Besides the canceled Opening Night for all three metropolitan-area hockey teams, today marks the one-month anniversary of the last pay proposal made by either side in the NHL lockout.
Snails move faster.
Another week without progress only reinforces the conclusion that the third owners’ lockout resembles the first two — lengthy.
Two more days of fruitless negotiations ended yesterday in Midtown, and again, there was no narrowing of the game on the main issue of whether the players should receive pay raises, or pay cuts.
The 1994-95 lockout delayed the start of that season until Jan. 21, while the 2004-05 lockout scuttled that entire season.
The league’s negotiators are demanding the players make the next proposal, since the NHL put the last one on the table a month ago today. In that one, the league asked the players to agree to slice their share of the revenue pot from 57 percent to 49 percent, dropping to 47 percent over six seasons.
The players have proposed trimming the increase in their pay pool to a set figure, from $1.87 billion to $2.1 billion in three years.