Between Badger football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday, you may have missed the most important piece of news from this past weekend: The NHL is locked out. Again.
While it hasn’t gotten the national attention of the recent NFL or NBA work stoppages (heck, even the NFL referee lockout has gotten more buzz), the NHL is facing the very real possibility of canceling its second season in the last seven years.
While many may think this news came out of nowhere, the lockout was all but written in stone as of January 2011.
The NHL had just finalized its plan to realign the league into two, four-division, 15-team conferences. It was a radical shift and apparently one that the NHL Players Association wasn’t ready to accept, as they blocked the move, effectively killing the planned changes.
This decision put up a mountainous roadblock between the two sides who, one year later, would be tasked with coming to an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. Not shockingly, they’ve failed.
During the 2005 lockout, the players buckled and gave in to the owners’ demands, and that is exactly what the owners expect to have happen again.
In all honesty, the players have no real leverage. Many, including reigning league-MVP Evgeni Malkin, have already signed contracts to play overseas for the next season. The owners see this as a lack of unanimity among the players, and, just like in 2005, they are going to exploit it.
Just look at this response by an anonymous NHL executive to Howard Berger of the National Post last week on what leverage the players may have.
“None. We took away all of their leverage by canceling the playoffs in 2005. And we’ll do it again if we have to.”
Do those sound like the words of someone who is willing to negotiate, to budge even one inch?
This time around, the players are led by Donald Fehr. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Fehr is the same man who led the MLB players association through its strike in 1994-’95 and headed the MLBPA until 2009.
The NHL and its owners may hold the upper hand, but don’t think for one second that they are the “good guys” in this situation. The main villain here is league commissioner Gary Bettman. Since he took over in 1993, the NHL has already seen three separate work stoppages.
Yes, Bettman has done an excellent job of growing his sport and building the popularity of the NHL across the U.S. (especially in the wake of the 2005 lockout), but his willingness to cancel multiple seasons shows where his true loyalties lie. For Bettman it is about the almighty dollar, not about the fans.
Fehr has repeatedly stated that the players are willing to continue playing under the current conditions while the two sides work on a new CBA. Bettman is the one who rejected this and called for the lockout.
The players have already offered to make significant financial concessions to the owners. The owners still want more.
The NHL posted a self-indulgent “message to the fans” on its website Sunday, which exulted the benefits that came from the 2005 lockout. The message barely even mentions “the fans”—the ones for whom the league is trying, in their words, to resolve this situation “as quickly as possible.” As of now, there are no talks scheduled between the two sides, and it would appear that everyone is in for the long haul.
When the 2005-’06 season began, the NHL got lucky. The league was buoyed by budding superstars like Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin. In many ways, their play on the ice did more to save the league than the owners did.
If this season is cancelled, who is going to step up this time? Or perhaps a better question: Will anyone still care?
Who do you think is at fault in the current NHL lockout? Do you think the two sides will reach an agreement soon? Let Matt know what you think by emailing him at mmasterson@dailycardinal.com.
