Good News. The NHL season may be Dead for good!

[MelK]

Time to get this crap off the airwaves anyway.

Life is Good.

No one really cares about these thugs with sticks, do they?

NHL calls off talks; season will be next

The door appeared to close on the NHL season Thursday.

Talks to end the five-month lockout broke off again after commissioner Gary Bettman and chief legal officer Bill Daly met with NHL Players Association executive director Bob Goodenow and senior director Ted Saskin for four hours in Toronto.

Daly called the meeting "pointless'' and said the league would not reach out to the union in the near future. Saskin took a similar stance, saying the union would not initiate contact or offer another proposal in the next few days.

So unless one side backs down, the next time Bettman steps to a podium, it will be to cancel the season.

"No new meetings are scheduled, and as far as we are concerned, none are expected,'' Daly said. "If there are no further developments, the league will make a formal announcement on the status of the season in the near future.''

The NHL would be the first major professional sports league in North America to cancel an entire season.

Daly said there was no need to shorten the timetable Bettman set Wednesday, when he said the sides would need to have started writing the new collective-bargaining agreement by this weekend to save the season. But Daly also said he did not expect anything to change before an announcement canceling the season was made.

"We're out of tricks,'' said Daly, who planned to head back to New York with Bettman after his news conference. "We've made every effort to get something done.

"It's disappointing. We went into the process hoping we would come to an agreement that would be fair to the players and work to the long-term benefit of the clubs, players and fans. We haven't been able to achieve that.''

Saskin said it is likely the season will be canceled.

"We have yet to find a negotiating partner,'' he said. "This has been about their refusal to discuss anything other than one way of doing things. And we don't see at this late date how that's going to change.''

The NHL had made a proposal Wednesday essentially accepting the terms of the players' Dec. 9 proposal, which called for a 24 percent rollback of salaries on existing contracts and a luxury tax on teams that spend above a certain threshold. But the league reserved the right to switch to its Feb. 2 proposal, which included a salary cap, if any one of four triggers was met. The union rejected the offer but invited Bettman and Daly to meet Thursday.

Saskin called the league's latest offer a public-relations gimmick because at least one of the triggers would be set off immediately upon the signing of the agreement.

"It only took part of our Dec. 9 framework and importantly left out all of our revenue-sharing programs in the framework,'' Saskin said, "and then it would immediately convert over to the triple-cap proposal.''

Saskin said the union spent much of the session Thursday inquiring about the league's revenue-sharing plan. The union does not believe the plan creates a true partnership among the teams. But Daly questioned the union's agenda, saying nothing new was discussed during the meeting, which also was attended by outside counsel for each side.

One bit of news was the fact the sides have been in contact with mediators throughout the lockout. Daly, however, said the mediators have not helped because the disagreement primarily rests on one issue. Saskin argued that the league has not taken the mediators seriously.

Assuming the season is canceled as expected, Daly anticipated that Bettman then would schedule a Board of Governors meeting to discuss the league's next steps. Daly indicated the owners would consider all of their alternatives, including replacement players, but said the league has not been planning or focusing on such scenarios.

"The union is never under any circumstances prepared to play under any kind of cost-certain system,'' Daly said. "As long as that continues to be their position, it's going to be difficult for us to resolve this.''

[Koller]

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No one really cares about these thugs with sticks, do they?

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No.

[B00T]

..!..

[SossMan]

the NH-what?

[zephed56]

[ QUOTE ]
No one really cares about these thugs with sticks, do they?

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They're so uncivilized! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
No one really cares about these thugs with sticks, do they?

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Actually thugs with sticks on ice sounds like fun to watch. If they just got rid of the goals, pucks, skates, rules, etc.