John Romano has been and remains my favorite sports writer – always being able to eloquently state a point, and always articulately show the foolishness of one party in sports.
This time, John declares that the Lockout will cost the NHLPA in the long run…
Instead of pretending they’re willing to go to the mattresses for this, the players should be negotiating as many concessions as possible. They should quietly accept that some sort of salary cap is inevitable, and then offer a long list of demands before agreeing to what the owners most want.Free agency restrictions should be eased. Maybe earlier arbitration eligibility. Players can add whatever perks they’d like.
But they should take the negotiations to owners before the union begins to crack and their demands turn into desperate pleas.
How true is that? It’s remarkable that the Union’s plans call for many owner concessions that they term as concessions by the players, and yet they don’t seem to be willing to accept the fact if they make a single grand concession (the cap) they are due numerous concessions and perks by the owners.
And while Bob Goodenow has a meeting with a load of players in the coming days, I don’t believe this solidarity ploy is going to last with the lower-level players hurting the most… They are the ones still in North America while the players Goodenow is fighting for, have run off to Europe to avoid being involved in the situation to begin with.
