The way it stands, the NHL and its Players Association are finished trying to save this season.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is expected to announce by Monday that the 2004-05 season is cancelled, and the gloom-and-doom only deepened yesterday. Last-ditch talks broke off after a four-hour meeting in Toronto yesterday, without plans to reconvene.
“No new meetings are scheduled, and as far as we are concerned, none are expected,” NHL VP Bill Daly said after yesterday’s apparent finale. “There is no expectation or optimism on this side that anything will happen before that announcement.
“We will not reach out to the union at this point.”
Instead, Daly figures his side will be facing its bosses, the owners, for further instructions in this self-induced disaster. Bettman and Daly were to return to New York last night.
“I do anticipate that after an announcement on the status of the season is made, a board meeting with be scheduled to talk about where we go from here,” Daly said. “Since really, no material progress was made and we’re within days of cancelling the season, you realize there’s not much more you can do for this season.”
Whether Bettman receives support or censure from the first North American major league to lose a full season to a labor dispute will go far toward deciding whether the NHL will open on time next season. The owners demand a hard salary cap, which the players refuse to accept.
PA senior director Ted Saskin said the union isn’t likely to contact the league before Bettman cancels the season.
“No, we made it pretty clear today that we’re always prepared to sit down in a room and negotiate, but we have yet to find a negotiating partner,” Saskin said. “They remain fixed on a single point, and we fail to see at this late date, how that has changed.
“Everbody at the meeting today understood the consequences of not making any progress and not scheduling any further meetings.”
Daly, who termed yesterday’s session “pointless” and a “disappointment,” revealed that mediators were introduced to the talks last week, without apparent effect.
Daly indicated the league is not prepared to submit to binding mediation, perhaps since the hard cap stumbling block the league demands – illegal unless collectively bargained – is a difficult thing for mediators to impose.
“From our perspective, it’s essential that we remain in control of our destiny and negotiate an agreement that’s going to work long-term,” Daly said. “We ultimately have to do it ourselves. I do anticipate [the mediators] will stay involved.”
Daly reiterated Bettman’s threat of a day earlier that the league’s future offers will be harsher than they are now.
“It’s completely unacceptable as it stands right now, so frankly, we fail to see how it can get much worse,” Saskin said. “I don’t know many partnerships that are formed by starting a lockout to inflict economic forces on somebody.”
Now it’s just a matter of renting the hotel conference room, setting up the podium and the lights, and ringing down the curtain on this season, and putting next season on the table.