Sports

No meetings set as NHL lockout begins

The needless necessity, Lockout III, turned the NHL into a pumpkin at midnight, without even 11th-hour negotiations.

The Players Association charged the league was unwilling to meet in a formal negotiating session Saturday, while the NHL said that without movement from the players, or a response to the league’s last proposal, any such meeting would be useless.

“We suggested that the parties meet in advance of the owners’ self-imposed deadline of midnight. Don Fehr, myself and several players on the Negotiating Committee were in [New York] City and prepared to meet. The NHL said it saw no purpose in having a formal meeting. There have been and will continue to be private, informal discussions between representatives of both sides,” said union counsel Steve Fehr, Don’s brother.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly expressed regret for the owners’ lockout of the players, and promised to remain in contact with the union and schedule meetings when appropriate.

The sad truth is such a crude mechanism as a work stoppage is often required to break down coyness on both sides when neither is willing to be the first to confess what it actually can accept.

Both the NHL and its Players Association have pointed out 50-50 has no more real significance than 57-43, the expired revenue shares of players to owners, and the initial reversed ratio proposed by the owners.

Yet it will be an upset if the ultimate agreement — next week, at Thanksgiving or at Christmas — is not something very close to Even-Steven, the very definition of partnership, the long-held standard of “fair” in divvying up almost anything.

Both sides are well aware of the history of unilateral concessions in these negotiations past. Former union head Bob Goodenow offered a 24-percent pay cut if the league would forget about a salary cap in 2005. This time, the league has gone to 49 percent, from 57 percent, dropping to 47 percent. The league says that offer vanished at midnight. Just like that 24-percent cut, it will not go away.

Once it was offered, even with a caveat that it would come off the table, it was there to stay, so the now-expired CBA contained both a salary cap and the 24-percent cut it was supposed to prevent.

Each time players went off on tangents with issues, worthy though they might be. They provided the owners with something to give in order to get what they wanted all along anyway. Such was the case with the rules advisors in 2005. It’s unlikely they will see the league raising questions on trading cards or video games or what they should receive for making team items official by putting the NHL shield on them. Not until they settled their numbers. So it will be a waiting game, and fans like those in Rangers and Devils jerseys who protested outside NHL headquarters yesterday will again feel taken for granted, with cause.

The deputies did much of the last-minute talking. But by late afternoon, Daly had conceded there was no point in convening a full negotiation, since neither side was willing to budge. The owners are offering that 49–to-47-percent slide for players’ share over six years, the players a deal that would fix their raises based on their $1.87 billion pot last season.

The union’s bid to have the lockout prohibited in Quebec was stymied when an immediate ruling on the case was denied, though arguments will be heard in the coming days and the ruling still could be in favor of the players. Their case to bar a lockout in Alberta was also awaiting decision.

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The Devils assigned Calder Trophy finalist C Adam Henrique, D Adam Larsson, C Jacob Josefson and RW Mattias Tedenby to their AHL farm team in Albany.