And down the stretch they come in the Cross-Check Stakes; it's the NHL by a nose over the NHLPA; now the NHLPA by a neck; here comes the NHL going to the whip; the NHLPA has something left at the pole; they're coming down to the final furlong..... and it's.... nobody in front at the finish line!!!!!! Hold all tickets, but for the first time in history, this horse race may not have a winner.
By now, you expected to approach New Year's Eve and hockey was still looking iffy to be played in the NHL until fall of 2013 at the earliest. Oh, there's another deal on the table for the players to ponder as time to salvage the season has reached procrastination territory. There is the slimmest margin for error now, maybe a week or two into 2013 before the sticks and pucks will be put away for 2012-13 and the NHL will face the embarrassment of canceling TWO entire seasons in less than a decade. Talk about a public relations fiasco.
Who knows? Perhaps the NHL's gracious concession of increasing contract term limits from five to six years -quick, someone get Parise and Suter on the phone, stat-, and among other tidbits retaining the "Make Whole" provision of $300 million to compensate for existing contracts will be enough for a truce. But I'm not sure player representative Don Fehr is going to recommend his boys accept anything without another counter-proposal (my guess, adding another year to the term limits disagreement that feels like the deal breaker). And the owners will angrily shoot that down and play the disrespected card, and we'll finally reach the point in the calendar where the season must be shut down for good.
That's the photo finish and dead heat this race seems destined to end with. Let's instead hope for an I'll Have Another Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes feel-good story, instead of the Belmont disappointment.
By now, you expected to approach New Year's Eve and hockey was still looking iffy to be played in the NHL until fall of 2013 at the earliest. Oh, there's another deal on the table for the players to ponder as time to salvage the season has reached procrastination territory. There is the slimmest margin for error now, maybe a week or two into 2013 before the sticks and pucks will be put away for 2012-13 and the NHL will face the embarrassment of canceling TWO entire seasons in less than a decade. Talk about a public relations fiasco.
Who knows? Perhaps the NHL's gracious concession of increasing contract term limits from five to six years -quick, someone get Parise and Suter on the phone, stat-, and among other tidbits retaining the "Make Whole" provision of $300 million to compensate for existing contracts will be enough for a truce. But I'm not sure player representative Don Fehr is going to recommend his boys accept anything without another counter-proposal (my guess, adding another year to the term limits disagreement that feels like the deal breaker). And the owners will angrily shoot that down and play the disrespected card, and we'll finally reach the point in the calendar where the season must be shut down for good.
That's the photo finish and dead heat this race seems destined to end with. Let's instead hope for an I'll Have Another Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes feel-good story, instead of the Belmont disappointment.
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