Off Wing Opinion

From the Canadian Press:

The No. 1 issue that has plagued the NHL lockout went out the window Monday night when the NHL Players' Association offered a deal that included a $52-million US salary cap.

But the deal was rejected by the NHL.

The surprising move was made by NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin during his secret meeting with NHL executive vice-president Bill Daly in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

According to an NHLPA statement, Daly began the process Monday by offering a $40-million salary cap without ''linkage'' - a fixed link between player costs and league revenues, which has long been the centrepiece of the NHL's bid for cost certainty.

Here's a statement from the NHLPA that was released just before 3:00 a.m. U.S. EST this morning from NHLPA Senior Director, Ted Saskin:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 15th, 2005 at 6:26 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The NHL and NHLPA were in Washington, D.C. on Sunday in a last ditch attempt to save the season (and to think they didn't call me). It appears it didn't go very well:

This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2005 at 12:02 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Bird is calling for Gary Bettman's scalp. So does the Rodent. Bob McKenzie thinks both Bettman and Bob Goodenow are headed out the door. And for a closer look at the NHLPA's evening conference call last night, click here for my liveblogging from last night.

Don't know where Jes got this, but it's priceless.

Mark Messier, resisting retirement with everything he's got, was seen with chatting with Paris Hilton at the Knicks game last night. Back in 2002, I was pleased to see Messier returning for another season, saying he should stay on the ice until the Rangers "pry the skates off his cold, dead feet."

I can't blame Messier for wanting to keep playing. But Rangers fans ought to hold the team accountable for player performance, and expect that the team would act in its own best interest.

In a perfect world, the decision to end a player's career, especially one as great as Messier's, would be mutual and amicable. But this is not a perfect world.

Thanks to Steve Ovadia for the Hilton heads up.

Strange doings in Sweden, where three locked out NHLers were questioned for several hours about an alleged rape. At first, it appeared the players were out of the woods, but Jocke, Swedish correspondent for Vodkafish, has more details.

And in an ironic twist, once of the accused is Andreas Lilja. Really this time, no kidding.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 11th, 2005 at 12:29 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Here's the latest from NHL VP Bob Daly regarding today's negotiating session with the NHLPA:

"After rejecting our Compromise Proposal yesterday afternoon -- a proposal that envisioned opening the season utilizing the NHLPA's own proposed economic framework -- the Union asked that we remain in Toronto for further discussions. This morning, we convened at 11:00 a.m., joined by our respective outside counsel Bob Batterman and John McCambridge.

We met with the Union for a total of four hours, two-and-a-half of which was spent in caucus. The Union brought nothing new to the table, and they simply covered ground we had covered numerous times before. No new meetings are scheduled and, as far as we are concerned, none are expected. If there are no further developments, the League will make a formal announcement on the status of the season in the near future."

Later, in comments to reporters, Daly said:

"I don't know if I'd say I'm surprised, I'll go back to say that I'm disappointed," he said. "At the end of the day, I know we did everything we could do to forge an agreement.

"It was a pointless meeting today."

Kind of like the last eight months, don't you think?

I've been alerted to an NHLPA conference call at 5:45 p.m. U.S. EST, and I'll be listening in and live blogging. Stop back then.

UPDATE: And we're off, at 5:54 p.m. U.S. EST.

Ted Saskin is on the speakerphone.

No progress to report, no more meetings scheduled.

Reproposal of the triple-cap, covered up by the "triggers," which Saskin refers to as a "PR stunt." Says two of the triggers would more than likely go into effect immediately.

Provided information on an NHL revenue sharing plan -- clear from that discussion, that the league does not want a partnership. Revenue sharing is nominal, and it would reduce in a short amount of time. 10 or 11 teams would still lose money under a hard cap.

Clear after a few hours no progress was being made, and meetings adjourned. Gary Bettman informed the union he would be flying back to New York. Q&A session starts now.

Q&A BLOGGING: Please note, I'm paraphrasing here.

EJ Hradek of ESPN: How hard it is to go into partnership with the owners when the owners refuse to share revenue with one another:

All of the rhetoric of partnership needs to be taken in context -- league has never really proposed any meaningful partnership with the players. Odd that the way to start a partnership is with a lockout.

On further negotiations:

Unlikely.

Terry Frei of Denver Post: Any possibility of NHLPA picking up the phone and asking for another meeting.

Saskin: No. We've yet to find a negotiating partner . . . We fail to see at this late date that that's going to change.

Alan Hahn, Newsday:

Saskin: Teams need to take responsibility for their budgets.

Darren Rovell: What extent are you worried about the finances of the teams?

Saskin: Need to worry about the players, and they're taking an enormous hit . . . Tried to be very pro-active to avoid the situation we're now faced with . . . We think the league had a chance to be successful under the NHLPA's December 9th proposal . . . There will be consequences for everyone involved in the industry.

More to come . . .

Q&A CONTINUES Up next, Tony Gallagher, Vancouver Province: Is there enough pressure on the owners to negotiate through the Summer.

We can't forecast on how they'll approach it . . . Single-minded approach . . . No comment on possible legal action

Mark Everson, New York Post: What of Bettman's contention that negotiations will only get rougher one this season is cancelled.

Saskin: Completely unacceptable position, we fail to see how it can get much worse.

Stan Fischler, MSG Network: Why is a cap so bad?

Saskin: Cap not the only way to reduce player costs, NHLPA has suggested several . . . Incumbent on both parties to be flexible.

Scott Burnside, ESPN: Why didn't you attack the triggers yesterday.

Saskin: Bettman said he had no room to manuver, and that he hadn't gotten approval from the owners for what he even proposed . . . Triggers would immediately go into effect . . . That's no basis for an agreement . . . Simply repackaged what had been presented twice . . . NHL offered no leeway on renegotiating those points.

Followup -- willing to go to binding arbitration?

Saskin: Haven't given a lot of consideration . . . And the NHL has said they aren't interested . . . The NHL is only interested in a lockout and getting the players to accept something they would never negotiate . . . Not something that makes any sense.

More soon . . .

Alan Gretta from Bloomberg: Union's next step if season is cancelled.

Saskin: Brief pause, make contact with members, and a number of our members will be making plans for playing in Europe next year.

Question from Columbus Dispatch: Any doubt that forcing a labor impasse was a strategy from the beginning for the NHL?

Only interested in one solution, and they haven't changed. We were prepared to make a vareity of changes, including a system of revenue sharing . . . They've yet to make any moves, or compromise.

Terry Frei: Even Bettman gave compliment to players for principled stand. Can the union ever make up for this principled stand?

Saskin: Membership instructed us to negotiate a fair deal for both sides. Significant economic loss for everyone involved in the sport, but that's the result of the NHL's negotiating position all along . . . They've always controlled the timetable.

Rick Szadowski, Rocky Mountain News: Is the 24% salary rollback off the table?

Saskin: Anything is possible . . . May well happen at some point in time . . . Part of Decemeber 9th package that NHL wasn't interested in.

Helene Elliot, LA Times: Bob Goodenow has rep of waiting till the last second, is there another offer coming?

Saskin: No, nothing is coming . . . We made an extraordinary effort . . . Bettman came with a deadline yesterday, not the NHLPA.

Andy Bernstein, Sports Business Journal: Could the triggers been acceptable if they were different?

Saskin: Notion of flip-flopping from one system to another is gimmicky . . . We need to sit down and come up with a system that will endure for a number of years . . . It would create some uncertainty . . . Maybe if wasn't really a gimmick, but more of a trick . . . People lose perspective on what middle ground is . . . The NHLPA has been the party to offer most of the proposals to create a middle ground.

Mark Brender, The Hockey News: Is it a fair statement that the parties understand each other very well . . . And that leverage will rule the process from here on in?

Saskin: Not the way we've been approaching this . . . Been approaching it proactively . . . Looking to find leverage points and find them . . . We understand each other . . . We've certainly spent enough time with one another.

Another Columbus Dispatch Question: Was the last offer a slap in the face . . . Did they misjudge the players?

Saskin: The NHL is only interested in one way of doing it . . . If they thought this method of negotiating would work, they were wrong.

Followup: When do you suspect there will be NHL hockey again?

Saskin: I can't say.

CALL ENDS.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 10th, 2005 at 5:04 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The latest in rolling deadlines says that next Tuesday is the drop dead date for cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season, though at this point it's sort of the moral equivalent of a Dutch mercy killing.

Chuqui has a message for the members of the Detroit Red Wings who are now playing in the UHL with the Motor City Mechanics:

They could love the game, make a lot more money loving it, and not take away even more jobs from lower-echelon players, by simply settling with the NHL. They're already proving this isn't about a salary cap, or they wouldn't be playing under one during the lockout.

Tom Benjamin addresses why a cap won't help the quality of play or entertainment in the NHL. Steve Ovadia is in much the same place.

How does a hockey blog survive during the lockout? Here at Off Wing, we've always supplemented our hockey coverage with plenty of other sports. But at Sharkspage, PJ Swenson is drilling down deeper, providing coverage of the local hockey scene in the Bay Area. It's a strategy that others ought to think about emulating. If and when the NHL does return, the league ought to think long and hard about including hockey bloggers like him in any strategy to bring fans back to the rink.

Jes Golbez is dissecting Ken Dryden's comments on "habitual hockey syndrome."

And finally, Brett Hull says we shouldn't bother at all with a season anyway:

"It would be ridiculous," Hull told TSN on Tuesday. "Both sides have come this far and battled so hard on what they believe needs to be done. The game has suffered so let's just call it a wash and start next year.

"We should just cancel (the season) now, get this thing done and let the teams prepare their staff, their season ticket and PR people and be ready."

If they did, maybe this guy might get his money back.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 9th, 2005 at 12:06 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It was another quiet day for NHL labor negotiations -- though it looks like the players feel like the season is finished.

Here's some wisdom from Toronto MP and former Canadiens great, Ken Dryden:

"I think that there are a number of fans in this country who have sensed over the last number of months that actually maybe it was more habit than it was passion.

"I think for the great majority it's still a passion, but others have discovered that maybe it was something else.

"And so, as much as this can be problematic in the U.S. and that's where it's usually talked about, I think it's also a problem in this country.''

For an example of what Dryden is talking about, click here.

And here's some bitter truth from Steve Ovadia:

If the Stanley Cup was the type of event that drew non-hockey fans around the TV, I would think hockey had a chance of surviving a canceled season. But without that kind of cultural penetration (at least in the States), the canceled season is going to destroy the sport.

For reports on more collateral damage from the lockout, drop by Jes Golbez and People's Republic of Seabrook.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at 7:24 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

As always, details are sketchy at best regarding the latest round of negotiations in New Jersey. At this point, the only point that I'm willing to speculate about is that both Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow would like to see the other sealed inside an oil drum and dumped off the Pulaski Skyway.

Scott Burnside wrote an interesting profile of NHLPA President Trevor Linden. And click here for Chris Stephenson's interview with Jeremy Roenick.

Over at Teal Sunglasses, Chuqui completes his analysis of Gary Bettman's tenure with his look at the level of play and the quality of entertainment in the NHL. If you missed it, click here for Part I.

Tom Benjamim liked what Colby Cosh had to say about prospects for success in Edmonton. Click here for more from Colby. Meanwhile, James Mirtle is digging through his files to come up with a rebuttal.

BTW -- an empty suit from the IOC isn't happy with the MHLPA and the lockout. As much as I hate the lockout, he can go to Hell. And fans in Detroit greeted Michigan native and Red Wings defenseman Derian Hatcher with cries of "scab," when he made his debut with the UHL's Motor City Mechanics. Thanks to Steve Ovadia for the link.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 4th, 2005 at 4:52 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Greetings from Times Square in Manhattan. I had some time to kill in between meetings and heading back to Long Island for dinner with the family, so I dropped into an Internet cafe on 42nd Street. Pretty cool.

The NHL and NHLPA are locked in negotiations somewhere in Newark, New Jersey, outcome unknown, but one anonymous owner says the league will announce an official cancellation of the season sometime in the next 24 hours.

Here are some NHL Lockout quick facts for your perusal:

1) If the NHL season is wiped out, this would be the 1st North American major pro sports league to have an entire season cancelled (labor or other factors).

2) The NHL season was slated to begin on Oct. 13 with seven games scheduled. The entire schedule consisted of 1,230 games (82 per team) and was supposed to run through Apr. 10.

3) The stoppage is hockey's third and the first for a North American major league since the 1998-99 NBA lockout canceled 464 games, cutting each club's regular-season schedule from 82 games to 50.

4) The longer the NHL lockout lasts, the more likely it is that some players will never return. A staggering total of 154 played their final NHL season in 1993-94 before the previous lockout.

5) As of January, six of the NHL's top eight point leaders and seven of its eight leading goal-scorers from the 2003-04 season had joined European teams during the work stoppage. More than 300 NHL players had fled to Europe.

6) The key issue is cost certainty (or a salary cap). The league says it needs it. The players say they will never agree to one.

7) The only year the Stanley Cup was not awarded was 1919; series was started but not completed (influenza outbreak). Coincidentally, the Red Sox were fresh off winning the World Series that year as well.

An amazing coincidence? I think not.

More later tonight, if and when they announce an agreement (LOL) or the long expected cancellation of the season.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2005 at 4:10 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The NHL finally tabled another offer to the NHLPA this morning somewhere in Newark (click here for the details), and the players have rejected it outright:

"The League today presented a written proposal with minor variations of concepts that were presented orally by the NHL last Thursday", Saskin said in a statement released after the meeting. "We told the League last week and again today that their multi-layered salary cap proposals were not the basis for an agreement."

Click here for a full text of the statement, which includes the fact that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA head Bob Goodenow will join the negotiations tomorrow -- which I'm guessing is taking place at some hotel or self-storage facility near Newark Airport.

Like that's going to help. If you're interested in some nightmare legal scenarios, click here.

By the way, though the NHLPA has improved its Web presence markedly over the past few months, the league is still kicking its butt when it comes to online communications with the public. As to what might be behind the firewall here, you probably need to ask some senior member of the hockey press corps North of the border.

Time and again, the league uses the Edmonton Oilers as the poster child for price of the league's economic disparities. Cal Nichols did a dog and pony show for the league not long ago, but as Billy Beane has demonstrated, small-market teams can survive and thrive in professional sports if they make the committment to work harder and smarter than their more freely spending counterparts.

Which has Edmonton-native Colby Cosh near a full boil:

Oilers boss Pat Laforge wants us to believe, after witnessing a month-long orgasm three hours south of us, that our club can't compete in this town under current conditions. Pat--you're a marketing genius who has outfaced his predecessors and colleagues with brilliant Veeckian ideas, and I wouldn't replace you with your weight in gold, and I can even respect what Bettman is trying to achieve, but . . .

Click here to read the rest where Colby calls Laforge and the whole Oilers organization on the carpet. After all, they had Jarome Iginla in their backyard, and they still didn't draft him.

In other news, my friend John Palmer talked with Roy McGregor of the Toronto Globe and Mail, and the two agreed that a larger ice surface would help reinvigorate play in the NHL. As I've said before, I'd love to see it happen, but I'm afraid the window for a change like that passed once the league went through its most recent phase of arena construction.

To do it now, would, as John suggests, require ripping out two rows of seats -- in this case, the two rows of the most expensive sets in the arena. Something tells me that the owners would never go for it, as it would require some investment in infrastructure, as well as significant re-pricing of every seat in the lower bowl of an arena, and perhaps beyond.

Then again, that's just speculation. So here's a project for one of John's econ classes: Reconfigure the lower bowl of the Air Canada Centre for the international ice surface. Calculate construction costs to to expand the ice surface, and then re-price the seats in the arena as necessary in order to minimize disruption to the club's revenue stream. And don't stop at recalculating revenue simply by counting on the increased price of tickets -- make sure you factor in the possibility that a few folks might drop their tickets after a price increasse. Call the Maple Leafs today, and offer to do the study for free in exchange for their cooperation.

Then do it again, but this time, look at a small market club like Carolina or Nashville. If anything, perhaps you could make the case that the NHL ought to take a page from baseball's playbook, and look the other way if there's some variety in rink sizes. You could allow teams to change on their own, or keep the current configuration, or even build something in between. Just issue some rough guidelines, and you might be surprised with what folks come up with.

Besides, everybody knows the old Boston Garden was smaller than most any other arena in the league, and the Bruins were built to take advantage of it. Why not let it happen again?

More later, if warranted.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005 at 5:10 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.