Lose the key, Lou Lamoriello says.
“Maybe we should do like they do with juries. Lock them in a room until they reach a verdict,” the Devils’ Hall of Fame general manager told The Post yesterday, suggesting a way to end Lockout III.
Gary Bettman’s Thursday deadline for a full season is looming, yet the NHL and its Players Association had not even scheduled their next negotiating session as of last night.
Meanwhile, Lamoriello learned his highest-paid defenseman, Anton Volchenkov, will miss a month with a broken foot he suffered while playing in the Russia-based Kontinental League during the lockout.
Volchenkov’s injury could remind NHLers still considering playing in Europe during lockout negotiations that there can be consequences. Volchenkov was playing for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod when he was injured last week.
Volchenkov, 30, is not expected to be put in a hard cast, but is wearing a boot and soft cast to protect the injury. He is expected to remain in Russia for treatment, rather than return to New Jersey.
If he misses the start of the season, which Bettman says could open Nov. 2 if a deal is reached by Thursday, Volchenkov likely would face suspension by the Devils, and would not be paid his salary — $4.25 million for each of four more years — while idled by the injury.
Still, Lamoriello would not warn his locked-out Devils against playing elsewhere.
“It’s a risk you take, like in training camp or in the Olympics,” Lamoriello said.
There are hopes the sides will resume negotiations later this week in Manhattan, though no timetable was set. On Thursday, the league rejected three proposals from the union, which was responding to the NHL’s offer of what it called a 50-50 split of hockey revenue. The players last received 57 percent of hockey revenue.