When it gets to this point, it really doesn’t matter. Just close your eyes and hope it’ll be over soon enough.

He fails to note that despite the 50/50 split in the NBA, the players contracts were literally protected (and not by taking money from their future 50% share to pay for it).

I do like the idea of a CBA continuing until a new one is negotiated, but you’d have to get the owners to cave on that one. It’s clear they want to have the bargaining power of a lockout, otherwise they would have taken the option for the one extra year of the last CBA, or at least allowed the season to proceed as normal while a new agreement was negotiated.

I do agree with you on one thing though, when the NHL takes 15 minutes to review 3 proposals because they wanted only tweaks to their best possible offer, that certainly isn’t a negotiation.

NHLPA was 50/50 in 3-5 years… which has been the PRECISE issue… so why even respond? Their bytes were misleading and give’s Fehr less and less credibility in my book, and many others.

NHL was honest and forthright… not so with NHLPA and Fehr. They’re continuing a shell game… but everyone knows where their pea is.

That’s why I said… it’s ‘no longer’negotiation’. Fehr is basically just wrapping up the same ‘offer’ in different paper. He’s wasting everyone’s time and getting no-where.

50/50 is a great sound bite: “We wanted to show we are serious so we offered 50/50.” The NHL happily left out the other less positive details of their proposal, including protecting the players’ contracts for the next two years by paying them out of their future HRR share. The NHLPA had a 50/50 sound bite too, so why did the NHL reject their proposals so soundly and in such a short time frame?

C’MON MAN, we all know you’re smarter than that.

Paying out current contracts ISN”T 50/50 and continues to contribute to the issue.

I have zero empathy left for the NHLPA

The last NHL offer was a reasonable compromise and many players said so.

It’s no longer a negotiation and it’s become a ‘last stand’.

players with contracts over something like 5 mil per year ( negotiable- just threw out a random number) get 75% of that money now, the rest goes into an escrow account that is paid out to the player when they retire from NHL hockey.all the money goes into a common account controlled jointly by the NHL and NHLPA. for most of those big $$$ players that will be at least 5 years from now, some as much as 15 years from now. the money sits in bank accounts and grows interest, requiring the owners to put in less money than paying outright. the player in the end gets 100% of what he’s owed, and he gets a nice fat check at the end of his career- a retirement bonus if you will.

the owners get the immediate 25% payroll reduction on the big contracts, but the player still gets every penny of what he was promised.

also i would like to see a provision in the new CBA that if no new agreement is reached before the end of the CBA between the league and players that both will continue to operate under the previous CBA indefinately until a new agreement is reached, lockouts are permanently banned.

I love hockey.

I hate people.

And honestly both sides still could win, the only league where the players have been completely shafted was in the nfl, but the nfl actually knows how to run a business unlike the the nhl

Who does Fehr think he is by striking this “dramatic yet menacing” pose in the shadows ? … Barnabus Collins or something ? Anyway, there can only be one of three possible explanations for Bettman to have rejected his latest offer in less than 600 seconds:

a) Fehr is a complete nincompoop who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing ?

b) Bettman is a complete nincompoop who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing ?

c) the entire affair is a “staged” production and the actors are merely keeping to the script ?

As you know, I maintain that option “c” is the most likely explanation here. For those of you who were paying attention, you’ll recall that as far back as last January they began “hinting” about the possibility of a lockout come September (ie: this is referred to as laying a foundation). Then as the summer approached, the “hinting” continued to increase with ever greater intensity, so that by the time summer was actually here, the “hinting” had become a “full on” clamor. Needless to say, hockey fans everywhere by Sept 15th had been fully “brainwashed” to the notion that a labor impasse was real, with the resultant lockout being an unfortunate yet “unavoidable” consequence.

People like Bettman and the owners are very smart and very shrewd people … that’s why they’re in the positions they are today. So you have to ask yourself … if we as common fans are able to see the “insanity” of sending this entire season over the cliff, then don’t you think that they would see that too ? And no, we’re not talking about the fat cats sitting on the actual thrones (ie: Comcast, Anschutz, Molsons). We’re talking about the lieutenants or “2nd in commands” if you will, the people who will lose their very own careers should this thing blow up. Well I say that just simply isn’t going to happen ! I believe that these people have a plan in place, with a pre-determined start date for the season, based on an already “agreed upon” CBA. As far as I’m concerned, this entire charade is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors” designed to conceal a hidden agenda, which is being driven by a successful “fear-mongering” campaign. Don’t you guys remember back to the days of Bush’s “colored” Terror-Threat Level warnings on TV every night ? Anyway, something needs to happen now over the coming 2-3 weeks, if my theory is correct about a US Thanksgiving holiday weekend start to the season.

ps: I will admit that obviously I could be completely wrong on this too ? After all, I don’t profess to be anything but a humble hockey fan myself. And if that’s the case, then like many of you, I do fear that we really are screwed here ? But that’s “not” what I’m thinking friends ! … no way ! … at least not for another 2-3 weeks !

Again, its just not that easy of a problem.

This was a rant dude, I’ve never claimed to know what the hell they should do. I want hockey and could really care less which side loses it’s ass to make a deal happen if gives the fans their game back and puts back to work all the “lessor” folks that count on these venues to support their familes.

This is the same thing that happens with everywhere big corporations with unions. Every time the deal expires the workers want more and their employers want to give them less. It’s called negotiating, there is framework and common ground for both sides to work with. Should the players still get 57% probably not and should the owners not agree to pay the contracts the players that they already agreed to? Absolutely not they authorized and signed off on them deals. I don’t go to the store buy something only to take back months later and say I want part of my money back.

I am not trying to offend any of the die hards, just trying to give this a fresh opinion without so many feelings and emotions tied into it. I honestly feel that a deal will be reached sometime in the near future and that both sides will be somewhat satisfied.