Here is my question as the lockout continues towards day 60 – has the NHL owners and Gary Bettman over played their hand? From reading some of the articles that I have seen the last couple of days it would appear so.
Mark Spector; Sportsnet.ca --- Somehow, commissioner Bettman and his deputy Bill Daly have made it their quest not just to get the players to a 50-50 share of Hockey Related Revenues, but also to dictate when a player can become a free agent, when he qualifies for arbitration, how long he can sign for, what colour his car should be, what he should name his dog…
Bettman wants half the pie for his owners, but also wants to tell the players what kind of ice cream to put on their half. Even people who work with the teams don't see the wisdom in losing games over that, we're starting to learn.
The rest of the hockey world sees it as a sign of unparalleled greed by the owners.
"The dollars are set. Why are the teams so concerned about how the dollars get split up among the players?" a prominent agent asked on Monday. "Why the heck do they care if Player A gets 20 years at 20 million, or 1 year at $500,000? The players' pool is fixed."
Perhaps it is a snapback from all those previous CBAs in which Bettman failed to close enough loopholes to keep salary escalation from occurring.
