NHL labor talks go late, still no deal

Steve ConroyThursday, December 06, 2012

Credit: Christopher Evans

RASK: Staying cautiously optimistic.

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After Scrooging it up for hockey fans for more than two months, it looks as though the powers that be in the NHL were working hard yesterday and last night to end the 81-day lockout and deliver some games by Christmas.

With traction being gained in seven-plus hours of player-owner meetings on Tuesday, the league held its annual Board of Governors meeting yesterday in New York. After the meeting adjourned, the players presented the owners with a new proposal. The league contingent reviewed it and returned a counter-proposal last night before the two sides broke for dinner.

The negotiators reconvened later in the evening and continued until wrapping up for the night shortly after midnight. In other words, the two sides were doing some actual negotiating, something that might have helped had it been done last summer.

“We had a series of very candid discussions tonight,” Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey told reporters just before 1 a.m., “and we plan on meeting (today).”

Though a deal was not done, the audio-visuals remained positive, at least from the owners side. After the league and NHLPA seconds-in-command, Bill Daly and Steve Fehr, met with reporters side-by-side after Tuesday’s marathon — a symbolic departure from the dueling press conferences that had been the norm — commissioner Gary Bettman did not take any questions after the Governors meeting in the afternoon. He instead issued a simple, let’s-keep-the-ball-rolling statement.

“We are pleased with the process that is ongoing, and out of respect for that process I don’t have anything else to say,” said Bettman, who, like his NHLPA counterpart Don Fehr, remained mostly on the sidelines in yesterday’s negotiations.

While there was supposedly still a gag order on team personnel, a couple executives did stop on the way out of the Governors’ meeting to give reporters their generally positive, if very nonspecific, takes on what’s taking place.

“We feel good about the information we got,” new Columbus Blue Jackets president John Davidson said.

Toronto Maple Leafs owner Larry Tanenbaum, one of the six owners participating in these negotiations and one of four newcomers to the process, also struck a positive tone.

“We’re going to continue to talk up until we get a deal,” said Tanenbaum. “All I can say is as long as we’re talking we’re hopeful.”

An NHL podium was set up at the hotel later in the evening, spurring a rash of rumors of an impending announcement, but none came.

Meanwhile, in Boston some of the Bruins and other local NHLers who have remained in the area continued to skate and workout at a local rink, a task that has on some days seemed like drudgery. But B’s goalie Tuukka Rask, who this week joined the local skaters after a two-month stint in the Czech Republic, admitted it was a little easier to come to the rink yesterday morning.

“Oh, yeah,” said Rask “I’ve been hoping (for an end to the lockout) for months, like everyone else. But you’re just trying to maintain your level and stay on top of things and be ready when the season hopefully (begins). Some days could be a little tougher than other days, showing up here at 7:30 in the morning and you’re skating with 10 guys.

“But you try to look at the big picture, too. Maybe in a couple of weeks, we could be playing.”

Brad Marchand struck the “cautiously optimistic” tone.

“It’s been a lot longer than it probably should have gone on, but the fact that they’re in there and they were in there (Tuesday) night and they’re really trying to hash this thing out is positive,” said Marchand. “But it’s still going to take a little bit of time. Hopefully, they’ll get a deal done as soon as possible.”

NHL veteran Jay Pandolfo, currently without a contract, has already lost one season to the lockout of 2004-05, and he’d prefer the curtain not come down on his career because of another lost season.

And if this lockout ends soon, Pittsburgh co-owner Ron Burkle could become known as the NHL’s Bob Kraft, the Patriots owner who was widely credited with breaking the stalemate in the 2011 NFL lockout.

“That’d be nice to have an owner to have a big part of getting this thing resolved,” said Pandolfo. “That’s the biggest thing, to try and get a deal that works for both sides. If someone like (Burkle) can step in and move the process along it’s only going to help hockey and get the game going. It’s important. You don’t want to miss another season. Two seasons in eight years seems kind of crazy.”