Sports

Owners own lockout

So The owners and the owners’ commissioner are nearly a month into the lockout — one they designed and implemented in a naked power play to force the players to their knees. And do you know why they did it? Because they can, that’s why. Because they believe themselves to be entitled, that’s why. Because they own the keys, that’s why.

None of that changes because the players haven’t presented a new proposal to the NHL over the last month. None of that changes because some players have opted to play in Europe.

This notion that somehow there’s a shared responsibility for the dark NHL rinks across the continent is, well, to borrow a phrase, a bunch of malarkey.

One side, and one side only, has offered concessions in an attempt to settle this dispute and have a season. That’s the players’ side. It is not a concession when the owners and their commissioner agree to accept fewer concessions from the players than originally demanded in the league’s July 13 Declaration of Economic War against the NHLPA.

That does not represent a compromise on the part of the Lords of the Boards, no matter how many times the owners’ deputy commissioner Bill Daly suggests it is so. That instead represents nothing more than a ploy designed to sway opinion among the public and media too happy to embrace a concept of false equivalency and to cement support from owners around the league who are not all in on the extremist position in these talks.

Everyone gasps when Don Fehr floats the notion the players might seek to remove the hard-cap if this season is canceled. The truth is, removal of the cap is no more extreme of a position than the league has taken with its plan to radically restrict player rights regarding free agency and arbitration.

The league, through spokesperson Daly, has been beseeching the union to present another proposal to the Board. I don’t see the harm in doing so. Indeed, as I wrote two weeks ago, presentation of a revised, informed proposal only can serve to illuminate whether the Board is open to a fair deal or is intransigent in its effort to claim total victory.

I have, in the past two days, been given directly contradictory information by two always reliable informants. One suggests the union has no intention of making a proposal to the league. The other suggests the PA is working on a revised proposal it will submit within the next few days.

The breakdown in share of revenue is critical, of course. Revenue-sharing is critical, of course. Systemic rights issues are critical, of course. But nothing is more critical toward an agreement than the NHL agreeing to honor all existing contracts that account for approximately $5.2 billion going forward by capping escrow on these deals in their entirety.

That is the first step toward an agreement. That is the first step toward a 2012-13 season. And that is a step that must be taken by the owners. Let Bettman or Daly commit to that as the basis of new proposals the league is beseeching the union to put on the table.

Under no circumstances should the players be forced to take an immediate pay cut in an industry under which the expired CBA produced record revenues and windfall profits for big market economic powerhouses. Let the NHL guarantee that as a second step toward forging an agreement.

Let the Board guarantee the “soft landing” via incremental and phased-in reduction in the players’ share the league is apparently claiming it would accept, if the NHLPA would only come forward with such a proposal.

And let Bettman or Daly explain, actually explain, why the players’ approach to revenue sharing, under which six perennially financially failing franchises — the Islanders, Carolina, Phoenix, Nashville, Columbus and Florida — receive meaningful, additional and targeted aid as directed by the commissioner, is not superior to the owners’ plan.

It is understandable that hockey fans are impatient with both sides, even if it is not even the middle of October. It is not exactly clear why the NHLPA has not submitted a revised proposal over the past week or two in an effort to generate pressure on the Board’s extremists.

Regardless, this does not alter the fundamental issue here. This is a lockout of the players by the owners and for the owners. This is a money grab by some of the wealthiest people in North America.

That doesn’t change just because someone may not like Don Fehr’s strategy.

* Finally, well done on the part of the AHL Bridgeport franchise and the Westchester adult league New York Stampede and KGB clubs for honoring the memory of Dr. Ken Dressler, chief oncologist at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, and the Sound Tigers’ physician, before last night’s home opener.

A good deed in recognition or a good man and a good teammate.

larry.brooks@nypost.com