles Kings and the New Jersey Devils at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, June 4, 2012.

Wednesday saw the 60^th day of the 2012 NHL lockout pass without any activity. Worse still is the fact that there have been no meetings scheduled for the near future either. After one week of serious bargaining and negotiating, many have found it surprising that the league and NHLPA have withdrawn from making any progress. Despite the negative energy this brings about, there are still some that are hopeful that it could be settled. One is hockey icon Wayne Gretzky.

The Great One stated during a radio appearance that, "My gut still tells me that over the next six weeks I think that they will get a deal done, and I think there's too many people that want to play, and I still see hockey being played come January for a 40- or 50-game schedule. Let's all try and stay positive."

However, Gretzky's optimism should not be taken as the final word. Back in October Gretzky stated that he believed the sides would make a deal and that the season would begin on January 1 with the Winter Classic. Unfortunately that was not the case and despite his best wishes, it is impossible to know if his current prediction of a 40 to 50 game slate is likely. NHLPA Donald Fehr recently showed some optimism and stated that he believed that when both sides were ready a deal would be struck quickly. Meanwhile, the entire NHL fanbase awaits.

Hall of Famers sound warning

 

Hockey Hall of Fame 2012 inductees (L-R) Mats Sundin, Joe Sakic, Adam Oates and Pavel Bure pose with their rings during a news conference in Toronto November 12, 2012.

On Monday night, the NHL had a major reason to celebrate despite entering the 58^th day of the lockout. On Monday, the NHL inducted four new members into its Hall of Fame including Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Pavel Bure, and Adam Oates. Despite the celebration, the conversation regarding hockey's future was brought up to those representing its past.


Hall of Famer Brett Hull sent a cautionary message to the league and the players in dealing with the current negotiations. "They need to figure out right now how to fix it, and so it doesn't happen again, because, let's face it, we're not baseball, we're not football, we're not basketball," said Hull. "We're kind of the fourth kid in the major sport market, and if you keep doing this, the fans are going to leave-and we need the fans. Hall of Famer Dino Cicarelli added that "I think people will accept it if they start playing again soon...But I think it's getting to the point, in Michigan, where the fans are getting impatient. I think if they get to Christmas, it's really going to hurt the game."

Despite the warnings from Monday night, the NHL entered its 59th day of the lockout and made no new progress. According to the Washington Post, no meetings were established for Tuesday or for the near future between the two sides. "There is nothing new, and no meetings have been planned," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press on Tuesday via email. Last week the two sides met almost everyday but little progress was made regarding any of the major issues. The NHLPA stated that the owners would make no concessions on contracts and were hurting players' abilities to negotiate their contracts. NHL Poster Boy Sidney Crosby also expressed annoyance with the lack of progress. "I don't really know what (the owners) have given up to this point," Crosby told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "They're trying to take away all the contracting rights."

New York Rangers focus

The New York Rangers have a pretty deep and talented roster, but like every team, there's some dead weight. The Rangers should have a goal of getting leaner. That means getting faster, and in many cases, younger. Getting rid of some dead weight can do just that. We'll tell you which players the Rangers should consider trading before the season starts.

Mike Rupp is just not made for the new NHL. He's slow in a game (and a system) that's getting faster by the minute. He's a decent fighter, but offers really nothing else. He chipped in four goals, but is not a consistent offensive threat. He's weak on the forecheck and will be burned by faster, younger players. He's a fourth-line player who plays less than 10 minutes a game. He takes a bunch of dumb penalties too. Yes, he's a leader, and that was shown in HBO's 24/7. That's valuable to have, but there are plenty of leaders on this team. He's not part of the top leadership group and there are plenty of guys like him who contribute more. I think the Rangers would be wise to, instead of Rupp, play Kyle Jean, who is now in Connecticut. In 11 games, Jean has four goals and six assists. He's big at 6'4" and—here's the kicker—is only 23. Rupp, on the other hand, is 32 and has knee issues. To me, this is an issue of age and speed. Rupp is getting up there in age. Jean is young and showing promise in the AHL. Remember, AHL competition is a bit better this year, with the influx of young NHLers staying sharp during the lockout. The Oklahoma City Barons, the minor league affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers, for example, have Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on their roster.  And Jean is flourishing, in his first pro season, no less. He's younger, cheaper, faster and has much more offensive upside. This is a no-brainer. Yes, Rupp will only fetch a seventh-round pick, but remember, Henrik Lundqvist was chosen in that round. All draft picks are valuable. The more you get, the more chances you have to get it right.

The Rangers made it pretty clear how they feel about Bickel when, in the triple-overtime thriller against the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, he played only three minutes. You would think that if a game goes into overtime, you would want all your defenseman. Once you get into double and triple overtime, it's all hands on deck. Not for Bickel. They have such little faith in him that they would rather exhaust their stars then risk playing him. That's an indictment if there ever was one. Coaches make clear how they feel about players by how they play him. For example, John Tortorella rides Ryan Callahan in all situations. That's a good sign that he trusts Callahan and wants him on the ice in key moments. Tortorella didn't play Bickel when they could've used him. So why keep him? Why not try to get something in return? A low draft pick is probably in order. Steve Eminger, in my opinion, is the better option at defenseman. I actually think there's a better option in Connecticut and his name is Matt Gilroy. Yes, Gilroy struggled with the Rangers and has not lived up to his promise, but he has a lot of offensive upside and could be a factor on the power play. He put up 20 points last season with Tampa Bay and Ottawa. Getting a low pick for someone you're not going to play is just good business. Yes, Bickel is physical and is willing to drop the gloves, but that's really all he's good at. I'd rather give that roster spot to someone who can play in all situations. Eminger and Gilroy fit that bill.

Yes, the Rangers just signed Arron Asham to a two-year deal worth $2 million. It would seem odd to get rid of him before he plays a game in Blue. But I never agreed with the Asham signing, and I know many Ranger fans feel the same way. Despite putting up decent numbers in Pittsburgh (five goals and 11 assists) as well as playing the "pest" role, he's 34 years old and will be 35 by season's end.  That's not the direction the Rangers need to go in. They need to go younger and faster, not older and slower. The lockout gives them a chance to re-think things. Instead of having Asham until he's 37, why not bring up Brandon Segal, who is 29 and bigger? Segal is more physical and a better fighter. Will he score as much? No, but it's not like Asham scores 40 goals. The Rangers can make up that five goals, especially when they have stars like Rich Nash. And, for what it's worth, Segal has seven points in 11 games so far in the minors. It's not sexy, but this is all about the Rangers getting younger and faster and leaner. In my mind, Asham is dead weight. Bringing up Segal (or someone of his ilk) would be a step in the right direction.