Mike Prisuta On NHL Labor Dispute

Leadership on both sides led owners, players astray

By Mike Prisuta
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 16, 2005

And so, it came to pass that on the 152nd day of a work stoppage that dragged hockey into darkness and despair, the NHLPA and the NHL finally saw a sliver of light.

Word spread on Tuesday morning that the players reportedly had at last agreed to the salary cap the owners had been insisting upon, and that the owners had surrendered on "linkage" between revenues and player costs (as if a cap wasn't enough protection from themselves all along).

So it was down to semantics, rather than philosophical differences.
These last-second concessions to common sense were made during a secret meeting on Monday, according to the Canadian Press.

That left what was left of the hockey world waiting and wondering, as yesterday afternoon dragged into last night, whether NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's scheduled news conference at 1 p.m. today would announce an agreement or the season's cancellation.

Both sides should be outraged that they blindly followed leadership so misguided it came to this.
No matter how it turned out.

The players should be ready to ambush Bob Goodenow the way Marty McSorley did Donald Brashear right about now. They've lost millions. And for what? Some half-baked stand on a principle that wouldn't apply to the majority of the rank and file, one that's been abandoned now that deal-seekers have turned desperate.

Some of these guys won't be coming back when this is eventually settled.
And not nearly enough of them went to college.


Those unfortunates will have lost their jobs in a fight to preserve someone's ability to obscenely overpay Jaromir Jagr.

As for those who have been doing the over-paying, the owners, they ought to be ready to take turns playing Claude Lemieux and Kris Draper on one another right about now.
Their biggest mistake -- and there have been many -- was putting their franchises in Bettman's hands.

All along Bettman has been part of the problem rather than part of the solution, the biggest part of the problem. The players despise him, and his mere presence compromised the process and delayed the inevitable inclusion of a salary cap from the beginning.

Once the owners get one -- today or down the road -- they'll consider the damage done to the league and among its dwindling fan base justified. But we won't know the extent of that damage for some time; we only knew going in that the NHL could scarcely afford anything that might offend its few customers and viewers.

Of course, the owners had good reason to stick with Bettman, whose reign of error produced the CBA that pushed the league to the brink of financial ruin, more unnecessary expansion and the dilution of talent. He also ushered in the neutral zone-trap era, officiating so inconsistent it's almost impossible for the game to attract new fans because no one can tell what is a penalty and what is not, and a TV contract that couldn't pay Alain Lemieux's salary, let alone Mario's.
Did the guy ever do anything right?

No wonder he gets booed before every draft.

He ought to be booed again today, no matter the announcement he has to make.
And the players, to a man, are guilty of gross misconduct.

Mike Prisuta is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.