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Wait 'til next year—for more of the same: the announcement hasn't been made, but the reality is clear—the 2004-05 NHL season is done

Sporting News, The, Dec 27, 2004 by Kara Yorio

Rangers center Bobby Holik was at a Wyoming sports bar for dinner with his family recently when college hockey highlights appeared on one of the televisions. He watched and couldn't help thinking: What a great game, with its speed, power and skill. The NHL needs to get back on the ice.

But that won't happen for Holik or his fellow NHL players any time soon. He can continue to go from his summer home in Jackson Hole to his farm in Florida without checking airline schedules to New York--possibly right into next season.

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The most disturbing statement during the past two sessions of labor negotiations came from Bob Boughner, an NHL Players' Association executive board member and Avalanche veteran defenseman. "If this season isn't saved and they opt to cancel," he said, "we're going to find ourselves in the same spot in December next year."

Flip your calendars ahead to December 2005 because although the official announcement likely won't come until the third week in January, the 2004-05 NHL season is as good as canceled. Still a mathematical possibility? Sure, like the Montreal Expos had a mathematical chance to make the playoffs at last season's All-Star break. It would take a miracle, and a miracle isn't coming.

When the league rejected the NHLPA's proposal and returned with a counterproposal containing many of the union's concessions, adding to some, and throwing a salary cap on top, the season was shot. Would the NHLPA's proposal have turned around the economics of the NHL? We'll never know. With a little bit of negotiating and the willingness to try something to see how it works, there might have been a season.

Everyone agrees that offering a 24 percent rollback in salaries was significant. It might not be the silver bullet, but combined with other elements, it was a pretty good place to start.

Unfortunately, commissioner Gary Bettman says the time for experimentation has passed. So the time for his league to be a meaningful professional sport in the United States is passing quickly. Each side can dig in and stay its course. Each side can claim the high ground. And, of course, each side can--and will--continue to insult the other and discredit each statement issued as fact. This is the game NHL fans now are forced to watch, and it is uglier and less entertaining than a mid-November matchup between the Panthers and Hurricanes.

After the latest official proposals were rejected, goalie and NHLPA executive board member Arturs Irbe told the New York Times, "We're hockey players. We have dropped the gloves."

Not to mix metaphors, but the league has dropped the ball. There will be no 2004-05 season. Whatever comes next won't be pretty. And next December will be here before we know it, with no steps forward taken, another year lost that can't be gotten back, no change in the posturing and still no room for a compromise in ideology. And the only glimpse of the game in the United States will come in short collegiate highlights packages on the televisions of crowded sports bars.

For the latest news on the CBA front, visit msn.foxsports.com, keyword: NHL.

speed read

The Worldstars' whining about the Russian leg of their European tour was infuriating. The only player with a right to complain is Anson Carter, the victim of racist actions by Russian fans. Otherwise, the tough travel, poor conditions and shakedown for cash should have led these multimillion-dollar players to say one thing: "We are lucky to have what we have."

INSIDE DISH

C Brendan Morrison usually plays in the shadows of his Canucks linemates, LW Markus Naslund and RW Todd Bertuzzi. But in Europe, Morrison is getting a lot of attention as he battles C Peter Forsberg in the Swedish Elite League scoring race. Morrison, Panthers RW Kristian Huselius and Flyers LW Mike Knuble are lighting it up for Linkoping. * Playing for MoDo, Forsberg is turning Islanders W Mattias Weinhandl into one of the league's top scorers. In 55 NHL games last season, Weinhandl had 20 points on eight goals and 12 assists. With Forsberg as his center, Weinhandl had 25 points on 18 goals and seven assists after 28 games. * The idea that the NHL Players' Association's proposal was made knowing the league would reject it and the players would appear willing to make concessions without actually having to make them is ridiculous. "What's the benefit of hockey guys winning a P.R. battle if they're not on the ice?" Rangers C Bobby Holik says. "The bottom line, speaking from hockey players' hearts, is we want to get back on the ice." * For fans wanting all the details, both the NHLPA's proposal and the NHL's counterproposal are posted in their entireties at nhlpa.com and nhlcbanews.com.

No matter the situation, there is always a place for comic relief. Coyotes RW Brett Hull provided it on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update recently. His appearance alone was a coup for the troubled league: Hull was the second NHL player to appear on the show (Wayne Gretzky was the host in 1989). When asked about his sport's popularity in the U.S., Hull said hockey is "looking classier all the time; thanks to the NBA brawl and steroids in baseball.

Wait 'til next year—for more of the same: the announcement hasn't been made, but the reality is clear—the 2004-05 NHL season is done

Sporting News, The, Dec 27, 2004 by Kara Yorio

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