NHLPA looks scared
Stan Fischler / FOX Sports Net
Posted: 11 hours ago
The resemblance between the National Hockey League Players' Association and a flock of ostriches is becoming more and more vivid.
When an ostrich is confronted with fear, it traditionally sticks its head in the sand.
The players' union now appears to be doing likewise since its announcement that it has canceled its much-heralded all-membership meeting, scheduled for May 24-26 in Toronto.
"In early April, when we set the May 24-26 meeting dates, we thought these dates would work well to allow both North American and European based players to get together," said NHLPA president Trevor Linden of the Vancouver Canucks. "Since our late-February meeting with 156 players in Toronto, we decided there is not sufficient new information to justify another meeting at this time."
What does Linden mean when he says no "new information?"
Surely, he can't be serious.
The last spate of NHL-NHLPA meetings last week in New York were filled with data.
What Linden is really saying is that hockey peace will not be achieved this spring — and likely not in the summer either.
But it has nothing to do with new information, but rather what I've been saying all along. That is that the union boss, Bob Goodenow, is incapable of cementing a new collective bargaining agreement.
In one respect the cancellation makes sense from Goodenow's perspective.
Many reports recently indicated that the NHLPA's executive director would be facing an increasingly hostile membership at the annual players' conference that was scheduled at the end of this month.
As John Davidson pointed out on MSGNetwork.com, Goodenow "has to provide these guys with sound exit strategy. If there's no conclusion soon, I think the players will pose the questions, 'What is our exit strategy? What are we going to get out of this thing if we keep going?' "
Without a meeting Goodenow does not have to face his constituency and answer these questions.
So how does he solve the dilemma?
His rationale — as some of us predicted — is that negotiations are going nowhere.
Once again he blames the league and hopes that his unionists will buy the story.
In reality they should not.
The three days of meetings last Tuesday-Thursday in Manhattan were productive in the sense that serious number-crunching finally was taking place. More is due next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday when further meetings are scheduled.
Where the negotiations go from here is anyone's guess, but this much is certain: At some point Goodenow will have to face his 700-member constituency and reveal his exit strategy. He'll have to explain his fall-winter-spring stall.
He has produced not only a lost season and irreparable damage to the NHL but also an aggregate loss of $1.2 billion in players' salaries.
In addition, it's clear that his players will never get as good a deal as they were offered last September and again in mid-February.
Former Atlanta Thrashers, Braves and Hawks president, Stan Kasten, tells me he believes Goodenow's strategy is warped.
"The union," says Kasten, "is now swimming upstream, trying to get anything. Goodenow had thought that by delaying a deal, the owners would buckle. It's simply not rational to think that way any longer."
Then, again rationality has not been the symbolic word for this destructive labor fight in the first place.
The day of the ostrich is with us.
Known as "The Hockey Maven" in both local and national circles, Stan Fischler is one of the most outspoken authorities on the game of hockey.
Fischler can be seen offering NHL analysis on Fox Sports Net and MSG Network. He also provides studio interviews and pre- and post-game features and reports for both the Islanders and Devils on FSN.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/3619580
The owners should face reality, desolve the NHL, use what they have learned from being colossal idiots, and start over.
Trying to keep this greed dead patient alive makes no sense at all - Dr Logic.