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St. Louis goes off on Bettman

Taken from a St. Petersburg Times article: Lightning: Lightning players being drawn by Europe’s allure

Martin St. Louis doesn’t have kind words for Gary Bettman…

“Well, he’s trying to be a dictator,” St. Louis said. “He won’t negotiate anything else but a salary cap and that to me is a dictator. I mean, if somebody doesn’t want to do anything else but what he thinks is right, that’s like negotiating with a dictator.”The NHL players and owners haven’t had formal negotiations since Sept. 9 and the owners locked out the players when the collective-bargaining agreement expired Sept. 15. The players made the most recent proposal, but the owners rejected the offer, saying it was similar to a deal that was rejected by the owners 18 months earlier.

The main sticking point is a salary cap. The owners want one and the players don’t.

“We made the last offer,” St. Louis said. “I feel we’ve given up something, given up a lot. The bottom line is (Bettman) doesn’t want to sit at the table until we come up with a salary cap. How do you negotiate with that?”

OK, here I go again…

Marty, listen — I love you as a player and you have done wonders for this this team… but what the hell are you talking about, “given up alot”? The players concession (note the singular use of the word, Maritn… note it very well) was a 5 percent roll back in salaries — five percent isn’t even inflation for one off season in the NHL. The Entry-level rule changes don’t conceed jack shit to the owners besides a temporary restraint of costs on new talent…

And revenue sharing? That’s a players concession? Is the NHLPA that ass-backwards?

Have fun in the Swiss Elite League, Marty (as the rest of the article goes on to state)… Tuck tail and run like the rest of the players instead of actually forcing talks between players and owners. All the while stealing jobs from Europeans.

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